NCAA Tournament -- Lacrosse Rankings -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 Louisville Named 2-Seed in NCAA Tournament

Unlike the men's side, where Louisville fans had to sweat out if the Cards would go dancing (spoiler: they're not), the women's team was waiting to see what seed they would end up being. The Cards were announced as a 2-seed, making them one of the top eight teams.

The Cards are in the Alamo Region, which has Stanford as its 1-seed. The other top teams in the region include 3-seed Georgia and 4-seed Arkansas.

Louisville is one of eight ACC teams to find themselves dancing. No other conference had more than seven teams. The list of ACC teams includes 1-seed NC State, 2-seed Louisville, 5-seed Georgia Tech, 7-seed North Carolina, 7-seed Virginia Tech, 8-seed Syracuse, 9-seed Florida State, and 9-seed Wake Forest. Notre Dame did not make the cut. They were the third team of the first four out joining Houston, DePaul, and Oklahoma.

The SEC had seven teams announced highlighted by 1-seed South Carolina and 2-seed Texas A&M. The Big Ten also had seven teams in with Maryland as the top team as a 2-seed. The Pac-12 has six teams dancing with Stanford being a 1-seed and the top overall seed. The Big 12 has five teams in with 2-seed Baylor as their top team. UConn is the other 1-seed.

Our friends to the east down I-64 are also dancing. Kentucky was named a 4-seed in the River Walk Region with UConn being the 1-seed.

Let's take a moment to look at more teams in the Alamo Region and some potential match-ups the Cards may have.

Louisville will open the tournament against 15-seed Marist. Marist College is a private liberal arts college based in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. They're located about halfway between New York City and Albany. Enrollment is roughly 6,600 students.

Marist went 18-3 overall and used a 13-3 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) record to win the regular season. The Red Foxes went on to win the MAAC Tournament by defeating Saint Peters 69-30 in the championship to earn an automatic qualifying bid. Feel free to share this paragraph with a certain CJ writer who asked Coach Walz what Marist's mascot is.

Marist is averaging 63.6 points per game and shot .416 from the field on the year. The Red Foxes profited off turnovers this season by forcing 13.7 turnovers per game and converting that into 15.3 points off turnovers. They allow 50.1 ppg. 

Their head coach is Brian Giorgis. Giorgis has been at Marist since 2002 and has dominated the MAAC since then. He is 461-166 overall at the helm. This is the Red Foxes' 12th NCAA Tournament appearance since 2002. Giorgis is also believed to be the first coach in men's or women's basketball to reach 400 wins as both a high school coach and college coach. Coach Walz mentioned he's also a big lover of Diet Coke and usually keeps a cup of it under his chair during games.

Assuming Louisville wins their first round game they'll go up against the winner of 7-seed Northwestern and 10-seed UCF. Northwestern is based out of Evanston, Ill., and was an at-large bid out of the Big Ten with a 15-8 record. The Wildcats fell to Maryland in the Big Ten semifinals. UCF is based out of Orlando, Fla., went 16-4 and was an at-large bid out of the AAC. They fell to South Florida in the AAC Championship.

The favorite in the Alamo Region is 1-seed Stanford. The Cardinal (no "S") went 25-2 overall this year with a 19-2 mark in the Pac-12. Stanford won their conference in the regular season and tournament to earn the automatic bid.

A potential dark horse would be 11-seed South Dakota. The Coyotes- not to be confused with South Dakota State Jackrabbits- went 19-5 on the year and went 12-2 in the Summit League to take the regular season title. South Dakota then went on to went their conference tournament winning by an average margin of 24 points.

The Cards and Red Foxes will play on Monday, March 22 at 8:00 p.m. ESPN will have the coverage. 

We will have plenty more NCAA Tournament coverage for the next several days and ongoing for a few weeks.

Jeff Walz and Dana Evans had a presser after the Selection Show and you can check those out here: 

JEFF WALZ 3/15/21 PRESSER

DANA EVANS 3/15/21 PRESSER

CARDINAL COUPLE NCAA Pick Em

64 teams. 63 games. Do you research, flip your coin, pick your favorite mascot, whatever helps you pick your teams. Just make sure to get your entries submitted before Monday/ March 21 at noon.

Each correct pick equals one point. There are not more points for later rounds.

COVID-19 raises the question of what would happen if a team has to bow out due to positive tests. After a bit of discussion between the Cardinal Couple staff we have come to a conclusion. If a team loses because they have to forfeit it will count as a loss. If a team advances because their opponent has to forfeit then it will count as a victory.

For example, Male High School and Manual High School are set to play but Manual cannot play due to a positive COVID-19 case and Male advances. If you picked Manual, it will just count as a loss. If you picked Male, you will be awarded a point on your bracket.

Feel free to add your comments directly to our daily articles or email us at eupherjared@gmail.com and cardinalcouple@twc.com.

Lacrosse Moves Up in Rankings

Another win helped Louisville lacrosse continue moving up the polls. They are now #15 in the IL Poll. US Lacrosse Magazine put the Cards at #17 and IWLCA has them listed as #19.

Louisville is 4-2 on the year and is on a two-game win streak and have won three of their last four matches.

The Cards host #1 North Carolina on Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. You can catch this one on ACC Network.

We have gotten word of some cool news that Louisville Lacrosse will be playing the match at Football's Cardinal Stadium.  Paulie has a interview planned with Lax head coach Scott Teeter later today about the historic event and will run it in his Wednesday article. 

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared