Season Opener Changes -- Plexiglass for Games -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 Season Opener Changes

UPDATE: After the publishing of today's Cardinal Couple article, we got news that the Louisville WBB game against UConn has now joined the ranks of being cancelled, sue to an outbreak of COVID within the UConn program. UConn women’s basketball has temporarily suspended team activities after a member of the program tested positive for COVID-19, the school announced Monday night. All team activities will be on hold for at least 14 days, the school said, meaning that the No. 3 Huskies will not compete in their first four scheduled games. Those games included two matchups in the Hall of Fame Women’s Challenge this weekend at Mohegan Sun Arena, a Dec. 4 game in Uncasville against No. 5 Louisville and the conference opener Dec. 6 at Seton Hall.

Some things age like fine wine.  Some things age like milk.  Anything recently we have talked about for MTSU aged like milk. Jeff Walz took to social media yesterday to let us know that MTSU had to cancel Wednesday's game and that he was looking for another team to replace them.  Within a few hours, a new team filled the slot. We  know not whether he'll employ the same tactics to replace the Huskies game. 

Southeast Missouri State (SEMO) is now on the schedule.  Rkha Patterson and the SEMO Redhawks will host the Cards on Wednesday at 3:00 p.m., ET (2:00 p.m., CT). So, in effect, the Cards WBB replaced one directional university with another. 

Walz added a hashtag to his post #WontBeTheLastScheduleChange and it's pretty safe to assume he is right.

As of right now, this game will be aired on ESPN+.  If you are not paying for ESPN+ then this one will not be accessible to be viewed.  Hopefully, we will see a local station or somewhere else pick up a free live stream. It's 2020 and things change rapidly. One thing you can depend on is the radio call from Nick and A.J...usually on Cards Radio 790. We'll know more about the listening/viewing finalizations tomorrow, I would venture. 

SEMO is in the Ohio Valley Conference, a conference that UofL sees plenty of action against across several sports.  Murray State, Morehead State, and Eastern Kentucky are all Kentucky-based schools in the OVC. A OVC WBB Preseason Poll has SEMO picked to finish sixth in the 12-team league. 

The Redhawks finished tied for first in the OVC in the 2019-20 season with a record of 16-2.  In fact, their conference record has gotten progressively better over the last four years. Louisville and SEMO have faced each other twice, with the Cards claiming both victories. Most recently, Louisville took an 80-40 win in November 2017.

SEMO is located in Cape Girardeau, MO and about 4-1/2 hours from Louisville. 

Check back here for a full breakdown of the match-up by Paulie tomorrow morning.

In other women's basketball news, Florida A&M canceled their entire season due to COVID-19.  They are probably the first of many that will drop in the coming weeks.

Plexiglass for UofL Games

Ice hockey rink or basketball arena?  Various twitter users shared photos of the floor at the KFC Yum! Center and Plexiglas is clearly noticeable around the newly designed team benches.  Several rows of seats have been removed and the benches are spread out.

As a photographer, my first question would be where I am supposed to sit, followed by a question regarding potential glares from the glass, which can actually be seen in the first picture.

I do want to raise the question about the socially distanced team benches.  These are players who play on the court together everyday and use the same locker room together.  More likely than not, the players would expose each other outside of the game.  And also, they will be closer together when celebrating or in team huddles.  So why distance them for just the game?

It looks like my pool photographer duties are all set and my new speedos complimentary of Arthur Albiero will be ready to go by Sunday.  Now, time to get some waterproof equipment.  Funny how smartphones nowadays are waterproof but camera and camera lenses are not...Paulie offered the use of his "floating duckie" he used years ago for water activities. I would also assume our resident engineers Case and Jeff are on standby, ready to design a floatation device suitable for maneuvering about in the Ralph Wright Natatorium to keep my various pieces of photography and internet access equipment dry. 

I hope I have a UofL swimmer on hand to help me with my backstroke. 

UofL has sent out a game day protocol/informational guideline for media that are planning to be in attendance. A drastically limited  and reduced amount of media coverage personnel will be allowed in, tucked away neatly in the corner of the KFC YUM! Center and socially distanced. No one on the sidelines, so Coach Walz will have the run of the area. 

Anyway, I hope everyone has a happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared