Louisville's Next Athletic Director -- Kelsi Worrell Dahlia lands coaching gig; FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FRIDAYS WITH DARYL 

Welcome to the weekend, readers. Last day of work before vacation for me!  We have been gearing up for summer camp at the YMCA and I have been counting down the days until this vacation for 6 months! 

With that said, I will be absent next week and my goal is to have no goals and to check my phone minimally.  So.. with that said..  some administrative news to share today. 

University of Louisville Athletics Director

The University of Louisville will hire Josh Heird as its new athletics director, according to a report from Sports Illustrated writer Pat Forde, who cited sources close to the search in a Twitter post.

The hiring is likely to be made official after this post goes live as the school has scheduled a news conference for a "special announcement" at the on-campus University Club at 8:30am.

A meeting of the University of Louisville Athletic Association is scheduled for 8 a.m. Friday to discuss the position. The ULAA will make a recommendation on the hiring to interim UofL president Dr. Lori Stewart Gonzalez. She will hire the person who will become the program's next AD.

Heird, of course, has been the interim AD for Louisville and we wish Josh the best of luck and fortunes in the position.  


University of Men's Basketball names new Director of Ops

Stephanie Diebold Davis, who has been a member of the University of Louisville men's basketball staff since 2001, has been named as Director of Men's Basketball Operations for the Cardinals under head coach Kenny Payne.

"Stephanie has been invaluable to me and is the perfect person for this operations position," said Payne. "She is a hard worker, has high integrity, and has been a loyal member of the UofL basketball staff for many years. She is experienced with all facets of our operation and has personally made my transition easy since my arrival in March. We look forward to continuing to have her with us in this new role."

"For over 20 years, I have been fortunate to be a part of the Cardinal Basketball family," said Davis. "I am honored that Coach Payne has entrusted me with the opportunity to be the Director of Basketball Operations and I look forward to being able to take a more hands-on role within the program and with the players. The future is bright for Louisville Basketball and I am excited to be along for the ride!"

Davis has worked as an administrative assistant for UofL Basketball since 2001.  This role manages the operations such as recruiting travel, business operations, compliance, fan requests, alumni ticket requests and event planning, assisting in team travel and many other tasks. She will continue to do those items in an expanded role, as well as overseeing student-athlete housing, prospective student-athlete campus visits, visiting team needs, player tickets and other matters.

I think this is an awesome move by the program.  I have no doubt if Stephanie has 20 years under her belt with UofL, she will shine in this role and inspire many women in the industry.   I know I look forward to seeing her on the sidelines next season! 

Kelsi Worrell Dahlia Joins Notre Dame as Associate Coach

Dahlia swam for new Notre Dame head coach Chris Lindauer, hired in April, during her stellar career at UofL. Associate head coach Kameron Chastain also coached with Lindauer in Louisville.

“I’m very thankful to Chris and the administration at Notre Dame for the opportunity and honor of coaching at this historic university,” Dahlia said in a Notre Dame press release. “I’m so grateful for the lessons I’ve learned as a swimmer, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to take those experiences into this coaching role. I’m looking forward to supporting the student-athletes at the highest level, both academically and athletically. I am so excited to support the lofty goals the team sets and will fight together to accomplish!”

Womens College World Series began Thursday night at Hall of Fame Stadium.  No ACC teams made it to Oklahoma City as the 3 seed Virginia Tech Hokies were upset by the Florida Gators. The final 8 teams include:
#1 Oklahoma

#5 UCLA
#7 Oklahoma State
#9 Northwestern
#14 Florida
Texas
Arizona
Oregon State

Lauren Hartlage fires even par in first round of US Open

Lauren Hartlage shot a 72 in the first round of the womens' US Open yesterday at Pine Needles in North Carolina' 

Hartlage had four birdies, four bogeys and 10 pars in her 18 hole tour. 72 is tied for 28th place in the Open and -7 under leads the way after Day One

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast - Like I mentioned, I will be out for the podcast this weekend and next traveling but the rest of the gang should be back on the show after the holiday weekend break.  The show is scheduled for an 11 a.m. start and will be available online for replay following the show. 

As always, Go Cards! 

~Daryl 

Carmyn Greenwood All-American Honors -- Kelsi Worrell Dahlia Retires -- Lauren Hartlage -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Good morning and Happy Thursday to all of our Cardinal Couple readers! After a brief hiatus I am back. Thank you to Daryl for filling in and taking over on Tuesday for me.

Katy and I made a road trip down to Fort Mill, S.C. to see her family and have our engagement photos taken. We also picked up our marriage certificate (we have roughly a year before the big day) so it was a rather eventful weekend and trip.

Carmyn Greenwood Named All-American

Louisville softball will have a new name and jersey to hang up at Ulmer Stadium. Carmyn Greenwood was named to the NFCA All-American third team. Greenwood is the first Cardinal to earn the All-American honors since 2013 when Katie Keller and Alicja Wolny were named to the second team. 

Greenwood wrapped up her time at Louisville with several notable statistics. She led the team with a .400 batting average, 14 doubles, seven triples, 70 hits, 54 rbis, 1.270 on-base + slugging percentage, and 54 runs scored. The seven triples was an ACC best while her total hits and her combined on-base and slugging percentage were second in the conference. Her runs scored ranked third and rbis ranked fourth. 

Greenwood also now holds the program record with a .408 career batting average. Her .657 career slugging percentage ranks second in school history. She also sits high in many categories such as career on-base percentage, single season batting average, hits, runs scored, home runs, and total bases.

Heckuva way to go out for one of Louisville's best.

Kelsi Worrell Dahlia Retires from Swimming

An absolute Louisville legend and multi-time NCAA national champion announced her retirement via social media this week. Kelsi Worrell, now Kelsi Dahlia has retired from swimming.

Dahlia spent the last several years with Team USA swimming and appeared in the 2016 Olympics. She won two national titles at Louisville in the 100m butterfly and was national runner-up her sophomore year. She also set an American and NCAA record during her Louisville career.

We would like to wish Kelsi Worrell Dahlia a happy retirement on a highly successful career.

Lauren Hartlage to Compete in 2022 US Women's Open

Following a successful career with Louisville women's golf, Lauren Hartlage is now enjoying her professional career and will compete in the 2022 US Women's Open.

The event is being held at the Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club from June 2-5. Her tee time is 2:46 p.m.

Hartlage qualified for the event after medaling in Columbus earlier this season.

We wish Hartlage the best of luck!

Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared

UofL Drama -- Volleyball -- Kelsi Worrell Dahlia -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

what's next?

Louisville's spaghetti junction featuring I-65, I-64, and I-71

Ever looked at spaghetti junction from an aerial view? Trying to follow what's going on at Louisville between the president Dr. Neeli Bendapudi, athletic director Vince Tyra, and football coach Scott Satterfield has felt like that.

We don't cover football here at Cardinal Couple but the happenings of Tyra and Dr. Bendapudi certainly impact UofL women's athletics. That being said, we've kept our eyes on these recent events including a Board of Trustees meeting last night that was behind closed doors (and some media challenged the BOT's authority on that) and a meeting with UofL Athletics this morning at 9:00. All we heard from the Board of Trustees meeting is that the BOT is taking no action.

Something big is happening. Usually something like this involves personnel issues at a high level that could range form bringing someone new on board to a higher-up departing. If you've been on social media lately, you've probably seen 100 theories and assumptions with many involving certain personnel packing their bags. Because none of these have proven true at this moment in time we won't share those here. We're here to give you the truth.

It is important to remember that our primary objective here at Cardinal Couple is to bring you the joy and excitement of UofL women's sports. That'll never change.

We will bring you more on this as it happens and how it may affect UofL women's sports.

Volleyball

Louisville's old basketball arena- Freedom Hall

So let's talk volleyball instead. 1-seed Louisville Volleyball is still dancing. They'll host one of the NCAA Regionals this weekend and here's what you need to know:

Location: Freedom Hall, Louisville Fair and Exposition Center

Date/Time: Thursday Dec. 9 and Saturday Dec. 11

Teams: 1-seed Louisville, 16-seed Florida, 8-seed Georgia Tech, 9-seed Ohio State

TV: ESPNU or ESPN+ depending on match

Freedom Hall during the Kentucky State Fair guarded by Freddy Farm Bureau

Louisville will face Florida on Thursday in one of the first matches of the NCAA Regional semifinals at 1:00 p.m. As the 1-seed, Louisville did not get any favors from the NCAA since the last match of this round starts at 7:30 p.m. Unlike the opening two rounds, this one will be aired on tv. You can catch the entirety of this match on ESPNU as well as streaming on the ESPN app.

Georgia Tech and Ohio State, which will begin approximately 30 minutes following the conclusion of the former match, was not given justice as this is one of two matches on the day aired at ESPN+. 

We will break the Louisville vs Florida match down later this week, but we'll go on and start discussing this match some. Louisville is 0-8 all-time against Florida (1985, 1988, 1991, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2018, 2019). Florida went a combined 53-12 with a pair of Sweet Sixteen appearances in 2018 and 2019.

The Gators are 22-8 this season and finished third in the SEC with a 14-4 conference mark.

Kelsi Worrell Dahlia

Photo courtesy of @minekasapoglu

In the mix of all the craziness yesterday we saw a familiar face with some exciting news. Kelsi Worrell Dahlia is now a world record holder! The Cardinal alum recently set the world record for the 100m butterfly with a time of 54.59. Her record time happened at the Pieter van den Hoogenband Zwemstadion in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The Olympic gold medalist did great things at UofL and continues to do great things!

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

Swimmer Stopped in Semis -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Salcutan Touches 11th Overall

Tatiana Salcutan of Moldova was the only Cardinal swimmer from the women's side to make it as far as the semifinals in this year's Olympic Games. Cardinal fans will remember that there was a time that Louisville swimmers were among the top of the charts in these events with Kelsi Worrell and Mallory Comerford, but both slipped from the show this year for Team USA. Salcutan's main event was 200M backstroke, in which she advanced to yesterday's semifinals.

Unfortunately, that was as far as Tatiana would go in Tokyo. Her 2:10.09 was a bit off the pace set by the leaders, as the top three (two Americans and an Aussie) set times within two tenths of each other; the winning time being a 2:07.09. Salcutan's time placed her 11th between the two semifinal heats, with the top eight advancing for an opportunity to chase gold in the final. 

Only a sophomore, Salcutan will continue to light up the pool at Ralph Wright in the backstroke, as a semifinal ending is nothing to slouch at in the Olympics. Worrell and Comerford did most of their best work in the final stages of their UofL careers or after graduating completely. We may see another Cardinal standing on a podium in Paris in 2024.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

That's all there is today. It's been a fairly uneventful week for Louisville as teams get ready for the calendar to turn to August and the fall sports season to officially begin. We'll cover the UofL happenings throughout the week, as there was plenty of news, as well as some more Olympic talk on today's episode of the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast. Last week's experiment went pretty well with our new setup, so we'll hope to continue that to bring you all the best show that we can. As always, you can check out the live stream of the show by going to the Cardinal Couple YouTube page and clicking on the live video. Jeff usually creates that about an hour before the show, which officially starts at 11 AM Eastern. If the live time doesn't work for you, there are plenty of playback options, so be sure to check out whichever is best for you!

Cardinal Couple YouTube: Link

Anchor (podcast host): Link

Apple Podcasts: Link

Breaker: Link

Google Podcasts: Link

Overcast (free account required): Link

Pocket Casts (free account and app required): Link

RadioPublic: Link

Spotify: Link

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

SCOTUS Sides with Student-Athletes -- Other News -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 Happy Tuesday, Cards fans! This week seems to have started off with plenty of news to talk about. The sports world had plenty to talk about yesterday and then a pair of former Cards had positive announcements.

SCOTUS Rules in Favor of Student-Athletes

It was a great day for student-athletes as the Supreme Court of the United States sided with them and against the NCAA yesterday. The Supreme Court unanimously voted in favor to uphold a district court judge's decision that the NCAA was violating antitrust laws by placing limits on the education-related benefits that schools can provide to athletes. Schools can now provide athletes unlimited compensation as long as it is connected to their education.

"The NCAA is not above the law," said Justice Brett Kavanaugh. "The NCAA couches its arguments for not paying student-athletes in innocuous labels. But the labels cannot disguise the reality: The NCAA's business model would be flatly illegal in almost any other industry in America."

Student-athletes still aren't at the point where they can profit off of endorsements and other benefits, but we continue to see things move in the right direction. Unlike your profitable sports, many of the non-profit teams don't get the luxuries of football and men's basketball. Even worse, walk-ons for different sports have an extra difficult time.

Although the NCAA technically allows student-athletes to make a profit from jobs not directly tied to their sport as well as be self-employed, the NCAA has consistently contradicted themselves over that. Former UCF kicker Donald De La Haye lost his eligibility in 2017 after amassing over 90,000 subscribers on YouTube and profiting off his videos. De La Haye chose to keep making videos and the profit from them. Was De La Haye on track for an NFL career? Most likely not. So he was making more off the videos than football would ever do for him.

There are all dozens of reasons you could lose your eligibility or have your name erased from the record books. On April 21, 2021, former UMass women's tennis player Brittany Collens wrote an article about how a minor scholarship error cost her her career even after she had graduated. Collens played at UMass from 2014-2017 and ran into a nightmare in 2020. She and her roommate had received an extra $252.00 in scholarship intended for a landline phone jack. The school self reported the error when they discovered it, but the NCAA decided the $504 gave UMass a competitive advantage. Collens and her teammates were stripped of their wins and UMass lost their 2017 A10 title.

I should make it clear that these cases are way different than point shaving or academic fraud, both of which are illegal and should be an immediate loss of eligibility and removal from office for those involved.

Student-athletes, especially those in the non-profits and those who walk onto their respective sport, don't have the extra benefits and often need more assistance so these athletes hopefully being able to make a profit off of their name would be beneficial to them.

The concern is still surrounding how it will change media and coverage. It's one thing for businesses and brands to market their products but you want to have your media out there promoting and highlighting the successes of someone's career.

We here at Cardinal Couple are aware of the compliance regulations and make sure we stay in compliance. This can range from buying someone food, to giving them a ride in the car, to giving them gifts, and so much more. Nearly all of our direct interaction with the student-athletes will come with the supervision or assistance from coaches or SIDs just as a cushion to make sure everything goes smooth, among other reasons such as providing resources such as stats and figures.

We will discuss the SCOTUS decision more on Saturday and see how this will lead to a domino effect with other laws.

Asia Durr Part of Jordan Brand Representation

On a much less confusing topic Asia Durr was one of 11 WNBA athletes to be signed with Jordan Brand. This is the largest ever roster of WNBA players for the brand as they want to give more women large contracts and give them a voice.

Durr is joined by Maya Moore, Kia Nurse, Aerial Powers, Satou Sabally, Dearica Hamby, Arella Guirantes, Chelsea Dungee, Crystal Dangerfield, Te'a Cooper, and Jordin Canada.

As a website that covers the Joy and Excitement of UofL WOMEN's Sports, we smile whenever the rest of the world acknowledges how great of athletes women are and they receive the recognition they deserve. Even better, this deal features one of our own!

Softball Alums

(Running with Wolfe -- a possible sequel for Kevin
Costner's Dancing With Wolves ? )  

Former UofL softball player Jordyn Wolfe announced she will pursue her MBA at Saint Leo University where she will also use her final year of eligibility. Wolfe spent four seasons with the Cards and saw action in the outfield and as a pinch runner, but was often seen dancing and cracking jokes in the dugout. We focus on the importance of academics fairly often here so we are glad to see Wolfe continuing her education. She's also playing in the FGCL summer league this year for the Saratoga Circus. 

Sticking with recent softball alums, we had a wedding this past weekend. Riley Schindler Bachman married Nathan Bachman up in Ohio. Riley was part of the Schindler twins at UofL (Paige), but sadly both had battled injuries during their careers. Nonetheless, we wish the newlyweds a congratulations!

USA Olympic Team Roster 

Sadly, neither Kelsi Worrell Dahlia nor Mallory Comerford made the final cut for the 2020 Olympics. Dahlia was an alternate in the 2016 Olympics and was part of a gold medal team. Both swimmers are on the current 2020-2021 Team USA roster, which is different than the roster for the Olympic team.

Louisville did have one person represented on the men's side: Zach Harting. Harting will compete in the 200 butterfly. We do wish our Cardinal the best of luck!

All eyes were on a Katie on the women's side, but not Katie Ledecky, who, to no surprise, made the final roster. It was 15-year-old Katie Grimes attracting all of the attention. Grimes touched second behind Ledecky in the qualifier. Ledecky, who also first qualified at the age of 15, told Grimes "You're the Now".

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics starts one month from yesterday with softball and football (American soccer) starting this Olympics off. The opening ceremonies doesn't actually happen until the third day with the closing ceremonies on August 8.

Now that we've gotten through all sorts of news - dang, it was a busy Tuesday write - you can get back to harassing Paulie for not hooking us up with free Bojangles yet.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

Sunday Cardinal Couple - Basketball and Swimming Tidbits

 Swimming Olympic Trials

UofL had a couple of alumni competing in the Olympic swimming trials yesterday and wrapped up their involvement.  Zach Harting swam in the finals for the 100M butterfly, while Kelsi Worrell Dahlia swam in the 50 freestyle semifinals.

Harting finished in 6th place, while Dahlia finished in 10th in the semifinals, missing the mark to make it to the finals swim for that event.

If I've been able to follow the updates out of this event through it all, Harting is the only Cardinal affiliated swimmer to qualify for the US Olympic team.  He touched the wall first in the 200M butterfly several days ago.

While the Olympic Swimming Trials continue today, in their last day, there will be no Cardinals represented in the last finals swims.

FIBA Women's Americup

(Yes, there's still a headache-producer in Lexington) 

To the surprise of really no one, the US defeated Puerto Rico in the finals of the FIBA Women's Americup.  The mainlanders took this one by a solid margin, 74-59.  Kentucky's Rhyne Howard won the MVP of the event, averaging 13.2 points over the course of the event.

There were no Cardinal rooting interests in that game, but the 3rd round game, between Brazil and Canada did have Cardinal Merissah Russell on the Canadian roster.  Russell did not play in the game.

WNBA

Turning to WNBA action, the Chicago Sky beat the Connecticut Sun 91-81 in Chicago.  A back and forth game, the Sun did get out to a fairly sizable lead in the first half before the Sky closed it down in the 2nd quarter.  Several lead changes throughout the rest of the game kept the excitement level high.

Dana Evans saw just over four minutes of action, corralling a not-so-great pass to her just in front of the bench, collecting it, curling back out straight in front of the basket, with a pump fake getting the defender off her feet, and ripping it through the net from about 23 feet.

Evans is still struggling to find substantial playing time, though when you're in the lineup behind excellent guards like Courtney Vandersloot, Diamond DeShields and Allie Quigley, the challenge is real.

The Washington Mystics, with Myisha Hines-Allen sidelined, were able to beat the Indiana Fever in an 82-77 contest on the Mystics home floor.

That leaves the New York Liberty, among the UofL rooting interests in the WNBA, to play today.  The only game today in the WNBA schedule, meeting the Los Angeles Sparks.  The Sparks has the home court advantage today, but good TV coverage is great to see, with ESPN carrying the game.  Tune in at 4pm for it.

NWSL

Also today, after a couple of weeks break, Racing Louisville FC resumes their season here in Louisville, hosting the Houston Dash.

Emina Ekic is, of course, the UofL rooting interest here, and the hometown hero.  The game is at 3pm, and the only video of it is available via Paramount+.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

The Wizard hat is a staple on Saturday mornings
when Paulie is trying to out-smart the knuckleheads. 

We had a full house for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast yesterday.  We covered FIBA and WNBA, results from the Swimming Olympic Trials, some of the positive academic news for UofL sports team that were announced this week.  Of course we also had the Cardinal Couple Quiz.

This episode does run a little long as we underestimated how long it would take in this format to get through the quiz with four of us competing.  It was fun, and the quiz was quite competitive!

Check it out below.

Saturday News Roundup -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

As the days until organized competition for Louisville women's athletics grow ever fewer, we are still stuck in the summer slump. There has been a bit of news that has gone on in the last few days worthy of coverage here at Cardinal Couple, though, so let's take a quick look.

Jeff Walz Leads USA vs Belgium

Louisville WBB head coach Jeff Walz has been in charge of the USA's FIBA U19 Women's World Cup team this summer. If you didn't know that, you must be living under a rock, or this is your first time to this site. If so, thanks for joining us. The USA has advanced to the semi-finals and are playing this morning for the opportunity to advance to take on Australia in the championship game. Australia defeated Spain 64-55 earlier this morning. At time of writing, Team USA holds a narrow lead over Belgium, 33-26 at halftime. Tune in tomorrow for what should see a full write-up of today's game and hopefully later next week for a write-up of the championship game.

Swimmers Keep Swimming

Louisville swimmers continue to impress as they compete for their countries at the FINA World Championships. Two names that frequenters of the site know quite well have been solid this week as they compete in some of their best events. Yesterday saw Kelsi Worrell Dahlia advance to the finals of the 50m butterfly when she finished second in her heat (fourth seeded overall). Mallory Comerford was also in action yesterday, finishing seventh overall in the 100m freestyle. Fellow American Simone Manual posted a new American record of 52.04 on her way to winning the event. Dahlia will compete in the butterfly final today.

Gaby Vincent Inks Deal with Utah

Gaby Vincent is "officially" a pro soccer player. Despite making numerous appearances for Utah Royals FC this season in the NWSL, Vincent had previously been only a member of the "supplemental roster." The supplemental roster is exactly as it sounds, allowing players to be used for competition while others are away, doing things such as competing in the Women's World Cup. Earlier this week, URFC made it official and signed Vincent to a full roster spot, despite the fact that both players she had been replacing this summer have returned from National Team duties. Vincent has her work cut out for her to get playing time for the rest of this year, as one of those players that is in front of her on the depth chart is the USA's Becky Sauerbrunn. However, being signed fully means that the club sees some future for Vincent, which can be very motivating in itself. Vincent has played 585 minutes in 7 games (6 starts), during which time the Royals have allowed 6 goals. She has 36 clearances, a 45% success rate on tackles, and an 84% passing rate, with 92% passing in the defensive half. Gaby is set up for success in the league as long as she continues to receive opportunities. We wish the Cardinal Forever the best of luck as her career plows forward.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour returns this week, as it does nearly every Saturday, for another look at what's going on in the world of Louisville Women's Athletics. Jeff will not be joining us this week, but we'll have Daryl taking his spot. Daryl, Jared, Paulie, and I will do our best to get you through one of the final weeks of the summer slump, and I'll be doing my best to master the show controls in Jeff's absence. We'll discuss the goings-on from this week and Paulie brings us a quiz based on the world travelling Jeff... Walz that is. Tune in to WCHQ at 11AM this morning for the show. Find WCHQ at 100.9 FM, wchqfm.com, the WCHQ App in the App Store or Google Play Store, or follow along at Facebook Live. Links are on the sidebar of the site.

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

Broken Records -- A Look at the Weekend -- WALZ pre-NKU presser : FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Two American Records and One World Record Broken

It comes as no surprise anymore when a UofL swimmer is breaking a record or bringing home a medal.  We saw a trio of records happen from a pair of swimmers, both on the women's side.

Senior Mallory Comerford found success in the 100 meter free.  Her time of 51.63 was enough to earn a bronze medal for the United States.  More importantly, her time beat Simone Manuel's time to set an American record and break the Top 10 all-time internationally.

Kelsi Dahlia (formerly Worrell) was apart of two record-breaking performances.  Her time of 24.93
in the 50 meter butterfly set an American record and puts her in the third slot for the final.  Her other record was part of the 4x50 meter mixed medley.  Her split was 24.71 as Team USA set a new world record with a time of 1:36.40.

Note: Dahlia's time of 24.71 in the mixed medley isn't recognized as an American record as it is part of a medley instead of the individual race where she posted a time of 24.93.  I'm not sure why it isn't recognized seeing as she has no extra advantage in one vs the other, but that's how things go.

A Look a the Weekend

Friday, Dec. 14

Swim enters their fourth day of the Short Course Worlds in China.  Team USA and the UofL swimmers have impressed so far and there's still more to accomplish.

Saturday, Dec. 15

Day five of the the Short Course Worlds takes place with many of the UofL swimmers wrapping up or having wrapped up their parts.

Women's basketball has an early start time with an 11:30 a.m., tip-off against Northern Kentucky.  UofL is 9-10 all-time against the Norse, but the last time the two teams played each other neither Case nor I were alive.  Jeff Walz gets a chance to face his alma mater, although this match-up heavily leans in the favor of the Cards.

At halftime, the 2009 Final Four team will be recognized.  Stay in your seats for the ceremony.  I am hoping to make it down there by then but I won't be leaving work until around 12:10-12:15 so we might be relying on Paulie's phone camera skills for this one.

Angel McCoughtry, Candyce Bingham, Dez Byrd, Becky Burke and almost the whole 2008-2009 roster, staff and assistants will be back to celebrate that Final Four trip to St. Louis.

The men's team will play in the same venue down at the KFC Yum! Center later that day when they face Kent State at 4:00 p.m.  Chris Mack is 7-3 in his first 10 games as head coach and he has two more games before he learns of the Louisville-Kentucky rivalry.

Sunday, Dec. 16

Swim and Dive will be split as a couple UofL folks finish up in China.  The divers will head to Atlanta for a few days to compete in the Winter Trials.  Diving, which has been a weakness for the swim team for many years, has seen some bright spots as of lately and hopes to improve even more.

Paulie Interviews Walz

Taking a break from practices and film study, Jeff Walz joined our very own Paul Sykes for an pre-NKU interview.  These two long-time friends did not disappoint and without further ado I hand the floor over to Paulie.

LINK: https://gocards.com/watch/?Archive=12187&type=Live


Coach doesn't want to see Paulie show up in his "onesies" for the game Saturday. So, he'll be attending in his Depends and a 2009 Final T-Shirt.

I will be out of town from Sunday-Wednesday to visit the precious girlfriend.  I'll bring her back up for a few days with me including bringing her with me to the radio station on Saturday.  Whether we'll get her on air is still, well, up in the air.  That being said, I will be taking a break next week from writing while out of town and then spending some time with Katy.


DO YOU KNOW? 

Do you remember...this player from that 2009 Final Four team?  First correct answer will put you in a drawing for a Panera or Famous Dave's gift card! 

I wish all of you a safe and enjoyable Christmas and a Happy Holidays!

- Jared "Wishing for some UofL victories for Christmas" Anderson -

Sorry for stealing your thunder, Curtis.

WNBA All-Stars -- SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

WNBA All-Star Game

One Cardinal was in action on hardwood yesterday.  Angel McCoughtry was in Minneapolis for the WNBA All-Star Game, where she was selected as a starter on Candace Parker's team.

Team Parker came away the win, 119-112 in a good second half of play.  Team Della Donne, captained by Elena Della Donne, held a 54-50 lead at halftime.  Angel stated 10 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists in the game.  The MVP went, understandably, to Maya Moore, who picked up 18 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, and a steal in the competition.

The first half was a whole lot of showboating, and, let's be honest, not very good quality basketball.  In the second half, you could tell that the innate competitiveness of these players took over and it started getting to be a somewhat serious game.

Liz Cambage, in the waning seconds of the game, demonstrated her ability to dunk the ball, pushing the 3 point lead out to the final 5 point margin.

Maybe the most gripping competitive action was during halftime during the 3-point shooting
competition.  Allie Quigley, going last in the preliminary round, got the second most points, meaning she took another round, right after, in the "Final Round", with Kayla McBride, having the highest score in the preliminary round, getting the advantage of knowing the mark she needed to beat.  McBride wasn't able to best Quigley, though, with both scoring 18 of the potential 34 points (16 1-point regular balls, 9 2-point "money" balls).  The shoot-off round was all Quigley, though.  She came out and absolutely torched the net, scoring 29 points, including hitting every one of the "money" balls in the money ball rack that she had placed at the right shoulder location.  McBride did well in her round, but came up short with 21 points.

The WNBA returns to regular season action Tuesday, when Myisha Hines-Allen with the Washington Mystics will visit Atlanta to play the Dream and Angel McCoughtry.

Swimming Nationals

Information about the US Swimming Open Nationals is a little hard to correlate.  Here's what I'm sure of.

Kelsi Dahlia nee Worrell won both the 50 and 100 Fly events to punch her ticket to the Pan Pacific Championships in Tokyo.  She finished the 50 by tying her own American record at 25.48, and boarded a 56.48 in the 100 Fly.

Mallory Comerford will also be making the trip.  She finished 2nd in the 100 Free behind Simone Manuel.  Comerford made the two trips up and down the pool in 53.09, with Manuel finishing out in 52.54.

Zach Harting finished in 2nd place in the 200 Fly to earn the trip to the land of the rising sun, finishing with a 1:55.11.

My understanding is that there is another Cardinal who has qualified for the Pan Pacs, but I haven't been able to find out who and in what event that is.  I suspect once the full event wraps up this evening, we'll get an update from UofL on relevant results.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

We're still looking for a perfect outing for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour.  We had all four of us knuckleheads back in the studio this week, which was great, but a couple of flubs by yours truly on the technical side has us still looking for that perfect game.

Enjoy the fun at the Facebook Live link at https://www.facebook.com/WCHQfm/videos/2135176659838939/

and pardon the audio dropouts in a few spots.

--

JMcA