CARDS GO FROM #2 TO #4 IN AP POLL
As most expected and surmised, the University of Louisville women's basketball squad slid from #2 to #4 in the latest AP poll, released yesterday. The Cards went 1-1 in the past week, but the pollsters dropped Louisville two spots, because of the loss to Notre Dame at Notre Dame on Thursday. Louisville received 652 points. Notre Dame retained the #1 ranking (23 first place votes and 736 points) and UConn climbed back into a tie for second place with one first place vote and 706 points.
The Baylor Bears are tied with UConn in second with (6) first place votes and 706 points also. After Louisville, Oregon fills out the top five with 621 points.
The top 12 remains the same as last week, just a little shuffling of the deck occurred at the top. Stanford retained sixth spot and Mississippi State checked in at seventh again. Keeping their spots also from last week were #8 NC State, #9 Maryland, #10 Oregon State, #11 Texas and #12 Syracuse. There was only one newcomer in the top 25, that being Rutgers -- tied for #20 with Tennessee. Florida State dropped out of the top 25 but is the leader in others receiving votes with 54. Indiana stays at #25 with 56 votes.
Some interesting developments in the week that ended January 13th. Kentucky fell to Ole Miss but remained at #16 in the AP poll. Clemson downed Florida State and knocked them out of the top 25. Tennessee has lost three games in a row now but retains a tie for #20. No climbing for NC State, despite them being the lone undefeated team in DI WBB.
Clemson actually got (3) votes in the "others receiving votes" category. How long has it been since we've seen their name mentioned there?
By conference, the Big 12 has five teams in the top 25. Four conferences (ACC, SEC, Big 10 and the Pac 12 have four schools representing. the Big East checks in with two, the AAC and WAC have one team on the list.
The Cards have faced three of the top 25 so far (Notre Dame, Kentucky and Arizona State). They have three to face, based on the current rankings , in Connecticut, Syracuse and NC State.
According to ESPN's Charlie Creme's "Bracketology" , the Cards are getting placed as the #1 seed in the Greensboro region of the NCAA Tournament. Plenty of river to row, though, before we get there.
Coming up? The Cards host Virginia in two days and travel to Wake Forest this week on Sunday.
DID YOU KNOW?
Here's five fast facts for you.
-- The top nine in the RPI rankings stayed the same? Louisville has a #6 RPI. The top five are Notre Dame (16-1), Stanford (14-1), Baylor (13-1), Syracuse (14-1) and Oregon (15-1).
UConn checks in at #7.
-- Louisville WBB has a +18.5 scoring margin over their opponents this season? The Cards largest win (55 points) came against Tennessee State and closest victory was over #19 Arizona State ( two points).
-- Louisville is #10 in the nation in scoring offense with an average of 81.4 points per game. Louisville has scored 1303 points this season and allowed just 1009.
--UofL is actually shooting threes better on the road? They connect for 40.9% away from the KFC YUM! Center and 32.1% in the downtown arena.
-- The Cards are averaging 8791 per home game? Last year UofL averaged 7836 at home.
CAPTION THIS PICTURE
Caption Me !! |
No prize or award (I'm trying to conserve the contents of the prize drawer for later on this season...after all, we still have ACC and NCAA Tournaments contests to take part in and the total UofL ACC WBB record is in progress).
Every picture tells a story. I think Rod Stewart wrote a song about that. Tell us your story about the picture in this segment.
Have a terrific Tuesday. Today is the late Ronnie Van Zant's birthday. We recommend you crank up a little "Free Bird" or the Lynyrd Skynyrd song of your choice in remembrance of one of the greatest rock and roll singers of all time. Gone too soon, a victim of a plane crash on October 20, 1977. Good lord, has it really been 41 years? I suddenly feel very old.
We got some Skynyrd linked up for you below.
A Paulie favorite here, indeed, that goes back to the days of singing with Robbie Bartlett's band at UofL Football tailgate parties over at the Parrish House. Show me that back door...
LINK: GIMME THREE STEPS
paulie
xxxxx
Cards probably fell to where they should be in the AP. I actually thought Oregon might be a boost to #4. Doesn't matter at this point. Plenty of ball to play. The goal is to be #1 in April and win your final game of the season, we all know that.
ReplyDeleteMy father likes a couple of Lynyrd Skynyrd songs and, as a amateur guitarist, used to "pick a few" on the front porch with his pals. He doesn't play anymore but he still likes to do a little singing. He does do a very passable Otis Redding.
I didn't inherit that talent.
I go more jazz than southern rock but can appreciate the Skynyrd style. A lot of the Delta blues in their music. I can dig that.
On the picture caption: How about...How did Ga.Tech come up with a two-headed, three armed defender to try and stop Asia?
Curtis "Keep it smooth, keep it real" Franklin
Love the caption. Did they get this idea from "the Mad Scientist's laboratory?"
ReplyDeletePaulie
Not too surprised in the drop to 4. However I think a win against UConn, pending no random surprises between now and then, shoot boost the Cards back to 2 and above Baylor. Not too worried about the rankings as long as the Cards are a 1-seed come tournament time.
ReplyDeleteI'll disagree. Baylor getting a lot of national attention because of their twin towers (Cox and Brown) inside and I don't know how the Cards, who are still having rebounding woes, could deal with that duo. As much as I dislike Kim Mulkey (can I get a show of hands on that one?) she does have a strong squad that really only has to worry about Texas and maybe Iowa State in league play.
DeleteOn the picture. Check out the guy on the phone in the background. With his blue shirt on, he's probably calling Lexington to get an update on the Cats vs. Ole Miss score.
Caption it:
"Hey, Bubba? How 'bout them Cats? Whaaat? Taint so!Shut the front door ! Ain't no Rebs comin' into our place and beatin' us !!"
-- The Real Joe Hill --
Will little Richie play? How many points will he score? You probably won't "get" this remark if you are under 40.
DeleteOn the caption: Asia shoots over eight Georgia Tech players. Six are sitting to prevent the dribble drive past them.
Nick O
Virginia came back with the big, upset win over VT and they've got the 6'9" rim protector in Aiyeotan. She has been having some ACL difficulties and hasn't played but six games but has 17 blocks.
ReplyDeleteCards can't overlook them. They also have some great scorers and a new head coach, which I'm sure you guys will cover later this week. don't let the 1-3 and 7-10 record fool you.
Speaking of records, how about seven ACC schools with no or just one conference losses and five schools with no ACC wins?
Strange days.
I'll try my hand at the caption. Asia saying to freshman Elizabeth Balogun:
"Watch this. Go ahead, turn your head. Been doing this four years now. Welcome to the ACC, rookie."
Blue Lou
LOL. "That guy" is Ray Bronger, facilities manager at UofL. I'm 99% sure he's not a UK fan but it's a great caption nevertheless.
ReplyDeletePaulie
I like the statistics...
ReplyDeleteTruth be told, I do too, Viv. They can be a bit cut and dried and maybe boring to read from time to time but are insightful
DeletePaulie
With the lack of rebounding I can totally see why they are 4 in the pol...this is D1 right? Rebound like so...Very nervous thinking of final four ...not with the lack of rebounding! Good luck moving forward!
ReplyDelete