CARDS WBB TRAVELS TO STANFORD -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 CARDS PLAY STANFORD FIRST IN A TWO GAME WEST COAST SWING

Let's take a positive look about the joy and excitement of Louisville WBB headed to California for their next two games. First off, there isn't a foot of snow to have to trudge through and deal with when they arrive on the Stanford campus . A forecast of 64 today at Stanford, which is about 35 miles south of San Francisco. Second, two of the Cards starters are from 'the Golden State' in Mackenly Randolph (Los Angeles) and Tajianna Roberts (San Diego). 

I doubt Taj or Mac ever heard it, but the Grateful Dead had a pretty cool song about California on their Terrapin Station album (1977) called Estimated Prophet. The late Bob Weir had the vocal and you can hear it HERE.

As far as the Stanford squad goes, they come into the fray 15-6 overall and 4-4 in the ACC. It's a 8 p.m. EST game and you can catch it on ESPN. The network is rolling out their "A" team in Beth Mowins and Deb Antonelli for this one...and it'll take place in the legendary Maples Pavilion. 

Kate Paye is the head coach of Stanford. She played there and was also an assistant for Tara VanDerveer. She took over in April of 2024.  

Lara Somfai the 6'7" Cardinal center

Stanford has one up on the Cards in that they have won a National Championship (in 2021). This year, they are a lot like the Cards in the aspect of having multiple scoring threats, They have five scorers that average nine points a game or better. Nunu Agara leads the Cardinal with 14.5 a game. Following her, you've got Chloe Clardy at 11.1, Lara Somfai 10.6 a night, Courtney Ogden 10.5 and Hailee Smith 9.0 

Here's an interesting tidbit....Nunu committed to Stanford because of the palm trees. Out of Minnesota, she says they are her favorite tree. I guess Kate Paye is happy she didn't visit Miami or FAU first. 

Losses have come against FGCU, Tennessee, Duke, Syracuse, California and NC State. 

The Cards lead the overall series 2-1 , with Louisville winning the last meeting, in Louisville last year 74-65. 

Finally, let's look at the nickname. They are called the Cardinal. They were the Indians until 1972. The nickname allegedly refers to the school color of Cardinal red, and not the bird or a religious figure.  They also go by the Trees. The tree was introduced as a joke by the Stanford marching band at a football game, but it caught on with the fans and the student body has a contest each year to re-design the tree. Thank goodness that has never happened with out Cardinal Bird. Novice announcers eventually refer to the Stanford squad as the Cardinals...but i doubt Deb and Beth make that mistake. 

Yes, it's one of those Atlantic coast school on the Pacific coast.  

It should be a fun one and Daryl will have the recap in the Friday Cardinal Couple. 

Hmmmm, I wonder if we should change our name to "Cardinals Couple?" 

paulie

Nine down and Nine To Go for WBB -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 CARDS AND DUKE ATOP THE ACC WBB RANKINGS. 

We are halfway through the ACC WBB conference slate now and...even though the city of Louisville is in a polar deep freeze currently, the women's basketball team is "en fuego". 

At 9-0 in conference and 19-3 overall, the Cards and Duke are the only two teams at 9-0 and the much awaited matchup between these two will be on Feb 5th in the KFC YUM CENTER. The Thursday night matchup will be shown on ESPN. 

The Cards are ranked #7 in the nation and Duke checks in at #20. Duke has struggled out of conference, with losses to West Virginia, South Florida, South Carolina, UCLA, LSU and Baylor....for a 5-6 record out of the ACC, Five of the schools they lost to, however, are in the top 25. 

Retired head coach "Katie the Lady" Meier of Miami

Duke has won 11 in a row, though, under Kara Lawson ...but faces a potentially tough outing in their next game, when the face Miami on Thursday in Miami. Head coach Tricia Cullop, formerly out of Toledo, is in her second year at "The U" . Former head coach Katie Meier is now a "special advisor and ambassador" for Miami athletics in Coral Gables and "Katie the Lady" was always a tough out for Walz and company when the two matched up....hanging losses on the Cards in 2022 and 2019.  

Looking at Louisville, their west coach swing , coming up next, should prove to be an interesting test for these Cards. Thursday, January 29th has the Cards on the Stanford (4-4, 15-6)  campus and Feb 1st brings the Cards to Cal (3-5, 12-8) . I do applaud the scheduling that lets  Louisville get both West coast games in a row...but I still have to chuckle when I tell people that the Cards have two Atlantic Coast Conference games in California. 

Toby Fournier is the leading scorer of Kara Lawson's crew, at 17.7 points per game and she had a long laundry list of schools she consider back in 2024. She also grabs 7.7 rebounds a contest. The Toronto Canada native looked at South Carolina, UConn, Stanford, UCLA, North Carolina, Arizona and Michigan. And, she's just a sophomore...if you needed any other reasons to have a headache. Maybe one redeeming feature for an opponent is to foul her...she is 68 for 129 (53%) from the charity stripe. 

So, who are some of the more worrisome foes left in the Cards final nine conference games before the tournament? Duke, obviously...and Cal, Stanford, Notre Dame and Syracuse. 

Any ACC WBB game, though, can be a nightmare for a visiting team, especially on the road...because of the big home team fan support in the league. Maybe it's just best to follow the philosophy of UFC great Conor McGregor when he said

"Success isn't a result of arrogance, it's a result of belief." 

paulie

AVCA Announces First Serve Showcase -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Showcase Keeps Expanded Lineup in Year Three

The AVCA Showcase is a long-standing event, originally created in 1995. It saw multiple format variations, including a conference challenge, through the years before coming to an end in 2012. The event was reintroduced in 2024. That season, it was played at the Yum! Center, which was scheduled to host the 2024 NCAA Championship event. That appears to have been more of a coincidence than a new tradition. Last year, it was played in Lincoln, while the championship was hosted in Kansas City. This season, the AVCA First Serve Showcase will be in Milwaukee, and the NCAA Final Four will be in San Antonio. 

Louisville played in the event in 2024, and they will return in this season's iteration. This will be their first time playing in the 8-team version of the event. They'll be among five schools making their second appearance in an AVCA showcase, with Nebraska, the only team who could have made all three, being left out of the lineup. The Cards will also be one of the four teams tabbed to play two matches. 

2024 Cards after their AVCA FSSC win

Louisville is joined by the lineup of the 2025 Final Four (Texas A&M, UK, Pittsburgh, and Wisconsin) and Arizona State, SMU, and Texas. All four teams that come from last year's final four are making their second AVCA First Serve Showcase appearance. The event will feature two matches on each day from Friday, August 21st to Sunday, August 23rd. Louisville will play on Friday and Saturday. 

The Cards will get a rematch against the defending national champion Aggies on Friday, following a match between Wisconsin and Kentucky. On Saturday, Louisville will get Wisconsin with both teams on short rest, and Texas and Arizona State will close out the evening. UK and TAMU draw the short straw in the event, as they'll each play fresh opponents on Sunday. UK and Pitt will play the afternoon match with TAMU facing SMU afterwards. 

Louisville will be looking to take down the team that knocked them out of the 2025 tournament in five sets when they face A&M. They can't be too mad, though, as the Aggies knocked everyone they faced out of the tournament on their way to a title. Louisville's last match against Wisconsin also came in the AVCA First Serve Showcase in 2024. The Cards upset Wisconsin 3-1 in a battle between teams then ranked sixth and third. 

We're still seven months (and an entire spring sports season) away from this event, but it will be here before we know it. If you're looking to make a trip to Wisconsin in late summer, you can look to snag tickets for the event on Ticketmaster starting at 10am central (11 eastern) on Friday, January 30th. We'll all be excited to root on the Cards whether in person or on the screen. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

UofL cancels classes Monday -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Good morning readers, 

The snowstorm that forced the Cards to alter the basketball schedules this weekend has now forced UofL to cancel classes for the next couple days.    UofL women's athletics are on a break anyways as they head out west for a couple matches with the California schools.   

Try and find some peace these next few days, Cards fans.   Its a cold world out there.    

Photos from UofL official flickr 

As Always, 
Go Cards

~Daryl 

Cards WBB storms past BC 85-56 -- SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 CARDS HAVE 6 FOR 9 (OR MORE) IN GROUNDING OF EAGLES

Maybe the Cards decided they wanted to emulate the big winter storm gripping the Louisville region. Maybe they were appreciative of the fans who came out in the blustery cold weather. Maybe it was the 11 a.m. start and the Cards thought they still asleep and dreaming about a huge win.  Whatever the incentive or scenario was, it worked like a snowball right in the face. The Cards jumped out to a 13-2 first quarter lead and never looked back in this battle of birds at the KFC YUM! Center.

Louisville is now 9-0 in the ACC and would eventually build the lead to 42 with six minutes left in the game, after a Rebekah Graves jumper to set the score at 81-39...but Boston College was playing for the full 40 minutes no matter what the score was and actually outscored UofL 17-4 to end the game in taking the 29 point loss. By the midway point of the fourth quarter, the Cards had a lineup of Berry, Hardy, Bender, Graves and Ziegler on the court.

It may have been the longest fourth quarter in the history of Louisville women's basketball.  That 22-14 B.C. win of the fourth quarter was with head coach Joanna Bernabei just trying to basically practice for future games and running scripted plays.  Louisville went inside often and it led to a 40-18 points in the paint edge for UofL...No Card played more than 22 minutes in the game (Berry). 

Mackenzie Randolph ended up leading Louisville in points scored (with 13) Taj Roberts and Skylar Jones added 11 each, and Ziegler, Berry and Istanbulluoglu finished with nine points each. 

A fun one to watch on TV, nestled in and warm . 

Let's hope BC didn't have too many delays in getting home (if they even tried) Welcome to a crippling winter storm here in Cardinals country,,.,Cardinals fans. 

(Today's photos from a big Cardinals fan)

Freddie Freeman...pretty fair first baseman for LA.

THE FRED REPORT

F - Free Throws -- The Cards were 20-28 from the free throw line for just a tad over 70% . And, that's our standard for a Capital "F"  Kudos to Taj Roberts and Skylar Jones (4-4). A questioning look toward Reagan Bender (1-4) 

R- Rebounds -- 49-26,,,advantage Cards. Laura Ziegler and Grace Mbugna led the way for UofL with eight each...and I have no problem awarding  CAPITAL "R" here.

E - Effort/Execution -- Louisville shot 54.7%  but has 21 turnovers. 16 assists on 29 baskets isn't all that spectacular...but, it was a great win in front of an appreciative crowd.  small "e"  

D - Defense -- The Cards held the eaagles to 6 points on 19-65 shooting (29%) and forced 15 turnovers. Seeing that 40+ point lead evaporate at the end of the game warrants a small "d" .

Final Fred tally:  F-R-e-d

POST GAME JEFF WALZ

Everyone stay inside today unless it is essential travel, you gotta work or you are going to walk to a place to go sledding. Stay warm, y'all.

pauiie

Cards Host BC One Day Early -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

WBB Faces Eagles in Rescheduled Game

With the impending winter storm about to hit Louisville and, well, everywhere else, dozens of college basketball games this weekend have had their start times shifted or the games postponed or outright canceled. The KFC Yum! Center was set to host a game each day this weekend, and both have been moved to try to get fans (and teams) out safely before the weather sets in. The men's game was the first to be rescheduled, moving earlier in the afternoon instead of the 4PM listed start time. The women's game, as Daryl mentioned yesterday, was moved from Sunday to this morning. 

Louisville will host a Boston College team that shouldn't pose too much of a threat. That's quite good, since I wrote a little about Louisville's tough upcoming schedule earlier this week. The Eagles are just 4-17 overall and are last in the conference at 0-8. They've lost 13 straight games and only one of their eight conference losses has been by fewer than 15 points. They lost by three at home to Pitt, giving the Panthers their only ACC win so far this season. 

Despite their woeful schedule, BC ranks 3rd in the conference in free throw percentage (75%) which is also good for 60th in the country. They also have a player, Athena Tomlinson (great name by the way), who has 103 assists, which is also good for 3rd in the league and 23rd in the country. Tomlinson has the league's 12th best assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.69. Tomlinson's 103 assists, though, are out of only 261 total for the entire team this year. Yikes. BC's offense scores just 62.7 points per game and their average scoring margin is -11. The Eagles' 61 points against Pittsburgh are the most they have scored in a conference game. 

Louisville should be able to have a field day. The Eagles do manage to force slightly more turnovers than they commit (15.9 vs 15.2), but they allow opponents to shoot 47% from the floor and have an average rebounding margin of -4.7. The Cards should be able to get good shots, dominate the paint, and win the battle of the boards. It's not just the paint where teams beat up on BC, though, as they allow shooters space as well. Opponents are making 34.5% of their three-point attempts against the Eagles. 

Louisville WBB will want to get this game out of the way and potentially hit the road early to get to the west coast for next week's games. There was no change to the TV for today's game, as it was already scheduled to be on ACC Network Extra. That arrangement remains, and you can check it out at 11am.

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

GAMEDAY UPDATE !! Inclement weather alters WBB schedule -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FRIDAYS WITH DARYL 

Happy Friday readers and glad you're checking back in with us.  

Due to some inclement weather anticipated for the weekend in Louisville, both the men and women's basketball schedules have been altered.   

photo: UofL WBB Facebook

The WBB Cards are now scheduled to play early Saturday morning at 11am rather than Sunday afternoon and the MBB squad will play their previously scheduled 3:30pm matchup at 2:15pm.  

Its wild to think about all of the operations that had to go into making these sorts of decisions for everyone.  The amount of phone calls and adjustments that had to be made to put this plan into action is wildly fascinating if you ask me.  

As Case pointed out in the group text, BC just so happened to also have a midweek bye and were more able to pull it off.   I'm sure the anticipated flights out of town are also what people want to get ahead of.   And we support that decision because we want everyone to have a safe trip to and from the Ville.   

So that being said, who's in for Saturday morning mimosas?!  Please be safe if you are heading to the Yum! Center and have a great weekend. 

As Always, 

Go Cards! 

~Daryl 

WBB Cards named U.S. Basketball Writers Association Team of the Week -- THURSDAY CRDINAL COUPLE

 No. 8/7 Cards Peaking At Right Time. 

The mastermind Jeff Walz is up to his old tricks again. He's combined a group of talented, over-acheiving freshmen with a few returnees from 2024-25 and several key transfers into a squad that is leading the ACC WBB race. 

Obviously, his assistants have had a lot to do with the structuring and building of this squad as well. And, just three years ago...only one of the current players were on the roter. Bonus points if you can name her...answer at the end of today's column. 

Each year is a struggle and in the highly competitive ACC, the Carolina schools sometimes look at what the league has turned into and have to think..."This isn't the league of eight souheastern powerhouses anymore."  

The coaching fraternity is a interesting mix of new and old. The old guard guys and gals...Walz Banghart and Ivey, for example, have to wonder to themselves what happened to the days of Wyckoff, Fortner and Brooks 

Is the ACC a stronger conference now? The consensus is "yes" . Adding the California squads helped build the strength. Louisville and NC State are traditional powerhouses. Maybe the league is not as strong as the SEC...but is, still...a top five conference. 

Gas South (13,000) 

These Cards. 8-0 in conference. 11 game win streak. 10 games to go in the regular season. Despite the questionable decision of playing the ACC Tournament in Duluth GA, in Gas South Arena...the befuddled heads of the ACC Tournament Committee threw up an airball when they pulled out of Greensboro. I'll miss Greensboro, the friendly ushers, nice food buffets three times a day, auditorium for post game interviews and "School Day" when the ACC brought in school kids for a couple games and teams like Boston College and Pitt got more screaming and cheering for them than they did in the regular season. 

Welcome to college athletics...

(The answer to the above question is .....the Elf. Elif Istanbulluoglu) 

paulie

CARDS WBB TIED FOR TOP IN THE ACC -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 8-0 IN ACC LEADS THE CONFERENCE

Second best, Wes..sorry.

We are almost halfway through the conference slate in the 2025-26 ACC WBB season and the Cards WBB squad sits at the top of the 18 team slate. 

The Cards are tied with Duke in conference wins. The Duke squad is 13-6 overall and the Cards are 18-3 overall. Those two will meet on Feb 5th. in Louisville. 

Louisville is eighth in the AP Poll for all the DI WBB squads and their three losses have come to teams ranked higher than them in the rankings...UK, UConn and South Carolina was impressive in the fct that the cards trailed by 13 points before coming back to get the overtime win by eight...

 UNC assistant coach Ashley Williams saw the loss this way: 

"We knew the key to this game would be rebounding, boxing out and getting defensive boards and finishing possessions. Unfortunately they had some key offensive rebounds that they were able to capitalized on...Louisville sent all five players to the boards at times...they started out being aggressive with the ball screen defense. They were trapping, putting two on the ball at times and then in the second half they switched things up and really threw us out of our rhythm." 

The Cards got a career game out of Imari Berry to secure the win and it's a great example of how you never really know which Cards player is going to step up and lead them to a victory. That is probably the thing that opponents have to worry about the most when they face Louisville, just who is going to explode and take over a game?  I'm not sure if the cards can even predict that successfully. The are a very tough team o to figure out if you have to design a defense for stopping them. 

How does the rest of the ACC shape up? 

Behind Louisville and Duke...NC State, Syracuse and Virginia have two in-conference losses. Then comes Stanford, North Carolina Virginia Tech, Clemson and Notre Dame have three conference defeats. Miami and Georgia Tech have four  ACC losses. California has five losses. Wake Forest. SMU, PItt and Florida State have half a dozen defeats and Boston College is winless in eight conference games. 

The Cards have ten ACC games left before the ACC Tournament. Next up? Boston College comes to town on Jan 25th. 

paulie

 

Berry Named ACC POTW -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Imari Berry's Big Day Draws Accolade

Louisville women's basketball had a huge win on Sunday, as Daryl wrote up in her column yesterday, and the big road week for the Cards saw them regain some national attention. Louisville had a pair of tough road tests last week against Notre Dame and NC State and came away with wins in two of the toughest places to play in the conference. Those victories moved Louisville to 5-0 on the road this season and pushed them to 8-0 in conference play. Louisville stands tied atop the league with just one other undefeated team: Duke. The Cards and Blue Devils will face off just once this season, with Kara Lawson's squad coming to the KFC Yum! Center on Thursday, February 5th. The game is already announced as an ESPN matchup. 

Louisville's victories did more than keep them atop the ACC; they propelled the Cards squarely back into the top-ten in the country and resurfaced Louisville amongst teams to watch as the season rolls on. The Cards moved up to 8th in both the NET rankings and the Associated Press poll, and will likely see themselves on the rise when the USA Today Coaches Poll is released today. The Cards are the highest rated three-loss team, sitting three spots ahead of Kentucky, who stand at 11th in the NET and AP polls. 

Along with the team recognition, a Louisville player found herself in the spotlight as well, with Imari Berry being named the ACC WBB Player of the Week. Berry had a huge game on Sunday, pouring in a career-high 33 points and adding 12 assists for the second double-double in her career. Berry's game on Sunday included back-breaking shot after back-breaking shot as the Wolfpack tried to distance themselves, and she made two free throws to send the game to overtime. Berry also added three steals and a pair of assists. 

graphic via gocards.com

Berry was critical in a game that saw Taj Roberts struggle from the floor and be limited to just four points. Roberts was coming off of a big game of her own against Notre Dame, in which she scored 19 points on 4-5 shooting from three and went 5-5 from the line in 36 minutes, so it would be understandable if her legs weren't quite there on the back-end of two huge away games. Berry, to her credit, was good for the Cards in South Bend as well, scoring seven points to go along with five rebounds, three assists, two steals, and a block. Berry has shown that she can shoot the lights out in limited quantities in the past. Sunday's game was the first time where she went completely unconscious and took the game over. If she and Roberts can come together for big games at the same time against some of Louisville's key opponents down the stretch, the ceiling for this team gets a lot higher. 

After the tough road trip, Louisville gets a minor reprieve with a mid-week ACC bye. They'll have Thursday off before hosting Boston College on Sunday, January 25th. Louisville will need to get every bit of rest they can this week, as they have a tough stretch before their next midweek bye. After BC, Louisville will go on the road for the West Coast swing against Stanford and Cal before returning home for that game against Duke. Then they'll make a weekend trip to Syracuse before coming back home to face Wake Forest and Florida State. That's a lot of air miles and a lot of difficult matchups. Going 7-0 in this stretch would be a dream. Getting out of it with one or two losses would be commendable. We'll see what the Cards can do as the season heats up. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case