WBB to Canada, Reid to Bellarmine and Roby to Clemson -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 A TRIFECTA of th8ngs to hit you with this Wednesday -- with a Cardinal great returning back to the city, a softball star heading south and the Cards WBB squad participating in the Globl Jam. A nice bit of news to burst open the "summer slump" of no relevant sports stories for the Cards women's sports squads. Let's have a look,,,

TAYLOR ROBY HEADING TO CLEMSON

One of the greatest pitchers to ever step into the circle in Louisville Softball history, Taylor Roby will continue in softball -- down at Clemson University. Not as a pitcher... that eligibility has already bee used...but as a Graduate Assistant to the Tigers softball program. 

Roby will be one of three members of the Tigers staff that are in new or upgraded positions. Head coach John Rittman is also promoting Jessie Harper, a volunteer assistant last year, to a full-time assistant coach and Alyssa Bilodeau moves from graduate assistant to director of player development. 

For Roby, her career-long double-threat capabilities from the circle and in the batters box will serve her well with the Tigers. Roby had been playing professionally this summer with the USSSA Pride. Graduate assistants traditionally help the coaches run drills for the players, assist i and teach the players in hitting, fielding and pitching, and monitor the players' practice and performance skills. They report the results to the team's coaches and also educate the squad on league rules and regulations. 

It's a great chance for Roby to get her feet "wet" in being a staff member on a college team and Clemson is certainly a class and quality program to start with. Clemson was 49-12 last season, 20-6 in the ACC and went to the NCAA Super Regional, where they were defeated by Oklahoma. 

MONIQUE REID TO JOIN BELLARMINE WBB COACHING STAFF

The Cardinal great from 2008-13 joins the Bellarmine WBB staff after a long and illustrious pro career overseas that saw her play for teams in 10 different countries  Reid was a sophomore on the Cards roster when Jeff Walz arrived to take over the program and scored 2,666 points during her high school years at Fern Creek. She averaged 30.9 ppg in near the end of her career overseas (in Turkey) and was on two Final Four squads at Louisville in 2009 and 2013. 

The story goes that Reid and Bellarmine head coach Chancellor Dugan met last summer at the dedication of the renovated basketball courts in Shively Park. Reid had expressed a desire to get into coaching then to Dugan and when Reid announced she wqs home to stay this summer, the two got together and Reid got the assistant coaching job. 

Reid on joining Bellarmine: 

"The timing was perfect because I did want to retire, and to have a plan after retirement is always good," the 33-year-old Reid said. "My goal always was to play professional basketball. Coming out of college, I was told not to play because I had a knee injury (my senior year), but I wanted to take playing basketball as far as I could. I just thought it was a good time to retire because I was beginning to miss home a lot, and I want to settle down and start my family. One thing I always wanted to do is step away from the game walking and not get pushed out of the game because I'm old or anything like that. I wanted to go out on my terms. I won a championship in Lux (Luxembourg), so I think that's the perfect way to leave."

We wish "Mo" the best at Bellarmine and certainly couldn't be much luckier than to begin her coaching career under one of the finest head coaches i DI WBB in Chance Dugan. 

CARDS BEGIN GLOBL JAM

 

The Cards WBB squad begins Globl Jam play tomorrow in Toronto with an 11 a.m game against Puerto Rico. They'll follow that up on Thursday with a 5 p.m. contest against hosting Canada. After a day off, they Cards get Team Africa Saturday and then compete in either the Championship or Third Place rounds on Sunday, depending on what their three-game record is. The championship game is at 5 p.m...,the third-place game is at 11 a.m.

From what we have heard, the game tomorrow will be shown on the Cards Twitter account  (@LouisvilleWBB) and the same goes for the Saturday game. The Thursday and Sunday contest will be on the CBS Sports Network, unless Louisville is in the Bronze game Sunday, then that switches to the Cards Twitter account again. I do know that the CBS Sports Network in on channel 531 if you have Spectrum, and sources tell me the network is on channel 158 on DISH, channel 221 on DIRECTV and channel 643 on ATT U-Verse. 

 

It'll be interesting to see what kind of starting lineup Walz comes out with and how his substitution patterns develop in this first outing for the Cards. I've had several people tell me who they think should be starting...none of those people were named Jeff Walz, though, so we have no firm list of starters.

Go to: https://twitter.com/i/status/1678887136773169154 for a fun vid on the Cards WBB squad visiting the CN tower in Toronto. 

paulie

  

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