WBB Accolades - SB hosts #23/25 Clemson - Lacrosse loses to #1 UNC 19-7; FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FRIDAYS WITH DARYL

Good morning Louisville fans! 

A few things to look forward to this upcoming weekend and a recap of Thursday night's lacrosse match with North Carolina on ACC Network prime time.  It should be a nice weekend ahead for some outdoor events! Take your TVs outside if you're tuning in for the tournaments.  I'm doing my best to avoid them unless it's the in the Cards interest.  The gang is pressuring me to fill out a bracket... still not convinced. 

Let's get right to it... 

Evans Named Finalist for Naismith Women’s Trophy

The Atlanta Tipoff Club announced today that University of Louisville senior guard Dana Evans is one of four finalists for the 2021 Jersey Mike's Naismith Women's Trophy, symbolic of the most prestigious individual honor in college basketball.

She is joined on the list by Kentucky junior Rhyne Howard, a 2020 finalist, UConn freshman Paige Bueckers and South Carolina sophomore Aliyah Boston.

Dana Evans, Louisville

-- The senior forward leads the ACC in scoring at 20.0 points per game.
Evans has scored 20 or more points in 17 games.
-- She has scored in double figures in 25 of 26 games played this season, including 40 straight games, the longest streak at Louisville in 20 years.
-- Named ACC Player of the Year for the second consecutive season, Evans became only the ninth player in league history to accomplish the feat.
-- She made 92% of her free throw attempts, leading the ACC and ranking fifth nationally.
-- Only player in UofL program history to win four regular season conference championships.

Aliyah Boston, South Carolina

-- Boston led the Gamecocks in rebounds (11.7) and blocks (2.8) this season and averaged 13.7 points per game.
-- The sophomore forward led the team in double-doubles (15).
-- Boston made the 2021 All-SEC First Team for the second straight season and was named to the SEC All-Defensive team for her dominant defensive performance throughout the 2021 season
-- She earned SEC Tournament MVP honors for her 27-point, 10-rebound performance.
-- In addition to her finalist ranking, she is a semifinalist for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year award.

Paige Bueckers, UConn

-- Bueckers became the second BIG EAST player to win both the Freshman of the Year and Player of the Year awards (Maya Moore, 2008).
-- She had the highest single game scoring total by a UConn freshman since 2007 with 32 points.
-- The freshman forward was the first player in program history to have three straight 30-point games.
-- Her 14 assists against Butler rank as the single-game high in the history of the program.
-- Bueckers led UConn to both regular season and tournament championships in the BIG EAST.

Rhyne Howard, Kentucky

-- Howard averaged 20.7 points, 7.3 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game this season.
-- The junior guard became the Wildcats all-time leader in three categories: points (455), rebounds (160) and assists (78).
-- She led the SEC in assists (54) and blocks (14).
-- Named 2021 SEC Player of the Year for the second year in a row, Howard became one of two players in program history to earn multiple player of the year honors.
-- She was also named to the 2021 All-SEC First Team for the third straight season and the SEC All-Tournament team for the second year in a row.

Norman Named WBCA Division I Assistant Coach of the Year

(from gocards.com ) 

The Assistant Coach of the Year award originated in 2016 and is presented annually.

ATLANTA — The Women's Basketball Coaches Association announced today that University of Louisville women's basketball associate head coach Stephanie Norman has been named the 2021 Division I Assistant Coach of the Year.

The WBCA Assistant Coach of the Year award is presented to one associate head coach or assistant coach in each membership division who demonstrates commitment to their program, their student-athletes and their head coach; their impact coaching on court; their mentorship and impact on other coaches; and their professional manner and attitude.

Norman, in her 14th year at Louisville and her ninth as associate head coach, has served on the Cardinals' staff since the hiring of head coach Jeff Walz. She has helped the Cardinals to a 382-107 overall record since the 2007 season. In that time she has aided Louisville to nine Sweet 16 appearances, five Elite Eight appearances, and three Final Four appearances, including a pair of national championship contests. Norman has been instrumental in the Cardinals' recruiting efforts, helping sign the No. 1 class of 2015 that featured three McDonald's All-Americans; helped pen the No. 6 freshman class in 2016, the No. 4 class in 2017 and the No. 5 class in 2020.

"I would like to thank Danielle Donehew, the WBCA and my colleagues and peers for this amazing award," said Norman. "I would like to thank all of the coaches that I have worked with, including head coach Jeff Walz, who I have worked with the past 14 seasons, as these coaches have been extremely instrumental in my growth, my success and my enjoyment of the game. I would also like to thank the players, it's because of them that we've been lucky enough to have success. Finally, I'd like to thank my family, my parents who always encouraged me to chase my dreams, my husband Geoff and my children Parker and Cassidy."

Softball Opens series with Tigers this weekend

The Cards will play their eighth straight home game in the first ever series opener with Clemson on

Friday at 7 p.m.

• Louisville (9-7, 3-2 ACC) brings a three-game win streak into the weekend.
• UofL is 3-2 in ACC play and stands sixth in the conference.
• The Cardinals are 6-1 at Ulmer Stadium in 2021.

Taylor Roby leads the team with a .419 batting average, five home runs and has driven in 20. She stands tied for second in the ACC in RBI. Roby has also produced a team-best six multi-hit games and multi-RBI games. Roby is on an eight-game hitting streak and has reached safely via a hit or walk in the last nine games.

• The Tigers are 16-2 overall and stand second in the ACC with an 8-2 conference mark.
• Clemson is currently on a 13-game win streak, most recently sweeping Furman in a three-game series last weekend.   

Marissa Guimbarda leads the Tigers with a .447 batting average, an ACC-best 21 RBIs and six home runs on the season. Valerie Cagle (10-1) has shouldered much of the pitching load, logging 65.2 innings and 14 appearances. The freshman has registered 63 strikeouts and is holding opponents to a .214 batting average. She has also helped her own cause at the plate, standing second on the team with four home runs and 13 RBIs.

LACROSSE loses under the lights 19-7 to #1 UNC Tarheels

UNC's Jamie Ortega had her way with 7 goals for the Heels on the night earning a hat trick less than 10 minutes into the first half. Louisville was lead offensively by Alex McNichols and Ally Hall was two each. UNC was fast.. scoring with about a minute off the clock to start.. Louisville matched before allowing the Tarheels to go on a 7-0 run taking a 10-4 into the halftime break. 

The Louisville defense gave up another UNC run allowing 6 straight goals in the second half. The Cards move to 4-3 on the season. Were there some positives to be taken away from this one?? I think Paulie and the guys could come up with something for Saturday's podcast and Coach Teeter outlined a few in his post-game comments.

Jared was out at Cardinal Stadium for the event, braving the cold wind for some quality shots down on the field that I'm sure will be shared once his fingers have thawed out enough to edit. Perhaps no editing will be required since the reason for at hosting Cardinal Stadium was for lighting purposes. :) Perhaps he's just that good by now anyways! I always enjoy his action shots!

Paulie spoke with Louisville LAX head coach after the match. You can hear that interview at the link below: 

LINK:  SCOTT TEETER POST GAME UNC 3/18/21

CARDINAL COUPLE NCAA PICK "EM" 

So, how are your bracket picks going?  We have this in from our Bracket Czar Jared: 

We have a total of nine bracket picks in so far. Entries from David Watson, Kenny Schneider, Paulie, Sonya, Blue Lou, Joe Hill, Nole Knowledge, Arthur and NickO. 

A reminder that we are offering your choice of a $25 Gift Card to either Subway or Raisin' Canes to the winner and second place gets the card that the winner didn't choose. 

Here's three games that are a real debacle;  

1) North Carolina vs. Alabama. So far, we have six participants selecting #10 seed UNC over #7 seed Alabama out of our nine entries. A strong ACC favoritism here. 

2) Michigan vs. Florida Gulf Coast. #11 seed FGCU is getting a lot of lot from our participants so far and has a 6-3 advantage in picks over #6 seed Michigan. No love for Ann Arbor? 

3) Wake Forest vs. Oklahoma State. #8 vs #9 matchups are normally a tough choice but our participants so far are in love with Jen Hoover's Demon Deacons, the #9 seed over the O.S.U squad with a 5-4 margin. Jeff Walz stated last week he fully expected Wake to get in and possibly win a few games. Can they shoot down the Cowboys? 

                                           *****************

I won't be on the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast Saturday, as I will be out covering Ulmer action for the new series with Clemson softball this weekend.  My 'Final thoughts' would be that I am very much looking forward to the CARDS WBB first round matchup with Marist on Monday night. Let's do this thing CARDS!! 


Have a great weekend!
~Daryl

Cards WBB receive honors -- ACC WBB Tournament Starts Today -- Pick 'EM -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

CARDS WBB STUDENT-ATHLETES HONORED

AWARDS AND HONORS

A busy 24 hours, in terms of honors and recognition bestowed on members of the University of Louisville women's basketball team student-athletes. 

Dana Evans got two national award honors yesterday, being named as one of the five finalists for the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award. This award goes to the nation's top hooting guard in college WBB, and it is the second straight year Dana has been named to the final five. Other honorees are Chelsa Dungee (Arkansas),Ashley Owusu (Maryland), Arella Guirantes ( Rutgers) and Zia Cooke (South Carolina) 

The winner will be annoinced on ESPN, but no firm date for the announcement has been established yet. 

Evans also was named to the Naismith Trophy Semifinalist list yesterday. This award is given each year to the player of the year in college WBB and Evans is one of 11 on this list. It's her second straight year appearing on this list. Others named are: Aliyah Boston (South Carolina), Paige Bueckers (UConn), Caitlin Clark (Iowa), Charli Collier (Texas), Elisa Cunane (NC State), Naz Hillmon (Michigan), Rhyne Howard (Kentucky), Aari McDonald (Arizona), Michaela Onyewere (UCLA) and NaLyssa Smith (Baylor) 

This list will be pared down to four finalists on March 15th. and the winner will be announced the week of March 29th. 

The ACC announced WBB awards as well yesterday and there are two groups that award these separately. There is the Blue Ribbon Panel and the Coaches.

Dana Evans was named Player of the Year by the Blue Ribbon panel. They also put her on the All-ACC First Team.

Dana Evans was also named Player of the Year by the coaches. The coaches put Hailey Van Lith and Olivia Cochran on the ALL-ACC Freshman Team. Kasa Robinson was selected for the All ACC Defensive Team. 

Great honors for these Cards WBB student-athletes ! Our sincere congratulations to all of them and to the team. 

                                           *******************

UofL has a presser scheduled today with Jeff Walz and Dana Evans at noon. I'll try to hop back in here with a link to hear how it went when UofL provides it. 

ACC WBB TOURNAMENT BEGINS TODAY 

The first round of the 2021 ACC WBB Tournament begins today in Greensboro and it'll feature a contest between #12 seed Pittsburgh and #13 seed Boston College. These two will play at 2 p.m. and play for the right to advance to second round action and face Syracuse on Thursday at 2;30 p.m.

A bit of a different first day than we normally see for this event, with Virginia and Duke opting-out of playing. We saw three first round games last year, with the #10-#15 seeds doing battle to advance to the second round.  

The second round remains pretty much the same, with four games, but the #10 and #11 seed automatically advance to thee second day this year (Miami and Clemson) 

Louisville doesn't play until Friday, as the #1 seed. They'lll open ACC WBB Tournament action in the quarterfinals at noon against either Wake Forest or UNC. 

We'll give you full coverage of the five-day tournament here at Cardinal Couple. I won't be in attendance this year, the first one I've missed since 2014. That streak goes even further back, with attendance to the ACC and Big East WBB tournaments.  It's simply a matter of COVID this year and not wanting to take the risk of coming up positive during my six-day stay away from home. I wait patiently for the vaccine. 

RSN has the cover for the first three days before they turn it over to the ACC Network for the semifinals and final games on Saturday. Locally, that's FSNHD -- on Spectrum it's channel 70 or 929. In this day of 10,000 ways to watch stuff, check with your provider to see what channel FSNHD is on. 

CARDINAL COUPLE ACC WBB PICK 'EM

You have until 2 p.m. EST today to get your picks in for the ACC WBB Tournament Pick 'Em contest. As of 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, we had 18 participants for the event, and expect a few more today. 

$25 gift card Cracker Barrel is first prize and a $15 card second prize. If there isn't a Cracker Barrel in your area, and you come in first or second, let us know and we'll try to make a different arrangement for you.  They DO offer carry-out, if you don't want to dine in public yet. 

Sonya and I ordered for carryout the Sunrise Sampler the other morning and it was delicious.  A SPECIAL "SHOUT-OUT" to the Fern Creek location for donating the gift cards again this year. 

You can leave your picks in the comments section today, or email Jared or Paulie with your picks. Send them to

eupherjared@gmail.com

or cardinalcouple@twc.com

One interesting fact from the 18 entries we have received so far is that Louisville is picked to win in 12 of them. NC State is picked to win in three entries. Georgia Tech in two and Clemson in one. 

Have a great Wednesday! 

paulie

 

ASIA DURR A NAISMITH FINALIST -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

St. Pius star one of five for POY Award

( We step away briefly today from current UofL WBB to look at one of the bright spots in the future for Jeff Walz's squad. If you catch Walz in sunglasses...it's because the future is so bright he has to wear shades...)

To say future Cardinal Asia Durr has had an impact on high school basketball would be like mentioning that water is wet. 

The senior point guard from St. Pius X High School in Atlanta adds another honor to her high school career in being named as one of five finalist for the Naismith Trophy Girls' High School Player of the Year award. She is the first player recruited by UofL to be selected for the top award in girls' high school basketball. 

Durr, considered the #1 player in the country by ESPN and Prospects Nation, is also a McDonald's All-American and had 40 points last night in a St. Pius loss in the quarterfinals of Georgia's Class AAAA quarterfinals. 

Joining Durr in the finalist slots are Napheesa Collins (UConn), Tea Cooper (Tennessee), Lashann Higgs (Texas) and Katie Lou Samuelson (UConn).

Durr, quite simply put, is amazing. She totaled 2700 career points at St. Pius...facing double and triple teams during her four years as a Golden Lion. 




St Pius fell to Buford in a rematch against a team they had sent to the sidelines the previous two year in Georgia State Tournament play. Durr fouled out of the contest with 23 seconds left and St. Pius down by two. Buford coach Gene Durden had this to say about Asia:

" Asia Durr is everything as advertised. I've been around 27 years coaching girls basketball and the only girl I can say who is close to her is Maya Moore. Asia is a complete player. She's an absolute fierce competitor. They (St. Pius) run everything through her."

Durr had 52 and 44 points in the first two playoff games. 


Watch the many videos out there online that feature her. Break down her play and watch her "wow" factor. The Cards are getting a point guard that works harder than anyone on the court while making it all look easy. Her sense of court awareness, scoring creation and basketball IQ equal that of the top seniors in college basketball at this point in her career. 

The scary thing is that she's only going to get better with four years under Jeff Walz. A noted WNBA coach commented about her play:

"She's the reason I wish the WNBA had the money to offer a 'one and done' to players . She could go to Europe and pull down six figures right after high school with the skills she has. She's another of those girls that Walz brings in that will wow the fanbase and take the Cards back to the Final Four." 

Pretty heady stuff for a high school senior. And, she's in Atlanta. Plenty of opportunities to connect with two other UofL stars that have made a pretty good name for themselves in their careers. 

Shoni...Angel...meet Asia. Get her ready for the show that is KFC YUM! Center WBB. Asia Taylor...drop by and talk to the next Cardinal Asia. 

And get ready...fans...for pure Durr. 

paulie