Poll results for WBB and Julie Sullivan offers a Christmas poem -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

It seems we may have a second poet-laureate here at Cardinal Couple. First off, the long-standing annual Sonja XMAS poem is rapidly nearing completion and sources tell me that she, the chimps, and Mike the psychedelic-eyed Clemson Tiger should have it out by the weekend. Since Mike isn't much of a proof-reader, I've gotten some glimpses of what my better half has been working on and I like what I'm seeing.  

The poem, a tradition started long ago at Howie Lindsey's fine CARDINAL SPORTS website lives on and it will be posted here and there. (I had wondered why the egg-nog and bourbon levels in the house had been shrinking...) 

Julie Sullivan, our newest writer, is also adept as a wordsmith and offers us poetry today based on a true experience from a couple of years ago. We hope you enjoy this holiday treat and that your holidays (Worldwide refers to this time of year as "Christmahanakwanzika,") are going well.  -- Paulie -- 

Less than a week before Christmas and all thru the website

The games had been covered, I have nothing to write

Paulie wrote the UofL/UK game with such clever flair

That all felt the victory, even those who were not there 

But the readers are clamoring for a new story to read

It's early Tuesday AM and the sweat starts to bead

Then, I remember an incident from two years ago

When a Cat fan and I had a battle to and fro

She put a Christmas tree in a common hallway

And from a bough, a giant Wildcat ribbon did sway

On the tree a Cardinal ornament soon did appear

When I was wrongly accused, I put it in high gear

A tree with blue? It's not the color of the season

Everyone knows Santa wears red for a reason

Her tree was soon adorned with lots of red birds

And an email she did get with the following words: 

Oh, Cardinal tree, oh Cardinal tree

How lovely are thy birdies?

Oh, Cardinal tree, oh Cardinal tree

How lovely are they birdies"

Oh, Cardinal tree, oh Cardinal tree

Such pleasure you do bring me!

Oh, Cardinal tree, oh Cardinal tree

Such pleasure you do bring me! 

And how this former Wildcat tree

Brings us such joy and glee

Oh, Cardinal tree, Oh, Cardinal tree

Such pleasure you do bring me.

Oh, Cardinal tree, oh Cardinal tree

Card/Cat games we'll be winning

A symbol of our pride and love

No other school can ring my bell

Someday Ms. J. will think you're swell. 

Oh, Cardinal tree, Oh, Cardinal tree

You'll never again need changing. 

( This column is a tip of the hat to my grandfather, who wrote each of his ten grand-kids individualized poems that accompanied our Christmas cash each year. The money was welcome but all these years later, I still miss GrandPop's cheesy rhymes. I hope I did him proud.) 

-- JC --   

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USA TODAY, AP POLLS OUT

If it's Tuesday morning during basketball season, and we're relatively sure it is, it's time for the weekly polls for NCAA Women's College basketball. Steady on the horizon, course remains the same for the WBB Cards in the AP, holding at third: 

1)  UConn            800 points

2)  Notre Dame    748 points

3) LOUISVILLE      740 points

4) S. Carolina       686 points

5) Miss. State       672 points

A bit of a head-scratcher, "WTH" result over at the USA Today/WBCA Coaches Poll, however, where the Cards are still in fourth behind Mississippi State. 

1) UConn             800 points

2) Notre Dame     745 points

3) Miss. State       720 points

4) LOUISVILLE      719 points

5) S. Carolina       681 points

in the RPI rankings, the Cards are sixth.

Coach Walz and the players will tell you rankings are unimportant, they take each game at a time and I have to agree. I use them primarily to see how an upcoming opponent might be situated coming into a game against UofL. 

Speaking of, the WBB squad is in Colorado and ready for Wednesday night's game against Air Force. I suspect Mr. Anderson Jared will fill us in on more of that tomorrow. FWIW, Air Force is #345 out of #349 in the RPI listings. 0-9 on the season. 

345	345	Air Force	MWC	0-9	0-5	0-0	0-3	0-1
346	346	VCU	Atlantic 10	1-7	0-5	0-1	1-1	0-0
347	347	Charleston So.	Big South	2-5	0-2	0-1	1-2	1-0
348	348	La.-Monroe	Sun Belt	2-5	0-4	0-0	0-1	2-0
349	349	Longwood	Big South	2-6	0-4	0-0	1-2	1-0

Paulie

xxxxx

Worldwide's Holiday Wish List -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas to Cards fans the world over.  I was, as I suspect most of our reader was, raised in a Christian tradition.  So Merry Christmas to you.  To those who celebrate in other religious traditions, Happy Hanukkah, Habari Gani, blessed Kwanzaa  and even Happy Festivus!

It is at this season in the year when we almost a habitually look back to review the year past, and look to the new year and make plans and wish for better.  The general consensus seems to be that 2016 was mostly a dumpster fire, so let's look to the future.

So here are my Christmahanukwanzikah Cardinal wishes.  And I may throw in a Festivus Airing of a Grievance just for good measure.

Free Throw Shooting

I like the letter "F".  It's a fine letter.  It's fun, it's fancy, it has plenty of typographic features.  It's footloose and fancy-free, and it's free to all.  I would dearly love to give away some genuine Cardinal Couple "F"'s to the Women's Basketball team.  We just need to hit some stinkin' free throws.  I think at this point, Paulie would probably even award a lower-case "f" for free throw percentages in the 65% range just as a measure of good faith.  Get your shots up over the break, please.  Let's F this place up!

Deep Runs

I've become quite the fan of Lacrosse and Field Hockey over my years of writing (and radio show co-hosting) for Cardinal Couple.  These are two teams that have remarkably similar circumstances overall.  They have been steadily building their respective programs in recent years into national powerhouses, they both compete in an ACC conference lineup that is far and away the dominant conference in the land for their respective sports, and they both have struggled to get beyond the opening rounds of the NCAA tournament.

Let's keep in mind, however, that these tournaments are among the smaller NCAA sports tournaments.  Field Hockey has had only 18 teams in the past couple of years and Lacrosse, 24.  That means even the opening rounds of these tournaments are already very stiff competition.  There is no shame whatsoever in the success of these two teams over the past couple of years, but man oh man wouldn't it be magically if they could go at least a couple of rounds deeper into their tournament runs.

Think of the lift that would provide to these programs.

A New Day

It's a new dawn, a new day, and I'm feeling good (with apologies to Michael Bublé), about UofL
Volleyball.  2016 was a pretty tough year to be a volleyball fan at UofL, but we've got a new head coach and associate head coach.  We can look forward to another great hire to assistant coach, and we're looking for a new resurgence in this program.  For now, I'm not asking for miracles and immediate national championships...though I certainly wouldn't turn one down.  I want to see this program built, like the Lacrosse and Field Hockey programs have done, over time to be a perennial national powerhouse.  I think we've got the potential to do it, we've got a coach, who in typical Tom Jurish fashion, is being given a shot to prove herself.   I don't think Dani plans to miss her chance or throw away this shot.  (Thanks, Eminem, and Lin-Manual Miranda)  Let's start with just asking for a great season of volleyball.  I'm not asking for a national championship, or even necessarily a deep run in the NCAA.  Let's build this program right and get it on an upward trajectory.

A Wish and a Grievance

I've hit this topic before, so I'll keep this one short, but I still see this happen, so I like to keep the idea on this one out there.

The student-athletes at the University of Louisville represent the school, they are Louisville Cardinals...all of them.  Some schools will delineate their women's teams by calling them "The Lady Mascots" (fill in the mascot of choice for the school), sometimes to some comical effect ("Lady Bulls"?).  UofL makes a distinct point of not doing that.  All of the student-athletes at UofL are "Cardinals" plain and simple.  To call the men's teams "The Cardinals", and the women's team "The Lady Cardinals" would give the appearance and impression that the men's team are more representative of the school and program than the women's team are.

Please, let's try to stamp out the usage of "Lady Cards" when it comes to UofL.  If other teams wish to call their teams Lady Bulls, or Lady Vols, or Lady Whatevers then that's their choice.  UofL has chosen to be bold in supporting the women's teams at UofL and present them as full representatives of the school, let's support them in that.  This is reflective of the deep commitment and approach to women's athletics at UofL, where there is no distinction drawn between the different programs, and their support within the athletic department.  I, for one, am proud of how UofL handles this.

A Radio Break

We're taking a break from radio this week, due to Christmas Eve commitments for us and Kathy, the amazing engineer that produces the show for us at WCHQ.  We hope to be back on the air next week with plenty of basketball to catch up on.

-- JMcA

Christmahanakwanzika Wishes -- Thursday Cardinal Couple

Christmahanakwanzika Wish Lists

It's that time again, when we write down our Christmahanakwanzika Wish List for various UofL Women's Sports teams.

Hey, last year I asked for a press box for Lacrosse and now we've got a spiffy new structure next to the railroad track beside Little Yum, so wishes do come true sometimes.

Volleyball

A sweet 16 (or beyond) appearance.  I've been to every UofL NCAA tournament volleyball in person since 2008, I believe, and I've never been to a volleyball sweet 16 (well, other than when it was hosted at the KFC Yum! Center, but I'm not counting that because UofL wasn't playing in it).  The program narrowly missed it this year, and I hope next year to see an even more improved team and further success in tournament play.

A 6-2 offense.  I've heard talk that this is being considered for next year.  6-2 offenses are, in my opinion, a lot of fun to watch.  We've got 3 good setters on the roster in Kali Eaken, Lindsey Palmer, and Morgan Miller.  When this was first mentioned to me, I was thinking Kali Eaken and Morgan Miller as the two setters, but a few days ago, I realized that Lindsey Palmer could have a major role as a setter in a 6-2.  We haven't seen Palmer running the offense as setter because, at 5'8", she's not a very effective blocker and with a traditional 5-1 offense, the setter needs to be able to block when they're in the front row.  With a 6-2, however, the setter is always playing out of the back row, so they don't need to be able to block.  We lose the setter dump that Katie George so loved, but that's a small price to pay for always having three attackers available in the front row.

Lacrosse

We've got a press box now, how about some concessions for the fans?  Or perhaps a permanent structure with a locker room for the visiting team.  Like Volleyball, a deeper run in the NCAA tournament beyond the second round would be great.

Tennis

For the both the men and women on this one.  More courts!  I've heard that this one might already be in the works as well.  It would likely take the form of adding more outdoor courts in front of the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center where the old soccer practice field is.  With the spiffy new Lynn Soccer Stadium, the practice field isn't really needed anymore, and the Tennis programs would benefit by being able to host full tournaments rather than just competitions against individual opponents.

Swimming and Diving

While it's not directly for the program, I wish for a successful Olympics in Rio for various current and former members of the Swimming and Diving squad.  This, also, is for both the men and the women.  We've talked a lot about Kelsi Worrell's success, but perhaps alumna Tanja Kyliannen could be representing her native Finland.  Joao de Lucca, for the men, will likely be representing Brazil and is a proud UofL alum.  On the current squad on the men's side, Sophomore Carlos Claverie could be making an appearance for Venezuela.

Basketball

I think our wish lists here probably all look a lot alike.

Let's call better rebounding a stocking stuffer as it has already improved considerably over the beginning of the season, but could still use some tightening up.

Lay-ups.

Lethargy-B-Gone for the defense.

Softball

Success in post-season play.  Ulmer recently got an upgrade, so there's not a whole lot to ask for from a facilities point of view.  Well, there are some things we could ask for, but that would be a bit greedy, so we'll skip those.

I'd like to see the UofL Softball team advance to a Super-Regional.  Softball hasn't had a great deal of NCAA tournament success in the past couple of years, not having won a game at all since the first game of the 2014 Regional against IPFW.  They have not advanced to a Super-Regional since I've been going to games at all.  Hopefully they'll do well enough that we would be hosting these events this spring, but if not, I'll certainly be looking to make an effort to road-trip for them.

I haven't put together lists for all of the women's sports teams, feel free to add some lists for other teams, or even add items for these teams in the comments.  I'd love to hear what you would like to see out of these programs. Our biggest wish of all, though...is that all our readers have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

-- JMcA