Cards Visit Notre Dame -- Softball Upgrades -- Spring Sports Media Day II -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Visit Notre Dame

Ah, one of those games we really look forward to each year is once again upon us.  Coach Walz and his squad travel to the Purcell Pavilion in South Bend to take on Muffet McGraw and Notre Dame.  This rivalry has really heated up over the past couple seasons.

Notre Dame is having a horrid year.  The Irish are 7-13 and hold a 2-6 conference mark.  They are 14th (of out 15 teams) in the ACC.

The two conference wins for the Irish come against Pitt on the road and Miami at home. Not much to hang a hat there...Pitt is woeful and Miami has plummeted since Bea Mompremier hasn't been playing with a foot injury

Scoring just 64.6 points per game, Notre Dame is near the bottom of the barrel in the ACC in scoring.  The 3.7 three-point shots made and 23.9% three-point shooting are dead last in the league and an uncharacteristic mark for Notre Dame.

Danielle Cosgrove

89% of the offensive production has come from the starting five.  Sam Brunelle averages 14.1 points per game to lead the charge.  Destinee Walker (who transferred from UNC) and Katlyn Gilbert have nearly identical numbers, averaging 13.9 and 13.8 points per game, respectively.  Anaya Peoples averages 12.6 points per game and Mikayla Vaughn rounds out the top five with 11.1 ppg.

Peoples will not be a factor since she tore her right shoulder labrum in the second quarter against NC State on Jan. 12.  Vaughn has filled the void since then.

Marta Sniezek (a Stanford transfer) rounds out the current starting five, but has not proven to be an offensive threat this year. Highly sought-after Danielle Cosgrove is in her second season at Notre Dame. The  6'4" forward has contributed little to the Irish attack in her two seasons on campus.

For a novelty, the Irish also have the twin sisters Maggie and Cate Murdock on the roster. Neither of the sophomores have scored this year and have played in five games each.

Notre Dame has averaged over 18 turnovers per game.  The 290 assists (14.5 per game) on 486 made shots is a nice mark to have and shows good ball movement.

Defensively, Notre Dame has given mixed signals.  Allowing 69.3 points per game, they sit second-to-last in the league.  However, their 18.6 forced turnovers per game and 9.2 steals per game are a league best.  They have allowed opponents to make roughly 30% of their three-point attempts.

The Irish have been dominated on the boards this year.  While they average 38 rebounds per game, opponents have averaged a whopping 44.5 per game.

The overall head-to-head record is pretty ugly as Notre Dame dominated the series for a long time.  The Irish defeated the Cards by 14 in the regular season and 20 in the ACC Championship.  The year prior, the Cards took the Irish down by two in the ACC Championship and had the 100-67 party during the regular season.  Remember the three-point buzzer beater by Nite-Nite to close out the third quarter?

The Cards are 6-16 all-time against the Irish, but 2-2 in the last four meetings.  It has been nearly 11 years since Louisville last won in South Bend.

You can tune into ESPNEWS if you're trying to catch this one on TV.  The contest was originally scheduled for "the Mothership" ESPN, but got bumped. Network executives probably looked at this one, said, "Not as interesting as we once thought it might be" and moved it to an obscure channel.  It should also be available on the ESPN app or website for a live stream option.  There's always the option to tune into Nick Curran and AJ call the game on 790 AM (WKRD).  7:00 tip-off for this one.

Softball Upgrades

Social media gave us a preview of the new softball uniforms that came out for this season and they are a sight to see!  Celene Funke and Maddy Newman showcased the different uniform options.

Also, other upgrades include new seating inside Ulmer Stadium as well as new lights.  Similar to the KFC Yum! Center lighting, the lights at Ulmer will be brighter.  If you drive by at nighttime you can see the light poles glowing red.

The upgrades come in time for a season that will include hosting the ACC Tournament.


On a side note, if you're an Instagram user, check out the NCAA Softball page (@ncaasoftball) today to see Funke take us through a day in her life.  Yesterday, Claire Chaussee and Tori Dilfer took over the NCAA Volleybal Instagram (@ncaavolleyball) to show us the insides of Louisville Volleyball.


SPRING SPORTS MEDIA DAY II 

The showcase of UofL Spring Sports continues today with five programs met with the media.

Softball, Lacrosse, Rowing, Men's Tennis and Men's Golf gathered at the Koerber facility on Floyd street. Coaches and players from each program discusses the season ahead and developments with their squads. The activities got underway at noon.

Last week was Swimming and Diving, Women's Golf, Women's Tennis and Track and Field.

Paulie attended and captured the words and ask questions. Added below the comments from each group.  All the squads and their coaches were factual, informative and entertaining -- the 90 minutes seemed to fly by.

Enjoy!

LINKS:

MEN'S GOLF WITH ASST. COACH JUSTIN TERESHKO AND STUDENT ATHLETES 
KEEGAN DE LANGE AND TREVOR JOHNSON

MEN'S TENNIS WITH HEAD COACH RODRIGO DA SILVA AND STUDENT-ATHLETE FABIEN SALLE

LACROSSE WITH HEAD COACH SCOTT TEETER AND STUDENT ATHLETES CAROLINE BLALOCK AND BRENNA SHANAHAN

SOFTBALL WITH HEAD COACH HOLLY APRILE AND STUDENT ATHLETES "FUNKE AND FERGIE"

ROWING WITH HEAD COACH DEREK COPELAND AND STUDENT ATHLETES VICTOIA GOLDIN AND GILLIAN BURNS



Happy Thursday and Go Cards!  Beat Ms Muffet!

Jared