Louisville women's basketball vs. Virginia tonight -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

15-1 CARDS BRING IN CAVALIERS TONIGHT

The University of Louisville women's basketball squad plays the Virginia Cavaliers tonight at 7 p.m. in the KFC YUM! Center.

A Cavalier squad that is 7-10 overall, 1-3 in ACC play  under first year coach Tina Thompson. You might remember Tina if you follow the WNBA. 

Tina was the first pick in the inaugural WNBA draft back in 1997. She ended up with the (now defunct) Houston Comets and won four straight WNBA titles alongside Sheryl Swoopes and Cynthia Cooper. After a career that included stops at the Los Angeles Sparks and Seattle Storm...she retired after the 2012 season after 17 years in the league.

Tina was the all-time leading scorer in the WNBA until Diana Taurasi passed her in 2017. 

After a stint as an assistant at Texas, she became the Cavs head coach for the 2018-19 season, replacing JoAnne Boyle. Her college alma mater is USC, where she played with Lisa Leslie.

So, what kind of team does she bring tonight to the YUM? 

It's a tale of two teams. A team that knocked off Virginia Tech by four two games back in the Battle of the Commonwealth. After being down 19 points in the third quarter. It's also a team that was drubbed by Michigan St. by 25 points, Mississippi St. by 28 points, NC State by 28 and Central Michigan by 13.

Beside CMU, the Cavs and Cards have Kentucky as a common opponent. UVA fell to the Cats by 12 in Lexington. 

The Wahoos looked like they might be turning the corner on the season with the win over Virginia Rech, but three days later they got hammered by NC State. In Charlottesville. 

A couple of starters of note for the Cavs are Jocelyn Willoughby, who leads them in scoring with 12.8 points per game and is the leading rebounder at 7.8 a night. Dominique Toussaint has also started all 17 games and is good for 11.3 a night. Mone Jones has 7.5 points while performing in all 17 "Wahoo" games and Brianna Tinsley tickles the nets for 9.1 a night. Willoughby is a definite three-point threat, her 35-69 accuracy (.507) is one of the best percentages in DI WBB. 

Then, there's Felicia. 

At 6'9", she's the tallest women's basketball player you'll see in the Downtown Arena this season. Back from some recent knee issues, she's a defensive stopper but not much on the offensive end. In six games, she's averaging about 20 minutes a game and five points a night. She does have 17 blocks on the season, though and averages 7.2 rebounds a night. 

Against the Cards last year, she had eight points, seven grabs and a block in Charlottesville in a Cavs 77-41 loss and two points and three rebounds in a UVA 51-39 defeat at the YUM! Center.

OF NOTE:

-- Tonight's official are Luis Gonzales (the bald guy), Jeffrey Smith and one of the Enterline brothers -- Bob. They are a pretty good crew, all things considered. 

-- It is "Bobblehead Night" and the first 1000 who claim them get Jeff Walz. It's not a bad replica of Coach, although he commented that he could put four of them in his house and ward off any bug problems. Be sure to catch the Walz presser from yesterday at the bottom of today's column. 

-- ACCNE has the viewing, with Don Russel and Sara White, plus Cortnee Walton on the sidelines and the Cardinals illustrious radio crew in Nick Curran and Adrienne Johnson on Cards Radio 790 WKRD AM. Thirsty Thursday is also in force, so $3 beverages will be available.. 

-- The Cards are 7-2 lifetime vs. UVA and 4-0 at home. 

How do I see it? The Cavs like a lower scoring type of contest, they allow just 64 points a night while tallying 59. They did give up 91 to Mich. State, though and Mississippi State, Kentucky and Central Michigan got it into the 70's against them in wins. I expect the Cards to try and run, run, run against UVA and they have been working hard on rebounding and eliminating silly fouls. Let's go with a Louisville 82-61 win. Let's hope Tina doesn't decide to suit up and play...


JEFF WALZ PRESSER

Coach has been holding a Wednesday presser over the last several weeks and did so yesterday. Not much in the way of UVA analysis but it was one of the more entertaining and fun pressers I can remember with Walz. Will he wear a matching outfit that the bobble-head is dressed in? Coach wouldn't spill the beans on that one. 

Listen and watch for yourself below. Thanks to Daryl Foust, frequent CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR guest and girl of many occupations and diversions,  for the video and audio feed! 

LINK: WALZ PRESSER PRE-VIRGINIA 1/16/19



ASIA VS ARIKE

Regular reader Sandy Walker found this article about the probable top two picks in the upcoming WNBA draft. It's an interesting read and it is linked up below: 

LINK: Asia and Arike


See you at the YUM! tonight! 



paulie
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