Louisville women's basketball -- Cards face #17 Duke tonight -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

CAN THE CARDS GET TO 17-0?

The 11-3 and #17 ranked Duke Blue Devils women's basketball team comes to the KFC YUM! Center tonight intent on one thing. Ending Louisville's 16-game win streak and starting a win streak of their own. Jeff Walz knows a good match-up when he sees one. At the Wednesday presser in the Cards practice facility, the Louisville head coach was up-front and frank about it: 

"We're just really excited about the opportunity Thursday night. They're a very good basketball team and it should be a great match-up. They score the ball extremely well, defensively they're one of the top teams in the country. They long, athletic, they're going to play zone. You have to be smart with the basketball. You can't telegraph passes. You've got to be detail-oriented." 

Don't expect a 26-1 Louisville blowout start to this one. Not with the leading scorer in the ACC (Lexie Brown) visiting or three of the top 15 in field-goal shooting percentages (Brown, Leaonna Odom and Erin Mathias) in the house wearing the Blue and White. No 0-24 from the floor for Coach Joanne P. McCauley's Devils. 

The recent two lead-slippages at the end of games in the Cards last two road affairs were because of good teams. Walz had no delusions of grandeur of his 26-1 lead at NC State turning into 52-2.  Good teams make runs and Walz would like to see more consistency for a 40-minute stretch than he witnessed in Atlanta and Raleigh.

Consistency may be difficult. Brown has 57 steals on the season, fifth best in the nation. She's also had 8 games with 20 or more points, two ahead of Asia Durr's 20-point performances. Duke holds opponents to 52.5 ppg and 33% shooting. They also stop the three quite well allowing a minuscule 26% success rate on opponent's trifecta attempts. Duke has the highest three-point FG percentage in the ACC with  40% accuracy rate. Add Rebecca Greenwell back into the mix, who will be playing her second straight game after sitting four in a row with injuries, and they have nine girls 6'1" or taller available for action. 

Blue Devils? How about Duke Amazons...

The Cards are 114-14 in the KFC YUM! Center lifetime. They've beaten the Blue Devils on Denny Crum Court once but trail in the series history 3-2. Last year in Durham, Louisville saw a 44-41 lead after three quarters turn into a 58-55 loss, despite 31 combined points from Durr and Hines-Allen. 

If all this scares you, maybe I've been a bit too glowing about the Blue Devils accomplishments. They're not undefeated and Miami, South Carolina and Villanova have shown that the Blue Devils are susceptible to less than winning performances. 

One thing that hasn't happened to the Cards this year is getting rattled.

Trailing on the road at Ohio State, in a dogfight at South Dakota St., falling behind early at Georgia Tech and seeing a 25 point lead vanquish to four against North Carolina St...the Cards have bent but haven't been broken.

The fight and desire in Myisha Hines-Allen and Sam Fuehring makes them one of the strongest front lines I can remember the Cards having since the days of Shawnta Dyer, Mo Reid and Asia Taylor.  Myisha's way of making the big play at the right time and the All-American caliber explosiveness and accuracy of "Nite-Nite" Asia Durr make the Cards formidable and able to take ANY team in NCAA women's college basketball on any night. Arica Carter's stability and big-play capability at the point is ever-present and should it falter slightly you can guarantee that Dana Evans will dash in, go at one speed as long as she can and wear out any combination of guards trying to keep up with her. 

If Jazmine Jones can put together a solid and productive court time performance...let the game come to her... if Syd Zambrotta regains her three-ball skills back on a friendly court and Kylee Shook and Bionca Dunham can come in and keep the offense productive plus negate some of the Blue Devils height advantage, then I like Louisville's chances tonight.  

I don't see a easy win for the Cards but I'd sure love to be pleasantly surprised by one. I do hope to see a decent turnout in the lower bowl tonight and maybe even some upper deck patrons. This UofL women's basketball team is seriously MUCH MORE deserving of way more than the 6126 per game that have wandered into the KFC YUM! CENTER. 

I also got the chance to talk a bit with Sara White today at the presser. She'll be doing the color analyst work for the ACC Network Extra broadcast along with everyone's favorite Cortnee Walton on the sidelines and newcomer, down from Indy, Matt Schumacker handling play-by-play. Our old buddy Don Russell had hoped to be back in time from his surgery to call this one (and he'll be missed) but we'll see him back at half-court soon.

If you're a fan of the radio descriptions and accounts of games like me, there's no finer duo to listen to calling college women's basketball than Nick Curran and Adrienne Johnson. They'll perform their magic on 790 AM WKRD and you can hear them also on the IHeart radio app. 

This is one of those games where, in the past, there's been a certain amount of electricity in the air, a heightened sense of anticipation and hopes when I walk into the East Side of the downtown arena. It is good to be back home, not only for me, but for the WBB Cards. 

Chuck Berry sang about "Sweet Little Sixteen" and that win was accomplished. If you've never heard it, or the other two references that follow...I've linked them up below.

Sweet Little Sixteen

The opening line to the Beatles' song "I Saw Her Standing There" is "Well, she was just seventeen..." so let's get that one in the books as well. 

I Saw Her Standing There

And, who could forget the classic learning lesson ballad from The Sound of Music when Rolf sang to Liesl about "When your sixteen, going on seventeen.."

When You're Sixteen Going On Seventeen.

Don't worry, I've also got the next two potential wins lined up musically, too...but I'm not going to spring those on you just yet. No bad ju-ju, one game at a time, right?

Audio from yesterday: 

JEFF WALZ PREVIEWS DUKE GAME REVIEWS SEASON

ASIA DURR TALKS ABOUT DUKE AND THE SEASON

MYISHA HINES-ALLEN DISCUSSES DUKE AND REVIEWS SEASON


Paulie
xxxxx

Louisville women's basketball -- Despite the trickery, Cards fall to Blue Devils 58-55...Tuesday CARDINAL COUPLE

TRIO IN DOUBLE FIGURES NOT ENOUGH AS CARDS FALL TO BLUE DEVILS BY 3

Photo by Carolyn Chang - The Chronicle 

Myisha Hines-Allen recorded another double-double, Asia Durr and Mariya Moore joined her in double figure scoring and the Cards pulled off the con job of the 2016-17 basketball season...but erratic shooting, ball-handling woes and getting outscored 17-11 in the final ten minutes all contributed to Louisville first ACC loss Monday night in Durham, NC. 

The Cards well-planned trickery paid off to start the second half when Louisville sent Hines-Allen, Cortnee Walton and Asia Durr underneath the DUKE basket prior to Moore tossing the ball in-bounds to Briahanna Jackson to begin the third quarter. The Duke starting five dutifully followed them down there. Unfortunately for the Blue Devils, they needed to be defending the other basket and Moore flipped the ball to Jackson...following her down the court as she trotted to the unguarded rim and put in an uncontested layup. 

Classic Walz afoot there. The mad scientist strikes again!

The mis-direction gave the Cards a 27-23 lead...which they would increase to 44-41 by the end of the period...but the Cards ended up taking the 58-55 loss due to some steady free throw shooting by Duke guard Lexie Brown and a couple of less-than-perfect offensive possessions at the end of the contest. 

The Cards started slowly, trailing 15-12 after the first quarter. The Cards regrouped to lead 25-23 at the half. A 6-0 closing run had Louisville on top 44-41 after three. The loss comes after Duke takes the fourth 17-11. 

Carolyn Change -- The Chronicle

Let's face it. Stretches of this one were sloppy and "choppy"...a term used by the ESPNU talking head who accompanied Brooke Weisbrod on the play-by-play. A man who still thinks the one-and-one still exists in WBB. Who hasn't figured out Asia Durr is left-handed yet. Sailing masts and regatta dinghy's aside...the Cards committed 19 turnovers and shot just 6-23 from the deep to take their third loss of the season. 

Coach Walz explains it sufficiently: 

"We took a lot of really good shots. Unfortunately the ball just did not go in. When go you against a team that's going to play zone for 40 minutes...you've got to be able to knock down open shots and that just what we didn't do."   

Head Duke coach Joanne P. McCallie put her own spin on the win: 


"We played a lot of match-up and that takes away a lot of passing angles to those post players. It starts with the guards and, of course, with the posts. You're connected at the hip -- all five players -- it's always team defense." 

Thanks for that, Coach "P". I'll have to study it and look at the pictures. Five players connected at the hip... 

The 3-2 Duke employed was, in part, responsible for Louisville shooting under 40% but I'm going with the off-shooting night for Durr and some silliness at the end causing Louisville's loss. Plus the 7-0 Duke run to the start the fourth quarter.

It was a 53-52 Louisville lead with 1:27 to play after Hines-Allen's jumper but after Rebecca Greenwell gave the Dookies a 54-53 lead 30 seconds later on a nice inside move...the Cards get a three pointer blocked and then start fouling Brown...who had made 40-something in a row coming into the game. Twice she's fouled and twice she sinks both. Sydney Zambrotta's last-second, sprawling, falling potential game-tying three almost banked in...but the Cards suffer an ACC road loss 58-55 to a team that has also downed Kentucky and South Carolina this year. 

I realize you can't always pick who you have to foul at game's end...and the obvious choice (Duke's Chidom) was throwing the ball in...so that pretty much eliminated her...but putting Brown at the line was like tossing tennis balls into a trash barrel from a yard away...you're probably not gonna miss. 

Ten played for Louisville (Hines-Allen, Moore, Jackson, Durr, Walton, Fuehring, Jazmine Jones, both Johnsons and Zambrotta.) Six scored (Hines-Allen 16, Durr 15, Moore 14, Walton 4, Fuehring 4 and Jackson 2).   

Lessons learned on a road trip. The need to finish on the offensive end. To make the layups. The need to overcome poor shooting nights with lock-down defense. On a night where tomfoolery got national attention, the Cards ended up with the joke on them. How big a game was it? Let's close with another JoAnne P-ism: 

"Big games only occur in April. March and April. Nothing's big about this or any other game. What we learn from this game will be the test for us. What we learn and how we move forward." 

I'm gonna have to study and think on that. Might need a picture...


HOW DID FRED DO? 

Fred Gwynne -- Herman Munster

Free Throws -- Well, on the Cardinal side they were few and far between (because we know Duke never fouls in Cameron, right?) but one Card actually got to the line and Asia Durr made all three of her attempts. That's 100% and that will get a capital "F". Duke went 8 for 11...if anyone's counting.

Rebounding -- The Cards held a commanding 37-25 advantage on the boards. Hines-Allen corralled 12 and Walton found six. Good enough for a capital "R" in my book. 

Effort/Execution -- Louisville had 19 turnovers, Duke had 12 steals, the Cards shot 39.7% (26.1% from 3-range) and lost the fourth quarter. The effort, although misguided at times, was there but the execution not great enough to award a letter in this category.

Defense -- Brown had a field day against the Louisville guards with 17 points but Greenwell wasn't a big factor with just 10 points. At times, the defense was solid but in the fourth quarter it slipped and after a loss, we usually don't award a letter. That stands today.

FINAL FRED COUNT:  F-R-_-_.


WHAT WE LIKED 

"The Sting". No one but the Cards knew what was going on in the start of the second half trickery. Not the announcers, the refs or...most importantly...Duke. Credit the genius of Walz and the staff for the ploy.  If you missed it, here's the link: Cards WBB fakes out Duke

"You're going the wrong way!
ANOTHER CLASSIC MISDIRECTION LINK

Solid Sam. Sam Fuehring saw only eight minutes in the contest but had two key baskets early in the second quarter to give the Cards the lead and also grabbed four rebounds. The three fouls...well...*meh* but a good effort in a limited appearance for the sophomore. 

Light at the end of the tunnel? Mariya Moore went 4-8 from three-point range which might mean she's over the slump from the deep that has been there the last few games. 


WHAT NEEDS WORK

Closure.  After Asia Durr's jumper at 7:35 in the fourth, it was 46-41 Louisville. We would have liked to see the "killer instinct" take over for Louisville at this point. Instead, a 7-0 Duke run followed over the next two minutes. Gotta seal the deal. 

Ball handling. 14 of the 19 turnovers came from Louisville's guards. Mariya had seven of them. Yes, these were very good Duke guards, no doubt about that...but the miscues were responsible for 18 points off turnovers. Duke won that category 18-10. A telling stat. 

Focus. The Cards were out-of-sync in their possessions at the end...almost timid and unsure of what to do out there. Those possessions resulted in a blocked three attempt, Hines-Allen bucket for two instead of a potential-tying three attempt and a missed desperation three at the buzzer. A little leadership would have come in handy in that last minute. 



SO...

A loss that could have been prevented for Louisville tonight if they had performed better in the fourth quarter. An exciting, in some ways, end to this one...with the score lead going back-and-forth. One to chalk up to experience and learn from as the Cards roll back into it at Charlottesville on Thursday against a Virginia team who surrendered a 17 point lead over Syracuse to lose at home. Surprising NC State also pulls the shocker with a 70-61 win over #7 Florida State. 

ACC. Anything Can Culminate. 



POST GAME WALZ

Coach Walz answers a few questions after the game and Asia observes and serves as a silent partner in the link below. It's obvious that they have no "Paulie" presence in the Duke media contingent...

LINK:  

JEFF WALZ POST GAME DUKE PRESSER




tuesday trauma...
Paulie
xxxxx

Louisville women's basketball -- Healthy, revamped #15 Duke a challenge for Cards...MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

WBB TRAVELS TO DURHAM TO PLAY DUKE

(Notes while trying to remember it's 2017 and forget Saturday's football game.)


The first road game for the University of Louisville women's basketball squad in the ACC schedule has the Birds flying into Carolina country and facing a very dangerous Duke Blue Devils squad. The two will tip off at 7 p.m. tonight on ESPNU in a match that pits Louisville against another top-flight pair of guards for the second straight game. After the Christmas break, the action will start coming at you, Cardinal fans, hot and heavy with hoops and today's should be a battle.

With prayers that Grayson Allen won't be in the stands (or near the court) for this one and that the Cameron Crazies will be at home watching bowl games....off we go! 


Rebecca Greenwell is healthy and the rest of the ACC should take notice
and be forewarned. The senior guard has had her ups-and-downs injury-wise
in her career as a Blue Devil...but is red-hot and helping lead the charge for
Joanne P. McCallie's 12-1 group. She leads the Devils with 19.7 ppg, 6.7 rebounds and has also canned a team-high 41 3-pointers this season. 
Cards fans may remember her from her high school days at Owensboro, KY
Catholic high school...where she was a 2013 All-American and made the 
Kentucky All-State first team her final three years.  

Lexie Brown is a first-year transfer for the Blue Devils from Maryland and
her impact has been immediate. She scores 17.6 a contest and is definitely
a guard you want to think twice about fouling, with a 90.9% (50-55) success
rate from the charity stripe. UofL backers will probably remember her role
in knocking the Cards out of the "Great 8" leg of the NCAA Tournament
back in 2013-14 at the YUM! Center with 20 points as a freshman.

Although key rebounder from last year Azuri Stevens left the program at the end of last season to transfer to UConn..the other "mover in the middle" Oderah Chidom returns and is flourishing well in the paint for Duke with 9.4 points a night, 24 blocks on the year and second in rebounding at 6.6. Chidom will make you pay inside if you try and drive on her and she will collect again if you leave her alone with a mid-range jumper.

These Devils with with blue unis on have stumbled but once this year...a bit
of a surprising fall to Vanderbilt in quaint Memorial Gym in Nashville back on
November 20th. December has belonged to the Devil worshipers, though...
with big wins over two common UofL foes in Kentucky and South Carolina. 
Duke is on a eight-game win streak and is unbeaten in Cameron Indoor Arena this year. 

No one said the ACC was going to be easy. 

The 13-2 Cards will counter with the red-hot Asia Durr....who lit up downtown
Louisville pre-New Years Eve with 36 points against Syracuse. Add in Myisha Hines Allen's 18 and 10 and the triple-double Mariya Moore executed 
against the Orange and you have a really great potential three-on-three 
side game that would be fun to watch. 

The Cards downed Duke pretty convincingly last year in the YUM! 65-48 back
on Jan 10th, 2016. Moore and Durr had 15 each in the win and Myisha added 
14 for UofL. Cortnee Walton grabbed 12 boards for the Cards, who forced
the Blue Devils into 22 turnovers. 

Although a lot of the names are the same, this is a vastly different Duke team
this season. Brown adds that extra dimension out front and if one of the Blue Devil top-three are having a off-night, returnees Kyra Lambert and Leanna Odom...plus freshman Kendall Cooper are capable of double-digit performances...plus all three go to the boards very strong and will give the Cards a handful of players to keep an eye on.

What must the Cards do to get the win tonight? Here's five ideas.

1. Avoid the "can't shoot straight early" syndrome. Louisville can't afford to have a cold start against a squad that is shooting 49% on the season and averages 81 points a game while just giving up 53. Patient offense and not firing up forced threes. Work the shot clock and get the good look. 

    2. Stay with us #2 . A seat early for Myisha Hines-Allen could spell big                   trouble for the Cards tonight. Careful on the defense with no silly fouls and         playing under control early would be sound advice for the Cardinal star.

    3. Are ya still hot? We hope so! The Cards could definitely use another 

        scorching performance from Asia Durr in this one and feel free to join

        the party early...#25. A.D is averaging almost 23 ppg in her last four and

        Louisville likely will need all those and more tonight.

   

     4. Score...Moore. This would be a great night to see Mariya break out of                her recent shooting slump from the deep and if Duke tries to get cute

         and "zone up" the Cards...her proven marksmanship will be needed.

     5. All-the-way-BJ! . Louisville would be greatly benefited by another of                 those "stand back and watch me work" games from Briahanna                           Jackson...doing all the sometimes underappreciated things with perfection.

        Steals, assists, rebounds, shut-down defense. It's a lot of hats to wear,               but they fit her so well. 

Another huge test for the Cards tonight... but one that the Cards are perfectly capable of passing if they can control the pace and dictate the tempo. I expect a close one. An exciting one. A winning one. Louisville needs to turn the dial to "11" tonight with their hustle and intensity. 

Who will step up off the bench in this one? It seems it's someone different each time in Louisville's recent games. With the style of ball Duke likes to play, we're hoping Jazmine Jones can take advantage of this great setting to explode and if Sydney Zambrotta can get a few open looks...it could be trifecta time in a state that has no horse-racing tracks. 

😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎

TESTING, TESTING...

In case you missed THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR Saturday (which is perfectly understandable with all the different things going on)...here's a link to the re-broadcast. We had fun in the studio discussing hoops and football and even made a few New Years resolutions. Worldwide even explains the concept of time to me. Stunning, really....

It's live radio. We get our surprises from time-to-time (like Paulie's chair plummeting a foot or so unexpectedly near the end of the broadcast) but that's part of the allure. 

LINK: CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR 12-31-16


Monday ,monday....can't trust that day
paulie
xxxxx

Tuesday Cardinal Couple

No Danger of Fishing Here...

Worldwide McAdams here, and let me assure you, you'll never see me take off to traipse with trout in any mountain stream.

While Paulie skives off for a well-deserved vacation, I have just returned, and am refreshed and ready for some more UofL Women's Athletics.

Alas, we're firmly entrenched in the summer doldrums, but that doesn't mean we're totally bereft of news to report.

Lexie Brown Decides

Lexie Brown, the hot shooting guard that decided to depart Maryland, with many commenters believing that she was hoping to continue school, and basketball playing, at a school closer to home, has made her decision.

Brown has enrolled at Duke to finish out her final two years of eligibility.  Apparently Lexie really likes the ACC with a visit to here at Louisville, in addition to Duke.

With the desire to be closer to home, it can't be too terribly much of a surprise for Ms. Brown to choose Duke.

As always, we here at Cardinal Couple wish her the best and are confident that Mad Scientist Walz has a great team lined up for us to watch when the weather turns cold.

Justine Sowry...Teases?

Not really.  Paulie alluded to the idea the other day, and Field Hockey had been posting social media items for individual games from the schedule before the full schedule was posted.  I'm sure they'll continue to post in social media, but the whole schedule is now available on the website, and it looks like a lot of fun.

They start with what I would expect to be a warm home stand with two exhibition games on Saturday and Sunday, the 23rd and 24th of August.  They start off with Iowa coming in for a friendly, and then have an alumnae match slated for the second day.

Things get started in earnest on Friday the 28th with Appalachian State, and finish the home opening on Sunday with Indiana.  A road trip out west for the next weekend takes the Cards to visit the Cal Bears and UC Davis.

The weekend of the 11st is the conference opener with the always competitive UVA coming into Trager with Liberty for the Sunday bout.  Back out on the road the next weekend with conference play at North Carolina, and the Sunday followup with James Madison.

A light weekend follows with only a single game, a Friday matchup with Wake Forest coming to Floyd Street.  The team will need to take advantage of that easy weekend, because the next is a whopper.  A Friday battle with former Cardinal head coach Pam Bustin at Duke followed by a quick trip back home to spruce up Trager in time for UMass to visit on Sunday.

The next weekend, October 9th and 11th is also split, but the travel isn't as far, with the weekend starting out at home with Syracuse, and just scooting up the road a bit to Columbus to take on Ohio State on Sunday.

Massachusetts gets the Cardinal attention the weekend of October 16th and 18th with a trip to Boston College and Northeastern.  The season finishes out on a homestand, with Central Michigan coming to down on Sunday the 25th, and the final weekend, Halloween Eve and All Hallows Day see two really tough teams to finish off the season in Michigan State and Rutgers enjoying Louisville hospitality.

The ACC tournament will be November 5th through the 8th in Charlottesville, VA.

-JMcA

It's showtime for Henderson and Krause tonight in NCAA Championships -- Thursday Cardinal Couple

( In the Thursday Edition of CARDINAL COUPLE, we'll look at the upcoming NCAA Championship Field events, the latest buzz on Lexie and a reversal of ruling. Jump in, buckle up, hold on and strap in Bill The Goat...we're coupling you this Thursday!)

THROWING IT OUT THERE AND FROM THE VAULT

Tonight in Eugene, Oregon Emmonnie Henderson and Chanel Krause will compete in the NCAA Championships for Track and Field. 

Chanel Krause is first up, going in the pole vault finals that start around 7:45 ET. "E" will put the shot around 8:40 p.m. The discus finals...which Henderson will also participate in...aren't until Saturday afternoon. 

Coverage on Thursday is on ESPNU (7-8:30 p.m.) and ESPN (8:30 - 11:30 p.m.)

Although both Krause and "E" would have to be considered longshots to win the respective events...based on their season bests and the season bests of their competition...throw that out (get it?) the window. It's the Finals. All 24 competitors have a 'shot'.

OK, done with the puns.

Best of luck to UofL's scintillating sophomores! 

IS LEXIE FLYING SOUTH?

The Twitter, Instagram and widespread rumor world is picking up momentum on Lexie Brown and her visit to Louisville. The talented point guard the last two seasons for Maryland has parted ways with the Terps and searching for another home to spend her final three years of college at.

You remember Lexie, right? As a freshman, she torched Louisville for 20 points and six assists in the Terps win over the Cards in the NCAA Regional final in the KFC YUM! Center in 2014. 

Seeing her in a back court with Durr, Cole, Carter, Jones in the 2016-17 season probably has Coach Walz dancing like Gene Kelly in Singing In The Rain. 

She would have to sit a year...that's true...but what a great mentor and knowledge source she could be to the freshmen that will be in the back court for Walz in 2015-16. 

Her Dad is Dee Brown...who knows a thing or two about hoops also. Oh, those magical Celtics teams with Dee dancin in the back court and getting air. 

Highly unofficial rumors from questionable sources indicate that she loved the visit. How could she not? After all, it is Louisville...

WE STAND CORRECTED

On Tuesday, we threw three questions at you about "lines". We advised you on Wednesday that the answer to Question 1 was 'count the free throw' (question below). In a chat last evening with a very knowledgeable source, we found out that that is wrong. A player at the line shooting cannot cross that free throw line until the ball makes contact with the net, backboard or rim. If the player that is shooting steps over the line...it is a lane violation and no point awarded if the ball goes in.

Although this would be detrimental to the Walzian theorem that suggests "3" is better than "2"...the theorem may have to undergo a radical adjustment now that the "one plus one" is leaving the game.

Thanks to regular reader Vivian who raised the objection. We eventually get things right here at CC....even if it takes several attempts. 

paulie
xxxxx

1) Basketball's Mariya Moore is at the free throw line for free throws. She shoots and hits the first one. Her left foot goes over the line as the ball is in the air. It touches down over that line before the ball goes through the hoop. Count the point or not?