Hailey, Kara and The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast -- Sunday Cardinal Couple

The Gang's All Here

The last of the WBB players have arrived on campus.

Hailey Van Lith, the heralded incoming freshman out of Cashmere Washington in the central part of the state, made her way across most of the country to Louisville this week.  As many of the players have done this year, she did take video at various points along the way and the @UofLWBB twitter account posted it as a sort of mini-travelogue.

It was an early start for Van Lith, as many west to east trips tend to be, getting started with a two and a half hour drive to Seattle.  Hailey did get the benefit of some relatively direct flight routing, with her only stopover being in Chicago.

You can check out the video at: https://twitter.com/UofLWBB/status/1281736208343801856.

Now we all cross our fingers and hold our breath hoping that the team stays clear of Covid-19.  We know the Men's Basketball program shut down temporarily after two members of the program (no indication of whether they were players or other people associated with the program) tested positive.  This was not an unexpected occurrence, and the protocols created by the University Athletic Department accounted for this possibility.  The protocols include shutting down operations of the affected program in order to quarantine the affected individuals and prevent any further spread.

Presumably there will be ongoing testing of all involved in the athletics programs at UofL to catch and stop any spread of the virus within their ranks.

Lawson As Duke's New Head Coach

During the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast yesterday, we discussed the reports that Duke was heavily considering Kara Lawson as their next head coach, replacing Joanne P. McCauley.  I, mostly tongue-in-cheek, said I didn't want Lawson to be the coach there because I don't want Duke to be good.

Shortly after our show wrapped up, Duke officially announce Lawson would be their next head coach.

Lawson played her college ball at Tennessee, played for various teams in the WNBA from 2003 to 2015, and played for several years with the US Women's National Team.

After wrapping her playing career, Kara was brought on to the ESPN family of networks as a color commentator doing fine work sharing her experiences and extensive knowledge of the game.  She made a number of appearances at the KFC Yum! Center in that role.  She has also served as an on-air basketball analyst for NBA teams.

Lawson jumped back across the court to the bench side sidelines last year with an assistant coaching position with the Boston Celtics.

Lawson will be the 5th head coach of the Duke Blue Devils.

Kara Lawson should do an excellent job with the head coaching duties at Duke.  While her career has been more on the broadcasting side of the court, she has an excellent knowledge of the game and has aptly demonstrated her ability to clearly and concisely understand and present to others what is going on in the game, including the trends and behaviors that lead to a team performing well, or falling short of their goal.  Those skills should translate extremely well to guiding a team to the top performance.

She should have no trouble recruiting highly skilled players given Duke's history as a top-notch national basketball powerhouse and highly revered academic reputation.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

We were a man down for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast yesterday, with Case off preparing for the next test in his quest to obtain his Professional Engineering Certification.

Paulie, Jeff and Jared pose for the show promo. 

Jared, Paulie, and I held down the fort.  Of course we discussed the latest developments in scheduling of fall sports across the nation as a result of Covid-19, and what we expect to come.  As mentioned above, we discussed the, at the time not yet announced, pick of Kara Lawson as Duke head coach.  We revisited the Covid-19 topic slightly in relation to Asia Durr's withdrawal from the 2020 season thanks to a positive test for the virus and her health impact dealing with it.  Softball has a new pitcher arriving as a grad student transfer.  We touched on current discussions and some controversy about the FSU mascot of the Seminoles.  And lastly, we had a transfer out of the volleyball squad.

Then, of course, we had a rip roaring Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast quiz.  This one was a competitive one down to the wire on the theme of "Where Are They Now?" Jared pulled out the win in the bonus round. You can try your luck on the quiz by listening to the rebroadcast. It's looking like the only one who might be able to beat Jared is Alexa or Siri...

Check out the show below.

JMcA