Quick News Roundup -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

It's been a surprisingly busy week for current and former Louisville Cardinals across all sports considering we are in the heat of summer. I'll leave the volleyball news from the World University Games to Jeff for tomorrow, but plenty happened this week otherwise. Let's take a quick look. 

Swimming/Diving at the WUGs

Three former and current Cards took on the world in Italy during the World University Swimming and Diving events. Diver Molly Fears was the University of Louisville's first diver ever to compete for the USA. She ultimately finished 11th. Daniel Sos and Gregory Tarasevich represented Hungary and Russia, respectively. Sos finished 6th in the 200m IM and 19th in the 400m IM while Tarasevich earned a gold medal and two silver medals in the 100m backstroke, the 200m backstroke, and the 4x100 medley relay.

Hartlage Heading Back to Amateur Championship

Lauren Hartlage will be making her third straight appearance in the USGA Women's Amateur Championship after she finished tied for first in the Walnut Grove Country Club Sectional Qualifier in Dayton, Ohio. Hartlage shot a 3-under and, coincidentally, tied for first out of 75 competitors with a person right next to her in the alphabet. While Hartlage finished with a 69 on the 18 hole course, I shot a beautiful 64 on the par 3, 9 hole course by my house yesterday. I'd say I'm right on her heels. Fellow Cardinals Delaney Shah and Lauren Thibodeau will compete in their own sectional qualifier in Massachusetts on Monday. They'll be fighting to join Hartlage in the 156 player field for the tournament, which will take place August 5-11 at Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Mississippi.

Fuehring Leaving the States

After being cut by the Washington Mystics, Sam Fuehring was unable to land a contract with another WNBA team for this season. According to her Twitter, Fuehring was quite frustrated with the fact that she had to get a job when she clearly believed that she should be playing professional basketball. This is a common trend for athletes (the Knicks should sign Russ Smith) and you can never fault them for believing in their abilities. Fuehring's call to the basketball universe was answered, as she has agreed to a contract with Eisvogel USC Freiburg in the German DBBL. Fuehring will join former Cardinal Peyton Siva in Germany, who has thrived in his opportunity in Deutschland. Siva recently resigned for a two year extension with Alba Berlin. Here's hoping Sam enjoys her time across the pond as much as Siva and can carve out a place for herself in the league.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

The A-Team is back in the studio today after a few mix and match weeks. Daryl will be down on the Waterfront getting her Forecastle on (stay hydrated all you hooligans heading out there), but Paulie, Jeff, Jared, and I will bring you the joy and excitement of Louisville women's sports during the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour. We'll have plenty of news and prognostications to discuss, and we'll even have the patented Worldwide Quiz. Tune in to WCHQ FM at 11AM via 100.9FM, the WCHQ App, wchqfm.com, or on Facebook Live.

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

A Look at New Pros -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Former Cardinals Doing Well Early

Today's article (which is coincidentally kind of about success) will be pretty short and unfortunately shies away from women's sports. I wanted to peek at how some of our former fan favorites have fared (say that five times fast) in the early stages of their professional careers. This will be brief and there is plenty more out on the internet about more in depth statistics and about the guys I don't mention. With all of our talk about success recently, though, I felt like this would be a good time to talk about former Cardinals we loved getting off to good starts on the road that they hope can lead to success in their respective sport.

We also will point out that, although this is primarily a women's sports site...many women's sports fans at UofL follow the baseball and men's basketball squads. We see many of you at baseball and men's basketball. 

Drew Ellis was drafted 44th overall to the Arizona Diamondbacks organization. His pro career started off better than he imagined as he was fully expecting to be sitting around for another 19 picks, where the Boston Red Sox had promised they'd select him. Ellis has since packed his bags and headed to Hillsboro, Oregon to play with the Short A league team there. In eight games, Ellis is hitting .324 with two different 3-hit games. Last night, he hit his first career professional home run. He'll need to knock down the strikeouts (10 in 34 at bats) to be sure, but he seems to be seeing the ball decently well and getting hits when he makes contact. As long as his glove continues to be sure--he's got 0 errors in 17 chances at third base in 53.2 innings--and he continues to improve his hitting, Ellis is probably not long for such a low league.

Ellis's teammate and National Player of the Year, Brendan McKay, has yet to suit up in a professional uniform but he has reportedly seen a victory of his own already. Much ado was made about McKay, the two way star, and how a professional team would be forced to make a decision on how to best utilize his talents. We knew that McKay did not want to be boxed in, and it seems as though the Rays will give him a chance to show all of his talents. Brendan will head to Short A Hudson Valley, where there is a schedule in place for him to be a starter and play first base/designated hitter on some (not all) days that he is not the starting pitcher. There is no word on whether he'll be allowed to hit for himself when he is the pitcher, but this is a major accomplishment nonetheless. Brendan McKay was more than a generational talent at the University of Louisville, and I hope that he gets every opportunity to shine in every way he can at the professional level.

Donovan Mitchell may not have come to the University of Louisville had he pursued baseball, but he did get the chance to throw out a first pitch for the Salt Lake City Bees after being drafted by the Utah Jazz. Mitchell has played in three summer league games so far, scoring 15.3 points per game on 43.9% shooting. He's 5/13 from three, has 10 steals, 10 assists, and only 4 turnovers. He scored 23 in his first game, and he may be best known so far for a fantastic behind-the-back-out-of-bounds-saving assist and for putting Jayson Tatum on his behind with a spin move. Mitchell has clearly impressed the Jazz leadership, as he earned himself a day off last night, presumably so other young Jazz players could get a chance to step out of his shadow and show their stuff. Mitchell has looked nothing but prepared for his transition to the NBA and I'm hopeful that his success continues when the real season rolls around.

He's hardly a new pro, but honorable mention goes to a player that is getting new life in Chinese
basketball. Russ Smith recently signed with a Chinese team and immediately proved that his poor showing in Turkey had more to do with misuse by the team and not a lack of talent. The fact that Russ Smith, who holds the single game scoring record in the D-League, has not been given another opportunity to go wild for an NBA team absolutely baffles me. I seem to see another Russ get to do whatever he wants on the court and receive MVP votes for it. Am I calling Russ Smith as good as Russell Westbrook? No, but it would be hard for you to convince me that Smith could not be a significant bench scorer and defender for an NBA team. By the way, the reason I mentioned Russ is because he's averaging an insane 58.5 points per game through six games on about 50% shooting. He made major headlines when he scored 81 points in his fifth game. It's easy to argue that he's doing this against significantly inferior defensive competition, but it's very challenging to argue against 60 ppg. 

There are many other men and women, a lot that have been mentioned on this site, performing well at the professional level of sports and business and fantastically representing their alma mater. For those who have completed their days at the University of Louisville, I wish them nothing but happiness however they can find it and success in the pursuit of their goals.

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

Sunday Cardinal Couple -- UofL vs UofK Recap

Louisville 80 Kentucky 77

-Cards get 6o points from Siva, Smith and Behanan in win.
 

Louisville's Chane Behanan blows a kiss goodbye after his late dunk sealed the deal for UofL

The final score was much closer than the game as a whole. Louisville proved they were the better team, despite the fact that UK nearly clawed back to take a late lead. Louisville's patented defensive pressure forced UK into 14 turnovers, the most important of which led to a Chane Behanan slam with 17 seconds left to seal the game. However, give credit to Ryan Harrow who stayed under control the entire game for the Wildcats and managed to avoid turning the ball over at all. 

The game got off the a fast start with both teams trading punches. Kentucky opened an early 7-4 lead behind and Archie Goodwin and-1 and Nerlens Noel put back. Louisville found a way to answer though, as a Peyton Siva jumper was followed by a Russ Smith defensive board which he took past four UK defenders for an easy lay-up. This gave Louisville an early 8-7 lead at the 15:21 mark.

Louisville continue their mini-run as Russ Smith contorted in the corner to find Wayne Blackshear for an easy dunk. However, Kentucky answered on the other end as Ryan Harrow found Kyle Wiltjer open for a three. Wiltjer drained the three, causing Rick Pitino to call a full timeout at the 13:58 mark with the score tied 10-10. 

The crowd roared as Gorgui Dieng collected an offensive board and finished with a slam dunk to put the Card up 12-10 with 13:48 left in the first half. However, the excitement was short lived as UK went on an 8-0 run capped by an Alex Poythress three pointer to put UK up 18-12.

After this juncture the first half was all UofL, a Peyton Siva lay-up was followed by a Harrell tip-in that forced Calapari to call a full timeout. That timeout was followed by a Russ Smith foul and the official TV timeout. 

Louisville quickly forced three straight UK turnovers, two of which resulted in easy baskets giving Louisville a 20-18 lead with 7:44 remaining. 

Louisville would go on to finish the half on a 16-10 run that saw them take an eight point lead into the half. Peyton Siva hit two threes during said run to really give Louisville major momentum going into halftime. 

End of 1st: Louisville 36 Kentucky 28

Louisville played the majority of the first half without Gorgui Dieng who had to sit with foul trouble. Gorgui played great in his first action since Louisville beat Missouri, but it's obvious he still has a ways to go on the defensive end to get his timing back. Chane Behanan had 11 points to lead the Cards in the first, he scored in  a number of ways and seems to be the Chane Behanan of last March again.

Louisville jumped on Kentucky early, starting the half on a 5-0 run to take a thirteen point lead 41-28 with 18:04 left in the 2nd. Louisville and Kentucky traded punches after that point as the two teams scored on their next 6 possessions. Louisville got the edge though as they took a fourteen point lead, 48-34 into the first official TV timeout of the half.

Louisville pushed their lead out further after a Peyton Siva made free throw was followed by a Russ Smith steal and score. This gave Louisville their largest lead of the game at seventeen points, 51-34. The celebration was short lived though as Kyle Wiltjer hit back-to-back threes to cut the lead back down to eleven, 51-40. This forced a Rick Pitino full timeout with 13:58 left in the 2nd. 

The two teams again traded punches, a Kyle Wiltjer three at the 10:59 mark was followed by a Peyton Siva made jumper to stretch the lead back out to 10, 57-47 with 10:44 left. 

Then the worst case scenario for Louisville happened, Peyton Siva picked up two quick fouls in the span of about 30 seconds. This forced Rick to sit Peyton who now had 4 fouls. After a Chane Behanan dunk pushed the Louisville lead to 61-49 with 9:35 left, Russ Smith picked up his fourth foul. 

Kentucky went on a 12-2 run from this point on, as a Ryan Harrow jumper at the 5:35 mark pulled UK within two points, 63-61. Louisville responded with a 10-3 run which saw them take a nine point lead with 2:20 remaining in the game. 

However, two Peyton Siva free throws were sandwiched in between Goodwin and Mays three pointers. This left the Louisville lead at five points, 75-70 with 1:44 left in the game.

The two teams went scoreless for the next minute before a Nerlens Noel turnover led to a Chane Behanan breakaway slam. This pushed the lead to seven points with only 44 seconds remaining and seemingly sealed the game. 

Archie Goodwin proceeded to drain a three with Peyton Siva providing seemingly great defense. But, Siva was whistled for his fifth foul on the made three. Goodwin made the resulting free throw and this brought the game to 77-74 with 35 seconds left. 

Russ Smith was fouled immediately and made one of two. This gave Kentucky the ball down four with 33 seconds remaining. Chane Behanan jumped the lane on an Archie Goodwin pass, he strode down the court and delivered a one-handed tomahawk that brought the crowd to its feet. A meaningless Archie Goodwin three made the final score 80-77. Louisville got their first win over a John Calapari coached Kentucky team.

-Donny Yaste

Final: Louisville 80 Kentucky 77   

Russ Smith loves waffles and scoring against the Wildcats, he has 51 points combined points in the last two regular season meetings against UK

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