Cards Shock Country-- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Louisville Women's Basketball Makes Statement with Win over UConn

The country was probably shocked when they witnessed Louisville Women's Basketball defeat Connecticut, 78-69 last night in the KFC YUM! Center.  Four players scored in double-figures  for the Cards, led by Asia Durr's 24 points.

Durr showed everyone why she truly is the BEST player in the country.

17,023 fans packed into the KFC Yum! Center for the event, the largest of the season for the Cards and also the largest of the season for all of women's basketball.  The record for the largest crowd at a UofL women's basketball home game is 22,163 vs UConn back in 2014.

Sam Fuehring and Jazmine Jones each recorded a double-double with Sam going for 10 points and 12 rebounds and Jaz went for 13 and 12.

Jaz also dished out four assists to tie Dana Evans for a team-high.  Evans also tallied 20 points including 5-10 shooting from deep.  Overall, Louisville had 13 assists and limited their turnovers to four.

How many losses does UConn have?

Durr went scoreless in the first quarter, but Louisville still went toe-to-toe with the Huskies, tied 21-21.  UConn's 3-5 from three-point range kept their offense going while the Cards spread the wealth among five scorers.  Louisville's six fouls and UConn's five would total to be the most combined (11) of any quarter until late fourth quarter.

Things were evenly matched in the second quarter, but Louisville won it, 19-17, to hold a two-point halftime lead.  Nite-Nite began to heat up.  She scored 14 points, going 4-6 from deep and 5-9 from the field overall.  Surprisingly, neither time committed a turnover in the period.

Louisville still held the lead, and was winning the rebounding battle. 20 minutes remained. Cardinal fans were as energized as the frisbee-chasing dogs performing at halftime.

The third quarter is where momentum shifted into the favor of the Cards.  They won the quarter, 18-13.  Asia added another seven points to her total, but it was the defense that showed its strength.  UConn was forced to go deep into the shot clock every possession knocking them out of rhythm.

The fourth quarter was another higher-scoring quarter with Louisville winning it, 20-18.  Between Louisville shooting a high number of free throws down the stretch and the Huskies knocking down a pair of threes near midcourt both teams found life on offense.  UConn got a bucket 13 seconds in the fourth quarter but then went silent for almost five full minutes, pushing Louisville's lead to double-figures.

The Huskies were nailing shots late in the fourth, but so were the Cards. No losing the lead late here. The overall shooting numbers were not spectacular (38% U Conn -  UofL 39.7%). Dana gets our "star of the game" nod. 20 points, four assists, zero turnovers.

This was Louisville's night to shine with a nationwide audience checking in and the roar of the KFC YUM! Center will long be a fantastic memory for me, Paulie, Sonya, Daryl Foust and all of the over 17,000 who were in attendance.

The Cards still have plenty of work to do, of course. A dangerous Clemson team awaits them Saturday in Littlejohn Arena. NC State remains perfect. Syracuse is coming in soon and they are always a "tough out" for UofL

Not a lot of time to celebrate this historic win but, oh, what a night down by the river here in Louisville !


F-R-E-D Report

Paulie says...."Nite-Nite"

Free Throws: Louisville looked great for a while before having a rough stretch in the final minute where there were a lot of 1-2 trips to the line.  Still, the Cards went 17-24 for 70.8%.  There was also an offensive rebound in there so the percentage can go up for that.  Capital "F".

Rebounds: Add another game to the list of games where Louisville won the rebounding battle.  The out-rebounded UConn 46-40.  More importantly, the 35 defensive rebounds helped keep the Huskies from pulling in offensive rebounds for second chance points.  With both Jaz and Sam with 10+ rebounds I'm sold on a capital "R".

Effort/Efficiency: 25-63 (.397) from the field isn't great but 11-29 (.379) from three is pretty solid.  What really catches my eye here is the 13 assists on 25 made shots opposed to only five turnovers.  In terms of effort I'll quote Geno Auriemma "They deserve it.  They worked their asses off tonight."  Capital "E".

Defense: Okay, so UofL didn't hold an opponent under 50 points.  UConn scored 69 points, which is still about 13 less than average.  The Huskies were held in the teens three quarters.  UConn had zero fast break points and only 11 second chance points.  The Huskies looked out of whack for most of the game due to Louisville's pressure.  To finish the perfect score we see a capital "D".

When one plays UConn and wins, things must go right so a perfect score of F-R-E-D isn't all too surprising.

I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say that this is a game we soon won't forget and will talk about many years down the road.  It was a privilege to cover the game as media.

Louisville improves to 20-1 on the year should move back up to #2.  UConn falls to to 18-2 for their multi-loss regular season since 2013.  Jeff Walz is now 1-17 against UConn while in control of the reins at Louisville.

The Cards travel to Clemson this Saturday (not Sunday) to play at 2:00 p.m.

Caption These

You can catch videos of post-game below.

In these two pictures, one of Jazz celebrating and Walz looking like he's about to break into dance, it was a time for smiling, dancing and letting their feelings loose.

The Cards met the dragon and slayed the dragon .

Jeff Walz post game presser

                                                          Asia Durr and Dana Evans

                                                               Geno Auriemma

Happy Friday and Go Cards!

(PHOTOS BY JARED ANDERSON AND POST-GAME COVERAGE BY SETH SPALDING) 

- Jared -

Louisville women's basketball faces Connecticut Tonight -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

#2 VS. #3 

Geno now

The Connecticut Huskies women's basketball team comes to the KFC YUM! Center tonight for a 7 p.m. game against the #3 Louisville Cardinals. The city probably could have used Huskies and any dog sleds they cared to bring yesterday morning after a snow and arctic blast rendered driving difficulties and school cancellations. 

The Huskies, you see, have no problems driving. Or hitting threes, playing defense or scoring points. They, like the WBB Cards, have just one loss on the season -- a stumble at Baylor back on Jan 3rd -- 68-57. Back on Jan. 3rd, Louisville was still undefeated, having turned away North Carolina 73-68.  The Cards only loss would come a week later, at South Bend when Notre Dame upped Louisville 82-68. North Carolina must have learned something from the UofL loss, they knocked off Notre Dame earlier this week  in Chapel Hill. The Irish are the only common opponent the two teams have in common this season, Connecticut going to Notre Dame and winning 82-68. 

Geno back way back when

So, what does all of that tell us? I'm not really sure, except that -- maybe -- try and schedule the tough contests and foes at home. Or avoid playing them. 

Geno knows a thing or two about the Louisville squad. He's 16-1 against them lifetime, his only loss coming back on 3-17-93 to a Bud Childers coached Cardinal squad 74-71 in the NCAA Mideast Regional first round at Iowa City.  Bud left Louisville a few years later to take the head coaching job at James Madison (back then they were a better program than Louisville) and then WInthrop before retiring and becoming a successful franchise owner of several Sports Clips hair cutting franchises. 

Caption this picture if you want...

What have we learned here? A college coaching career can lead to owning several "clip joints"... salon styling and hair cutting franchises? Geno has a full head of hair, his restaurant business and spaghetti sauce. Coach Walz keeps his lettuce high and tight and has never ventured into hair-cutting (except as a patron), restaurants (except to dine) nor making his own spaghetti sauce (that we know of). Walz was offered a maitre d job at one of Geno's four restaurants. I wonder if they'd let him sit in the "wee chair" during slow periods? 

Geno's streak of win against UofL is impressive but consider that he's 24-0 lifetime against West Virginia, 47-2 against Seton Hall, 43-3 vs. Georgetown and 19-0 over Cincinnati. Who has won the most games against Geno? Let's circle back to Notre Dame, where Muffet McGraw has 12 wins and 36 losses against the Huskies. 

"Hey, is that Coach Walz coming to watch us practice?"

Coach Walz loves what he does, probably had a good night's sleep last night, isn't stressed out about tonight at all, knows his players are fired up about tonight and is looking for a high-level performance out of them. He knows how hard Geno's squad plays.

Walz knows the prime time opportunity ahead of him tonight comes down to one main thing. Scoring. Putting the ball in the bucket. Knowing your role and carrying it out.  

Trying to out-coach the legendary Geno. Not getting blown out early, like last year. 

What does Coach Walz think about tonight? Here's his presser from yesterday: 

LINK: WALZ PRESSER 1/30/19   

(WBB SID Nick Evans "calls me out" at the very end about my game and Coach points out to me that. "Shooters, shoot"...Hey, I wasn't called the "Fern Creek Force" for nothing.") 


BUT WHAT ABOUT TONIGHT, PAULIE?

Connecticut is 18-1 and has outscored their opponents by an average of 31.4 points (80.1 to 48.7) in seven ACC games. Overall they hold a +28.5 edge in scoring in their 19 games (81.9 to 53.4). 


Five Huskies are double digit point producers. Katie Lou Samuelson leads the way with 18.8 a night. The senior also tops UConn with 49 made threes on 137 attempts (36%). Napheesa Collier isn't far behind her with 18.6 points per outing and gets to the charity stripe more than any other Husky, (62-89), for 70%. Both Megan Walker and Crystal Dangerfield have been good for 12.9 a contest. Dangerfield is deadly from the free throw line, 31-33 (94%). Freshman Christyn Williams completes the double-digit points providers with 11.1 an event and sees about 34 minutes a game on the court. 

The Huskies starting lineup is basically a five-guard attack with Collier the "big" in the middle at 6'2". All of them are perfectly capable of getting the ball up the court and leading the fast break.  Samuelson is 6'3" but more guard-than-paint-oriented.

Another freshman, Olivia Odoba-Nelson, has seen action in all 19 games and plays an average of 10 minute a game.  After that, the Irish have four "benchers" who come in to do clean-up in blowout games, all five could probably go elsewhere and be starters...Batouly Camara, Kyla Irwin, Molly Bent and Mikayla Coombs.  

Sophomore Lexi Gordon announced last month she was going to transfer and will toil for Texas Tech next season. 

Five UConn numbers: 

Biggest win -- 56 ( vs.St. Louis)

Most Points Scored -- 99 (vs. Seton Hall)

Best Quarter -- 1st, where they outscore opponents 446-251

Turnovers  -- The Huskies force 16.1 a night and commit just 11.6 

Games in the 90's -- (5) against Ole Miss (90), DePaul (99), St. Louis (98), Seton Hall (99) and UCF (93) 


SO...WHO WILL WIN? 

Why, the team who scores the most points, that's who!! (One of Walz's favorite answers when he's asked that question). 

Ball control is going to be a key tonight. How do you do when you have it, can you limit turnovers and steals, are you able to work it effectively and get open, not forced, shots?

Are you able to play the shutdown defense and how will you do on second chance opportunities? 

The Cards have nothing to lose tonight. Time to "go for it" on fourth down, swing for the fence, pull the goalie and serve the ace. 

Most pundits and predictors are picking UConn to win. It's not a conference game. It won't affect the ranking or NCAA Tournament seeding that much. Louisville has been shutting down ACC offenses in the last five games, yes, but UConn is a horse of a different color. UofL has arguably the best player in NCAA Division I women's college basketball in "Nite-nite". She'll meet two other contenders for that crown in Samuelson and Collier. 


The Huskies are 93-0 in the AAC since joining the league. 108-0 if your toss in tournament play. They won't face a larger, crazier, louder and enthused fan base on the road the rest of the season than they will tonight. How will they handle it?  



ESPN comes in with their "A" team.  Amin, Lobo, Lawson...with Holly Rowe running the sidelines (dressed in blue, whatcha wanna bet?)   

I hope the Cards come out, shake the nerves and just have some fun in a great Thursday night matchup between two great teams. Two teams who were shocked in the Final Four last year. Two teams bent on returning to that "foursome" this year in Tampa. 


I hope "the AC is 'on'", Asia is "Durrific" and "JJ Airlines" is running on schedule and packed with passengers. I hope Sam is a chairwoman of the boards and Kylee, "B" and Dana are representing their "A" games. What role will "Kasa" play. Does Lindsey get a chance to bomb threes? 

It's four probable WNBA players in Durr, Carter, Samuelson and Collier. It's two of the best coaches in the women's game.

It's gonna be wild. The "intro" should be crazy. Make sure you're there early to catch it. Bring your "outside" voice. 


Let's go 81-79. Cards. In a thriller. That's the pick. Be there, so you can tell your grand-kids and co-workers you were there "that night". Get there early, it could be a crowd of 16,000 plus.  Feel free to leave your prediction in our comments section. 

Probably won't be there tonight...

We'll recap it tomorrow here at Cardinal Couple. Hopefully, a" glowing report on a victory type of article".

Then, again, it's Jared's write up. Who knows what he'll touch on. His spontaneous viewpoints are a favorite here at the Chimp ranch.  

We also invite you to join us Saturday. 11 a.m. for the "not ready for drive time" radio broadcast of The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour. Jeff Walz (well, at least his bobblehead) will be in studio with a selectively picked group of audio talent. WCHQ 100.9 FM and Facebook Live. 

The Cards try to match steps with UConn on the frantic treadmill of women's college basketball tonight. Let's lace 'em up, climb aboard and get with it. Pulse and heart monitors optional. 

paulie
xxxxx