WSOC Cards v. Duke tonight -- Who's the Twitter Queens? -- Buckin' Katie -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

SHOWDOWN IN DURHAM


A fall trip to the TarHeel state to many sounds like a wonderful chance to catch the changing colors of the trees, revel in the majestic beauty of the western N.C. mountain ranges or maybe even get in a little golf down in the south east corner of the state at one of the nine courses at Pinehurst or nearby Whispering Pines or Southern Pines. I've had some fun football road trips to schools in North Carolina and make the trek annually to Greensboro for the ACC WBB Tournament and to visit relatives in Burlington and Haw River. 

For the Louisville women's Soccer squad, though, it means two crucial games in ACC competition that offer the Cards a chance to make claim on a high conference ranking and inclusion to the ACC Championships. 

That quest begins tonight at 7 p.m. against the Duke Blue Devils. #10 in the nation and sporting an impressive 11-2-2 record overall. The "Dookies" are also in second place int the ACC and have one more point (16) than the Cards in the scoring system for soccer that Jared explained to you in yesterday's column. The Cards are at 11-3 overall, already achieving more wins than last season with three contests remaining...but getting no love in the NCAA women's soccer polls and rankings. 


If anything, one could suggest a tie tonight (in terms of game outcome, not mode of dress for watching the contest) and not be making a bold or improbable statement. 

These two have faced five times in the series and four of them have ended in ties. Duke has the lone win...the heart-breaker we discussed a couple of days ago. 

Louisville looks to continue the "no goal for you" strategy that they've employed in the last two and seven times, so far, this season. Funny, indeed, how the Cards have the "best goalie in the world" in Field Hockey...i.e. Ayeshia McFerran, but WSOC goal-tender Gabby Kouzelos has a 0.93 G.A.A. average (that means you give up less than one goal a game) and McFerran is at 1.13 in fifteen matches. 

NO GOAL FOR YOU...

Maybe we and the other media are promoting the wrong goalkeeper for "best in the world". (Don't get mad or send contemptuous e-mails my way, please. Just joking around, right?) 

The Cards have multiple scoring threats, who shows up on which night is the question...but Emina Ekic, Brooklyn Rivers,  Maisie Whitsett and Delaney Snyder are just some of the many on the Kickin' Cards rosterwho have the ability to boot the ball past the defender and into "net city". 

In any event, I expect a low scoring one tonight that can be seen on the ACC Network Extra. Here's a link: DOOKIES AND BIRDS WOMEN'S SOCCER 

Oh, yeah....Tie optional.


WHO'S BEING FOLLOWED? 

Facebook, Twitter, SnapChat, Instagram, You Tube, Quora, Tumblr, Pinterest, Google + and Whatsapp. Yes, there are a lot of social networking and browsing sites and apps available for the internet user these days. 

Where will it be ten years from now? 

One of the most popular is Twitter. Do you tweet? A lot of people do, including me and my woeful efforts to put together constructive, meaningful and correct spelling efforts in the a readable, intelligent fashion. Don't even get me started about the "@" and "#" options. 

People track everything these days. An enterprising (whatever) on Twitter that goes by the handle @SkullSparks has tweeted out some figures on the "Top 25 Most Followed Women's Basketball Teams on Twitter." He includes the hashtag #smsports on the tweet.


Nope. Western Kentucky, Louisville WBB's first opponent didn't make the list. 

The Cards did, though...checking in at ninth place. Who's number 1? Why the UConn Huskies, of course. Kentucky WBB beats the Cards with a fifth place finish. 

Does this surprise you? I've included the graphic so you can see who is where in popularity terms. I was surprised that Oklahoma finished in eighth, one above Louisville.

I guess those Sooners are more "trigger/finger/thumb happy" that the Cards WBB fans.

Shoot me a tweet, we can discuss it. @CardinalCouple.  All of the "knuckleheads" at Cardinal Couple have one or more twitter accounts and you can follow them, too...Worldwide's is @CardCoupleRadio, Jared is at @MrAndersonJared and Case goes by @Bstcasescenario

After all, how many cute pet or sweaty locker room and funny GIF's are enough? 



BUCKIN' KATIE

By now, most of you probably know that former Miss USA and Louisville Volleyball standout Katie George has packed her gear and headed to Milwaukee to be the sideline reporter for the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks. I miss not seeing her on local FOX affiliate WDRB or hearing her on Howie's Lindsey's morning radio show LOUISVILLE FIRST on 790 WKRD. 

Katie seems to be doing OK, though, in the land of  cheese curds and beer. I haven't seen one of her reports yet, but with the NBA season just starting, chances are I probably will soon. Truth be told, I'm more of a WNBA guy in terms of viewing and haven't given the Bucks much eye-time since the days of Junior Bridgeman and Kareem Abdul Jabbar prowling the court for them. 

My NBA watching mostly consists of seeing how former UofL Cardinals are doing in "The League". This time of year has me busy prepping for UofL WBB and following other women's sports on the UofL campus. And, that's quite the task.

A story I'll share on Katie and her mom: 



A few years back, me and Mrs. Cardinal Couple attended the UofL Volleyball banquet and found Katie, her boyfriend at the time (a soccer guy named Paolo Del Piccolo who currently plays for Louisville FC and seemed like an O.K. fella), Katie's mom and a few others at the same table. 

Sonya asked me later that night, on the way home, about "Pablo The Pick and Roll"

Classic.

We had fun at the table and I caught a few interviews around the room to boot. Not with Katie, but...upon Sonya's suggestion... I interviewed Katie's mom. It's in the archives somewhere her at Cardinal Couple. Katie was listening intently. My rationale was "everyone always interviews Katie but how often does her Mom get any interview requests?" 

We wish Katie the best in Milwaukee. Below, a link to an article recently published about her.

I miss the double fist pump. We always figured she was destined for more than just local Louisville media. She idolizes Erin Andrews.

She could very well become her equal or better down the road. 

LINK: KATIE GEORGE INTERVIEW


paulie
xxxxx

Thursday Cardinal Couple

THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

(Jeff McAdams covers the past, present and future of UofL women's sports in today's column. Hardly Bill Murray or Ebenezer Scrooge, he still manages to give us a great look at basketball, softball and his favorite...volleyball. I just hope he doesn't expect me to be Tiny Tim in his scenario...)

 

3 Seasons of Sports

Spring sports are coming to a close, that means its time for student-athletes to find other ways to do the work of preparing for the sports seasons of the next academic year.  As we've heard, many of the women's basketball players have been putting in a lot of hours in the gym, putting up shots, practicing as individuals and with each other.

Other avenues of practice and work are available to student-athletes, though.  The college years provide the best student-athletes the opportunity to start working with the various US National Sports programs, to play against the elite players in their sport and to get extra training and instruction with some of the best coaches in the land.

Volleyball

Three VolleyCards were selected to participate in the A2 USA National Volleyball team, Brooke
Mattingly, Hannah Kvitle and Caitlin Welch.  This team of 48 players is selected from college volleyball players who still have college eligibility remaining for the upcoming season.  They will be assigned to four different teams and practice and compete against each other, as well as the top four Premier Volleyball League teams.

To place three players among the 48 total players nationwide selected is quite an honor for UofL Volleyball and is a school best.  Only five other schools had 3 players selected for the A2 program, and only Purdue had more players selected (with four).  Around 250 players tried out for the US National team programs, so competition is fierce.

I'm sure Brooke, Hannah and Caitlin will represent the UofL program well.

Basketball

Basketball, too, has National Team programs in the works.

Three of the "S" squad...Shoni Schimmel, Sara Hammond, and Bria Smith...have received invitations to participate in the USA Basketball Women's World University Games Team trials.  This mouthful is a selection of 31 US citizen student-athletes with remaining eligibility that will try out later this month at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Spring, CO.  A squad of 12 will be picked from the 31 on May 19th to train in late June, again at the USOTC, then will travel to Russia to represent the US in the World University Games.

Again, as you can see, the competition here is fierce, and even to be selected to be one of the 31 trying out for the squad is an amazing honor.

Softball

While we're talking about most of the athletic teams in the past tense for the 2012-2013 academic year, Softball (and Baseball) are still competing.

The Softball team is in sunny Florida to participate in the Big East Conference Tournament.  Play gets under way today (Thursday) at 10am.  Louisville is scheduled to play at 4pm against Syracuse.  While later start times in tournaments like this can shift, there is a significant break scheduled between the 2nd game and the 3rd game in which Louisville will be playing, so the start time should be pretty accurate.  The Thursday and Friday games will be streamed via the Internet on BigEast.tv.  The stream for the Louisville game should be available, when the time comes, through this link.  The championship game will be at 4pm on Saturday on ESPN2.

The Tournament Banquet was held Wednesday night where all of the conference awards were announced.  Louisville Softball placed an amazing nine players on All Big-East Teams this year.

Katie Keller, Katelyn Mann, Jordan Trimble, and Alicja Wolny received first team honors.  Jordan Trimble and Alicja Wolny were unanimous selections.

Whitney Arion, Caralisa Connell, Hannah Kiyohara, and Rachel LeCoq got second team selections.

Maggie Ruckenbrod was picked for the third team.

Congratulations to UofL Softball for on the All Big-East Team selections.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

They haven't kicked us off the radio yet, so we'll be back in the studio live this week for the http://www.crescenthillradio.com/cardinalcouple.html.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Saturday at 11am on 

Crescent Hill Radio.
 

Paulie apparently has a good interview with Softball Coach Sandy Pearsall, so you won't want to miss that.

We do have our twitter account for the Radio Hour that you can tweet comments, questions, and marriage proposals to, @CardCoupleRadio.

-- Jeff McAdams

( Great information from Jeff today! The marriage proposals mentioned above should be directed pretty much to him...his requirements are very simple...prospective spouses should be wealthy, attractive, broad-minded, a sports fan, a beer consumer and unafraid of chimps. Line up, ladies...and it's probably a good idea if you know a thing or two about technology communications and jeeps. Timmy the Intern can get you priority dating status...for a fee, of course)

-Paulie

--

Emergency Laundry Day for Sandy

Young, trainable baby wild cats, laundry sniff tests, field hockey, soccer, volleyball & Ms. Brakmeier

Paul and Sonja have managed to take advantage of the good weather which allowed them to hitch-hike their way to the Louisville/Florida International football game and have bravely decided to leave the web site in the hands of the interns.  As a way to prove to them that their decision was a good one, take a look at the free to a good home kitten pictures.  The web sites contributors met and decided that perhaps if, as little kittens, genetically programmed future UK supporters could be trained in the proper way to support their team (which includes how to properly use a litter box) once they become adults.  Pick one of these little rascals out from the pictures and give them a good foster home so that as adults they will have already learned to support U of L activities anytime the two teams are not playing one another.  Seriously, there are 4 darling little kittens whose photos have been air shipped to our offices and who need good U of L homes so that they can learn to be good citizens once they grow up.  Support our U of L team as without adoption these kitties could be left to the streets where chances are high that they will  become future undomesticated/feral wildcats.

Which one u want?

LAUNDRY TIPS

How to catch up on the Laundry

“Do you use the "sniff test" to salvage clothes from the dirty pile? Have you bought new clothes instead of doing laundry? Is your home cluttered with laundry piles? Will it take several hours, days, or weeks to get it done? Here's some advice on how to get caught up more efficiently!”  Instructions can be found at http://www.wikihow.com/Catch-Up-on-Dirty-Laundry

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FIELD HOCKEY

There was an absolutely wonderful article where the first Louisville woman to ever be  inducted into U of L's athletic Hall of Fame and aka “Ms. Field Hockey”, and formally identified as Ms. Brakmeier, was interviewed by Eric Crawford of WDRB news on September 19 which a couple of days after U of L named the Trager Field Hockey complex's new locker room after her.  The naming was not in response to her 90^th birthday but it was not a bad present.  This was quite an event for someone who arrived at U of L in 1940 as a student who never left!

Her interview fit perfectly into my earlier How It Was Series as she had great stories of what was necessary to create a situation where a field hockey team could practice and compete.  Some would be bitter but Ms. Brakmeier never seems to vary from her role of substitute mother to all who have passed through the physical education departments doors during those 40 years. 

"Every year during the fall season all of us would walk around the campus. It had a lot of open fields and wasn't all built up then, then I'd say something to some of the workmen and say, 'That seems to be a good field there and would make a good hockey field,'" Brakmeier said. "Well, they'd cut the grass low for us and if it was good they'd tell us and sometimes they'd say, 'Oh, that's not a good field at all.' We never had the same field two years in a row, but they were always very nice and helped us find a good spot."

U of L has pulled off quite a switch as it now “has one of the nation's better field hockey facilities, one of the few in all of NCAA Division I devoted to that sport and no other.”

Best of all was her story of how each years uniforms to be worn at matches were determined.  Just in case you are still a bit delusional regarding the amount of support provided by the University, there was no such thing as University provided uniforms. 

"We'd get them all together and ask, 'All right, how many have red shorts, or black shorts or white shorts?'" Brakmeier said. "We didn't have any financial support at first. Whatever we had the most of, that's what we'd wear. And you'd be surprised how many parents would come forward to buy their daughters a new pair of shorts or something like that. And if somebody needed it I could find them some kind of white T-shirt with Louisville on it."

Read these and other stories of How It Was at: http://m.wdrb.com/default.aspx?pid=2705&wnfeedurl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.wdrb.com%2fstory%2f19581578%2fcrawford-brakmeier-connects-u-of-ls-present-to-its-past%i3fclienttype%3drssstory

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CARDS TV

Boo to Cards TV!                            Cardinal Couple’s crack team of investigators

were sent out to determine what caused my intermittent picture of last night’s Field Hockey and Soccer games.  They concluded that Timmy had again fallen asleep during his assigned shift and allowed the transmission units to overheat and shut down.  

Timmy is now officially on probation as an Intern.  He promises it won’t happen again.

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SOCCER

The Women's soccer team played to a 1-1 draw against visiting Syracuse on Friday night at Cardinal Park.   They are now 6-2 for the season.

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FIELD HOCKEY

On Friday Night the Field Hockey team Defeated Georgetown 4-2 who are now 6-3 on the season.

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VOLLEYBALL

The Volleyball team defeated Big East Rival DePaul last night 3-0.  On Sunday they play Notre Dame at the YUM! Center at 2:00

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Rumor is that tomorrow Jenny will be sharing additional basketball recruiting scoops her team of graduate assistants have learned. I hear that internet traffic concerning possible recruits has been congested.  Also Paul and Sonja will be back the first of the week where I am sure they will untangle whatever messes their fill-ins have created.

Sandy W.

 

Your comments on the Walz reprimand...the credibility of Facebook and Twitter

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THURSDAY FROM CARDINAL COUPLE:

-The sequence of events leading to the Walz reprimand.

-Reader comments on the Walz reprimand.

-The questionable nature of electronic following.

WE have received several e-mails concerning the NCAA announcement Wednesday of a public reprimand of University of Louisville head women's basketball coach Jeff Walz for
actions during the NCAA Tournament game against Gonzaga. Just to set a backdrop for the
issue...here is the sequence of events that are involved.

MARCH 26th., 2011
-4:38 left in the first half. Asia Taylor makes a layup to make the score 27-21 Gonzaga.
-4:29 left in the first half. Asia Taylor is called for a foul. Her first, team third.
-4:29 left in the first half. A technical foul is assessed on the Louisville bench.
-4:29 left in the first half. Gonzaga's Courtney Vandersloot makes a free throw. Gonzaga retains possession of the ball. 28-21 Gonzaga leads.
-4:08 left in the first half. Gonzaga scores on the possession from a jumper by Janelle Bekking. Gonzaga leads 30-21.

JULY 13th., 2011

-The NCAA announces a public reprimand on University of Louisville head women's basketball coach Jeff Walz and Baylor University head women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey for events that occured during the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament.

-The technical was assessed after Walz was reported to have used profane and abusive language toward game officials, individuals seated at the scorer's table and on the team bench, as well as kicking the scorer's table. These events occurred after Taylor's foul.

-UofL athletic director Tom Jurich says that the athletic department accepts the NCAA's assessment and that it has addressed the matter internally. He declined to reveal any specifics. He also commented that:

"Anything we do discipline-wise, we keep it internally. Jeff is very aware of the situation. Everyone was very upset with the officiating. There were probably better ways for him to express himself, and he understands it." 

-Walz says the stress of the NCAA Tournament was ratcheted up because of Monique Reid's
injury. The team's leading scorer played only five minutes because of a groin injury she suffered in warm ups.

"I've had conversations with the administration. I'm quite aware of things that I'm planning on working on for next season. Unfortunately, it was a very stressful game having lost Monique. I'm really excited about this season. We're planning on moving forward." Walz commented about the incident.

NCAA Bylaw 31.1.10.3 states that:

"Penalty for misconduct." One of these penalties is a public or private reprimand of the individual." (Even if it takes four months...)

Sorry, but we call "shenanigans" on this move....it could have and should have been a private reprimand...an option available in the by-law.

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So, what are you saying about this incident four months after the fact?

Kerry W. (Louisville) writes:

"This is total and utter bullshit!  Hasn't the NCAA got anything better to do than to slam dunk one of the best coaches in women's college basketball?  What's next, they
reprimand players for chest-bumping after baskets? They're already calling technicals on Kyle Kuric for spectacular dunks. Grow up, NCAA! "

(Anonymous) comments:

"I am a referee. I will take a certain amount of criticism from a coach but if profanities or obscenities are directed at me personally, I call a technical. I'll listen to observations and comments on how I handled a particular play or action on the court and I tolerate a lot of things. Cursing, though, is one aspect I have no tolerance for."

Connie G. (Radcliff) says:

"What Walz did is minor compared to what guys like Bobby Knight or Bobby Huggins have done. They called the technical and they should have just left it at that. To drag it through the mud now is ridiculous. Maybe the NCAA should review that game film and reprimand the officials, They were awful!"

Charlie D. (Spokane, WA) relates:

"I was at that game. I am a big Gonzaga fan and attend all the men's and women's Zags basketball games. Walz was out of control. The punishment fits the crime. You got a good coach in Jeff Walz but he needs to take some anger management classes. There were bad calls in that game against both teams but you didn't see (Gonzaga head coach) Kelly Graves fly off the handle."

So, with this...we here at CARDINAL COUPLE are going to close the book on "Walz-gate". We much prefer to look toward the future and the potential that exists in this upcoming flock of Cardinals. The season should be an exciting one, the fan base is chomping at the bit to get things going and as coach says..."Let's move forward." 

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We get e-mails each day about things surrounding the women's sports programs at UofL.  The overwhelming majority of them concern the women's basketball team. An area that seems to be a favorite with a lot of our readers is relaying comments made by athletes on popular venues like Twitter and Facebook.  More than once, we've followed up on the "he said that she said" scenario with our campus contacts and trusted sources but have found no credible proof that these comments hold any water. Occasionally, they do...but if we were to go with every item that we receive without fully investigating the claim...we'd be putting a bunch of horse manure out there. (Some say we do that, anyway...)

We don't follow anyone on Twitter. Maybe we're behind the times...but as a sports information director once told us..."if it's important, we'll send out a press release."

Facebook is a social network we are a part of. We like to relay, at times, what is being covered at CARDINAL COUPLE to our Facebook firends. We also like to follow our friends and their comments on Facebook. We don't have a large "friends" list on Facebook...don't see the need for it...but we'll usually "friend up" with someone if they send a request and we have a general idea of who they are. We don't go "soliciting" random friends, but we've been known to send friend requests to people we know.

Sometimes, it gets into the issue of plausible deniability or accuracy. As a free access site, we don't restrict who can read CARDINAL COUPLE...and we don't berate aggregates out there who re-post our articles. We do try to exercise caution, though...on dubious social network comments, claims and and controversies. It's called responsibility.

Sometimes, we goof up and ask the wrong question at the wrong time. We've been reprimanded for going to sources or other sources of information by those sources in attempts to verify or get guidance on how to handle an possible issue or situation. Nobody's perfect. Some lines shouldn't be crossed. We've learned some tough lessons concerning this. We've...unfortunately...burned or damaged some bridges because of this. We can only try to do better and gain knowledge from errors. Even Derek Jeter strikes out occasionally...

Where does all this fall, then...in terms of administrative policies and monitoring or guidelines on what an athlete might comment or say on one these networking venues?  Should a university suggest or impose restrictions on what a student/athlete can or cannot say on one of these social networking sites?  Are there guidelines in place at some institutions about the "do's and don'ts" of social networking? Do you believe every "tweet" or Facebook post you read?

Information has come a long way from the days where certain newspaper reporters would tape quarters to pieces of paper and slide them under players' dorm room doors with their phone numbers attached. The question is...where are we headed? Freedom of speech is one thing. The best interests of an organization or program is another. Where do you paint the caution line?

For a lot of fans, it's all about the information. As soon as possible and as much as possible. It's the information age and there are plenty of ways to get it. What should and should not be released, though...and when?

That's a question for greater minds than ours. (And there are plenty of those out there...)
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