Today they meet on the court -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

JULY 20TH IS NCAA DATE FOR BASKETBALL STUDENT-ATHLETIC/ COACH INTERACTION.

Monday morning you sure look fine.

The lyric line from the Fleetwood Mac song could be the theme song for the players and coaches on the UofL women's basketball squad and all of NCAA DI basketball. 

Remember when...? 

Today is the start of the summer access period The period can last up to eight weeks (Sept 15th) or the first day of classes (undetermined yet) -- whichever comes first. 

During the access period, coaches and players can work on weight training, conditioning and skills instructions together. Of course, the players have been doing a lot of some of these activities alone or in small groups (under the direction of strength and conditioning personnel and medical advisors)...but, today, the coaches can be on the floor with them.

They can spend up to eight hours a week on all of the above except for skills instruction -- where they get just four hours a week. No days off are required. 

The summer months are a time to get to know your new teammates, see who was put in the work since the season ended and evaluate just what a team could look like come November. The wild-card in all of this, of course, is how will things look, COVID-19 wise, in November. 

14 players are listed on the UofL WBB roster as of this morning. One of them (Malea Williams) will redshirt and won't report to campus until August (from what Jeff Walz said in his last teleconference). So, as far as we know...the 2020-21 roster looks like this for the other 13.

FRESHMEN

Merissah Russell
Olivia Cochran
Hailey Van Lith

REDSHIRT FRESHMEN

Ramani Parker
Nyah Green 

SOPHOMORE

Norika Konno

REDSHIRT SOPHOMORE

Molly Lockhart

JUNIOR

Liz Dixon
Elizabeth Balogun
Mykasa Robinson

REDSHIRT JUNIOR

Ahlana Smith
Kianna Smith

SENIOR

Dana Evans

Just how things will go and what is planned for today is something we don't have solid , verified facts on, but -- it is a start and that is a good thing. 

Things will also be going on over on the men's side of the Kueber Center with players and coaches and on a lot of DI campuses across the nation.  

Personal protection environment procedures are most likely one of the main things that will be evidenced today, especially with the Sunday numbers for Kentucky and COVID-19 being the highest reported positive cases to date. 

We'll look for news about the summer session and report to you what we hear and what UofL WBB Sports Information releases. No official word on whether media will be allowed to visit the summer session.

Keeping in mind that player, coaches and staff safety is the prime concern, I doubt there will be much "on site, personal" interaction between the press and UofL women's basketball program, but we'll update you on anything we hear about that, also. 

Here's a link to "Monday Morning" by Fleetwood Mac. Not a bad little pop-oriented jingle and you could start your Monday a whole lot worse, for sure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z2E37iNV0w

Have a "masked" Monday !

paulie
xxxxx