Tuesday Cardinal Couple -- USA WBB WUGS get Gold

TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- USA WBB WUGS roll past Russia 90-71

- Corral, Mexico fall in final to Great Britian

- Two days left to vote for ESPY's

It was hyped to be the ultimate matchup. A Russian team that had obliterated its previous five opponents against a USA squad, also undefeated, that had undergone a blood pressure check in escaping against a determined Aussie team two days earlier. Russia and the USA in a donnybrook.

It turned out to be a rout...USA jumping out to a 13-3 lead to begin the game and never in any serious danger while winning the third consecutive gold medal for the United States in World University Games women's basketball.

Offense, it is said...fills the seats but defense wins games. The USA WUGS applied a blistering first half defense that limited Russia to 31.4% shooting and a 41-27 halftime lead

With four players in double figures and shooting 52.5% for the game, the United States led by 24 with nine minutes left in the fourth quarter and Russia never got closer than 15 the rest of the way.

As for Ms. Schimmel...three minutes of mop up play...gathering one assist and taking no shots. She finished the six games with a 4.6 ppg, 3 assists stat line while averaging 12.6 minutes a game. Those numbers pretty much garnered from the first three games...she saw a total of 10 minutes and no points against Brazil, Australia and Russia in the final three USA contests. 

Still, she's only the second Lady Cardinal to ever win a gold medal with USA Basketball...Angel McCoughtry preceding her in the category. On a team deep with guards, Schimmel fell to the bottom of head coach Sherri Coale's rotation..behind talented Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, Bria Hartley, Odyssey Sims, Ariel Massengale, Aaryn Ellenberg and Crystal Bradford. We've expressed our thoughts on Coale's rotation...the bottom line, however is that it takes a team effort to win championships and Shoni's role, although limited, was in a team venue and concept.

Hey...there's a lot worse ways to spend two week in July. Shoni got to travel, practice against the best in women's college basketball and add to her resume. All things that will bode well for the UofL senior as she and her teammates attempt to return to the NCAA WBB Final Four. A quick turn-around for Shoni...from Kazan, Russia to the ESPY awards Wednesday night in Los Angeles...where her 2012-13 UofL team is nominated for Upset of the Year.

Could anyone blame her for wanting to take the upcoming weekend off?

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Louisville women's soccer star Charlyn Corral scored once in Mexico's 6-2 defeat to Great Britian in the WUGS women's soccer gold match.

Her goal gave Mexico a 2-1 lead at the 28 minute mark of the championship game. It was 2-2 late in the contest before the Brits exploded for four goals after the 86 minute mark.

Corral's 10 goals in six matches was four goals better than anyone else in the competition. The senior-to-be at Louisville brings the silver back to campus after a outstanding performance on the world's stage.

Could anyone blame Louisville head soccer coach Karen Ferguson Dayes for walking around campus with a big smile these days? A healthy Corral and Christine Exeter gives Louisville two prime weapons against the competition this fall. We're trying to catch up with Coach Karen for an interview for Saturday's radio show. We may have to check the stratosphere...since Coach Karen is probably walking on air lately...

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The ESPY's are Wednesday night. Two Louisville categories we think you should for for are the best coach and biggest upset. Louisville in each category, of course.

Just got off the phone with coach Jeff Walz this morning, who is driving to St. Louis to fly out for the ceremonies. He'll hook up with Jude, Shoni, Bria, Sara and Nita out there for the show.

We'll have the full phone interview on the Saturday edition of CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO on Crescent Hill Radio. A couple of teasers...

-What benefits does Coach Walz think being a candidate for an award provide for Louisville women's basketball?

-Is it Coach Walz's first trip to the ESPY's?

-Were Coach Walz and Shoni staying in touch during the WUGS?

Tune in Saturday morning for these answers and more words from Walz at 11 a.m.

www.crescenthillradio.com
 
You can also listen to last Saturday's show and previous CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO shows in the archives section at Crescent Hill Radio's homepage.

Also, when listening to the show "live" ... you do have to pick a selection (like Windows Media or another) to hear the broadcast. The preview that plays on the home page DOES NOT automatically connect you to our show. Sonja found that out the hard way last week.



--Paulie

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Monday Cardinal Couple -- Two Cards in U.S. Women's Am

MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Petrino, Andreas qualify for U.S. Women's Amateur

 UPDATE: USA Women's Basketball WUGS win the gold over Russia 90-71.
Shoni gets three minutes of mop up.

Mexico women's soccer finished with silver, Corral scores once. We'll have the full stories in TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE...


Two golfers for the University of Louisville women's golf team have qualified for the 113th U.S. Women's Amateur Championship set for Aug. 5-11th at The Country Club of Charleston in Charleston, SC.

Junior Katie Petrino and incoming junior transfer Haley Andreas are two of 156 players that will vye for the title.

Petrino qualified on July 1st. with a 71 in sectional qualifying at Kiawah Island, SC. She was ranked fourth on the Cardinal women's golf squad last season.

Andreas transfers in from Arizona where she played for the Wildcats for two years. Her qualifying came Thursday with a 73 in Dayton, OH.

It's the second year in a row Petrino has qualfied for the Women's Am.

WE wish both the best in the upcoming tournament and also in American Athletic Conference (we think) competition this upcoming season. The site for the AAC does list golf as one of the conference sports...but makes no distinction bewteen men's and women's sports in it.

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USA Women's basketball WUGS take on Russia for the gold today at 1:30 p.m. in Kazan, Russia. ESPNU will have the coverage. Louisville's Shoni Schimmel is a participant on the 12 player roster.

Get the gold, girls!

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Cardinal women's soccer forward Charlyn Corral will be going for the gold also in the WUGS finals for Mexico against Great Britian. She has nine goals in the games...tops by far for leading scorer title.

Louisville women's soccer gets underway against Vandy in Nashville for an exhibition game on August 12th.

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Don't forget to vote for the ESPY's at www.espn.com Louisville WBB is a candidate for biggest upset for the year for their win over Baylor in the NCAA Regionals.

-Paulie

Sunday Cardinal Couple -- Women's WUGS escape against Australia 79-78

SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- Bradford's follow allows USA to reach final vs. Russia

Crystal Bradford. Who knew?

She was the girl who made the USA Women's basketball World University Games squad that caused us to raise our eyebrows and wonder aloud here at CARDINAL COUPLE. Was a guard from Central Michigan really better than Bria Smith?

What could she add to a team that had Bria Hartley, Odyssey Sims, Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, Ariel Massengale and Shoni Schimmel already in the backcourt.

Turns out, she sent USA to the finals against Russia with a follow-up of her own miss with 14 seconds to put the USA WUGS ahead for good in a game that seemed to be wrapped up for the Americans with seven minutes left in the final quarter and a 71-54 lead.

Meet Crystal Bradford.

Bradford tells the story of the final basket:

"We had an offense that was already set up with a play but we didn't execute it, so at this point we started cutting. I saw that if I cut, I would be open. When I got the ball, it was time to go. I sidestepped and saw I was open. I thought my first shot was going in, so I didn't expect to get the rebound, but it came off and I grabbed the rebound. I knew I had to go up strong. I didn't even want to shoot free throws. And I went up, and I made it an I was excited."

Sims drives to the hoop with the stagger of a
drunken sailor on shore leave.

The final fourteen seconds provided their own drama. Aussie Marianna Tolo took a close-in jumper with eight second left on the clock. It rolled off. Odyssey Sims apparently had the rebound but a jump ball was called, Australia had "the arrow" and one more chance. "Toto" took another jumper. Another miss. Another Sims rebounds and game over.

"Toto" became the wicked witch in the final seven minutes
for the Aussies.

Key fact: Aussie "big" Marianne Tolo only played 21 minutes because of foul trouble. She was instrumental for them down the stretch in erasing the USA lead in the final quarter. Still, 16 points and seven boards. Give her five more minutes on the court and Team USA is playing for the bronze instead of the gold Monday.

Eight points in the final seven minutes for a USA squad that trailed at halftime. Missed opportunity galore...including  a missed free throw by Bradford with 54 second left that would have tied it.


Sheri's hairstyle for the WUGS games
nowhere as nice as this photo.

No, this one wasn't pretty and hats off to an Aussie team that never gave up and gave USA all they wanted in the first quarter with leads of 17-6 and 20-13. But, you survive and advance with a few breaks and Sherri Coale's team gave Odyssey Sims a happy 21st. birthday gift an a date Monday night with powerful Russia.



Plaisance a def baller!

Sims led USA with 20 points. Hartley added 14, Mosqueda-Lewis 12 (with 11 rebounds) and Theresa Plaisance chipped in 10. Bradford ended up with nine.

And Shoni Schimmel? Goose eggs. Never took the warmup off. All we can do is wonder why...she didn't appear to be injured and all of the 11 other girls on the squad saw action. Controversy between her and Coale? It was disappointing to see her anchored to the bench the entire time when the USA's other guards weren't exactly burning the nets up. USA shot 38.9% for the game (28-72) and couldn't seem to buy a three-pointer for most of the contest.

I'm calling you out, Ms. Coale. Zero minutes for Shoni and just one minute for Reshanda Grey of California, an awesome defenser and rebounder? Letting a 17 point lead flush down the toilet? Getting outrebounded by eight? Can we get Geno, Walz or Doug Bruno on a flight to Kazan?



Will the "no-Sho" saga continue Monday?

Nevertheless, Shoni has a chance to get a gold medal if USA can turn the tables on a very strong, talented and disciplined Russian squad.

Game time is 1:30 p.m. Monday on ESPNU and we can only hope that they find two announcers to call it that actually know a little something about basketball. The chimp and princess who handled the USA vs. Australia on-air duties for "the U" Saturday must have been attending their first-ever basketball game.

Another reason why Jeff, Jenny and I need a play-by-play gig in women's sports. We can determine why the clock has stopped, who committed the foul and read jersey numbers pretty accurately.

Whatever. GO USA!

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Be sure and vote for all three UofL contenders in the ESPY awards over at www.espn.com

Voting closes Wednesday night...so don't delay, vote today! We feel that the Lady Cards upset win over Baylor in the NCAA Tournament is the hugest upset in the history of College WBB...but the gals are going up against men's sports' upsets over the last year...so your vote is needed!

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The epitome of tackiness...

Cardinal Couple Radio from yesterday is now up on the SoundCloud at:

 www.crescenthillradio.com

It was a very good show yesterday and we need you...the fans and listeners to support and encourage Jeff McAdams as he tries to duplicate the Arianna Freeman workout we discussed on the broadcast.

E-mail Jeff at cardinalcouple@twc.com and give him props.

And, as promised...here's a picture of my airbrushed hat I bought from one of the 5,000 air brush guys who are set up in Gatlinburg. Don't worry, we have NO plans for offering these for sale. Fact is, we probably couldn't give them away...but since there are no duplicates of this original creation from some guy named Skip...the point is moot.

First member of the Paulie Fan Club...

Skip works at the t-shirt shop in the Reagan Terrace Mall in case you want to make the drive to Tennessee and get your own designer Cardinal Couple cap...or if you want to beat him senseless for allowing me to buy one, tell me how I wanted it to look and then wear it in public.

I should have stayed in the free moonshine tasting store...

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-Paulie

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Saturday Cardinal Couple

SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- WUGS win, Aussies next

- Dunbar on a lot of radars

- Corral stays hot for Mexico WUGS

- Big Wol carrying the hot bat for Great Britian

- Radio Today!

( Paulie is back from the woods! A great time with family and friends...got some trout fishing and rest in and really hated coming back...thanks to JEFF and JENNY for carrying the ball in my absence!)

The USA women's basketball WUGS ran over Sweden after a close beginning 103-72. Gotta wonder what is up with Shoni Schimmel...Sheri Coale played her a scant seven minutes (lowest on the team for the game) and she gathered just one assist and no points in the win.

WUGS take on the Aussies today at 1 p.m. Louisville time in semifinal action.

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We mentioned Kortney Dunbar a few days ago and her blip on the college recruiting radar is getting bigger all the time. The senior-to-be at Edwardsville, IL and former teammate of Emmonnie Henderson gets a great write-up at the link below. Give it a read. WE love this quote:

"That's why I like talking to Emmonnie. When we went to Louisville as a team for workouts I asked her about the workouts and how she narrowed it down."

Let's hope the conversations continue as teammates beginning in 2014.

LINK:

KORTNEY DUNBAR

(Due to my techinal maladies, the link doesn't take you directly to the article. Just type in Kortney Dunbar in the search engine for the site and it'll show up...)

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Charlyn Corral continues to get her kicks with the Mexico WUGS soccer team. She had two goals in Mexico's 3-0 win Thursday over Korea. She has seven goals so far in four matches and is the leading scorer in the entire tournament by two goals over the rest of the WUGS soccer players.  

Mexico faces South Africa in the semifinals Saturday.

Lookin' good for Karen Ferguson Dayes and the UofL Women's soccer team! Keep shooting and scoring Charlyn!

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Alicja Wolny may have graduated from Louisville, but she's still swinging the bat like she did for the softball squad last season. In the European Softball Championships, she led Great Britain to the playoffs and helped the squad to fifth place.

In eight games, Wolny hit a blistering .529 and drove in 11 runs while scoring nine. She also drew five walks.

Great Britian finished 6-2 and just missed the opportunity to go to the 2014 World Championships. Their losses came against Russia and Italy.

The Big Wol still has it...we're pretty sure most of Europe will be glad when she gets back stateside...they probably haven't seen a bombardment like that since WWII. 

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CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO Saturday morning (today!) at 11 a.m. on Crescent Hill Radio. Since Jeff and Jenny have been running the website most of the week, I'll be leaning heavily on them to get us through the show.

That'll probably please a lot of listeners who think I talk too much on the broadcasts.

Should be fun. Drop in and join us, won't you?

www.crescenthillradio.com

-Paulie

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Cardinal Couple Thursday

Whither the WUGS

Not exactly a powerhouse showing for Shoni Schimmel yesterday in Kazan, Russia at the World University Games, scoring 4 points in 18 minutes of play.  We'll look on the positive side and focus on her 4 assists while protecting the ball well for no turnovers.

The US WUGS team has a day off today, though not that we'll really get to appreciate it here.  They play a 10:30am game against Sweden, who only lost by 6 points to Russia to land in second place of their group.  Adjusting for timezones, this will be a 2:30am tomorrow morning (Friday morning) tip for the east coast, which means our west coast readers will get to start watching this tonight at 11:30pm.  Wow, timezones make this far harder to figure out than it should be.

One Month

We're now only a month away from the beginning of fall sports.  Women's Soccer kicks off fall play with an exhibition match at Vanderbilt on August 11th.  They also get to be the first regular season game on the 23rd against Butler.  Other fall sports start regular season play on the 30th, with Volleyball and Field Hockey both having road matches.

Field Hockey opens their home slate of games on September 6th against William and Mary.  Volleyball doesn't make it back home until September 20th hosting Virginia Tech.  If you would like to make the trek to Lexington, matches against Kentucky, Minnesota and Pepperdine on the 10th, 13th and 14th.  I'll be there, come say hi.

Paulie and the Bears

Word is that Paulie has managed to avoid getting any restraining orders taken out on him by any of Great Smokey Mountains bears.  I hear some rumors of some stern meetings with Human Resources, however.  Assuming he's allowed to leave the jurisdiction, Paulie should be back with us for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour.  Check in with us Saturday at 11am to hear his escapades.


Jeff McAdams

( Editor Note:  The IOOBIS...International Order Of Bears In Smokies...has new leadership...a couple of former BIG EAST referees are now president and shop steward. This did not bode well for me, of course...especially during the procedings when I kept yelling 'L1C4!' and 'RED....BLACK...RED...BLACK!' Nevertheless, I was acquitted of all charges of detaining a minor bear, knowingly contributing to the delinquency of a bear and inciting a peaceful riot. On the good side, quite a few bears know the lyrics to "Free Bird" now and have learned 'The Dougie'. I did pick up several absolutely fabulous fruity drink umbrellas that I've shipped to Jeff. Who says bears can't party? Two word of advice....if a bear says he is picking up the tab...never argue and never let Bill the Goat organize a mosh pit. -- Paulie)

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Cardinal Couple Tuesday

TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE



(Welcome to the Thursday Edition of the Cardinal Couple...wait, that's not right.

Welcome to the Paulie's-on-vacation Tuesday Edition of the Cardinal Couple.

Good luck on getting photos with articles until he returns..)

What's the Word with the WUGs?

You know, if you've been paying any attention to The Cardinal Couple, that Shoni Schimmel is in Kazan, Russia playing for Team USA at the World University Games...or as we've playfully been calling them, The WUGs.

The US women opened play with a Monday evening game against Mali.  Sticking with the "W" alliteration, let's say the US wailed on Mali, with a final score of 120-32.  Bria Hartley, out of UConn led the scoring with a perfect 7 for 7 shooting for 17 points, Cassie Harberts of USC (Southern California) claimed 14 points, Tricia Liston of Duke gets 13, Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis also of UConn got 12, and Aaron Ellenberg of Oklahoma chalked up 11.

Let's be honest, though, if you're here on The Cardinal Couple, you want to hear about Shoni.  With 13 points, she certainly earned her spot on the stats sheet, but perhaps even more impressively, she dished out 9 assists.  Sherri Coale credited Shoni's passing and awareness on the offensive transition as well as the team getting more coherence in defense for their success on the floor, which has to make Jeff Walz happy to hear.

The US Women's WUGS team plays The Czech Republic at 8:30pm local time, which is a 12:30pm tip here in the Eastern timezone of the US, 9:30am for our west coast contingency.

What's up with Kellie Young's Twitter Account

Regular readers of The Cardinal Couple, or regular listeners of The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour, are well aware that the head coach of the Louisville Lacrosse team, Kellie Young, is a good friend of The Cardinal Couple media empire, but I do have a minor bone to pick with The Keeper of the Crease.

The official twitter account of Louisville Lacrosse is @LouisvilleLax, which makes complete sense.  Coach Young, maintains her own separate account, which is not in itself unreasonable or out of the ordinary, but her twitter handle is @KYlacrosse.  That's not at all confusing, right?  OK, sure, "KY" are her initials, so I understand where it comes from, and the University down the road in Lexington doesn't field a varsity Lacrosse team so there's no real danger of Big Blue Nation finding her account instead of one for a UK team.  But it did take me, someone fairly well versed in using Twitter and more aware of UofL women's athletics than most, a few minutes to figure out that her twitter account was her account versus an account for some other organization supporting Lacrosse in the state of Kentucky.

We love ya, Coach Young, but perhaps you would want to consider if there is another twitter handle that you could use that might be a little less confusing on first glance?

-Jeff McAdams

Where's Paulie?

As I referenced at the top of the article, Paulie is on vacation this week.  He's looking to add to his fruity drink umbrella collection, but I fear he may be a bit disappointed as Gatlinburg isn't exactly known for its fruity drink umbrella variety.

In Paulie's absence, Jenny and I will be picking up an extra article each, this week.  In addition to today, I'll be writing my normal Thursday article.  Jenny will be writing her normal article for tomorrow and will be back for an encore performance on Friday.  Paulie will be back with us with Saturday's article and for our weekly radio romp on the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour.

(Editor's Note: Don't be so sure...I'm digging the woods and the Yuengling. Someone stop by and feed the attack dogs and make sure Bud the Goldfish has fresh water. Now that they've discovered Broadband out here in the forest. all I need now is a couple of chimps and a golf cart...Paulie)

Sunday Cardinal Couple --Women's WUGS get scrimmage test

SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- USA WBB WUGS' fall to Russia in exhibition 83-78

The 2013 USA Women's World University Games team saw its first action against an international opponent on Friday in a scrimmage against the Russian World University Games squad. The Russian team outscored USA 83-78 in the closed scrimmage held in Basket Hall in Kazan. Theresa Plaisance (LSU) led all players with 17 points...going 5-8 from the floor and 4-4 from the line. The scrimmage was the first time Team USA has scrimmage since arriving in Kazan early Wednesday morning.

We did an exhaustive (for me) search but could not find a boxscore for the scrimmage...so no word on how Louisville's Shoni Schimmel fared. If anyone finds a link or boxscore, we'd love to see it in our comments section.

USA Women's WUGS Sheri Coale's take on the scrimmage:

"It was good to get out on the court and play against somebody other than ourselves. We were pretty vanilla with our approach, but the scrimmage exposed some things we need to improve on, particularly on the defensive end. It certainly got our attention."

We hope that Coach Coale experiments with a different ice cream flavor in the next outing...

The training camp for the USA WUGS continues with another scrimmage that took place Saturday against Canada and participation in the opening ceremonies. No score has surfaced yet for this closed scrimmage.

Louisville men basketball star Luke Hancock was the flag-bearer for the USA contingent in the opening ceremonies. The WBB WUGS will practice today and begin pool play competition against Mali Monday. Game time (EST) is 12:30 p.m. Kazan is eight hours ahead of Louisville. The WUGS will also play the Czech Republic on Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. (EST) and Brazil on Wednesday at 4:30 a.m. Quarterfinal action begins on Friday, July 12th.

USA Basketball will update fans on action on social media:

www.facebook.com/usabasketball

www.twitter.com/usabasketball

GO WUGS!

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WE would like to thank those who have donated to CARDINAL COUPLE...either by PayPal or through the mail with checks. You are helping us keep CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO alive and also maintain the expenses and costs involved with keeping our website going.

If you would like to donate to CARDINAL COUPLE, please check out the ways at the top left side of our website.

We are "in awe" of what individuals have stepped up to do for us after "corporate America" failed to respond. WE humbly thank the fans out there for helping keep this fan site going. The old adage is true...you can always count on the people.

We are a non-profit LLC and the monies we receive from you go directly toward covering our costs for radio, website and supplies related to both. I draw no salary, I'm still paying a bit out-of-my-own pocket and our writers Jeff McAdams and Jenny O'Bryan do what they do free.

Independent. Non-profit. Sponsored by YOU..the fans.

Thank you...



-Paulie

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