Bracket Pick Em -- Lacrosse, Softball and WBB -- Sunday Cardinal Couple

Cardinal Couple ACC Pick 'Em Contest

The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast ACC "Pick Em" Contest returns for another year.

Your objective is to pick the most winners in the 14 games of the ACC WBB Tournament, which begins Wednesday at noon. We'll know how the bracket shapes up later tonight and when it's decided, feel free to send your picks. 

It's easy to enter, AND IT'S FREE ! You could win a gift card if you finish first or second -- plus the undying admiration of your friends, neighbors, selected dignitaries and The Cardinal Couple Chimps. 

You can leave your picks in any comments section here at the site today thru Wednesday noon. In case of a tie, please include a total score of the final game. Noon IS the cutoff time. 

You can send your picks via e-mail. to Bracket Czar Jared Anderson at eupherjated@gmail.com or to Paulie at cardinalcouple@twc.com . If we're able to, we'll send a confirmation that we got them if you choose the e-mail route.

Jared (allegedly) will post standings after each round.  (we'll see...) He and Paulie also have a discussion after each round to verify those standings, the price of grain in Topeka and how many "selfies" Jared took of himself during the day. 

Sample:entry

Kenny B's Picks:

Wednesday:  Syracuse, Duke, Pitt

Thursday: UNC, FSU, Duke, Ga. Tech

Friday: Va. Tech, NC State, Louisville, Ga. Tech

Saturday: Va Tech, Ga Tech

Sunday: Va. Tech

TOTAL PTS: 167 

We look forward to your entries and the ACC Tournament. 

Lacrosse

A good win yesterday for Scott Teeter's squad.  Lacrosse welcomed Virginia Tech into the Louisville Lacrosse Stadium and were able to beat them 14-11.

Three Cardinals got hat tricks to lead UofL to victory.  Caroline Blalock, Nicole Perroni, and Hannah Morris all tallied three.  Add a pair for Paige Richbourg and singletons for Alexa Steffens, Kokoro Nakazawa, and Allegra Catallano.

Virginia Tech got on the board first and led by 3-1 and 4-2, before Hannah Morris got a score with 10 seconds left in the first quarter to get the lead down to only one, 4-3 after the first frame.

Nicole Perroni scored in the opening minute of the 2nd quarter to tie it at four.  The Hokies would score a pair, and then be matched by Richbourg and Catalano to go into the half tied at six.

A good third quarter opened up by Morris in the opening minute, followed by Richbourg for the two point lead.  VT would tie it again, but Steffens and Blalock would each get on the board to get the Louisville lead back to two at 10-8.  The last four minutes of the 3rd quarter would go scoreless, along with the first three minutes of the 4th quarter.

Then the offense opened up again.  The teams traded goals with Blalock getting her 3rd with just over two minutes left in the game.  Nakazawa would that with her goal with only 37 seconds left to give the Cards a 14-10 lead.  VT would score a late goal, with only 10 seconds left to narrow the lead to 14-11, but that would be it.

The next action will be Tuesday when the Butler Bulldogs come down from Indianapolis to play an afternoon game against Louisville at 3pm at the LLS.

(Photos by Jared Anderson)

Basketball in South Bend

It's the end of the regular season for women's basketball.  One more game to play today, and the opponent almost always seem to be a challenge for the Cards.

Notre Dame is undefeated in Purcell Pavilion, all six of their losses on the season coming on the road, including a couple of weeks ago in the KFC Yum! Center in the previous matchup of these two teams.  The 73-47 win by the Cards in the game seemed to surprise a lot of people in just how big the margin of victory was.

The Fighting Irish have wins over Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, NC State, and North Carolina, all wins that gain attention for NCAA selections.  A loss in UConn won't be considered much of a blemish, though losing to Georgia in overtime is slightly concerning.  In conference, none of the losses to Duke, Boston College, Florida State, and Louisville, as mentioned above, will be thought of as catastrophic to their NCAA aspirations.

What are the stakes for each team, then?  For Louisville, honestly, they aren't huge.  A loss probably drops the Cards out the 1 seeds for the NCAA tournament, but nothing that happens today will change UofL's seeding in the ACC tournament.  Notre Dame might be playing to hold on to the double-bye for the ACC tournament.  They're currently listed in the 3rd place in the standings tied in record with Virginia Tech, and North Carolina only one game behind.  Notre Dame does hold the head to head wins over both of those teams, having played each of them only once, which I believe guarantees them a 4th seed at worst.

Plenty of threats for the Irish, of course,  Olivia Miles, and Maddy Westbeld get most of the attention for Notre Dame, but Maya Dodson, and Sonia Citron outscore Westbeld on average.  Of course, Dara Mabrey and Sam Brunelle contribute a lot as well.

This crew won't get easily flustered by UofL's intense defense, but they're not completely unflappable.  By now, we know UofL's general game plan...intense defense forcing turnovers or poor offensive possessions, leading to transition offense.  It can work against this ND team as well, but an outing such as the Cards had at The Pete likely won't get it done.

The game is on ESPN2, with Tiffany Greene on the call, with Steffi Sorenson providing color analysis.  A bit of an earlier start, at noon, so get in your seats early.

Softball

Let the Schedule Shuffle commence, or perhaps continue is the better word.

With inclement weather in Fayetteville, Arkansas, the Wooo Pig Classic has maybe been turned into the Meh Pig Classic.

Nebraska gave up on the event altogether and has headed to Kansas to play the Jayhawks in a three game series today and tomorrow.  The Cards are apparently made of sterner stuff and have stayed in Arkansas and will play three against the SEC hosts.  The first today at 6pm, and then they'll play two tomorrow.

SEC Softball is good across the board, probably the top conference in the sport, but Arkansas has lost three so far in this young season.  They dropped a pair to a quite good Washington team two weeks ago and split with Illinois last week.  Arkansas is helmed by former Louisville Assistant Coach Courtney Deifel, during the Sandy Pearsall era.

The game is listed with a watch link that points to ESPN's site.  That would suggest, given Arkansas' SEC membership, that it would be available on the SEC Network+, the streaming side of the SEC Network, but it's not listed on ESPN's site in upcoming games, so it's not certain that it will be available.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

Jared was out getting the Lacrosse photos yesterday, but Case, Daryl, Paulie, and myself were on the call, and good fun was had as always for the CCRHP.

Basketball, Lacrosse, and Softball were on the menu, along with some Butler confusion.

Check it out at it's podcast home on anchor.fm:

https://anchor.fm/cardinal-couple/episodes/A-Winning-Week-for-Louisville-e1euudm

JMcA