Louisville Women's Basketball -- SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE -- Raiding Defense

MTSU Raiders Vanquished

The women's basketball squad continued it's dominance over teams from the state of Tennessee with a 80-26...you can't sugar-coat this...absolute beat-down of the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders.  This is a school record for UofL for least points scored by an opponent in a game.

When no one player gets more than 25 minutes, you expect scoring by committee, and that's exactly what we got.  Asia Durr lead with 19 pts, with Bionca Dunham picked up 14.  Dana Evans and and Jazz Jones also reached double-digits with 11 and 10 respectively.  Sam Fuehring had another nice game with 8, Arica Carter got 6, MHA had a bit of an off night with only 5, and Kylee Shook contributed 4.  Shook did have some fun on the defensive end of the court, getting more blocked shots, with 6, than she did points...there's a reason she holds the state of Colorado high school blocks record.

What may be the stat of the night, however, is 26 assists on 27 made shots.

It was Alumnae Night last night. How many do you recognize? 

There's really not too much to analyze on this one.  MTSU came into the KFC Yum! Center, and ran into a buzz saw.  They were clearly an overmatched team,   They struggled to accomplish even the basics in the face of a withering defensive presence.  The frustration showed a bit, too.  I find no joy in watching a team struggle like this against a better opponent, and look for joy in other aspects of the evening.  A win is a win, and it's good to get it in the win column, but I, for one, certainly won't be dwelling on this, or even basking in the glow of a battle won.  I will wish the Blue Raiders the best, applaud them for their win over Vandy, and turn my attention ahead to Tennessee State Tuesday night.  There was joy downtown last night, but it was found in welcoming back a wonderful group of alumnae and honoring what came before...it was found in the entertaining antics of the Pep Band...and it was found for me, personally, in an abnormally large number of personal acquaintances that I got to visit with at the game last night.  (On a side note, it seems the Softball coaching staff is raring to go for this season...play starts in February...and are excited at the schedule they've put together and a deeper pitching staff than we've seen in recent seasons)

We'll see what TSU brings to the table, but I fear the most joy will be found, again, in the Pep Band, and in the annual debate over who has the ugliest Christmas sweater.  Assistant Coach Sam Purcell always sets the bar high and we've heard that he's been searching for the prime specimen for this outing.

Walz did mention it the post-game presser that Purcell would not be involved in any way in Walz's Tuesday night outfit. And our photog and CC writer Jared Anderson has to choose from three different Ugly sweaters. Decisons and choices.

Fred Checks In

How did Fred do?

Fred Savage. "The Wonder Years"

Free Throws - at 18 for 25, that gives us a 72% at the charity stripe.  While that will get you a letter,  a lower-case "f" is what's awarded here. I use 75% for the capital, so...

Rebounding - It's always easier to get defensive rebounds than it is offensive, so a lower opponent shooting percentage usually results in more rebounding because it will inflate the defensive rebounding numbers.  MTSU shot field goals at only a 20.5% clip with UofL hitting 56.3%, so this should be a significant advantage for the Cards, and yet MTSU out rebounded the Cards slightly, 29-28.  We can award no letter, here.

Energy/Execution/Effort - Hard to question this one too much.  Despite maintaining a significant lead from very early in the game, the Cards continued to play hard and didn't let down.  "E" is the result.

Defense - Absolutely withering defense caused a large amount of frustration on the part of MTSU.  Even if the lowered shoulder bull-rush charge into Sam Fuehring didn't draw a charging foul, (it did draw Asia Durr quickly jumping in front of Fuehring, who looked like she was about ready to throw down).    No doubt of a "D", here, holding the opponent to 26 for the game, and single-digit scoring in each quarter.  I'm gonna add an underline to it for a little extra emphasis, so let's make it "D".  Any better and we may have to start playing with font sizes.

f- -E-D is the overall result.

The women are back in action Tuesday night against the aforementioned Tennessee State Tigers to complete the homestand versus all comers from Tennessee.

POST GAME ASIA DURR AND DANA EVANS

WALZ POST-GAME MTSU COMMENTS

RadioHeads

A quick check, and yes, the recording of yesterday's Cardinal Couple Radio Hour broadcast is up and available on the Soundcloud.  If you missed it, you can hear the audio at

 https://soundcloud.com/chradio/cardinal-couple-20171209.

I'd take these six , play the current squad and expect a
close game. The original "Attack Yorkie", C.B.  Megan,
Cortnee, Keisha  and Taylor Johnson.

Three of us knuckleheads were in the studio, Paul, Case, and I; and we were honored to have Jack Grossman from WIUX Sports, the sports home of Indiana University.  We previewed the IU vs UofL Men's game, and talked a bit about IU Soccer's bid for the College Cup which they are playing for today at 1pm.  They play Stanford for the championship in what I expect will be a rather chilly Philadelphia.  Jack is a Louisvillian, graduating from Manual High School, and really did Paulie a solid at the UofL vs IU Women's game in Bloomington last weekend.

Good fun was had, and Jack fit in with the lighthearted banter of the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour, despite definitely not being a knucklehead.  Of course, we also talked about the UofL women's games and the season so far.  A good time was had by all.

We'll be back in the studio next week. That should be sufficient warning to all in the Crescent Hill/Frankfort Ave area.   

--

JMcA

Louisville women's basketball -- Cards pull rank on Commodores 79-57 -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Commodores Get Dispatched

If we borrow from the military's use of ranks and hierarchy, and figure out where the rank of Commodore fits in, I guess that makes the UofL WBB squad at least Rear Admiral's (at least based on Wikipedia's telling of it).  The Cardinals dispatched the Commodores back to Tennessee with a 79-57 win at home last night.  Depending on when you checked in on the game, the game was either much more competitive than that score would suggest, or much less.

In any event, the boatload of Tennessean's that ended up on the shores of the Ohio in downtown Louisville were sent back to Music City with the "L" and despite VU's Rachel Bell ringing it quite frequently in the first half, this battle between Birds and the commissioned officers went to the home team.  

At the end of the 1st quarter, Vanderbilt led 24-20, and even about halfway through the second
quarter it looked like this was going to be a very competitive scrap.  But then the Cards flipped a switch.  I have no idea what caused this particular switch to be flipped, but if we could super-glue it into this position, that'd be great.  Beginning about halfway through the 2nd quarter, the Cards started a 28-0 run that would extend past halftime and through most of the 3rd quarter.  A missed defensive assignment on one trip down the floor and the 'Dores found a wide open Rachel Bell (who else?) who predictably dropped the 3-ball into the basket.  The Cards weren't done, yet, picking up another 10 points before before the black and gold got a free one at the stripe.  Many props to the UofL pep band for serenading the Vandy players at the line with bad Christmas songs.  The Cards would win the 2nd quarter 22-9, and the 3rd by a margin of 25-4.

Coach Walz was very disappointed in the 4th quarter though as the second line came in to play and just didn't play up to the standards that we know, because we've seen them do it, they are capable of playing.  Vandy took the last frame 20-12, but it wasn't enough to overcome the lead gained in that 38-3 run.

Paint presence proves positive for the Cards and they controlled the boards 34-26 against Vandy. Myisha Hines-Allen grabbed ten of them for UofL.

(We're an academic school.) 

Three got into double digit scoring territory for the Cards.  Unsurprisingly Asia Durr leads the list with 25, but Arica Carter found the 3 range pretty well and ended up with 15 after dropping 3 of 5 from distance.  Sam Fuehring came up with 14, mostly by constantly running back-door cuts which the Commodore's seemed utterly incapable of stopping.  The only way they figured out to stop the back-door cut scoring was to foul Fuehring, sending her to her usual spot lined up to the left where she dropped 6 of 6.

It was announced in the post-game presser that Loretta Kakala would take a red-shirt for the season.  Somehow, Paulie found out before the game. Must have been his political connection with the "mayor-for-life" Jerry Abramson sitting next to him. 

What About Fred?

Fredrick Douglass. Social reformer, writer
and statesman. 

I'm not going to try to come up with a J-E-F-F report, and I'll leave the C-A-S-E and J-A-R-E-D reports to their respective creators.  I'll take a stab at a F-R-E-D, though.

F - Free Throws. 86.4%.  Lot's of capitals "F"'s being earned this year.  I love it!

R - Rebounds. 34 to 26, I'll take it.  Vandy had 21 defensive boards compared to our 11 offensive.  Defense has something of an inherent advantage, here, but I'd like to see our squad crash the boards on missed shots a little more.  Still good enough for the upper case R.

e - Energy/Execution.  Would've had the upper case here except for that late let down from the 2nd line.  We know they can do better. Small case "e" is the call.

D - Defense.  A 38-3 run through the heart of the game, and limiting the total to 57.  That's a pretty impressive showing on defense.  And 13 steals is always a recipe for entertainment. We'll capital "D" that! 

F-R-e-D.  Not bad at all, but room for growth.

Radio Guest

Jared will be off being a banker-man again tomorrow for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour, so Paulie
has lined up a real treat for us with Jack Grossman, of WIUX, home of Hoosier Sports, joining us.

Check in for an update from our neighbors to the north.

We'll be on at our usual time of 11am on WCHQ Radio.  That's 100.9 on the FM dial if you're in Louisville, also available via the WCHQ app, or at http://crescenthillradio.org.

Check it out, won't you?

PHOTOS TODAY FROM JARED ANDERSON (except of Fredrick Douglass, of course). 

POST GAME WALZ

POST GAME ASIA DURR and SAM FUEHRING

(don't miss Steve's eloquent but wordy and baffling post game recaps and eventual questions...)  

-- 

JMcA