Cards WBB receive honors -- ACC WBB Tournament Starts Today -- Pick 'EM -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

CARDS WBB STUDENT-ATHLETES HONORED

AWARDS AND HONORS

A busy 24 hours, in terms of honors and recognition bestowed on members of the University of Louisville women's basketball team student-athletes. 

Dana Evans got two national award honors yesterday, being named as one of the five finalists for the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award. This award goes to the nation's top hooting guard in college WBB, and it is the second straight year Dana has been named to the final five. Other honorees are Chelsa Dungee (Arkansas),Ashley Owusu (Maryland), Arella Guirantes ( Rutgers) and Zia Cooke (South Carolina) 

The winner will be annoinced on ESPN, but no firm date for the announcement has been established yet. 

Evans also was named to the Naismith Trophy Semifinalist list yesterday. This award is given each year to the player of the year in college WBB and Evans is one of 11 on this list. It's her second straight year appearing on this list. Others named are: Aliyah Boston (South Carolina), Paige Bueckers (UConn), Caitlin Clark (Iowa), Charli Collier (Texas), Elisa Cunane (NC State), Naz Hillmon (Michigan), Rhyne Howard (Kentucky), Aari McDonald (Arizona), Michaela Onyewere (UCLA) and NaLyssa Smith (Baylor) 

This list will be pared down to four finalists on March 15th. and the winner will be announced the week of March 29th. 

The ACC announced WBB awards as well yesterday and there are two groups that award these separately. There is the Blue Ribbon Panel and the Coaches.

Dana Evans was named Player of the Year by the Blue Ribbon panel. They also put her on the All-ACC First Team.

Dana Evans was also named Player of the Year by the coaches. The coaches put Hailey Van Lith and Olivia Cochran on the ALL-ACC Freshman Team. Kasa Robinson was selected for the All ACC Defensive Team. 

Great honors for these Cards WBB student-athletes ! Our sincere congratulations to all of them and to the team. 

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UofL has a presser scheduled today with Jeff Walz and Dana Evans at noon. I'll try to hop back in here with a link to hear how it went when UofL provides it. 

ACC WBB TOURNAMENT BEGINS TODAY 

The first round of the 2021 ACC WBB Tournament begins today in Greensboro and it'll feature a contest between #12 seed Pittsburgh and #13 seed Boston College. These two will play at 2 p.m. and play for the right to advance to second round action and face Syracuse on Thursday at 2;30 p.m.

A bit of a different first day than we normally see for this event, with Virginia and Duke opting-out of playing. We saw three first round games last year, with the #10-#15 seeds doing battle to advance to the second round.  

The second round remains pretty much the same, with four games, but the #10 and #11 seed automatically advance to thee second day this year (Miami and Clemson) 

Louisville doesn't play until Friday, as the #1 seed. They'lll open ACC WBB Tournament action in the quarterfinals at noon against either Wake Forest or UNC. 

We'll give you full coverage of the five-day tournament here at Cardinal Couple. I won't be in attendance this year, the first one I've missed since 2014. That streak goes even further back, with attendance to the ACC and Big East WBB tournaments.  It's simply a matter of COVID this year and not wanting to take the risk of coming up positive during my six-day stay away from home. I wait patiently for the vaccine. 

RSN has the cover for the first three days before they turn it over to the ACC Network for the semifinals and final games on Saturday. Locally, that's FSNHD -- on Spectrum it's channel 70 or 929. In this day of 10,000 ways to watch stuff, check with your provider to see what channel FSNHD is on. 

CARDINAL COUPLE ACC WBB PICK 'EM

You have until 2 p.m. EST today to get your picks in for the ACC WBB Tournament Pick 'Em contest. As of 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, we had 18 participants for the event, and expect a few more today. 

$25 gift card Cracker Barrel is first prize and a $15 card second prize. If there isn't a Cracker Barrel in your area, and you come in first or second, let us know and we'll try to make a different arrangement for you.  They DO offer carry-out, if you don't want to dine in public yet. 

Sonya and I ordered for carryout the Sunrise Sampler the other morning and it was delicious.  A SPECIAL "SHOUT-OUT" to the Fern Creek location for donating the gift cards again this year. 

You can leave your picks in the comments section today, or email Jared or Paulie with your picks. Send them to

eupherjared@gmail.com

or cardinalcouple@twc.com

One interesting fact from the 18 entries we have received so far is that Louisville is picked to win in 12 of them. NC State is picked to win in three entries. Georgia Tech in two and Clemson in one. 

Have a great Wednesday! 

paulie