WBB vs Virginia
A week ago today, the Cards were in Blacksburg, VA, today they're 145 miles away in Charlottesville. It seems a little crazy that these trips couldn't be combined in to a single weekend, but here we are, subject to the whimsy of ACC scheduling.
Charlottesville, is of course, the home to the University of Virginia who will be the Cards' opponent today at 2pm. Louisville will be looking to get back into the win column and continue to add to their NCAA tournament resume'. We still have a lot of season to play, but the team is currently 41st in the NET rankings which doesn't necessarily put them "On The Bubble", but it is uncomfortably close.
Virginia is down around the bottom third of the ACC standings, with a conference record of 3-5 and 11-9 overall. The only real notable win on their schedule so far was against their neighbors Virginia Tech (73-65). Losses to Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Duke, are certainly understandable. Georgia Tech, Boston College, and NC State are a bit tougher to take for the Hoos, but the losses to Wyoming and Washington State would be concerning for fans of the blue and orange.
Only two players score in double digits for UVA, Kymora Johnson and Latisha Latimore, 18.3, and 13.3 points per game respectively, while Olivia McGhee, and Breona Hurd fall just short of the mark at 9.6 and 9.5. From range, Johnson is the biggest threat, not being afraid of hoisting the 3-ball, and hitting about 41% of them. McGhee hits about 36%, so she shouldn't be left open on the outside either.
Many of the team stats are close compared to their opponents, though UVA does fall short of their opponents, just slightly, in assists, steals, and turnovers. On the other hand, they do outblock their opponents, and by a margin of almost 2-1, so careful shot selection will be the order of the day.
Let's give some credit to the UVA fanbase however, for a team that maybe doesn't inspire a huge amount of awe, they average over 4,000 in attendance, which is a nice turnout. I always think watching a game is more enjoyable when you can hear a crowd getting into it, even if they're cheering for the opposing team.
A 2pm start suggests and TV scheduled game, and that is indeed the case here. An unusual outlet for it, though with The CW being the network carrying this one. That is a linear channel, and in the Louisville area it is broadcast channel 58 in some areas and on channel 7on Insight. . It should be available on all TV providers such as Spectrum, DirecTV, YoutubeTV, and others.
Tennis and Swimming
Tennis bounced back from their "short-handed" loss against Middle Tennessee and were able to win, 5-2 against Tennessee Chattanooga. The Cards were still missing two player to illness meaning that The Mocs got a point on singles court 6 by default. Despite defaulting on the 3rd doubles court, Louisville won in tie-breakers on the other two courts to get the doubles point. Regardless, four wins on singles courts would have been enough to secure the overall victory, but the doubles point gave a bit of insurance.
Swimming had a dual meet against Kentucky, and won both the men's and women's side of the event with solid margins. The women, ranked 10th, out-paddled the Cats to a 206-94 meet win.
Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast
Daryl, Jared, Paulie, and I carried on without a illness-striken Case in the CCRHP and had a good discussion about Basketball, as is the norm this time of year. We did spend a few moments towards the end of the show looking at the newly released Softball schedule and examining the plethora of pitching options on the squad.
Check it out at:
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JMcA
From what I saw last week Va vs NC State, seems as they must have gotten better than their record says.
ReplyDeleteWe're gonna have our hands FULL.
They gave the Wolfpack ALL they wanted AT NC State.
need a road win today, go get it, cards!
ReplyDeletecurtis " one for four , two for seven" franklin