GAME DAY for the Cardinals! -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FRIDAYS WITH DARYL

Hello readers !  Thanks for checking back in with Cardinal Couple.   Shoutout to the new folks who have showed up to view Jared's bracket breakdowns.  

The Cardinals are flying into the second weekend of the tournament out in Seattle while the city of Louisville hosts the Sweet16/Elite8 for the men's side of the tournament... indoors.  We're expecting another storm to roll through this weekend potentially altering some spring sports schedules... which is typical this time of the year.  If you're in the area and that does happen, if you're lucky, you might find a seat to see some intense rivalry, spring volleyball over at L&NFCU Arena against the blue team that's down 1-64 East about an hour.    

Campus is notorious for flash floods so I hope I don't have to swim out of it!  If you do drive over to Belknap and see standing water, do not enter. Trust me! 

WBB

from gocards.com

Television/Online:     ESPN

Play by Play: Pam Ward     Analyst: Stephanie White

Reporter: Holly Rowe

Radio: 93.9-FM WLCL (Nick Curran, play-by-play; Cortnee Walton, analyst)

The first meeting between the two programs will be in the regional semifinal of the NCAA tournament all the way out in Seattle Washington.  

For Louisville, it is the 6th straight appearance in the Sweet 16,  12th time in program history with all 12 occurrences have come under head coach Jeff Walz.  The Cards are just one of three schools (UConn, South Carolina) to have a streak of six tournaments or longer. The Cardinals have been to 10 Sweet 16's since the 2011 season, a mark that is tied for fourth nationally over that span.

#8-seeded Ole Miss (25-8) advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2007 They had back to back tournaments appearances since the 04-05 season.   Head Coach for the Rebels is Yolett McPhee-McCuin in her 5th Season at helm holding a 79-74 record. The players and fans refer to her as "Coach Yo". All righty, then. 

Against schools from the ACC, Ole Miss is 13-15 all-time, last facing a school from the conference in 2019.

The Rebels defense kept both Gonzaga and Stanford to under 50 points each. For the third time this season, Ole Miss held opponents under the mark in back-to-back games.  In total, the Rebels have kept eight total opponents to under 50-points in scoring.

The Cardinals were held to under 50 points once this season and suffered 4 total losses when they only scored in the low 50s.   South Dakota State L 55-65 on Nov 21,  Middle Tennessee L 49-67 on Dec 4, and conference losses to Duke  L 56-63 on Jan 1 and NC State L 51-63 on Jan 22.  

As a team, Ole Miss is shooting 41.8% from the field with three Rebels scoring in double digits while shooting 45% from beyond the arc. First Team All-SEC Angel Baker led Ole Miss with 13 points against Stanford and 11 against Gonzaga along with 4 and 8 rebounds respectively.  Four out of five Rebel starters made their way to Ole Miss after hitting the court at a previous school. Eight total Rebels came to Oxford following stints in different uniforms.

Ole Miss grabbed 50 rebounds in a single game for the fourth time this season after they did it in the first round game against Gonzaga. The 51 boards against the Zags were the most for Ole Miss in an NCAA Tournament game in program history. Ole Miss' 14.8 offensive rebounds per game rank 19th nationally, and it also averages two more takeaways than turnovers each game.  Ole Miss surrendered a season-low eight turnovers against the Zags.

My opinion -

The Ole Miss WBB program is on a run here, we cannot deny that. They have an energetic coach that's earning national attention and the squad finished strongly in the SEC. I won't lie, the thought has crossed my mind... is this the 'Louisville vs Baylor/Tennessee special' from the second weekend of the magical run of 2013 for Ole Miss? Louisville has its worst NCAA tournament seed since 2013 earning a 5 seed this year..  it would be an upset for the Rebels to accomplish. 

-- Hailey Van Lith has her mind set and plans on continuing to lead Louisville to post season victory.  This team is not done playing together just yet!  Seattle is about 3 hours from Wenatchee, Washington where Hailey grew up.  She leads the Cardinals in scoring with 19.5 points per game ‒ a mark good enough for third in the ACC.  While there has much much deserved attention on HVL and her role for the Cards,  we need to praise a few other names who have significantly contributed to the Cardinal's success so far.   

-- Nyla Harris comes to mind first because of her instant impact to start each game.  She sets the tone under the basket and has shown us constant effort   averaging 3.2 points and 6 rebounds in 17 min per game in the post season.  Harris had 4 steals against Drake last weekend.   

(Norika Konno ended the Friday practice 
by hitting a half court shot )

-- Mykasa Robinson is leading Louisville success.   She is a defensive nightmare for opponents, imposing on their game plan from the opening tip.   

-- Olivia Cochran and Liz Dixon are giving the post game a huge boost because of their ability to hit the shot and pull down strong rebounds.   

--And ya gotta appreciate the green light for Josie Williams to pull up beyond the arc.   

--Morgan Jones has stepped up to contribute in other ways.  I am glad to see her fill the stat sheet a little.  

--If Chrislyn Carr gets going against Ole Miss, the Cards could end up scoring at least 75 points on the Rebels.  But even if she doesn't and she continues to draw defenders for others to get open, I think it can still be a recipe for success for Louisville.

This team is playing fun basketball... and I'm not ready for it to be over just yet. 

 

Louisville went 12-6-0 in the ACC while Ole Miss went 11-5 in the SEC.  The Rebels fell to strong SEC teams that are still playing... South Carolina a couple times and LSU and Louisville lost to ND a couple times and VT... who are both still playing. I think this is just makes this matchup that much closer.  This could be a barn burner, folks.   

Lets not forget the advantage of having Coach Walz on your sideline... the guy is just an incredible leader.   I am confident in his abilities in close situations and think Walz' experience gives the Cardinals the edge. 

Prediction - Louisville 60  Ole Miss 54 

JEFF WALZ and player press conference 3/23/23 below

WALZ AND PLAYERS SEATTLE

Sweet 16 Matchups 

Miami vs Villanova                  3/24 2:30pm

Utah vs LSU                           3/24 5:00pm

Colorado vs Iowa                    3/24 7:30pm 

Ole Miss vs Louisville              3/24 10:00pm

Notre Dame vs Maryland         3/25 11:30am

South Carolina vs UCLA           3/25 2:00pm

Ohio St vs UCONN                  3/25 4:00pm

VaTech vs Tennessee               3/25 6:30pm

*My Predictions*  

Regional Semi- Miami, LSU, Iowa, Louisville, Maryland, South Carolina, UCONN and VaTech

                          

Reginal Final - LSU, UCONN, Louisville, South Carolina 

(Note: these opinions do not necessarily reflect the thoughts and opinions of the rest of the writers and staff of Cardinal Couple )

Softball

The Cardinals welcome NC State to town for a conference series at Ulmer Stadium.  The Wolfpack are 11-17 on the season, 4-5 in the ACC and 0-4 on the road.   The Cards lead series history 12-10 in a series that dates back to 2011.  The last meeting between the two was April 1-3, 2022 where NC State took two of three games in Raleigh. The Wolfpack won the opener 7-5 with Louisville taking the second game 9-7 and NC State winning game three, 10-6.

Rebecca Murray leads the team with a .309 batting average and 20 runs. Amanda Hasler has belted out a team-best six homers and produced 18 RBIs.
Madison Inscoe (7-5) has lead in the circle with a 3.65 ERA and 37 strikeouts in 71.0 innings of work.

Volleyball

The University of Louisville volleyball squad, who finished national runners-up at the 2022 NCAA Championships, will take on rival Kentucky on March 24 at L&N Arena at 6 p.m. There is no charge...but admission is on a first-come, first-serve basis.

UofL has won the last two meetings with the Wildcats, both in the regular season and both 3-2 nail-biters...one in Lexington in 2022 and one in Louisville in 2021.

The 2022-23 Cardinals finished the season ranked No. 2 in the final poll with a record of 31-3. The No. 2 overall seed advanced to its second-straight Final Four appearance.

WGOLF

The University of Louisville women's golf team continues their spring season with a trip to the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic this weekend. The tournament, hosted by the University of Georgia, has the Cards, teeing off at 8:30 a.m. Louisville is paired with Georgia and Virginia in round one of action.

We've got a late tipoff tonight so get your naps in! 

As Always

Go Cards!

~Daryl