Malea Williams Picks UofL -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

2020 Grad Will Be Late Addition to This Year's Class

Over the last few weeks, since the announced departures of Lindsay Duvall and Seygan Robins, we have been speculating how or whether Jeff Walz would be filling the open scholarship spots. Part of the answer to that question came yesterday when Malea Williams announced her intention to attend the University of Louisville. Williams is a 6’4” forward out of Scott County High School in Georgetown, Kentucky.

During her time with the Cardinals (yes, she’s going from Cardinal to Cardinal) Williams made it to the KHSAA Sweet 16 as a sophomore and junior. During her senior year, Williams led the Cardinals to a 28-7 record and a runner-up finish in the 11th Region Tournament on her way to winning the 11th Region Player of the Year Award. Williams was also named to the All-State Girls Basketball Team and is a finalist for Kentucky’s Miss Basketball Award. It would be fitting to replace one Miss Basketball with another, so we’ll wish her the best in that regard. Miss Basketball will be announced on June 28th.

Williams finished senior year with 19.6 ppg, 13.6 rpg, and 2.1 apg to round out a career with 1,347 points and 1,102 rebounds. Coach Walz praised her abilities as a three-point shooter when stretching from the post and as a shot blocker. Despite Williams’ successful career in high school, she was often overlooked on the recruiting trail. After joining the Kentucky Premier AAU program following her sophomore year, she gained more attention by getting more opportunities to play in front of college coaches. 

Despite her late blooming, Williams had other callers. In picking the Cards, Williams turned down other finalists Western Kentucky, Northern Kentucky, and Syracuse. Q will likely be sad to see her dressed in Red and Black instead of Orange when they play a couple of times a year. He’ll get a reprieve this year, though, as Coach Walz has already announced that Williams will be taking a red-shirt year to focus on academics and strength and conditioning. 

Williams said she joined the Cards for the opportunity to make it to the big stage. She’s seeking to be the third Scott County alumna to make it to the WNBA, following in the footsteps of Ukari Figgs and Camille Cooper Ozumba. We look forward to getting to know Malea better once she gets on campus and throughout her career. 

Random Louisvillians Plotting in Pigeon Forge

As Paulie mentioned on the show Saturday and in his article yesterday, he and Jared are both vacationing this week, leading to a shakeup in the article lineup. Though the two couples aren't vacationing together, they do happen to be in the same place. Last night, Jared sent over proof of that as he and Katy met up with Paulie and Sonja for a dinner. Paulie chimed in this morning with a caption of the two-part story, saying "Plotting the hold up and a live action shot: The Pigeon Forge Gang." We hope they're enjoying their time off.

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-