Cards Falter in South Bend 82-68 -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Notre Dame Tops Louisville at Purcell Pavilion

Little Miss Muffet,
Sat on her tuffet,
Getting the calls to go her way

I'm not one who likes to put the blame on the officiating but you have to be kidding me with how last night's game played out.  Arike Ogunbowale attempted to kick AC in the face and AC was called for the foul.  Brianna Turner flopped and stretched out on the court to get Bionca her fifth foul.  The fouls were 28-15 and the free throw attempts were 39-16. UofL will have plenty of footage to send to the ACC offices for "examples" and review of a job that was less than average.

Granted, there was much more than poor officiating that led to the outcome of Louisville's 82-68 loss at Notre Dame. The Cards were seemingly fouling Notre Dame every time they went into the paint on offense. Rebounding for UofL was not a pretty thing.  The loss, however, ends any hopes of a perfect season for the Cards, now 14-1 with a 2-1 conference record.  Notre Dame is 15-1 with a 3-0 conference mark. Believe it or not, NC State is the lone undefeated team in the nation.

For starters, the Cards lost the rebounding battle badly.  The final numbers were 48-32.  Notre Dame's defensive rebounding numbers (30) nearly matched UofL's total rebounds.  Jessica Shepard was nearly unstoppable on the glass with 15 boards.

Missed lay-ups were a problem for the Cards.  This didn't just happen overnight seeing that this has
been an ongoing issue all season.  A lay-up should be one of the easiest buckets a player can make, but the Cards struggle to make them nonetheless.  In close games that each position can spark or ruin a run, missing the easy bucket can help build momentum for the other team.

Overall, Louisville shot 38.2% from the field.  26-68 is poor and well below the season average.  From three-point range, the Cards were 4-20, 20%, another below-average mark.  The free throws were pretty solid with the 75% of 12-16.

The first quarter resulted mostly in the two team trading baskets.  Both teams saw their lead as high as four points early in the game.  Sam Fuehring and Jaz Jones both found themselves with a pair of fouls before the quarter ended, quickly dwindling the impact they would make on the half.  Notre Dame held a 20-19 lead after the first 10 minutes.

Louisville doubled up the Irish's second quarter points before Notre Dame got the final five points to get to halftime.  Of the Irish's 13 points in the second quarter, nine came from the free throw line.  Six different Notre Dame players made a free throw.  Asia Durr, Arica Carter, and Kylee Shook joined the ranks of Louisville players with multiple fouls.

At halftime, Durr was already up to 19 points and the Cards only had two turnovers.  The 2-11 three-point shooting and the missed layups were holding the Cards back from leading by more than two at the time.  Ogunbowale was held to just four points in the first half.

Things changed in the third quarter.  Notre Dame won the quarter 24-12, holding to Louisville to one of their worst quarters of the season.  Foul trouble became more apparent and Jeff Walz had to be careful not to burn through his players in foul trouble too early in the game.  Turnovers and transition defense became worse and the Irish capitalized on fast break points.


Both teams had their highest scoring quarter in the fourth quarter, although Notre Dame used it to add
a few extra points down the stretch.  Dunham, Carter, and Evans all retired to the bench with their five allotted fouls being used.  Fuehring recorded her fourth foul, but managed to stay in the game for the final seconds.  The highlight of the final quarter was Mykasa Robinson's in-your-face defense on Ogumbowale.  The 2018-19 Finals MVP became frustrated and it allowed the Cards to bring the score within two at the 1:48 mark.  Sadly, things went south the rest of the way.

When you lose the "second chance" stat 19-5...it probably isn't your night. That 14-points differential was also the final margin of defeat for the Cards...82-68.

POST GAME WALZ PRESSER: WALZ TALKS SANDERFORD, LOSS TO ND 1/10/19

F-R-E-D Report

"How many intentional fouls were called on
UofL, Fred?" 

F - free throws: Louisville made 75% of theirs.  Notre Dame made more than double what the Cards did with 29 made free throws on 39 attempts, but we don't give a grade based on comparisons on free throws. Capital "F".

R - rebounds: Losing the rebounding battle by 16 is not good.  Foul trouble limited some of the post players and kept them off the boards. Notre Dame also had a player in double-digit grabs (Shepard) with 15 and that was more than double UofL's best rebounder on the night. No letter.

E - effort/efficiency:  In terms of effort, UofL battled tough in the Purcell Pavilion.  They even roared back to trail by two with under two minutes remaining.  The true ACC Player of the Year totaled 29 points.  Louisville was smart with the ball and only committed eight turnovers.  Getting out-shot 44.6% to 38.2% isn't terrible.  Louisville also scored 25 points off turnovers.  Notre Dame scored 19 second chance points and 23 fast break points.  We can award a lowercase "e".

D - defense: Notre Dame shot 44.6% overall and 37.5% from deep.  The Irish totaled 82 points and scored at least 20 points in three quarters.  Ogunbowale scored 30 points, 26 coming in the second half, and two other Notre Dame players (Brianna Turner 16 and Jackie Young 14) also were in the double-digits.  The Irish scored 23 fast break points.  Some of those were off a turnover, but many of them came on poor transition defense by the Cards.  The one plus side is the Cards forcing 18 turnovers.  Still, the second half defensive struggles and the 82 points prevent the Cards from earning a letter here.

FINAL FRED TOTAL: F-_-e-_

F-_-e-_ is not too good of a report.   Assuming a capital letter is 2/2, a lowercase letter is 1/2, and no letter is 0/2, the Cards get an ugly 3/8 on the score chart.

The women are back in action Sunday at 2:00.  They return to the KFC Yum! Center to host a solid
Georgia Tech squad.  The Yellow Jackets are 12-4 and are 2-1 in the ACC.  They defeated Boston College in Massachusetts, fell at Notre Dame, and beat Duke at home by six last night.  Expect the Cards to come out angry and ready to leave a trail of destruction in their path between now and Jan. 31, and then the same on the path to the ACC Tournament.

The Irish were dancing on January 10th. Louisville needs to put this one behind them and go on, so they can dance in March.

Happy Friday and Go Cards!

- Jared -

Countdown to Notre Dame -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

CARDS VS. IRISH


One of the games Louisville fans had on their schedule before the first game of the season ever tips off tomorrow.  Louisville and Notre Dame are set to square off in South Bend at the Purcell Pavilion.

With the UConn loss at Baylor last weekend a new team has claimed the spot in the charts.  The Irish, who also are the reigning national champions gladly took the No. 1 ranking in the AP Poll.  Louisville is close behind at No. 2, tying the highest ranking in program history.  The Irish had 12 first place votes and 715 overall.  The Cards received 10 first place votes and 708 overall.  The Huskies, who the Cardinals host in three weeks, fell to No. 3 with three first place votes and 701 total votes.

Going back to Louisville vs Notre Dame, this is the only scheduled match-up between the two teams this season, although these two teams facing each other in the ACC Tournament final is expected.  Last season, the only regular season match-up was hosted by the Cards at the KFC Yum! Center.  That win became memorial to UofL fans as the Cards crushed the Irish 100-67.  Asia Durr and Myisha Hines-Allen totaled Notre Dame's entire point total.

The Cards and Irish met in the ACC Championship game and played a much closer game.  Louisville trailed by two at halftime but came back in the second half to secure a two-point victory for their first ACC Championship.  The Cards claimed the conference title in the regular season and tournament.

This season, Louisville remained one of three undefeated teams remaining alongside NC State and the Ohio (Bobcats, not Ohio State Buckeyes).  Notre Dame is 14-1 after suffering an early season home loss to UConn 89-71.  The 71 points is the Irish's lowest point total of the season.

Notre Dame has wins over ranked opponents Oregon State, DePaul (receiving votes category), Gonzaga, and Marquette.  Their two conference wins came at home against Pittsburgh 100-44 and at Georgia Tech 76-55.  The Rambling Wreck was 11-3 going into the Notre Dame game. Even if it is rebuilding Pitt -- a 56-point victory against any opponent is certainly an impressive feat.

Averaging 90 points per game, Notre Dame's biggest threat is their offense.  They have a strong .345 three-point percentage despite only making four per game.  From the free throw line Notre Dame is shooting 75%, on par with the Cards, and make a whopping 17.5 per game.  With a high-scoring offense it's expected to see a high number of assists per game.  The Irish don't disappoint with 19.5 assists per game.

On the defensive side, the Irish have still been strong, but have had some tough times against high-powered offenses.  Notre Dame is allowing allows 64.1 pints per game.  They're holding teams to a .366 field goal percentage, fairly average for ranked teams' defenses.  The Irish force 16 turnovers per game, eight and a half of those being steals.  The Irish record five blocks per game.

Breaking down each quarter, opponents typically have their best quarter at the beginning of the game.  Notre Dame will crank things up the middle two quarters before relaxing in the final quarter.  Louisville and Notre Dame are similar with their fourth quarters.  Both squads usually have a sizable lead and will pull off the gas.  It's also the time of the game you see some of the reserve players come in to get playing time experience.

Louisville's best chance to win this game is to come out firing from the get-go.  Notre Dame has given up the most points in the first quarter and has not played catch-up much this season.  The worst thing for the Cards would be to start slow and go down big early.  The Irish don't give up leads once they take them and the crowd in the Purcell Pavilion can be unforgiving.

On the personnel side of things, Notre Dame returns four starters from last season in Arike Ogunbowale, Marina Mabrey, Jessica Shepard and Jackie Young. Two time All-ACC First team defender Brianna Turner is back also. The 6'3" redshirt senior sat out last year with a knee injury.
Those five do the bulk of the scoring for Notre Dame, no one else averages mote than five points a game for them.

A slimmed-down Jessica Shepard has really become one of the keys for the Itrish in the 2018-19 season. She lost 40 pounds over the summer-fall of 2018.

I expect Paulie will dive deeper into the match-up tomorrow and break down their starting five plus a whole lot more about the contest.

He'll also have the Jeff Walz/Arica Carter interview that takes place today at 12:30 down at the Cards practice facility on Floyd Street.

This game is a prime-time feature on ESPN, making it easy to find a place to watch it.  Let's hope the Cards shine in the national spotlight and perhaps earn their first ever No. 1 ranking come next week.


Happy Wednesday and Go Cards!

- Jared -