WBB In Durham -- SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Basketball in Durham

The WBB Cards head to Durham, and Cameron Indoor Stadium today for a 2 p.m. tilt vs the Blue Devils. Game two for both in the ACC.

The Dookies are 8-5 overall, dropping their conference opener against still-undefeated NC State.  Looking at their overall schedule from expectation of Duke being a mid-standings ACC team doesn't really surprise.  The only result the I look at with interest is a bad season opening loss against Northwestern.  A mid-standings ACC team shouldn't lose to this bunch of Wildcats by over 25 points.  A look at Northwestern's schedule is a bit more of a head scratcher.  An 8 point win over #15 Michigan State, but a 4 point lose to Rutgers?  A bit confusing, but let's conclude that Northwestern is their typical mid-level team, and then Duke lost to them by 26.

Gone, for Duke, are Rebecca Greenwell and Lexie Brown, the new stars are Haley Gorecki and Leaonna Odom as points leaders (16.8 and 13.2 ppg, respectively).  Miela Goodchild also shows up prominently on the stat sheet with 10 ppg.  This trio also distributes the ball reasonably well, with 39 assists for Haley on the year, and Leaonna and Miela both with 24.  As a team, they probably don't get too many "F"s on their Fred reports, shooting only .637 from the charity stripe, so the Cards shouldn't be afraid to play aggressively against them and send them to the line.

Now, I've never hidden my opinion that I believe that Joanne P. McCallie is not a great coach, or at
least not a great Xs and Os on-court coach.  She recruits well, but she doesn't deploy them well in game, I don't believe.  The Cards need to come out and play their game, play the game plan and stick with it.

We saw some lack of discipline and crisp play in the Cards first game back from a big break against UNC.  Let's hope that's out of their system.  UNC adjusted against the Cards well on Thursday, credit to Sylvia Hatchell making halftime adjustments, look for, perhaps, the opposite today.  Jeff Walz is one of the premier on-court coaches and is rather well known for his halftime adjustments.

Above all else, though, remember that this is the ACC, you just can't take a day off in this league.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

What's the chances of ever getting all four
Cardinal Couple knuckleheads in coats and ties?

All four of the knuckleheads made appearances at the magnificent media mansion on Mellwood, yesterday.  It has been some time since that happened.  The discussions were fun and, I think, at least, interesting.

You can tell just how good of a team this has become, too.  I was seriously off of my Paulie-snark game, but Jared was there, clutch, filling up our snark quota.  (Of course, much of our snark is about Paulie's phone usage and situation...but here I am sitting here without a functional phone at all for the moment, as mine quit charging last night.  And as I'm house sitting at the moment, I didn't have access to my backup phone).


(EDITOR INSERT: It rings, it recharges, I can call out, receive texts and that's enough for me). 


Yes, I'm a computer geek, of course I have a backup phone.

In any case, you can check out the fun, and good discussion of what happened Thursday in the Cards win over UNC, and a bit of preview of the game today at our Saturday ritual -- The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour:

LINK:  https://www.facebook.com/WCHQfm/videos/2245002249082137/

Please send your condolences to Case, who saw his Seahawks exit the road to the Super Bowl
yesterday and congratulations to Jared who still has a dog in the fight with Indy . Paulie learns his Bears fate today and I'd like to see Lamar have a great game with the Ravens today.

A busy for multi-sports and... 

Enjoy the fun.

-- 

JMcA