UofL WBB faces Miami in ACC Quarterfinals -- SB Opens at Ulmer; FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FRIDAYS WITH DARYL

Happy March, readers. It was a rare clear schedule for the Cardinals on Thursday evening as most of the squads were scouting upcoming opponents.

The group chat was buzzing with ACC WBB tourney updates from Paul & pics of Jeff swimming and posing in tiny red cars.  My bracket's already busted after the first game, had 'Cuse over Clemson for some reason.  I'll be happy as long as my final prediction works out.  

ACC Women's Basketball Tournament

ACC Quarterfinals 

UofL vs Miami 

6 p.m. on Bally Sports

Miami beat Duke in a down to the wire comeback fashion...61-55   The Hurricanes beat the Blue Devils 22-15 in the fourth quarter and held the Dookies to 9 points in the second and third quarters. Elizabeth Balogun finished with 12 points and 8 rebounds.  Miami shot 44% from the field and made only 3 three's.  They had 21 free throw attempts and turned the ball over 15 times along with double digit scoring efforts from most of the starters.  #7 seed Miami is currently on the bubble for the NCAA tournament with an 18-11 (10-8 ACC) record. 


ABOUT THE HURRICANES

The Cards played Miami on 2/1/22 and escaped Coral Gables with a 69-66 win.  Kianna Smith had 21 points and Olivia Cochran scored the go-ahead basket and finishing with 18 points on the night.  Kelsey Marshall's game-tying 3-point attempt as time expired bounced off the rim.  UM is 7-3 in their last 10 games. Kelsey Marshall is Miami's lone double-digit scorer with 14.1 points per game, which is good for 10th in the league and third in the ACC with more than two and a half 3-pointers a game and is shooting 35.5 percent from deep, which ranks sixth.

Louisville leads the all-time series 7-2, winning seven out of the last eight games. The first meeting came in 1989, where Miami defeated Louisville 58-59 in Freedom Hall. After an almost three-decade hiatus, the conference opponents have played each season since Louisville joined the ACC in 2014-15 and UofL is 7-1.


Other ACC Tournament results from Thursday

Virginia Tech crushes Clemson 82-60 -- Elizabeth Kitley goes for 19 points and 10 rebounds and Aisha Sheppard 7-11 for 20 points as Clemson goes 0-9 from beyond 3.   

Florida State over BC 63-58 -- Powered by a huge third quarter where the Noles shot 66% from the field and went 4-5 from three point land.  

Georgia Tech beats Wake Forest 45-40 -- Offensive snoozefest!  This one had a 20-13 halftime score as GT beats WF for the second time this week.

FRIDAY MATCHUPS -  ACC Tourney 

GAME 8 - 11:00 AM

#4 NORTH CAROLINA VS. #5 VIRGINIA TECH

GAME 9 - 2:00 PM

#1 NC STATE VS. #9 FLORIDA STATE

GAME 10 - 6:00 PM

#2 LOUISVILLE VS. #7 Miami

GAME 11 - 8:00 PM

#3 NOTRE DAME VS. #6 Georgia tech

SOFTBALL 

The Cardinals bring an 8-6 overall record into Ulmer Stadium for the home opening weekend. 

First up, the Cards are set to face HOFSTRA at 3 p.m.  The last time the Cards played the Pride was 2/18/12 when the then #21 ranked Cards won 7-6 in 9 innings.  The squads are 1-1 against each other. HOFSTRA is 0-9 to start the season coming off of a 6-0 loss to Indiana on Monday.   At a glance, the Pride is struggling to put run on the scoreboard with several losses with goose egg results.   Sophomore and left handed pitcher, Julia Apsel leads the pitching efforts for the Pride with a 3.04 ERA in more than 25 innings pitched. 

UofL will get a break before facing Illinois in the final Friday game at 8 p.m. The last time the Cards played the Illini was 3/8/2020 and the Cards won 4-3.   Like Louisville, Illinois also got a win over #10 Arkansas this week.  Sydney Sickels leads in the circle for the Illini with 30 innings pitched and a 2.10 ERA. 

Cardinal Couple Radio -  Case, Jared and myself will be out for radio this week with other spring sports and appointments but the OGs Paulie and Jeff will carry the load with much ACC tournament, lacrosse and softball to cover.  Tune in at 11 a.m.

 

CARDINAL COUPLE PICK 'EM

Bracket czar Jared Anderson reports that, after seven games, three contestants are 7-0 in their selections. Nick O, Joe Hill and Thomas are the trio. Three contestant wait in the wings at 6-1 -- Kstarksr, Katy and Louavulfan35. The rest of the entrants have a bit of shoveling to do. 

As always
Go Cards! 

~Daryl