Academic Accolades and Softball Final Series -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

WBB Lands 8 on ACC Academic Team

Louisville women's basketball continued a tradition we've grown accustomed to in covering Louisville women's athletics, which is performing well off the court in addition to on it. This trend was kept up with the announcement of the 2025 All-ACC Academic Team by the conference earlier this week. Jeff Walz's squad placed eight on the team. As a unit, Louisville WBB posted a 3.37 GPA as a team in the fall semester. They had 12 team members earn at least a 3.0, 11 with at least a 3.25, and one pick up a perfect 4.0. 

All-ACC Academic Team honorees must post a 3.0 GPA for the previous semester and maintain a 3.0 cumulative GPA over the course of their collegiate career. They must also compete in at least 50% of the team's athletic contests. Louisville had three freshmen on the team, all obviously picking up their first honor: Isla Juffermans, Mackenly Randolph, and Taj Roberts. Three players earned their second honor: Jayda Curry, Elif Istanbulluoglu, and Ja'Leah Williams. And two players earned their All-ACC Academic Team placement: Merissah Russell and Nyla Harris. 

Congratulations to all as commencement is just around the corner for UofL's Spring 2025 graduates.

Softball Takes on Pitt in Regular Season Finale

Louisville softball, as is tradition, is on the road for their final series of the regular season, with the Cards heading to Pittsburgh for a Thursday-Friday-Saturday matchup with the Panthers. Today's series opener will get underway at 6PM and air on ACC Network Extra. With their win over Florida State on Sunday, the Cards did a lot to improve their ACC tournament positioning. That is to say, Louisville is almost guaranteed to make the ACC tournament. 

Louisville sits at 7-14 in conference play, which is good for 10th. As a reminder, 12 teams make the tournament. The Cards need to only be ahead of three opponents to lock up the 12th spot. Two of the teams below them in the standings cannot improve. Notre Dame and NC State have already completed their regular season, with the Irish at 7-17 and the Wolfpack at 6-18. Louisville holds the tiebreaker over Notre Dame. Syracuse and Pittsburgh both have six wins, so a sweep by both of those teams would move them ahead of the Cards. That would leave Boston College. BC has five wins, and Louisville holds the tiebreaker. For BC to jump the Cards, Pitt would have to sweep, but so would BC. The Eagles are taking on Stanford this weekend.

With one win against the Panthers, who are 19-29 overall, Louisville would secure its spot in the tournament. Effectively, they're playing for seeding and a chance to try to make enough noise to land an NCAA berth. I'm sure there is no love lost between Coach Holly Aprile and her former team, though she has been at UofL long enough that no players from her time at Pitt remain on the roster. The Cards are 27-6 all-time against Pittsburgh and 8-2 in their last ten meetings. Unfortunately, five of those six losses have come on the road. Louisville would do well to ride their momentum from Sunday's big win to close out the regular season strong and then see what happens going forward. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Softball Wins Home Opener -- WBB Senior Day Tonight -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Open Home Season With Blowout Win

Louisville softball had a warm welcome home, both figuratively and literally, as they defeated crosstown rival Bellarmine 10-0 in five innings. Temperatures broke into the 70s for the first time of the 2025 calendar year and the Cards couldn't be stopped with aggressive baserunning.

The Cards pieced together 10 runs on 10 hits while capitalizing on a pair of Bellarmine errors and multiple obstruction calls.

Brooke Gray got the start in the circle for the Cards, earning her third win on the early season. In her three innings of work, Gray surrendered two hits but maintained a shutout. Izzy Harrison came in relief for the final two innings, striking out six and walking one.

Louisville jumped out front early. After Chelsea Mack and Bri Despines found ways to get on base and advance to scoring position, Char Lorenz drove both runners in. The Cards recorded four successful steals in the first inning.

With two outs in the second inning, Louisville pieced together a four-run rally with Easton Lotus, Bri Despines, Chelsea Mack, and Madison Pickens crossing the plate.

Louisville did more damage in the third inning before recording any outs. Maddi Grant led off with the only triple of the game and was followed by a double by Ally Alexander. Easton Lotus followed with a single and the Cards found themselves threatening to run rule the Knights.

In the fourth inning, UofL pieced together two more runs to add a little insurance. The inning was highlighted by a 10-pitch at bat for Taylor Monroe, who capped it off with an rbi double.

Louisville finished the game 8-for-9 on steals with the only unsuccessful attempt coming in the fourth inning. The Cards had five multi-base hits and had no strikeouts on the offensive end.

The Cards remain home to host the Cardinal Classic this weekend. They will play five games from Friday-Sunday. 

Cards WBB Host Clemson for Senior Day

Photo by Go Cards

Senior Day for Louisville women's basketball has already arrived. The Cards will face off against Clemson at 6:00pm for their final home game of the regular season. It will be aired on tv on ACC Network.

Prior to the game, Olivia Cochran, Merissah Russell, Jayda Curry, and Ja'Leah Williams will be recognized in the Senior Ceremony. Cochran and Russell are both five-year players at Louisville. Curry has been with the Cards for the last two seasons while Williams used her final year of eligibility at Louisville this season.

Clemson, under first year head coach Shawn Poppie, is 13-14 this season. The sit near the bottom of the ACC at 6-10. The former Clemson had coach, Amanda Butler, is on the Louisville coaching staff as an assistant

Photo by Go Cards

While the Tigers don't have a ton of strengths, they have been efficient with their three-point shooting and have had strong bench scoring. Loyal McQueen is one of the best point guards in the country, averaging 5.0 assists per game. Hannah Kohn has proved to be one of the best three-point shooters nationally with 75 made threes and nearly three per game.

Louisville leads the all-time series, 12-3. All 12 wins have come since the Cards joined the ACC. Last year, Louisville went down to Littlejohn Coliseum and won 81-64.

WALZ PRESSER 2/26/25

(Softball photos by Jared)

Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared

Cards Stun Blue Devils in Cameron -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Louisville Beats #11 Duke 70-62

Louisville women's basketball weathered a third quarter comeback to hang on and become the first team not named Duke to win at Cameron Indoor Stadium this season. Coming into the game, the Blue Devils' men's and women's teams were a combined 26-0 at home, with Kara Lawson's squad sporting an 11-0 record. The Cards got clutch minutes from Merissah Russell late in the game and saw Jayda Curry score a season-high 24 points as they moved to 12-3 in conference and hold the tiebreaker over FSU, Duke, and Cal for the fourth seed in the ACC tournament with three games to play.

Louisville got off to an inauspicious start in this one, opening the game with a shotclock violation. The offense didn't get much better for the Cards in the first quarter, as they made just one of their first nine shots. Coupled with a pair of free throws, Louisville had four points in the first seven minutes of the game. They returned to equilibrium a bit over the last three minutes of the quarter by making four of six, including a three from Elif Istanbulluoglu (the first of the game for either team) to finish the quarter with 13. Duke, who shot 44% from the floor in the quarter, had just 14, as they made only two-point baskets, didn't get to the line, and matched Louisville's three turnovers.

The second quarter was a comedy of errors, and I mean that literally. Louisville finished with seven turnovers in the quarter, which actually paled in comparison to Duke's 10. The Cards found a bit more rhythm offensively, shooting 8/16 from the floor and picking up two more free throws. Where they really did their damage was the three point line. Louisville was 4/6 from beyond the arc in the quarter, while Duke was just 1/4. Those makes included a pair by Jayda Curry, with one coming off balance as the shot clock wound down, and one from Mackenly Randolph to improve her season mark to 2/17 from three. Duke, to their credit, was 7/10 from the floor, going 100% from two, but the turnovers and inability to get to the free throw line allowed Louisville to take a six-point lead into the locker room at 35-29.

The Cards came out of the break determined to continue the sloppy basketball on display in the second quarter, but the Blue Devils appeared to have gotten their yips out of the way. Louisville committed eight more turnovers in the third, while Duke had just four. The wheels came off a bit for the referee crew (which had Louisville favorites Dee Kanter and Billy Smith as part of it)  in this quarter, if you ask me, with both teams getting away with various fouls and violations while simultaneously falling victim to ghost calls. To add to their troubles, Louisville was just 4/9 from the floor with another strong mark from Duke, who went 8/17. The Blue Devils last shot fell through the net as time expired to tie the game and reset the board going into the fourth. 45-all.

Pam Ward (who is committed to saying Louisville incorrectly and as frequently as possible) and Stephanie White continually spoke on the broadcast about Louisville being able to push the defense and make Duke commit fouls. While this was anticipated to be a strongly contested defensive battle, Duke is susceptible to foul trouble. That began to roost early in the fourth. Louisville's first four points in the quarter came at the line, keeping them in a game where their field goal shooting threatened to abandon them. Jayda Curry made the Cards' first basket of the fourth three minutes in with a three-pointer to make it 52-47.

After Duke collected back-to-back offensive rebounds on their next possession, Olivia Cochran committed her third foul and Delaney Thomas stepped to the line for free throws. She made them both, giving Duke their first free throw makes on their first free throw attempts of the game with just 6:30 remaining. The Blue Devil's second made three of the game would tie it at 52. Cochran earned her fourth foul and the game went to its final media timeout. A Curry foul sent Duke to the line to give the Blue Devils their first lead since the score was 18-16 in the second quarter, but Louisville was undeterred. Jeff Walz left Cochran in the game with four fouls and she delivered, scoring to tie the game, while drawing a foul on Reigan Richardson. Cochran would miss the and-one free throw, but Merissah Russell made her first huge offensive rebound play to lead to a Curry jumper to give the Cards the lead once more.

After that, the Cards continued to trade a pair of free throws for a Duke made two pointer. Remember how we talked about Duke being susceptible to fouling? Yeah, that remained true. After Curry's jumper made it 56-54 in favor of Louisville, the Cards would score just one more field goal for the remainder of the game. And in a close game like this, it wasn't because Duke was fouling aggressively to send Louisville to the line. Louisville just ran their offense, played their game, and happened to earn freebies. In fact, Duke was so committed to not fouling that when the Cards inherited the ball with 58 seconds remaining and a four-point lead, they were able to milk 42 seconds off the clock before Curry was sent to the line. I mentioned Russell's first huge O-board already, but her second came when Curry ran the shot clock all the way down before firing a three. Russell fought hard for the rebound, then wisely pulled it away, helping tick those extra 14 seconds away.

Curry made two to give the Cards a six-point lead, and a Duke turnover on a missed offensive rebound attempt appeared to seal the game. But wait! Is that Dee Kanter's music? Despite the ball pretty clearly going out off of Duke in real time, Kanter called it Duke ball. To her credit, she immediately went to the monitor. Once again, the ball was shown to clearly bounce off the Duke player's arm last, but a minute later, Kanter announced the call was confirmed. Ok, sure. As they say, though, "Ball don't lie." The Blue Devils threw the inbound pass away and Curry corralled it. She was fouled immediately, and she sunk two more to set the final: 70-62.

This was an extremely chaotic game. Both teams went on runs that looked like they'd ice the game early, and both also looked completely out of sorts at different times. Sometimes, they looked out of sorts at the same time, resulting in certified "ugly basketball" at multiple points in the game. Curry was the biggest bright spot in this one, with her season high also being the highest point total in the game. She added three assists and five steals to two offensive boards and she was 9-9 from the free throw line. Toss in her three "oh please no" injury scares and that's a full stat line.

The Cards also got strong performances from the other two players to match Curry's 37 minutes. Taj Roberts and Ja'Leah Williams were both in double figures. Williams had four rebounds, three assists, and two steals to go along with her 13 points, and Roberts had three rebounds and a steal while going 6-6 from the free throw line to score 11. Merissah Russell scored two points on her only shot attempt (a critical basket at the end of the shot clock) and matched the team high with four rebounds.

Let's have a FRED Report, shall we?

The FRED Report

F - Free Throws: This one is pretty straightforward. Louisville was 22-25 from the line, scoring more points from the free-throw line than the three-point line (which is saying something; they had six threes!). 88% is really good, and it's twice as nice when the opponent scores just four points from the stripe. Capital 'F'.

R - Rebounding: Rebounding was a strange one. Louisville had just 28 rebounds, but their boards were much more distributed than Duke's 30, as the Blue Devils had two players with seven apiece. Louisville made hay with their offensive rebounds, though. The two teams matched with 11 each, but the Cards outscored Duke 14-8 on second chance points. I'm going to go with a lowercase 'r'.

Marvel's Fred Duke
AKA 'Blob'

E - Effort/Execution: Boy, you thought rebounding was tough to judge? The Cards were beaten in points in the paint, largely due to defensive lapses, and bench points, but they scored more points off turnovers and on the fast break. They also had more second chance points, as I just noted, so clearly hustle was on the table. They only shot 43% from the floor but that came with 50% from three point range (Louisville really struggled with missed layups). The Cards had 19 turnovers, but that was fewer than Duke (albeit by one), and Duke is a really good defensive team. Because this was a game that Louisville had every chance to give up in the second half and instead they showed their mettle by hanging in for a tough road win, I'm granting a capital 'E'. Sue me.

D - Defense: So... Duke shot the ball pretty well. They ended up going 50% from the floor, with a whopping 60.5% from two-point land. However, they turned the ball over a ton and Louisville defended without sending the Blue Devils to the line. Duke was averaging 74 points coming into the game and Louisville held them way below that. The Cards defense had some mistakes, to be sure, but they kept themselves in the game early and closed it out late. Capital 'D'.

You may not love a final tally of F-r-E-D in a game that was as choppy as that one, but I'm not going to let a somewhat ugly game overshadow the fact that the Cards picked up their second Quad 1 win with a huge road win over a top-15 opponent. Louisville has an incredibly difficult road ahead to close out this season, so getting it started with a win like tonight is great for confidence. Up next is another matchup with a team tied with Louisville in the standings. The Cards bring #9 UNC to town on Sunday for the penultimate home game of the season. A win would go a long way toward cementing Louisville's double-bye and improving their NCAA seed line. Hopefully this team is peaking at the right time of year.

POST GAME JEFF WALZ HERE

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Battle of the Bluegrass Cancelled -- WBB Notes -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 Hello everyone,  

Daryl checking in a little early this week as Jared planned on heading over to Ulmer Wednesday and I was going to take the recap of the Kentucky vs. Louisville softball game., However, the weather forecast had some different plans as the precipitation did not let up at all on Wednesday so the squads called off the contest pretty early in the day with no plans of rescheduling.   

They offered refunds to anyone who purchased a ticket, this being one of the pay for a  ticket events for Softball. 

The Cardinals will head down to Atlanta GA for a series with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on Friday at 6pm, Saturday at 2pm and Sunday at noon all available on the ACC Network Extra. 

WBB announcements

We knew Olivia Cochran was coming back to play a fifth year when she didn't participate in the 2024 Senior activities and she told a fan in the comment section on FB she was returning. 

Coach Walz sent out a message on X looking ahead to her final season in a Cardinal uniform.   Asst. coach Lamont Russell also posted a snap shot video on IG in recent days of his attempt at guarding Big O in the post and lets just say there was alot of cheers by the players who watched Olivia spin free from the defense.   

I am so very much looking forward to senior season Olivia.  She has been one of my favorite Cardinals to cover over the years.   Take us to the ship, Big O!!!!!!

We know it takes more than a single player to win a title and I was happy to see Merissah Russell post that she is looking forward to another year in Louisville. 

Other basketball news is the decision by Stanford women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer announced her retirement Tuesday, ending the winningest coaching career in college basketball history after 45 years.  The HOF coach led Stanford to three national championships in her 38 seasons at the helm of the Cardinal and was named the national coach of the year five times during her tenure.

We at Cardinal Couple have been fans of Tara for years and wish her a happy and healthy retirement!  Go enjoy it, Coach! 

Lets finish out the week strong!

As Always, 

Go Cards 

~Daryl 

Louisville Closes Out 2023 with a Win -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Walz Remains Undefeated in Coral Gables with Win

Kiki Jefferson scored her 2,000th career point and Jayda Curry scored her 1,000th career point as Louisville women's basketball closed out the 2023 calendar year with a 77-72 win at Miami.

Merissah Russell was clutch and scored all 12 of her points in the second half, going 3-3 from three-point range. Jayda Curry shot 7-12 for a team-high 19 points. Nyla Harris posted a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds.

Playing in their first game following the Christmas break, Louisville looked like it didn't miss a bit on the offensive end, closing out the opening quarter with 20 points, Defensively, the Cards looked to be a bit rusty and gave up 23 points to Miami. Harris' layup at the buzzer kept the deficit within one.

Miami would score the first five points of the second quarter before the Cards went on an 8-0 run for a one-point advantage. Neither team could pull ahead by more than three the remainder of the corner at went into halftime tied 37-37.

Like the second quarter, the third quarter proved to be a battle back-and-forth. The Cards went up by five right after the media timeout but would need a pair of free throws by Curry to retake the lead to close out the quarter.

Miami held a four-point lead with 6:08 remaining in the game. The Cards would allow surrender five more points the rest of the way while hitting a pair of threes and four free throws along with a couple short range jumpers to pull out the win. Russell scored eight of the final 14 points.

F-R-E-D Report

Free Throws: 16-21 is a bit under Louisville's average but 76.2% is above the minimum requirement mark. We'll award the Cards a lowercase "f".

Rebounds: Louisville won the rebounding battle by a +7 margin. Six players logged a board with Harris leading the team with 12. Plenty of reason for a capital "R".

Effort/Efficiency: Louisville opted to limit their three-point attempts but made the most, going 5-9 beyond the arc. 12 assists on 28 made shots is a bit under what we hope to see, especially since only seven points (three baskets) came on fast break. The one area of concern is 22 turnovers, many coming off of travels or overthrows in the post. Let's hope that was just needing to clean things up following an extended break. We'll give them a lowercase "e".

Defense: Well, cracking down on defense down the stretch to pull out the win is nice, but giving up 72 points is no bueno. The Cards committed 18 fouls and allowed Miami to shoot nearly 50% from the field. Louisville did force 20 turnovers and gave up just nine second chance points. We'll award a lowercase "d".

f-R-e-d isn't bad for the first game back after two weeks, but won't win you a ton of games in conference play. But hey, a win is a win and whether you win by one or 100 it's still a win.

Jeff Walz is now 5-0 in Coral Gables in his tenure and the Cards ruined Miami's 23-0 record at home in 2023 with just a few hours left in the year.

Louisville improves to 12-2 and opens up ACC play 1-0. They return home to the KFC Yum! Center on Thursday at 8:00pm against Duke.

A win is a great way to close out 2023. Don't forget that the Cards opened up 2023 with a loss before going on to make an Elite Eight and have now had a hot start to this season. 

Happy Monday, Happy New Year, and Go Cards!

Jared

WBB Faces Team Africa in GloblJam -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Take on Africa League Select in Final Round Robin Game

Louisville will face relatively familiar foes in their final round robin game when they take on the Basketball Africa League Select team. The Cards played BAL Select in a scrimmage earlier in the week, though there isn't any information out about that game. Louisville is currently 1-1 in the event and is likely playing for a spot in the gold medal game. Puerto Rico is also 1-1, and they'll face 2-0 Canada this afternoon. The GloblJam event makes it difficult enough to even find results from the games, so who knows what a tiebreaker would be if three teams sat at 2-1 after the round robin portion. Assuming Canada wins, Louisville may be in with a loss as well, given that they would hold the tiebreaker over PR. 

That said, a loss by Louisville today would be extremely disappointing. After a big win over Puerto Rico, Louisville went on to nearly complete a late comeback against the hosting Canadian team. Both of those results matter because BAL Select has not performed particularly well during the event. On day one, Canada more than doubled up BAL, ultimately taking a 98-42 win. BAL Select led 6-5 early in the first quarter; they trailed 25-6 at the end of the quarter. In that one, Canada shot 49% from the floor and hit 13-30 three pointers. They forced BAL Select into 33 turnovers and held them to 32% shooting (2-16 from beyond the arc). 

Similarly, Puerto Rico had a pretty easy go of it on Thursday. Coming off of the 78-55 loss against Louisville, PR put up almost the same score in their win against BAL Select. Although BAL Select was able to hang closer with Puerto Rico than Canada, and they actually came out ahead in the rebounding battle, Puerto Rico took the win 81-58. Again, BAL Select was held to a poor performance from three, shooting just 10%, and again they struggled with turnovers. Puerto Rico capitalized with 23 points off of 25 BAL Select turnovers. Puerto Rico, on the other hand, had points from every player on the roster and tallied 42 bench points. Their depth played a major role in the win. 

The major player for Louisville to watch out for in today's game is Jane Asinde. The Ugandan national team player will head to UTEP this season after spending two seasons with Wichita State. After the GloblJam event ends, she'll return to Uganda to train with the Gazelles for the Afrobasket tournament later this month. Asinde, a 6'-2" forward, averaged 10.9 points and 9.1 rebounds in two seasons at WSU, averaging almost a double-double with 13.1/9.8 last season. At GloblJam, Asinde has scored double figures in both games so far, with a 14 and 7 performance against Canada. Asinde is one of nine players on the BAL Select roster who is playing collegiately in the US. The BAL Select teams are only rostering 12 players each, which may contribute to their struggles against teams with deeper benches. 

Louisville vs BAL Select will be the first game of the Saturday session, and UK will take on BAL Select on the men's side in the game right after. The game will be available via twitter broadcast on the Louisville women's basketball account (@LouisvilleWBB) and will tip off at 11AM. It will also be available on the Canadian Basketball YouTube page. 

No Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

For various personal reasons, we've elected to take this week off from the show. We'll be back next week with more coverage of the joy and excitement of Louisville women's athletics, including a chat about the GloblJam event in its entirety. Luckily for you, now you don't have to choose whether you want to watch the podcast or the game live.

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Photos via @LouisvilleWBB. Nyla Harris (2) contests a shot against Team Canada. Kiki Jefferson (12) and Merissah Russell (13) participate in the scrimmage against BAL Select.

MERISSAH RUSSELL SHINES BIG FOR CANADA U 23 IN GLOBL JAM -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 RUSSELL, CANADIANS WIN GLOBL JAM

July has been a pretty good month for Louisville women's basketball player Merissah Russell. 

Russell was on the Canada U 23 squad that participated in the inaugural "five games in six days" Globl Jam event in Toronto's Matamay Center. Aaliyah Edwards (UConn) was named MVP of the Jam, but Russell, a 5'11" Louisville WBB junior guard from Ottawa, Ontario, averaged 12.6 a game for the Canada team who went 5-0 and defeated France for the title.  

Canada began their Jam play on July 5th, with a 65-53 win over Belgium. Russell had eight points for the squad. Wednesday, July 6th put Canada up against USA and Russell had 14 points for Canada in a 78-69 win over the USA. France was next for Russell and company and the result was Canada's largest win so far in the Jam with a 73-56 win where Russell went for 17 points. 

The win advanced Canada to the semifinals on Saturday, July 9th with a rematch against USA. And, it resulted in Canada's biggest win of the tournament, a 85-60 win. Representing the USA in the event was the Virginia Commonwealth WBB squad  .Russell had 13 points in the win that advanced Canada to the Sunday finals against France. The VCU team went 16-12 in 2021-22 and made it to the second round of the WNIT.  Was it the strongest squad the USA could have put in the tournament? Probably not, but the Rams do have five Canadians on their squad and top notch scorer Taya Robinson , who has finished her eligibility at VCU

Canada defeated France for the second time in the event -- a 78-60 win where Russell had 11 points and three three-pointers to give the Canadians their fifth win and the title. 

It's a impressive and encouraging start that will lead to Russell's eventual third year with the Cards. As a sophomore in 2021-22, she saw action in 18 games . She saw 118 minutes, or about 6.6 minutes a game. She scored 25 points for the Cards, 11th-highest on the squad -- and sank three of her nine three-point attempts. 

One would think the Canada showing would bode well for Russell and her third year as a Card. She comes back to a Louisville squad that, including her, has five returning guards from last year and nine total guards listed.  

We think Russell will be a valuable part of the UofL roster in 2022-23 and. if she can display that three-point shooting touch she did in the GLOBL Jam, she'll see a lot of important minutes. 

paulie

USA WBB Tops Nigeria -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

USA Wins 93-62 in Final Tune-Up

With Louisville continuing the summer dead period (the last UofL women's athletic event I can find news on is soccer wrapping up their youth camp), Racing Louisville off this week, and the WNBA on summer break for the All-Star game and Olympics, there really isn't much to talk about. One thing that is going on these days is the lead up to the Olympics. Team USA bounced back from their loss to Australia yesterday, but you'd be hard pressed to figure that out. After a number of searches, I was able to find the final score, but not a box score of any type. 

The game is a preview of how the two teams will open the Olympic games in Tokyo, as they're set to play one another on July 27th. The Nigerian team will hope to have two big boosts to their ranks in that game that they did not have yesterday, as Nneke Ogwumike and Elizabeth Williams are not currently allowed to play for the team. Those two and Nneke's sister, Chiney, all applied for the opportunity to play for Nigeria after being left off of the USA Basketball roster. Chiney was allowed as a naturalized citizen, but Nneke and Williams were rejected. The three argue that they are all Nigerian citizens by birth due to Nigerian parents, but will need the Court of Arbitration of Sports to rule in their favor in the appeal to be able to play in the Olympics.

A big win for Team USA was very needed. The team hadn't lost in international competition since 2010 prior to the Australia game, so an Olympic gold medal was going to require a confidence boost. While the only Cardinal adjacent player headed to Tokyo for basketball is Merissah Russell as an alternate for Canada, ex-Cardinal Elizabeth Balogun helped this Nigerian team qualify for the Olympics. With a lot of young talent coming out of Louisville women's basketball in recent years and in the future, there may be a good chance to see Louisville Cardinals once again representing Team USA as Angel McCoughtry did for many years. Remember, both Hailey Van Lith and Olivia Cochran have been with youth versions of the team in recent years.

That's all for me today. A slow weekend will do that. Paulie should be back to these pages soon. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

Russell to Team Canada -- NIL Begins -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 We are officially halfway through the 2021 calendar year. Yes, you read that right. We start the first day of the seventh month of the year today!

As of last night, college sports from the 2020-2021 season have finally concluded. Baseball can drag on deep into the year but Mississippi State blew out Vanderbilt in the final game of the best-of-three series late last night. Any Louisville baseball fan is sure to have a massive grin seeing Vandy walk home empty-handed.

We saw some good news for UofL women's basketball yesterday and there's a big moment that began at 12:00 a.m., this morning. But let's hit the good news for UofL first...

Merissah Russell Named to Canadian Olympic Team

Jeff Walz brings in great talent as well as student-athletes with a top notch work ethic. Merissah Russell is no stranger to that as her hard work paid off.

The rising sophomore was named to Canada's Olympic team for women's basketball. She is one of four alternates listed, but will travel with the team. If unforeseen circumstances such as illness, injury, or family emergencies arise for any of those on the roster, Canada will have the option to promote her to the active roster. Even as an alternate, Russell will receive a medal if the CNT places.

Russell competed for Canada in the FIBA Women's AmeriCup back in June, where her team went 4-0 in pool play and advanced to the semifinals.

Team Canada is currently ranked fourth in the world and has qualified for their third straight Summer Olympics. They have never finished higher than fourth, which happened at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

The United States sits in a world of its own at the top ranking. Australia is ranked second with a little bit of space between them and those ranked behind them. Spain safely sits third in the world. Canada holds just a small point advantage over France for the fourth spot in the FIBA rankings. A cutout of the Top 10 has been posted above.

We wish Merissah Russell and Team Canada the best of luck in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but I'll still be cheering for Team USA in the end.

NIL Takes Effect Today

The NCAA's board of directors met yesterday and decided to allow every college athlete to profit off their Name, Image, and Likeliness effective July 1, 2021. Many players from different sports and schools around the country have begun marketing themselves with some already having some type of marketing firm or manager/agemt to assist with their duties.

Some of the ways student-athletes can profit off their NIL include monetizing their social media accounts, charging for autographs, teaching camps or lessons, starting their own businesses, and participating in advertising campaigns.

There are some limitations. Some states, but not all states, have laws in effect prohibiting the endorsement of alcohol, tobacco, or gambling products as well as from using their school's name or logo.

We've discussed and debated the good and the bad of this already.

The "Good" includes:

-Student-athletes being able to make money

-Many student-athletes who are on a partial or no scholarship (more players than you think) now have extra ways of income to pay for school

-Schools can't hold all rights to ta player's NIL

The "Bad" includes:

-Everything sports related in college athletics will become monetized, hurting the consumer

-Schools could lose money to the student-athletes because of NIL leading to raised ticket prices to offset the losses or less investment in facilities and equipment

-Money-hungry student-athletes chasing a paycheck while caring nothing for their school, team, or fans anymore

Let's point out that most current student-athletes will not make much money at all. Remember the phrase "There are more than 460,000 NCAA student-athletes, and most of them will go pro in something other than sports"? Well, from an economic and statistical standpoint, 460,000+ student-athletes won't be able to make a decent profit.

Those with large social media followings will be most likely to make a decent profit. An LSU gymnast has 3.9 million followers on Tik Tok with many followers being interested in her skills or her physical appearance. A recently graduated softball player from Oregon has 752,000 followers on Tik Tok, with her followers having the same interest as the gymnast. A current women's basketball player at UofL has 721,000 followers on Instagram. Based off comments on her posts her followers also have similar interests as the other two. Her associate with Kobe Bryant also helped her gain a following. A football player who recently graduated from Clemson is flirting with 1,000,000 followers on Instagram.

The social media presence will be mainly affected by how well known the school is, how good their team is, how much TV time they get, and their physical appearance. Anyone familiar with the negatives of social media understands that physical appearance is one of the most influential parts of your following.

If you're smart, it can be pretty easy to manipulate how successful your NIL can be.

But to those student-athletes, please don't forget the school who you represent, or your teammates who are there and have your back, and most importantly don't forget your fans. Don't betray your fans and don't let things go to your head. If someone wants a picture or an autograph, are you really going to be so stuck up you're going to charge money? Treat your fans with respect and thank them for their support or you probably won't have as many fans in the future.

I see both good and bad in the NIL approval, but it's something I think can and probably will spiral out of control quickly and college sports within the next five years will be way different.

Let's close out on a good note. The weekend is almost here. We approach a holiday weekend and the Fourth of July. Go swimming, grill out, set off fireworks (in a respectful manner if you have neighbors), have a lazy day, do whatever. Just find a way to enjoy yourself. I typically find myself doing some photography work related to Fourth of July so if I may, I would like to share a couple photos from the past couple weeks on here.

Go Cards! 

Jared

Canada to Play in Third Place Game -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

As the summer rolls on, we continue to seek out news of Cardinals outside of their normal UofL capacity. When the Louisville baseball team failed to make the NCAA tournament, the athletic calendar officially turned over to the 2021-22 season. As such, we've got quite awhile before anything official gets underway down on Floyd Street. Teams are currently hosting skills camps or doing individual workouts, but most practices aren't even full team yet. At the same time, plenty of individual athletes are doing their own things for individual honors or for national teams. Tori Dilfer and Anna Stevenson just wrapped up their training stint with the USA Collegiate Volleyball team and the Wave II Olympic Trials continue in Omaha. There is one other Cardinal currently in action, though...

Merissah Russell in FIBA AmeriCup with Canada

The FIBA AmeriCup finals will be today as the weeklong tournament wraps up. The USA team will play for the championship after a victory over Brazil in yesterday's semifinals. No Cardinals are on the USA team, but Rhyne Howard from down the road started in yesterday's game and tied for the team high of 12 points in the victory. A combined four players on both teams scored 12 points and just one player scored more with 14.

The victory sent Brazil to the third place game where they will meet Canada, after our friends to the north dropped their semifinal matchup against Puerto Rico. Russell did not play in Friday's game, her second "DNP - Coach's Decision" of the tournament. Russell has played in four of the six games for Canada, putting in a total of 47 minutes. She has taken just two two-point attempts in that time, making one, but has shot 5/12 from beyond the arc for a total of 17 points scored. She has also pulled down six rebound and grabbed three steals. Her total plus/minus for the tournament is +52, but she was -2 in the quarterfinal game against the Dominican Republic. 

The third place game will take place tonight at 6:10PM and will be followed by the championship game at 9:10. Both games will be available on ESPN+ for US customers. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

Could it really be happening? A full house? We'll come to you live at 11AM this week, as nearly every week, with the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour and, as best as I know, we'll have all five contributors on the show. It's been a relatively slow week for Louisville News and Notes so join us as we figure out what the first half of the show looks like. Fortunately, with four guessers, the quiz will take us quite some time. Check out the Cardinal Couple YouTube Channel at 11AM for the live show, and subscribe to the channel to have the show pushed to your YouTube inbox, as well as any other videos we post to the channel. You can also subscribe to the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour podcast on any podcast platform or app to have the show sent directly to your device after it's posted.

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

Father's Day Sunday Cardinal Couple

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all of the fathers out there!

Cardinals Assemble

UofL is continuing its phased approach to bring Cardinal athletes back to campus.  The UofLWBB twitter posted a couple of videos this week created by players as part of their journey.  The videos are short, but do give a little bit of the sense of what their trips are like, including some extra challenges faced because of Covid-19.

Olivia Cochran and her family drove in to Louisville from Columbus, GA.  Google Maps calls this about a seven and a half or eight hour drive, and with the prospect that Olivia highlights in the car of needing to unload at the end of it, I'm sure that was a long day for the Cochran family.

You can find Olivia's video here:

https://twitter.com/UofLWBB/status/1274373958394097666

The other video came from Merissah Russell.  Merissah joins us from Ottawa Canada and her travel plans were complicated somewhat by Covid-19.  Because of the pandemic, she had to travel to Toronto, which is about a four hour drive, to get a flight through North Carolina, to Louisville.  Air travel is the source of stress in the best of times, but flying since the emergence of Covid-19 has to add another level of stress to it.  Merissah did arrive in Louisville safely, though we have no word on any reports of infections among reporting athletes.

You can find Merissah's video here:

https://twitter.com/UofLWBB/status/1273038899623809025

We welcome these players to Louisville and hope everyone is safe, healthy, and getting settled.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

(Timmy the Intern tries his luck on the quiz) 

The whole gang was on the call yesterday.  Paulie and Jared have returned safely from their getaway to the mountains and joined Case and I on the latest Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast.

We covered a lot of topics in this one, but probably spent the most time on the ACC Honor Roll announcement that came out this week.  We did, of course, also have a quiz, with another return to mascots.

Per usual, the quiz was highlighted by controversy and melodrama. We wouldn't have it any other way. Jared and Jeff tied for the win. Can you beat them? Give the quiz a shot at the  link below. 

The CCRH is always fun, and this one was no exception.  Check it out below.

JMcA