Cards Climb AP Poll -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Louisville Women's Basketball Jumps Four Spots in Latest Rankings

For Jeff Walz and Co., the wins and tough schedule are starting to pay off. Louisville women's basketball moved up four spots to #18 in the latest poll.

Last week, the Cards went to Oxford, Miss and defeated then-#19 Ole Miss by six in the ACC-SEC Challenge. The ACC and SEC tied, going 7-7. The Cards followed up that win by cruising past North Carolina A&T, 80-40.

Louisville is the fourth highest ranked ACC team right now and one of six in the Top 25. NC State continues to be the surprise of the season as the Wolfpack have moved all the way up to #3. Notre Dame moved up a few spots to #14 while Virginia Tech fell all the way to #15 after suffering their second loss of the season. Louisville is #18.

Florida State fell quite a bit after losing at home recently, and is now ranked #20. North Carolina stayed put at #24.

Miami just missed on cracking the rankings and sit in the receiving votes category. In an expanded rankings system, the Hurricanes would be #26. Syracuse also received a pair of votes.

While NC State is a bit surprising with just how good they are this year (I didn't expect them to be in the top three, especially with Elissa Cunane gone) It is surprising that Duke isn't ranked or even receiving votes. The Blue Devils are 5-3 on the year with losses to #1 South Carolina, #9 Stanford (by three), and RV Davidson. I think Duke is a better team than the rankings give them credit for.

The ACC is loaded this season even more than last year. The voters still are unsure of how good Louisville is yet with a majority of the team being new. A match-up against UConn in a couple weeks will be telling of where the Cards stand against one of the best women's basketball programs of the last two decades.

Next up for the Cards is a meeting with in-state rival Kentucky. The Cards and Cats will face off on Sunday at 2:00pm at the KFC Yum! Center. Obviously, this game is being promoted as a RED out. We encourage you to wear red for this one, as Paulie, Sonya, Daryl, and myself will do. Jeff will be up in the stands hopefully wearing red. Now, if we can talk Case into attending this game we could have a Cardinal Couple full house.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared