6'3" POST OLIVIA COCHRAN HEADED TO UOFL WBB
Maybe you saw it on Twitter.
Jeff Walz doing what resembled attempts at cart wheels in a park in Bangkok. Jonneshia Pineda stopping her car, running into an open field and doing the same. Paulie running out into his backyard and attempting one....fracturing a clavicle and spraining both wrists (OK, that didn't actually happen).
What's all the excitement about? They hit Lotto? Celebration over USA U 19's gold medal?
It concerns the announcement from 6'3" forward/center Olivia Cochran that she'll be headed to Louisville to join the 2020-21 Cardinal WBB squad. The Columbus, GA, Carver High School basketball star had plenty of suitors. With good reason. She was a part of the FIBA USA 3X3 U 18 squad that won gold in Ulaanbaater, Mongolia back in June. She was a Georgia Class 4A All-Star selection last season at Carver and her squad went undefeated, winning the state championship. Cochran averaged 27 point a game, 11 rebounds and eight blocks per game.
All that from a player who didn't start playing basketball until she was in the sixth grade and hasn't played her senior season in high school yet.
Cochran is the #12 ranked recruit for the 2020 Class, according to Prospects Nation and fell in love with the UofL campus and her future teammates when she visited for the first time and also when she was here playing for her club squad -- FBD United -- out at the Run 4 The Roses at the KEC this summer. She sees the Cardinal WBB program as a "family-type team and atmosphere" and developed a strong relationship with Coach Walz and the Cardinal coaches during the recruiting process.
Here at Cardinal Couple. we've weathered the storms of past years from readers complaining that Louisville and Walz weren't "getting any big players"
How do you like the lineup now?
Let's just keep Cochran away from the current "cartwheel" craze that seems to be sweeping the Planet Fitness Kueber Center occupants. The Cards want her intact and healthy when she gets here...
paulie
xxxxx
Great get... keep it going coaches...
ReplyDeleteI've heard the recruiting criticism, especially last year. But here's the deal...up until a relatively few years ago, Walz had no real shot with a Top 15 player. He won with under-the-radar players. If memory serves me correctly, even Shoni Schimmel was not Top Ten. Remember the excitement about Mercedes Russell - she was a Top Five recruit and we had a great chance with her. That was big news because Walz had never been considered by a player like her.
ReplyDeleteNow, Walz is able to get in on just about anybody, and routinely makes the final five of many Top Ten recruits. You can't get them all...sometimes, like last year, you don't get any of them (other than Green who was a long-time commit). But with continued hard work (and if you believe the fan boards of other schools, nobody works harder than Walz and staff) good things will happen.
She'll be a force at UofL. Can't wait.
ReplyDeleteCurtis "Was always excellent at cartwheels" Franklin
Helluva get!
ReplyDeleteLove the part I read about her loving defense as much as offense. Evidenced by an 8 blocks per game average.
The future looks bright, indeed😁
Didn't Cochran have some kind of connection with Dixon and Balogun in club ball when they were still in high school or am I mistaken on that?
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of those two, when/has the ACC/NCAA come down with a decision on them for the season?
Blue Lou
****crickets****so far on the status decision concerning Liz and Liz. I had heard that UofL hoped to know something in July. Yes, there are two day left in July, but my best guess is news in August. After all, it is the NCAA AND ACC weighing in on this thing.
DeletePaulie