Welcome to Cardinal Arena -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

MEET TAYLOR JOHNSON

(Over the next several weeks, CARDINAL COUPLE'S Paulie will be taking a weekly look at the newcomers to the UofL WBB program. Rest assured, we're not serving anyone's agenda here or making any grandiose claims...just reviewing what is new.) 

Louisville must seem like heaven to GS point guard Taylor Johnson after her previous stop...Loyola-Chicago. While there for four years, she played under former WBB great Sheryl Swoopes...who was let go by the Ramblers July 19th. after allegations into her 'unusual' coaching style and mass transfer exodus of players following the 2015-16 season. 

Take heart, Matthew Mitchell. You aren't the only coach in WBB DI that has kids running to the airport to catch departing flights.

Taylor, a 5'7" guard, averaged 15.1 points (#2 on the team behind Taylor Manuel) and shot 79.5% from the free throw line. She led the team with 120 assists. Known as a fierce, lock-down defender in her Rambler days, she ended her career at Loyola-Chicago with 234 steals in four years. That would put her seventh all-time on the UofL career steals list, in front of Jude Schimmel.  

Her 2013-14 season was cut short after nine games after a season-ending knee injury. 

Jeff Walz on Taylor:

"A great kid. Very mature and will bring valuable experience to our program. A tremendously talented athlete with incredible leadership qualities that will benefit our team. She has a remarkable scoring ability, sees the floor very well and has a strong knack on the defensive end of the court. I believe she can come in make a difference right away." 

Paulie on Taylor:

When you get a chance to bring in experience like this for a year, you do it. Especially at guard, which was one of the areas the Cards need to improve on from last year. She'll be a defensive presence and you want good-free throw shooters on the court at the end of close games. Will she start? It doesn't really matter...but she'll be one Walz will look to in finishing close games. We know she did get a start in Cuba. 

She'll prove to be invaluable in helping freshmen Jazmine Jones, Jessica Laemmle and Sydney Zambrotta hone their games and will give Walz the experienced depth he could have used several times last year at guard. When you have options with experience and talent, you sleep a little better at night.

A SIX PACK ON TAYLOR! 

1) She is only the third Johnson to play for UofL WBB (Helen, her and this year's Ciera). 

2) She was the only Rambler to play all 30 games in 2015-16. 

3) She is from Frankfort, IL (which is the same latitude as Barcelona, Spain.) Other notables who lived in Frankfort are actor/comedian Bernie Mac and lead singer for Styx Dennis DeYoung.

(To see a music vid of Dennis with Styx, click HERE  )

4) Taylor led all scorers in a Dec. 21, 2016 upset over DePaul 88-75. She had 24 points against Doug Bruno. (No wonder why Jeff Walz wanted her...right?) 

5) The ACC is the third conference Taylor will have played in. She was on the all-conference teams in the Horizon and Missouri Valley conferences.

6) She had 18 points as a sophomore against UofL in the 2013 preseason WNIT.  They were defeated by UofL 101-54. 





So, is the addition "Taylor-made" for the 2016-17 WBB Cards? Time, of course, will tell...but all things seem to point to her "stealing" your heart (and the ball from the opponents) in the upcoming women's basketball season! 






paulie
xxxxx
  

Are they just Cards or can they be Lady Cards?

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THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE


-Is "Lady" in front of a women's teams' name an issue?


-Becky gets another chance to play string music


-Pat's road trip


We recently received an e-mail here at CARDINAL COUPLE that gently chided us for our referral to the University of Louisville women's basketball team as the "Lady Cards". The writer -- who preferred to remain anonymous when I e-mailed back and told of my plans to build an article around the e-mail -- pointed out that it was largely a southeastern college and university trait and felt it a bit demeaning and subjective to those programs. 


According to Webster Dictionary, a lady is the counterpart of a lord or gentleman. That doesn't sound demeaning to me. 

WE wonder how many ladies
go to this place? 

The e-mailer, who is not from the southeastern part of the United States or female, concluded that two teams in the CARDINAL COUPLE home base -- the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky had nicknames that were uni-sex. Cardinals and Wildcats. So why did fans, writers and the general public feel the need to stick the term "lady" in front of their nickname? 

This nice lady is Suzy Merchant.
She's the head women's basketball
coach at Michigan State.
Can there be Lady Spantans? 

I did a little research and ran across an article in Swish Appeal (a good site about women's basketball that we like to read from time to time) that dealt with the "Lady" phenomena. The author listed over seventy D1 and II college and university programs that had "Lady" in front of the team's nickname. Ironically, this writer didn't list either UofL or UK in that list. 


I also looked at the sixteen teams that have qualified for the NCAA Women's Basketball "Sweet Sixteen". Three of them are officially listed with "Lady" in front of their nickname. Georgia (Lady Bulldogs), Tennessee (Lady Vols) and Baylor (Lady Bears).

C'mon, lady! Get off your cell phone
and move your car! 

There can certainly be ladies in all three of these categories. Mama or Lady Bears can be rough and tough when protecting their young. The Tennessee Vols can be rough and tough also when playing in front of 20,000 in Thompson-Boling. 


We certainly have some great lady volunteers in our nation. I picked up a church bulletin the other day that was specifically asking for ladies to volunteer at the weekly fish-fry. Makes sense to me. Bulldogs can be ladies as well. Even though, in Louisville, we have a high school that has the nickname Male Bulldogs. I wonder if the girls' basketball team there refers to themselves as the Male Lady Bulldogs? (And what time does the mail lady get here, I have letters that need to go out!)

A red storm can do a lot of damage. It is not
a lady (unless it is Nadriah McKenith slicing down
the lane)

Some may equate the term "lady" to the old southern reference to a female. Visions of a southern mansion, white pillars in front and a genteel servant asking a woman in a hoop skirt if "the lady would like another Mint Julep?"  (We hope she says "Yes"!) 


After all, Derby is less than six weeks away! 


Some may think of the term "lady" in parlance of a New York taxi driver...yelling out his window "Hey, lady! The light's green! You gonna go or what?" 


Some may not think of it at all. We call them zombies. 

Boilermakers can be potent. They aren't
ladies..but I guess ladies drink them.

I was taught at an early age that the term "lady" was to be used as a respectful term. "Paulie, you go thank that nice lady for giving you an extra piece of cake." We had other terms for women that weren't so nice. Guys too. I won't go into them here. 

Hurricanes are dangerous. They're not
ladies, though.

So, in the end...can Catamounts be ladies? How about Boilermakers or Sun Devils? I'm pretty sure that Gamecocks can...not so sure if a Red Storm can, though. No doubt that Irish can be  ladies...I married one, but a Hurricane? I don't think so. Sonja has a temper at times but she's never swirled omnisciently over the tree line

Styx did some great songs! Lady was
one of them...

We're going to stay with the description of the women's athletic teams here at the University as the Lady Cards. All of the female athletes I've met at UofL have been nice and people that should be respected...so I have no qualms about using "Lady" It doesn't bother Sonja in the least either. She's been called a lot worse. So have I, and I'm certainly no lady...


Plus, it's a great song by Styx. 


(Got a take on this? Leave a comment or shoot us an e-mail, ladies and gentlemen, at:


cardinalcouple@insightbb.com


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Did you hear the great news? Becky Burke has been selected to take part in the 3-point shooting contest between college seniors at the NCAA Tournaments! We know "BB" will play some string music in this event. They don't guard the shooters in this contest...but maybe they could make an exception in her case and send a St. John's player in...she always shot well from beyond the arc against the Red Storm. 


The event takes place on Thurs, March 29th. at 9 p.m. and will be shown on ESPN. It would be great if Kyle Kuric could take place as well, but we're hoping that he and the Cards are still in contention for a National Championship. 


Linkie below:


Burke will bomb in 3-point shootout


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Finally, we found this long but very well written read from Pat Forde on tournament hysteria. It's not women's basketball related, but we wanted to share it with you. Pat has come a long way from sliding quarters taped to business cards under UofL basketball players' dorm room doors.


Pat and Paul have a brief history. Back in the nineties, Paul sent him a letter chastising him for a negative article on UofL basketball and Denny Crum. Pat sent it back, circling all the punctuation errors and mis-spelled words..with a few comments. This was way before we had laptops or automatic spell-check and it was hand-written. Well played, sir.


Who knows? He may even cover a University of Louisville's womens' basketball game someday...


 Go CARDS TONIGHT!!!Pat takes a road trip is the linkie. Enjoy!
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