WBB Put on Pause -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Positive Test and Contact Tracing Halts Basketball Activities

Someone quipped on Twitter earlier this fall that the "empty helmet image" accompanying an announcement is undefeated. This graphic has been used for bad news in football before this season but it saw renewed vigor as we approach 200 canceled football games on the year. The basketball version of this phenomenon is a basketball sitting alone on the floor. Louisville fans that frequent the Go Cards website will be familiar with this photo over the last couple of weeks.

It was used anew yesterday as the news that we'd been hoping to avoid struck. The Louisville Women's Basketball Program has been forced to pause all team activities due to a positive Covid-19 test and subsequent contact tracing. The official release notes only one test and only says that it is within the Tier-1 individuals. Tier-1 includes student-athletes, coaches, managers, and other team associated staff (strength and conditioning, etc). We'll be keeping an eye on the situation, obviously, to see if it develops further or if things smooth back out a shade. 

The first fallout of this pause is the "postponement" of tomorrow's scheduled game against North Carolina. I have my doubts about anything listed as a postponement at this stage, as the schedule gets tighter as the year goes on. Finding a replacement date will be quite the challenge. As we know, the requirement to qualify for the NCAA tournament will be 13 games played, so we should assume that any postponed game is canceled. That way, any rescheduled game becomes just a bonus. 

The question now becomes how much of the season this will affect. The University of Louisville has handled Covid situations pretty well so far, as we've seen most teams that have participated have to deal with it in some way. In all cases, the respective team sorted things out quickly enough to avoid catastrophic scheduling issues. We'll see how it goes for women's basketball. If they follow the same schedule as the men's team, which returns to full team practice today, they'll almost certainly be forced to postpone Thursday's game against Florida State. The risk will be the game against Miami. The men's team returned to limited activity 8 days after their announced pause. After two days of limited participation, they have a full practice today. They don't return to the court until they open the conference season against NC State. 

The timeline for the women's team is tighter. If they return to limited activity after 8 days, that would be next Saturday. That would give them no practices before a game against Miami scheduled for next Sunday. Given the holiday break following the Sunday game, there may be some ability to shove the Miami game back a day or two once the Hurricanes have arrived in Louisville. We'll just have to see. For now, we wish the very best to whoever has come down with the illness and hope for a quick recovery (or none required at all). Any updates we get about the situation, we'll be sure to pass along to you, dear reader.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

Saturday morning means time for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour. We're without Jared this week, as he banks for the last time before four straight weeks off. That said, it's the first show with our new addition, Daryl, on the podcast! Goodness, I wonder what we'll have to talk about. We'll review the big conference opening win earlier this week but the big topic of the day will be yesterday's big news. Tune in at 11AM to the Cardinal Couple YouTube Channel for the live show, or check out the rebroadcast anytime after the show ends. As always, subscribe to the podcast on your podcast player of choice to have it pushed to your device as soon as it's posted. Be sure to like and review the podcast if you're able so that we can reach even more Cards fans1

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-