Gameday for WBB
UConn.
UofL.
Albany, New York.
Noon.
ESPN.
It's the Elite 8 round, and the Cards and Huskies are playing for a Final Four berth. This isn't news to anyone that's a regular here at Cardinal Couple, of course.
Walz's squad beat UConn for the first time in his tenure earlier in the regular season. That win, along with their loss before that to Baylor, established that this is a beatable UConn team. Let's be very clear, though, that they, of course, are still a very good team, one of the best in the NCAA. The change that is happening in women's basketball is that they are no longer clearly THE best, merely among the best. Notre Dame, Baylor, UConn, UofL, Mississippi State...and probably a few more, if you're in a generous mood, can all be classified into that grouping.
Have the rest improved? Or has UConn not kept up it's previous level of excellence?
Yes. Frankly both of these things have been a trend.UConn isn't the same quality team that they
used to be...the mediocrity of the AAC, has taken its toll on the Huskies recruiting, I suspect. That's unfortunate for UConn, but it is the state of things.
On the other side of the equation, let's look at the UofL squads from 2013 and today. Shoni Schimmel? Unquestionably a spectacular player, an offensive juggernaut, and dropped some spectacular dimes. I'll take Asia Durr, though and sacrifice some of the flash, but none of the potency, and add in excellent defense. What about bigs and power forwards? Sheronne Vails, Cortnee Walton, and Sara Hammond? All excellent players, but if you line the 2013 versions of them up against Sam Fuerhing, Biona Dunham, and Kylee Shook? I'll put my money on the 2019 edition.
Women's basketball is growing and getting better year after year...sometimes it's good to stop and take a look back. We honor the past players who helped grow the game, and the Louisville program, and set it on a trajectory for current success, and I think most of them, if they took a good hard look at it, would acknowledge that today's players are better than they were then. I suspect most of them would be happy for that fact as well. (Now, if we can just get the officiating to measure up to the level of the play, we'd be in even better shape.)
We even know the TV folks that'll be covering it and their tendencies: Adam Amin, Kara Lawson, Rebecca Lobo, and Holly Rowe. The crowd will be a predominantly UConn crowd, because you know, heaven forbid the NCAA make UConn ever travel any more than the absolute minimum.
We'll know the outcome in a few hours. Will the Cards or the Huskies be Tampa bound? Either way, a very worthy team will be ending their season today.
Softball
Despite the focus on March Madness, there are other women's sporting events going on for UofL.
Softball is tied in their series against #19/20/24 Virginia Tech. As Case covered yesterday, they did take the game Friday with a 2-run late inning triple by Celene Funke. The tables turned yesterday, however, with Virginia Tech getting the run-rule victory after 4 1/2 innings, 10-1. The sole run for the Cards was a solo home run shot to left by Kyra Snyder.
Softball is tied in their series against #19/20/24 Virginia Tech. As Case covered yesterday, they did take the game Friday with a 2-run late inning triple by Celene Funke. The tables turned yesterday, however, with Virginia Tech getting the run-rule victory after 4 1/2 innings, 10-1. The sole run for the Cards was a solo home run shot to left by Kyra Snyder.
Which way does this one go? We'll find out today at 1pm. As with most ACC matchups, you can catch this one on the ACC Network Extra on ESPNs streaming platform.
Where's Jared?
After that, will he head over to charge up on some TeeterPower at the Louisville Lacrosse Stadium? Perhaps. With Delaware coming to play, the Cards will have a tough non-conference matchup to continue to build their skills. They get started at noon and can also be watched on the ACC Network Extra.
f you spot Jared somewhere, take a photo of him -- instead of vice versa -- and send it to us at: cardinalcouple@twc.com
f you spot Jared somewhere, take a photo of him -- instead of vice versa -- and send it to us at: cardinalcouple@twc.com
Cardinal Couple Radio Hour
Another full house at the magnificent WCHQ studios on Mellwood. Paulie, Case, Jared, Daryl, andmyself, along with a fathead of Jeff Walz's head, were all on the air yesterday.
Obviously we dove into the basketball topic rather heavily, but we also shared a bit about the Volleyball spring match against Kentucky, Softball's successful Friday effort at Virginia Tech, and I got to love on a dog as Pumpkin made a late appearance in the studio as well.
As usual, we had fun and we hope you did, too. The Facebook Live stream is available at:
https://www.facebook.com/WCHQfm/videos/2252431191688754/
The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour on Facebook Live 3/30/19
The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour on Facebook Live 3/30/19
Meanwhile, hopefully Paulie and Daryl will be in Tampa covering women's basketball. There will be a show as Monk, and probably Pumpkin again, will be there for the engineering duties, and Case and Jared have committed to being there to carry on without us. There may be phone calls for those of us not in studio. In any case, we'll still have fun and knowledge provided...so tune in to find out.
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JMcA
You make two excellent points.
ReplyDeleteFirst, the quality of play. I would contend that this team would beat both the 2009 and 2013 Final Four teams by 20 points. And that's not a knock on those earlier teams. The increase in athleticism and skill over the last 10 years is amazing.
Second, the quality of the officiating. The officiating has not caught up to the level of play. How many times have you seen an official call a foul on a steal or blocked shot because, in my opinion, as the play was developing the official didn't think that the defender could make the play so called the foul in anticipation of something that didn't happen.
Not much to say about the game today - it's all been said. Let's get it on!
The talent pool today is stronger, UConn can't get ALL the best as in yesteryear. And until another Stewie shows up, other teams will challenge UConn from here on out. That goes hand in hand with the former Louisville squads not quite matching up, although I do think the 2013 squad would give the current squad a go.
ReplyDeleteAnd props to those previous squads, they are the foundation for this squad.
That being said, UConn is still a very good team, and we need to bring it and leave it ALL out there. We do that, #playlikelouisville, we'll be okay.
Good battle by the cards shots didn't fall today .
ReplyDeleteHail to the Senior class Go Card's ☺ ☺ ☺ .
Next up Dana ,Jaz,Bionca , Diop & Captain Shook Go Cards!!!
DeleteAnd the Kentucky girls, Mykasa, Seygan, Lindsey, Molly.
DeleteThey'll be factors.
Yep, GOTTA hit shots to beat UConn. Free throws included. Nice little run at the end there, gave it their all.
ReplyDeleteProud to be a ride or die 24/7/365 fan.
Great effort but a little too late In the game to try to come back late In the quarter to win.as I have said many times before everyone has to be on to beat UCONN and unfortunately they were all on 5 players in double figures for UCONN. And you can see all year they were missing that MHA muscle rebounding etc. I feel this year was focused on one player being great instead of the TEAM. IMHO.Good luck next year ladies. I will truely miss seeing Sam Feuhring next year but hope to follow her in the WNBA along with Asia!
ReplyDeleteIt was a busy day behind the camera with tennis, lax, and baseball. Tennis and lax both fought hard but ultimately fell short in the end.
ReplyDeleteCaught WBB on tv and my phone. I thought they might pull off the rally but Asia’s two missed free throws down the stretch shifted the tide. I know she feels horrible about it but her career has been too incredible to worry about a pair of free throws that didn’t fall.