ESPN quietly came out with their latest bracketology for women's basketball. Maybe the fact that neither Notre Dame nor UConn took the top spot caused the limited fanfare. It's also still a long way until the Selection Show- five and a half weeks. Coach Walz has said in he past he doesn't pay much attention to the projections. Still, being #1, as UofL is -- a nice honor to a team that has looked fantastic since the Notre Dame game.
The four sites where Sweet Sixteen action will take place are Albany, NY, Greensboro, NC, Chicago, IL. and Portland, OR.
Louisville sits in the overall top spot. Notre Dame, Oregon, and Baylor round out the final 1-seeds.
UConn, Stanford, Mississippi State, and NC State are the projected 2-seeds with the Huskies in the Albany region with the Cards.
Obviously this is just a projection by the four-letter sports network, is it accurate? The joke going around is that Charlie Creme, the guru of ESPN'S bracketology, hasn't gotten location sites for teams right in years. A lot can change in the span between now and then with several of the top teams still having ranked opponents left on the schedule.
In other women's basketball news Jeff Walz announced on his show last night that Yacine Diop has shown interest in returning to the program next season. Diop, a graduate transfer from Pittsburgh, was supposed to help with the rebounding and post presence, went down early in the season with an injury. It isn't guaranteed that Diop would be granted an extra year but if approved she would be a huge asset to a team losing multiple key players. The process has been more favorable over the recent years. Clemson has a seven-year player in Simone Westbrook.
You can read the Louisville-Syracuse preview tomorrow from Paulie.
Spring Sports are Ready to Start
We are two days away from three spring sports team starting season play. Two won't be at home for quite some time with the inconsistent Louisville weather playing a factor in outdoor games. Lacrosse, maybe an exception in weather conditions, will play three opponents on the road before bringing in Mercer on Saturday, Feb. 23rd
-- Track and field opens their outdoor season Friday. The team will split up and head to Indiana and Iowa State. During the indoor season the track and field team found success during the indoor season and are ready to move outside.
-- Softball kicks off their first season under Holly Aprile by traveling out to California in a tournament hosted by Cal State Fullerton. They'll play five opponents in 48 hours. Two of the teams are in the receiving votes category but no one is ranked.
Aprile has experienced pitching returning and two ACC preseason team members in Sidney Melton and Megan Hensley. They'll play 14 games on the road before hosting Indiana State in the Cardinal Classic on March 1st.
-- Lacrosse is set to start their second season under Scott Teeter on Friday at #7 Northwestern. They
then head over to Marquette on Sunday. Seven of their 17 opponents are ranked and two are in the receiving votes category. Just one senior and nine freshmen on the 2019 Louisville roster.
Spring Sports are here. We hope you'll get out and attend them!
PLAY FOR KAY FREE THROW CHALLENGE
We pledged $2 per free throw to University of Louisville Play4Kay Free Throw Challenge on http://PledgeIt.org ! https://pledgeit.org/louisville-play4kay … via @pledgeit Join Cardinal Couple in this worthy cause @coachjeffwalz @uoflwbb
We're in. How about you? UofL won this challenge last year. Let's go for a repeat.
Happy Wednesday
Jared
Happy Wednesday
Jared
Nice of the ESPN bracketology guy to think so highly of the WBB squad. Like you said earlier though, I think the Cards would prefer Chicago or Greensboro, as far as travel accessibility for the fans.
ReplyDeleteWow, lacrosse is young, young, young (no pun intended). Teeter building the squad his way. Starting against a top 10 Northwestern team there is a tough test early.
Hoping Aprile has figured out the starters, although early tournaments like this are invaluable in helping determine those.
Curtis "Happy for spring, gonna do my thing!" Franklin
Heard that Walz is seeking fashion tips from the Q. Maybe he'll offer some shooting tips in return to Q's players. Get this:
ReplyDeleteOver 45% of their field goal attempts are from beyond the arc. Syracuse makes just 32% of those threes. The Cards just have to play strong one-on-one defense and take away the open looks.
Nick O
Wow..45% is a scary number. How many times have you seen an inferior team get hot from beyond the arc and ride that to an upset? I agree that Louisville guards need to pressure out front. They've been excellent at that all season.
Delete