A Snowy Sunday
Good Sunday morning. If you'll permit a brief aside from our coverage of sports, I hope everyone is safely hunkering down as a major winter storm passes through the Louisville area today.
I did venture out briefly to see if my (very) local coffee shop was open and operating so I could get my customary morning latte before conditions got too bad, but they were in the process of closing down, quite understandably, as I pulled in, so I didn't bother them and let them get on with what they were doing so they could get home and be safe.
Home brewed coffee is something I partake of only very rarely, but it's certainly pleasant as well.
OK, now on with sports.
Basketball in Winston-Salem
Basketball is the sole event on the calendar today. The Cards escaped the imminent weather and header to slightly warmer climes. They'll be taking on Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, NC today at 4pm.
For comparison, the weather forecast in Winston-Salem is to be cloudy with a high of 42 today, with a chance of rain arriving late tonight. No solid precipitation of any type is expected for the area. So the Cards may be challenged getting back to Louisville if they try to come back tonight, but if they elect to stay in North Carolina for the night, they shouldn't experience any problems there.
On to the game, the Demon Deacons are having a thoroughly mediocre season. Their overall record is 7-6, and they're 0-2 in conference so far. Conference losses have come to Clemson and Virginia, neither of which is a barnburner team in the ACC. Outside of conference, losses came to Villanova, George Mason, Fairfield, and St. Johns.
So overall, Wake shouldn't be much of a contest for Louisville, particularly if they play like they played for most of the Miami game.
The Deacs are not a high powered offense, scoring at will, they've averaged just over 60 points per game so far this season, but they have held their opponents to just over 55 points per game on the defensive side, so the Cards will need to pay attention to their passing lanes and ball protection. Wake has 125 steals on the season to opponents' 82, but have been outblocked by their opponents 42-34 so the threat is definitely on ball possession, not shot blocking.
No players average over 10 points per game, which is probably not surprising when the team's overall production is so low, but several are close. Elise Williams averages 9.7, as does Rylie Theuerkauf. Theuerkauf has notably more points on the season as she has played in all 13 games for Wake this year, while Williams has only played in 10. Malaya Cowles is on their heels at 9.5, while Tamia Jones, and Demeara Hinds aren't far behind at 8.9 and 8.8 respectively.
That same quintet accounts for the bulk of the team's steals, with all in double digit totals for the year.
We saw that the Cards are capable of playing a composed, quality game when they beat Miami in good form. The question is, will this same team show up today, or will they revert to some of their lackadaisical play from before the holidays? My hope is that we're seeing the results of team development over the break, and not just a fluke. Only time will tell for that, of course.
This game may not be the best test of that, but if we struggle against this team, we know there's more work to be done.
National linear TV coverage for this one. The ACC Network has the game at 4pm.
Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast
Basketball was the topic for nearly all of the CCRHP yesterday.
After a bit of catchup, and discussion of the then-upcoming winter storm that is coming through Louisville at the time of this writing, Jared, Paulie, and I took to discussing the wins at Boston College and here against Miami before looking ahead to the Wake Forest game today.
Check out the fun:
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JMcA
Coach's teams generally make a big jump forward during the holiday break. I was hoping for more from the freshmen, but also good with our upperclassmen doing a solid job so far after the break👍.
ReplyDeleteAlso a good time for a road game considering.b