WBB In Top 10 in Polls-- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 CARDS #9 AND #10 IN EARLY WBB POLLS

As Louisville women's basketball continues their westward jaunt Tuesday with a game against Cal Poly, I thought today might be a good day to take a look at the top 10 rankings in two polls -- the AB WBB Poll and the NCAA Committee Top 10. The USA Today Coaches Poll hasn't been released since pre-season -- you know how busy the coaches are these days, and, in this one, a lot of coaches assign their vote to an assistant or other staff member. 

In the AP Poll, we find the Cards ranked #10. Here's the rundown, as of Week 2: 

1) South Carolina

2) UConn

3) Maryland

4) Indiana

5) NC State

6) Baylor

7) Stanford

8) Iowa

9) Oregon

10) LOUISVILLE 

Here's the way the NCAA Top 10 Committee sees it: 

1) UConn

2) Stanford

3) Texas A&M

4) South Carolina

5) NC State

6) Maryland

7) Arizona

8) Baylor

9) LOUISVILLE

10) UCLA

The difference between the two polls is striking. Despite being ranked higher in the NCAA Poll, Louisville will watch both closely, as Oregon went 1-1 over the last two days, beating Oklahoma but falling to South Carolina...and Baylor took a loss against Maryland. Hopefully, the pollsters will just look at Louisville's eight point win over Washington and not explore that the Cards had a 16 point lead shrink to three in the fourth quarter on Saturday. The Cards could move up in both polls because of the losses by teams ranked higher than them.

Despite a loss to South Carolina, NC State is still #5 in both polls. That raises an eyebrow. And Arizona, ho handed Louisville their lone loss so far, made the NCAA Committee Top 10 at #7, but is unranked in the AP Top 10. Another bit of a surprise is Texas A&M checking in at #3 in the NCAA Committee Poll but not making the AP Top 10. The Aggies are 4-0...

Iowa makes the AP Poll at #8, but is not in the NCAA Poll. The biggest discrepancy is South Carolina at #1 in the AP and #4 in the NCAA Committee Poll. 

Looking at it by conference breakdown...in the AP, three Big 10 schools are ranked, the ACC and PAC 12 have two schools each and the Big East, SEC and Big 12 one school each

In the NCAA Committee Poll, the PAC 12 has three schools, ACC and SEC two schools, Big East, Big 10 and Big 12 one member each. 

THE PAULIE POLL

My poll is a combination of what I, Sonja, the nice lady at the Gas N Go, my pizza delivery guy, two squirrels scurrying about my back yard and a disinterested phone solicitor who called me this morning when I was doing the article. Hoo, boy !!!

I give you my Paulie Poll Rankings: 

1) South Carolina (5-0)

2) U Conn (3-0) 

3) Maryland (6-0) 

4) Indiana (4-0)

5) NC State (4-1) 

6) Iowa (4-0) 

7) Arizona (4-0)

8) LOUISVILLE (3-1) 

9) Stanford (3-1) 

10) Baylor 3-1

Let's point out  a couple of things. Iowa is on COVID pause. South Carolina and UConn meet today in the Battle 4 Atlantis on Paradise Island, Bahamas  The AP delayed their weekly poll a day to consider the outcome of this one. It'll be on ESPN at noon. 

Louisville returns to the court Tuesday against Cal Poly. Jared will get you ready for that one in Tuesday's Cardinal Couple. 

paulie

   

 

Cards Move Up -- More Photos -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 Cards Climb Rankings to #2

Coming off a pair of victories against NCAA Tournament caliber opponents, the Louisville women's basketball team found themselves sitting at #2 in the latest AP Poll. At the beginning of the weekend, the Cards faced then-#20 DePaul in Mohegan Sun Arena. Louisville gave a dominating performance that saw them set a new program record with 116 points.

On Sunday afternoon, Louisville hosted UT Martin. The Skyhawks gave the Cards fits for a while, but Jeff Walz's team prevailed with an 18-point victory.

Louisville had some help to move up to #2. NC State traveled to Columbia to face the top dog South Carolina. In a low-scoring, but otherwise exciting game, the Wolfpack shocked the Gamecocks with the upset. Arkansas played host to Baylor on Sunday and pulled off a win in a game that came down to the wire. Stanford climbed up to #1 with a 3-0 record. The Cardinal have also had two games postponed and another cancelled.

UConn, who still has not played a game due to an outbreak of COVID-19, remains at #3. NC State jumped up four spots to the #4 position. South Carolina dropped down to #5.

Arizona moved up a spot to #6. Baylor fell down to #7 following their loss. Oregon broke the Top 10 in the #8 spot even with the departure of Sabrina Ionescu last season. Kentucky, under new interim head coach Kyra Elzy, is 4-0 and moved to #9. Texas A&M rounds out the Top 10 at #10.

                                                                ***************

There is not much love for the ACC early on with Syracuse being the third and final ACC team ranked at #20. North Carolina, Notre Dame, Wake Forest, Boston College, and Virginia Tech are all flirting with the rankings and received votes.

Just what does the conference look like on this Tuesday 12/8/20?  No conference games have been played yet, but here are the standings overall: 

CLEMSON                          5-0

UNC                                     5-0

VA. TECH                           5-0

BOSTON COLLEGE        4-0

LOUISVILLE                    4-0

NC STATE                          4-0

DUKE                                  3-0

MIAMI                                3-0

SYRACUSE                        3-0

FLORIDA ST                     1-0

WAKE FOREST                3-1

GA TECH                           2-1

PITTSBURGH                   2-1

NOTRE DAME                  2-2

VIRGINIA                          0-3

Louisville begins conference play on Wednesday when the Cards travel to Durham to face Duke. The Blue Devils are 3-0, although they have not left the confines of Cameron Indoor Stadium and have played lesser-talented opponents.

Tipoff is set for 7:00 p.m., and will be Duke's first non-noon game of the year.

More WBB Photos

Being one of two-three photographers on the floor is quite different. Having to photograph opposing teams (as well as Louisville) as been a fun challenge to take on, even if I am still trying to find a balance of the two.

When everything is said and done each game I could have anywhere from 50-100 photos of the game. That can include lucky breaks on angles, an open window between players for the right shot, and also not having a moment of laziness as factors of why some games may have more than others.

Of course, we don't want to scare you away by posting every photo on here- that would be silly. But our library of photos grows quite a bit each game so it is fun to share the "other photos" periodically too.

There will be plenty more women's basketball coverage and topics *knocks on wood* in the upcoming weeks.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

New Rankings -- Lax Destroys Marquette -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

New Rankings

As you can imagine, a pair of wins including a win on the road against NC State helped Louisville women's basketball move up in the latest AP Poll.

Louisville climbed all the way up to #5, which will put them borderline 1- or 2-seed for the NCAA Tournament.  More importantly, they remain secure with a Top 16-seed placement, which results in a pair of home games to start the NCAA Tournament.

The Cards WBB squad used wins over NC State and Notre Dame to vault back into the top five and still remain one of my choices to be a #1 seed come NCAA Tournament time.

South Carolina kept the top spot and rightfully so.  Baylor is #2 and Oregon #3 as the top three spots remained unchanged.  Stanford climbed four spots to get to the #4 ranking with UofL right behind.

UConn fell a spot down to #6.  Maryland leapfrogged a few times to get to #7.  UCLA dropped a spot to #8.  Mississippi State fell three spots to #9.  NC State plummeted six spots to #10 after back-to-back home losses.

The only other ACC school in the Top 25 is Florida State, who fell to #17.

For the Cards, they hit the road to Georgia Tech on Thursday and Pitt on Sunday.

The ACC regular season ranking to date have UofL WBB (12-2) on top with a one-game lead over the 11-3 Wolfpack. There is a traffic jam after that, a three-way tie for third between Florida State, Duke and Virginia Tech at 9-5. Waiting in the wings are Boston College and Syracuse at 8-6 and Georgia Tech at 8-7.


Lacrosse Destroys Marquette

Few NCAA sports offer some type of mercy rule.  We have become familiar with the softball mercy rule (eight run lead after five innings), but this time it was Lacrosse who invoked it.  By holding a 10-goal lead, the Cardinals had a running clock over Marquette.  The final score ended up 16-6.

Three Cardinals recorded hat tricks in the win- Ally Hall (four goals), Hannah Morris (four), and Allegra Catalano (three).  Paige Richbourg scored twice and Caroline Blalock, Alexa Steffens, and Alex McNicholas each scored a goal.

The Cards raced out to an 8-0 lead in the first 20 minutes before scoring halted for several minutes.  Marquette got on the board with three minutes remaining in the first half.  Louisville responded half a minute later with their ninth goal of the match.  The Golden Eagles scored with just under a minute  until halftime.

That was, by far, the best half of action for Louisville Lacrosse this season. Florek was pitching a shutout at goalkeep and Hannah Morris had already reached a "hat trick" in scoring with three goals. 9-2 after one, the Cards were comfortably in control.

Marquette scored the first two goals of the second half to cap off a 3-0 spurt to cut the lead to 12-5.  Louisville scored six of the next seven goals, leading to a running clock with 19:57 remaining.  The two foes traded goals til the final horn.

Rachel Florek got the win in goal with nine saves in 15 attempts.  Jen Schaaf relieved Florek in goal for the final seven and a half minutes and recorded one save.

Scott Teeter brought along Hannah Morris and Megan Mangines to the postgame presser where Paulie had them all to himself.  GoCards.com did provide a video link, although the audio is not great.  I'll ask Paulie to attach his audio recording to the article.

Louisville vs Marquette Postgame Video

Paulie audio link:   TEETER, MORRIS and MANGINES POST GAME   (Audio only) 

Paulie sits down with Coach Scott Teeter each week to review Lacrosse action from the week, preview the upcoming week and meet one the Louisville Lacrosse players. Be sure to check back tomorrow (WEDNESDAY) for the latest edition of those fun, factual and informative chats. 

More lacrosse photos from yesterday:

Burger of the Week

Another popular local burger place is Mussel and Burger Bar.  This restaurant provides plenty of enticing options for burgers. You can go with a classic, BBQ, Italian, Argentinian, Mediterranean, Spanish, Seafood, Vegetarian and many more for burger choices!  I can vouch that their burgers are delicious and the fries on the side are tough to beat.                                    They have a couple locations, with one being downtown on 7th Street and one out in the East End on Taylorsville Rd.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

Rankings -- Spring Sports Countdown -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

New Rankings

Not much changed changed in the latest  AP rankings minus a couple switches here and there.  The Civil War had the biggest effect, causing Oregon to move up to #3 and knocking Oregon State down to #10.

South Carolina remained #1 and was the heavy favorite for the top spot after they improved their record to 19-1.  Baylor remained in the #2 spot after moving to 17-1 on the year.  They did received three first place ballots.  UConn, who took down rival Tennessee earlier in the week, dropped to #4 and only sits six points behind the Ducks.

UConn fell to the USWNT last night 79-64 after trailing by a single point entering the final quarter.

Louisville remained at #5 and received a first place vote again.  The Cards had a solid victory against Virginia on Thursday and trounced Pitt on Sunday.  They head to Notre Dame on Thursday night, which will we preview that day, and host Team USA on Sunday.

Have you got your USA vs Louisville tickets yet? Coach Walz has asked the media to help him promote the exhibition and you don't want to miss our Cardinals going up against the best in the world!

There are lower bowl seat available, last I heard, and after last night's UConn vs, USA game, we need to show the Huskies that we can pack our arena, too. That was a good game, UConn hanging in there after a slow start until the very end.

OK, back to the rankings.

Stanford, NC State, UCLA, Mississippi State, and Oregon State round out the Top 10.  Other notable rankings are Kentucky at #13 and Florida State at #14.  The ACC has had somewhat of a down year with just three teams sitting in the Top 25.

Speaking of Wildcats, UK struggled a bit with Auburn last night in Memorial Coliseum before getting a 68-61 win.

If you haven't seen Unique Thompson play for Auburn yet, do yourself a favor and catch her action. She blistered the Cats for 27 points last night!  The 6'3" junior forward also had 15 rebounds and held Rhyne Howard to just 10 points. Unique is fun to watch, and she's got Dana/Kylee- type eyelashes !!


Spring Sports Countdown

Some sports like tennis and swimming and diving have begun already while others are swiftly approaching.

Lacrosse is nearly upon us.  Their season opener at Cincinnati is just 12 days away.  Their home opener is 18 days away.

Softball is a tad closer to their season when they begin the NFCA Leadoff Classic in Clearwater, Fla in 10 days.  They won't be at Ulmer Stadium until March, however.

Golf has a little more time before they begin their spring season, with the Moon Golf Invitational in Melbourne, Fla coming in mid-February.

The second Spring Sports Media Day is scheduled for Thursday at the Cards WBB practice facility. This time, Softball, Lacrosse, Rowing, men's Tennis and men's golf will take the stage.



Thank You, Kobe

Paulie already mentioned this yesterday but I want to also pay my respects to Kobe Bryant.  Besides his legacy in the NBA and his character he has made a lasting impact on the women's basketball community.

To those who don't know, Kobe was coaching some of his daughters' basketball teams and has been a big advocate for women's basketball at the high school and collegiate level.  Less than two weeks ago, Kobe went to visit UofL commit Hailey Van Lith and the two took a picture together, which we have featured for you.

Imagine 20 years with just one team. It sounds ridiculous in today's free agency, but Kobe was a Laker all those years and meant so much to LA. They say he built the Staples Center and, after his retirement, worked non-stop to promote women's sports.

He and his daughter also had a close relationship with Geno the UConn WBB squad and at last night's game they paid tribute to "Mambacita" with a UConn jersey draped over a chair on thee UConn bench and other tributes to 13 yr. old GiGi. Gone too soon, Kobe, Gigi and the seven others on that helicopter that definitely should have been grounded.



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Already yelling at the refs for not calling her way

There are no women's sporting events for the next couple of days, giving us a slight rest in event coverage. We're guessing Walz will hold his usual Wednesday presser, so we'll have that to post for you in Paulie's article tomorrow. 

Thursday, we will get to see the Cards destroy Notre Dame. It's an ESPN game. I'll preview that more on Thursday. Paulie won't be attending in South Bend, he's 0-3 up on the Notre Dame campus for sporting events and doesn't want to jinx the Cards WBB squad

The Irish are 7-13 on the season, 2-7 in ACC play and got blown out Charlottesville Sunday by the 8-12, 3-6 Virginia Cavaliers by a 90-60 result.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

UNC Win Brings Rankings, Honors -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Move Back into Top 5

With the newest AP Poll coming out yesterday, the Louisville Cardinals found themselves back in a familiar spot. The Cards received two first place votes on their way to a ranking of fifth, just behind the Oregon Ducks.

Louisville may have a legitimate gripe about being ranked behind Oregon, having beaten the Ducks earlier this year. Louisville also has just one loss, though Oregon's second came to a ranked team in Arizona State.

The Ducks are also coming off of a 32 point victory over Stanford, last week's third-ranked team.

The Cards can take solace in the fact that they are ranked above Oregon in last week's Coaches Poll, an advantage they'd seem likely to maintain. Louisville is also in an enviable position in the current RPI, as they hold the top spot in that particular category. The Cards have an unusual follower in that ranking, though, as Missouri State sits in second place. The RPI falls into line a bit after that as South Carolina, Stanford, and UConn round out the top five.

Just outside the top 10 are #11 DePaul, #12 UK and #13 Gonzaga.

Top 10:

1) South Carolina
2) Baylor
3) Connecticut
4) Oregon
5) LOUISVILLE
6) Stanford
7) Oregon St.
8) North Carolina St.
9) Mississippi St.
10) UCLA

Dana Evans Named ACC Player of the Week

After two huge games and being instrumental in two wins, Dana Evans was named ACC Player of the Week for the second time this season. Evans averaged 24.5 points in the pair, along with 4.5 assists and 2.5 rebounds. She also shot 9-9 from the free throw line and 48% from the floor (59% from three).

Evans has pushed her season averages to 19.1 ppg on 42.5% shooting from the floor (45% from three). Her free throw percentage has skied to 92.1%, an impressive mark for having taken more than 75 attempts. In addition to increasing her year over year scoring, Evans is sporting a 1.64 assist-to-turnover ratio. That mark is below the 2.2 ATO she set last season, but there is still plenty of time to improve for the rest of this season.

Let us not forget that Evans has also taken on a significantly increased role in the absence of Asia Durr and Arica Carter, so an uptick in turnovers can be expected given the additional pressure. Either way, I don't think this will be the last of Evans' ACC Player of the Week awards in her career.

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

New Rankings -- Debate Question -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

New Rankings, Cards Come in Fifth

With #1, #2, and #3 all losing over the weekend we saw a major shakeup in the latest AP Poll.  For Louisville, the good news is that the Cards moved up to #5.

South Carolina climbed from #4 to #1.  Their sole loss came in the Paradise Jam to a tough Indiana team.

Baylor moved from #6 all the way up to #2 after taking down UConn in the XL Center.  Kim Mulkey's squad has lost just once, to the current #1 team back during the Paradise Jam.

Stanford went from #5 to #3.  They too only have one loss, a shocker at Texas right before Christmas.

UConn dropped from #1 to #4.  Following suit with the rest of the Top Five, they have one loss, which just happened in the aforementioned section.

Louisville is #5 after a blowout win at Miami and a pretty strong home victory against Wake Forest.

Oregon dropped from #2 to #6 after losing to Arizona State.

UCLA moved up a spot from #8 to #7.

Oregon State dropped from #3 to #8 after also losing to the Sun Devils.

NC State remained at #9 and Mississippi State moved from #13 to #10 to round out the Top 10.

Kentucky is flirting with the Top 10 after coming in at #11.  Besides their loss to the superior Cards, they also got a whooping against South Carolina to start 2020.

Florida State comes in at #13 to finish out the three ACC schools in the Top 25.

Debate Question

I like to start some debates every one in a while and the closing seconds of Sunday's win sparked a discussion among some of us photographers.

When do you empty your bench when it's clear you're going to win and at what point is it too late in the game to bother putting the bench in?

Jeff Walz sent Molly Lockhart, Lindsey Duvall, and Jessica Laemmle to the scorers table to check in right at the one minute mark against Wake Forest.  After the Cards scored with 27 seconds remaining Walz called a timeout to allow the trio to check into the game.  Their time consisted of playing defense down the court and the Demon Deacons hitting a three to close out the game.

By that time there wasn't much point in having them go in.  With so little time left it almost seems
insulting to be sent into the game.

Had they come in with a minute and a half or so then they would have had the opportunity for a couple series up and down the court, although still not enough for any real game play experience.

So let me know your opinion on the debate question.  I'd love to hear your thoughts! Be sure to check back tomorrow to read some of the comments, please add your own and catch Paulie's interview with Softball head coach Holly Aprile. The squad goes into their second week of practice and there are a few changes we need to familiarize ourselves with.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared