Wake Up For Gameday - Sunday Cardinal Couple

 Wake Forest Hosts the Cards

In this nearly-every-other-day game schedule that the Cards have been maintaining for much of the season, the game days roll on.  Today, it's Wake Forest in Winston-Salem at 2 p.m, part of a nice double-header on the ACC Network with Clemson hosting Syracuse at noon. And, for the Cards WBB pursuits, radio always an option on Cards Radio 790 WKRD AM with Nick and AJ. 

Wake Forest is currently sitting just about in the middle of the ACC standings, 7th out of the 15 total teams.  I'll claim the exact middle based on Duke and Virginia having bowed out of playing for the year.

There is an argument to be made that the Demon Deacons are about to start sliding down the standings a bit, though.  When you look at their schedule played so far...well, it's not bad, including a win over a then-24th-ranked Missouri State though of course that doesn't impact conference standings, a split of two very closely contested games against UNC, wins of Miami, Boston College, and Virginia Tech.  With the losses coming to the aforementioned squeaker against UNC, NC State, Notre Dame, and Georgia Tech.

It's pronounced RA-ZA not RA-CA, if 
you  want to try and reach her on the phone...

The Deacs have started a pretty brutal part of their schedule, however.  That GT game basically started it off, they follow that up with the game today against us, the #1 team in the country, then Florida State, Clemson, Syracuse, and the 2nd game against Georgia Tech.  Clemson will be the easiest opponent in that slate, and they're no cakewalk.  Wake also has 2nd games against NC State and Florida State to come.

So who should we be watching on the court?  The sharp shooter most efficient shooter on the squad is Christina Morra shooting at 56.6% from the field.  She is not the biggest scorer, however, with Ivana Raca and Gina Conti taking the one and two spots of that ranking.  A big part of the difference between total points and shooting percentages is the three pointers.  Morra has not taken a three point shot all year. 

Your Becky Burke-esque three point bombers are Jewel Spear and Alexandria Scruggs, each taking about 2/3 of their shots from beyond the arc.

Wake Forest head WBB coach Jen Hoover is 0-6 against 'the Cards
including last year's 75-61 loss in Louisville. She wasn't thrilled. 

Watch out for Conti in the guard role as well, her steals and turn-overs stats are almost identical to Dana Evans for the season.

There's probably not too much need to be wary of shot blocking.  The team leader for blocks is 6'2" Raca with eight on the season.  For comparison's sake, 6'1" Elizabeth Balogun has 24.

The "Deac" is a noted ladies man" and warns 
Paulie away from his gal at the ACC Tournament. 

The only other stat I see that piques my particular interest is assists.  Conti is the team leader with 42, compared to Dana Evans 60, on the year, but particularly of note is that Wake trails their opponents in assists 117-169.  That suggests that the Cards could make an extra effort to help each other on defense and worry less about the Wake players dishing the ball off to others.

Overall, you never want to take a game for granted, particularly in the ACC, but as long as the Cards come out, play their game the way we know they can play it, then we should come away with a win today.

Volleyball Tidbits

The unprecedented spring part of the NCAA volleyball season has begun, though the Cards won't play until February 27th, at least based on currently scheduled games.  There could be some non-conference games that might get scheduled, but I'm not holding my breath for them.

Beyond the college courts, however, the Athletes Unlimited Pro league is getting together for practice with play slated to begin also on February 27th.

AU Volleyball is going to be...interesting.  There aren't set teams, with players drafted each week.  There's a whole scoring scheme that rewards individual players for their individual efforts as well as their current team's success.  You can check out the scoring system at https://auprosports.com/volleyball/how-we-play-volleyball/.

There are several players with more or less direct UofL connections involved in AU Volleyball.

First and foremost, UofL alum Erin Fairs will be playing.

Next, Taylor Morgan, who was filling the UofL Volunteer Assistant Coach role in the fall.  Morgan graduated a year ago from Minnesota, and as a middle blocker was part of the team that eliminated UofL from the NCAA tournament the game after UofL's big win over Texas.

Prime UofL rival for the past 4 years Leah Edmond from UK will be in the league, and finally a big sis, Deja McClendon, who played her college ball at Penn State is the older sister to Maya McClendon who played a couple of years for UofL before transferring to Arizona State.  The McClendons are Louisvillians, with both Deja and Maya playing their high school ball at duPont Manual High School.

So you've got a few Louisville rooting interests in this one.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

Back mostly to basketball, the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast, unsurprisingly, largely focused on basketball with recaps of previous games and some discussion about this upcoming Wake Forest game as well.  We did touch base on the announced volleyball schedule, and we got more good day job news from much of the crew.  Lastly, did we get an answer?  Do seals have ears?  or is it sea lions that do?

Check out the fun below, as always.

JMcA 

Sportsmen's Supper Club Hosts UofL Coaches -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

SPORTSMEN'S SUPPER CLUB 


I was invited to join Paulie at the Sportsmen’s Supper Club last night.  When I heard that we would have the pleasure of having a couple UofL coaches as the guest speakers I couldn’t resist.

After work I headed down to campus and found a nice parking spot convenient to the front door of the University Club.  If parking was this easy at all UofL events I would be one happy camper.  It was easy to navigate my way through the hallways and corridors of the U-Club, despite not having been inside it since my days as a Cardinal Ambassador when I was still a student.  Paulie offered me a beverage so I thought “why not”.

Scott Teeter

 Not long after my arrival Coach Scott Teeter of Louisville Lacrosse and one of his senior captains Casey Madura appeared.  I had known about Coach Teeter before the event, but Casey’s presence was a surprise.  We got to have quite a conversation with the pair as we waited for dinner.  Paulie told us about his ACC women’s basketball tournament adventures.  Teeter and Casey enlightened us with how they found their way to the University of Louisville.

Dinner began, and I must say that it was much better than my cheap, fast food lunch earlier that day.  The U-Club is known for delicious food and they did not disappoint.  I would recommend them for a meal sometime if you are ever looking for a nice meal.

Coach Dani Busboom Kelly strolled in after dinner began.  Her late arrival was due to having an important recruit on campus.  DBK elected not to have dinner after recently having a meal with the recruit, but she did join us in some conversation.  This was the first time that Teeter and DBK had met in person.  Teeter came in at the beginning of January and went straight to work with the start of the season around the corner while DBK was getting some traveling done to visit recruits before spring practices began.

Dani Busboom Kelly

One thing we got to talk about was the departure and addition of players.  Four seniors (Gabbie Wiley, Tess Clark, Maggie DeJong, and Coline Coessens) graduated and have begun their careers.  Kali Eaken transferred out to complete her senior season at Wichita State.  Recently it was announced that Alexia Byrnes would transfer to Youngstown State, where she will have four years of eligibility remaining.  This upcoming season will see the addition of seven players.  There is a transfer that has joined the squad for spring practices.  Six freshmen will make their first appearance in the fall.

As dinner concluded we got to hear from DBK first.  She gave an opening speech recapping this past volleyball season.  Louisville hired Dani Busboom Kelly after Anne Kordes retired following the 2016 season.  The Cards had a rough 2016 year and were voted to finish eighth in the conference during the preseason polls.  The Cards wound up taking the ACC title and receiving the automatic qualification to the NCAA Tournament.

Casey Madura

She then took questions from the members of the club and was happy to answer any and every question.  As a member of the sports media realm I often forget that some of what is just expected of me to know is not always common knowledge for the average fan.  Here are a few answers to questions we heard from Dani Busboom Kelly:


-Volleyball has 12 full scholarships each year that can be renewed or revoked the next season.  They do not do partial scholarships.

-A libero is a defensive specialist that only plays back line and can sub in and out at will.

-Some of the potentials leaders for the 2018 team include Molly Sauer, Melanie McHenry, and Wilma Rivera.

-Recruiting for collegiate level of volleyball can start as early as eighth grade.  There is a new rule that will be voted on later this year that would prevent coaches from recruiting players before their junior year of high school.

After DBK finished her Q&A and went back to continue a visit with a recruit,  Scott Teeter took the podium.  Teeter gave us insight into his background and what it was like coming to Louisville.  Teeter spent many years at his alma mater, Canisius College, making the mid-level school become a respected program.  Besides being the head coach at the collegiate level Teeter is also the Canadian National Team coach, where he has earned gold and silver medals.  This is also how he was able to connect with Cardinal Forever Kay Morrissette.

Teeter brought Casey Madura to the posium with him and she had nothing but high praises for her new coach.  She talked about how well the team got along with the new coach immediately.  Casey told us how the torn ACL set her back this season and how she will come to a tough decision next year if she will choose to play a red-shirt senior season or if she will accept a job up in the Big Apple. 

We then learned of some news that caused the room to fall silent.  Casey recently found out that she had thyroid cancer.  Thankfully, she was able to have emergency surgery to remove the thyroid and is now cancer free, a statement that brought the largest applause of the evening.

The floor was then opened for Q&A.  Here are some answers we heard from Teeter and Casey:

-Despite having 12 players on the field for each team most of the time 7v7 because of the lines and dividers on the field.

-The ACC is the toughest of all lacrosse conferences with nearly every team currently being ranked.  They also own the most NCAA Championships.

-Most big recruits come from the east coast, where lacrosse has been popular for a while.

-Lacrosse is one of the fastrst growing sports around the world.  In the US there are now almost 120 schools in the NCAA with a lacrosse program.

-You cannot recruit for college lacrosse until September 1 of a player’s junior year of high school.

Following the conclusion of the speakers everyone departed while Paulie and I stayed behind to socialize with Teeter and Casey a little longer.  Besides the official athletics representatives, Cardinal Couple is the only media to cover Louisville Lacrosse, and they have been extremely grateful for that.

If I haven’t lost you yet there’s a few things this weekend going on. 

-Softball begins their second weekend of home games in the Cardinal Classic.  They host Bradley and UMass today.

- Track and Field starts the first day of the indoor championships.

For more about these sports and the other women’s sports at UofL make sure to tune into the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour tomorrow morning.  I will be back at the bank, but you’ll get to hear the voices of Paulie, Worldwide, and Case.

Happy Friday and Go Cards!

Jared

Tuesday Cardinal Couple

The Ridiculously Early Worldwide Season Analysis

The fall season for sports is barely underway for soccer and not officially underway for field hockey and volleyball yet at all, but we have had a chance to see all of these teams on their respective fields of play, so it's time for a ridiculously early analysis of what we've seen.

Field Hockey

Justine Sowry's stick squad has two exhibition competitions to base our observations on.  First a Saturday mid-day tilt against Iowa, who finished last season in 18th in the RPI, missing the 19 team cut for the NCAA tournament.  Nonetheless, the Hawkeyes traditionally have put up some reasonable competition, but it wasn't to be found Saturday.

Midfielder Elisa "Chili" Garcia

A 4-0 win in regulation surely inflated the expectations of the Trager Defenders.  This heightened expectation would have only been slightly dimmed by Iowa's sudden victory goal in the 7v7 overtime session that they played despite a non-tied regulation outcome.  The  3-1 victory in the 1v1 shootout also would have served to encourage the team as well.

The next day saw the alumnae return to the field and a bit of a deflation of that excitement.  Sowry thought the team came out flat (listen to the radio show Saturday for the comments), and an early goal by the alumnae may have brought the competition back into focus for the current team.  Conditioning certainly helped as well as the current squad went on to thoroughly control the second half with a winning score of 7-1

What We Saw

We saw a team that plays a solid defense and makes chances on offense...a good basic recipe for a solid season result.

We did see some minor problems on penalty corners, though.  Specifically we saw some technique issues on stopping the ball inbounded from the baseline hashmark.  Ideally, the ball gets stopped and then hit by another player, either at the goal, or over to another player or two to take a shot.  Several times in the two games, however, the ball popped up into the air when it was stopped.  This drastically limits the options on the attack, and unsurprisingly, the team did not score on these bobbled attempts.  This is an issue that should be readily resolved with some targeted practice on the technique.

We have an excellent 1v1 goalkeeper in case of shootouts in Ayeisha McFerran, which also translates into defense of fast breaks, which I don't think we'll see much of, but it's good to know that we have a GK that can handle them.

A Reasonable Goal

Elite Eight, or Final Four appearance

Soccer

With two exhibition games completed as well as two regulation games in the books, we may have the best sense of where the soccer team is.

A crazy goal at Northern Kentucky handed the team an exhibition loss, so we'll put that one aside for a moment.  A good pre-season win against IU is encouraging, and a 2-1 win over Wright State in the season opener is also encouraging.  The second regulation game saw a very good Washington team get the 2-1 win.

What We Saw

We saw a team that creates some real chances on offense with reasonable protection on defense.  This is, clearly, an overall young team, but there is some leadership to help out.

Senior Forward Casey Whitfield

It's fantastic to have senior Casey Whitfield back, and she has already proven her value with several assists, but has yet to find the back of the net herself.  A mere 2-1 win over Wright State may sound a bit disappointing, but there was a significant barrage of shots that technically weren't on goal, but bounced off of the posts and crossbar.  Keep that up, and points will start showing up on the scoreboard.

This team has some potential this year.  I'm not going to hold my breath for a national championship, but we should see a better outcome than last year, and that's the definition of progress.

A Reasonable Goal

Return to the NCAA tournament.  Win a tournament game.

Volleyball

We've got the least data on volleyball, with only an intra-squad scrimmage in the rear-view mirror.  That also means any scores are pretty much meaningless as players switch back and forth between the two sides of the competition pretty much on every play in the Red & Black Scrimmage.

So, let's get directly to...

What We Saw

Passing and digging was much improved over what we saw last year.  We already had some evidence that this was the case based on some interviews and getting to see an early practice, but it's encouraging to see it in person in more of a game-type of setting.

We also saw, however, a number of service errors, and some hitting errors as well that need to get cleaned up if we're going to have a strong season.

A few things that I saw that I really liked...we have three left-handers on the squad, which gives other teams a different and slightly unusual look to attacks that can throw off their spacing a bit.  Southpaws also tend to put a bit of a different spin on serves, which can cause the other team some problems.  Speaking of serving, I saw Gabbie Wiley, one of the lefties, serving a jump serve in pre-season practice last year, but she didn't use in during the season.  I saw more work on it in pre-season practice this year, and she brought it out for the scrimmage.  I'm hopeful we'll see it during the season as well.

Freshman Right Side and Setter Morgan Miller

Freshman Morgan Miller, also a leftie, looks pretty good on the right side, and is a competent setter as well, so I would expect to see her on the court in that right side position and giving the squad almost a double-setter look.  Might we even see Katie George take a swing if Miller has to take the set?  It's possible.  Incidentally, the other leftie is our backup true setter Kali Eaken.

Erin Fairs and Maya McClendon both can play full rotation as left side and back-row attackers which makes for more balance in the attack, and more options for our setters.  Our middles, primarily Tess Clark and Maggie DeJong are just as amazing as they were last year.

A Reasonable Goal

Return to the NCAA tournament.  Maybe a sweet sixteen appearance.

Sunday Cardinal Couple - Spring Volleyball, Softball, and Track and Field

(Laptop Down!  I'm pinch-writing for Paulie as his laptop has decided to call it quits.  So now is the time to give him a hard time in the comments, while he'll have a very difficult time responding from his phone.  Paulie hopes to be back in the driver's seat tomorrow.  Updates to come.)

Softball Takes Down the Seminoles

Two of the three games of this weekend's series in Softball against Florida State are being televised by ESPNU.  The Cards fielding probably made ESPNU regret not covering last night's game.

The score, 1-0 might make you think this one was a pitcher's duel, and there was some pretty good pitching, with Maryssa Becker going the full game in the circle for The Cards, but the real story of this game was the fielding.  From the speedster Jordan McNary running down a fly ball in left field; to Allison Szydlowski catching the strike-out pitch and picking off the runner trying to steal second; to Brittany Sims with a sliding catch at second, popping up, turning, and getting the throw to first; to Tiarra Sanabria with a very athletic jump to catch a hard hit ball that was headed to the right field fence, and getting the fly out; to Whitney Arion catching a one hop, stepping on second, and getting the throw over to 1st for a double play to end the game; this was a game with some spectacular fielding.  Florida State had their share of plays that made you say, "Wow" as well.

The fielding combined with generally good pitching contributed to the combined 16 runners left on the bases during the game, 9 of them for FSU, and 7 for UofL, making it hard to get strings of hits together.  Louisville was helped out by a couple of errors by FSU at critical times, including one that got the only scorer of the game, Hailey Smith, on base.  A pair of fielder's choice plays advanced her to third, and a solid bouncer out to center by Brittany Sims brought her home.

The series continues this evening at 7 at Ulmer Stadium.  This one will be on ESPNU.  While all of the normal camera setup will be there, the commentators and play-by-play will be done out of Connecticut from the video feeds, so come out to Ulmer to get the full experience, or watch @CardCoupleRadio for my live tweeting to help fill in what they're not getting.

Volleyball Beats The Illini

Illinois came to town for a spring match in volleyball at Cardinal Arena on campus and ran into a rejuvenated Cardinal Wide-net squad.

In front of a crowd of around 700, many of which were club volleyballers in town for a huge Junior Volleyball Association (JVA) tournament at The Fairgrounds, the UofL Volleyball squad beat Illinois 3-1.  The 3:30 start time was picked to fit into the afternoon break between sessions of the JVA tournament.

During the regular season play in the fall, defense had been the real bugaboo for this Cards team with defensive coverage being lacking, and passing and digging being erratic and frequently off-target.  For the most part, those woes were gone, with the passing being crisp and on-target and no major openings being exploited by a good Illinois team, a team that ended the fall season ranked 11th.  Impressively, the defensive revival occurred with a short-handed defense on the Cards squad.  Courtney Robison, the graduating senior who played at DS was not playing with the team.  Gabbie Wiley, who came on in the late season and surprised nearly everyone with her excellent play in the Libero position after Roxanne McVey came down with mono, was also not present as she was back home attending a funeral.  That left the defense mostly consisting of Roxanne McVey playing Libero, and full rotation play from Maya McClendon, Janelle Jenkins, and Erin Fairs.  We did see some time at Defensive Specialist by Eleni Georgiafandis, who acquitted herself quite well, with several good digs and critical passes.

On offense, the freshmen middle hitting duo dynamos of Tess Clark and Maggie DeJong continued to show why they quickly became some of the favorite players of the Cards fans in the fall.  The Cards haven't had a great deal of blocking since Gwen Rucker and Lola Arslanbekova graduated a couple of years ago, but the middles, combined with the do-everything Katie George and the all-arounds mentioned above, put some ferocious blocks on a quite tall and powerful Illinois team.

Perhaps the most clutch performance of the afternoon came from the PA announcer, though.  Yours truly got pressed into service at the last minute to announce the game, and I must say, I may have found my new calling.  In all seriousness, though, while I think I did an acceptable job, Sean Moth's job is not in any sort of jeopardy.

The Volleyball team finishes spring play this afternoon at 3:30 against in-state rival Kentucky.  This one is again at Cardinal Arena, and admission is free.

Speaking of Gwen and Lola...

The pair have been playing professional volleyball on the same team for Targoviste in Romania.  They have reached the championships of their league.  They will have matches on the 16th, 17th and 25th for the championship series.

Shot Put Victory by One of Our Favorites

A quick congratulations to Emmonnie Henderson in winning the shot put at the ACC/Big Ten Track and Field Challenge at Cardinal Park with a throw of 51' 6 1/4".  E also placed second in the discus by hurling it 171' 4".

Also winning in T&F was Maggie Gilbertson in the High Jump, clearing 5' 5 3/4" 

JMcA/Worldwide/PA Announce Extraordinaire

Monday Cardinal Couple

Big Monday Game in Basketball

In what is certainly one of the biggest games of the year for Women's Basketball, UofL plays one of the perennial powerhouses in Women's Basket in Notre Dame.  This one is in South Bend and is the ESPN2 Big Monday game with a seven o'clock tip.

I doubt we have to do too much scouting for Notre Dame as their lineup is pretty well known to the Louisville faithful.  The biggest threat is likely 5'10" Junior sensation Jewell Loyd, but Notre Dame isn't a one-hit wonder in the guard position, with Loyd being joined with Senior Madison Cable (5'11").

You never want to play a powerhouse team after they come off an upset loss, and we narrowly avoided that with Notre Dame squeaking out a win over Georgia Tech.  The final score was 10 points, but the game was much closer overall.  Notre Dame trailed 34-33 at the half and with as little as 11 minutes left in the game, the scored was knotted up at 51.  Jewell Loyd scored 31, with no other Irish achieving double-digits.  Cable was the next highest scorer with 9.

I'll be in attendance, and hope to get some post-game comments from Coach Walz.

Tennis Loses a Heartbreaker

Tennis matched up against North Texas Sunday in a match that turned out to be quite a nail-biter.  The serve and volley youngsters were tied at three points apiece with Ellie Stokes playing a third set in the last running match.  Unfortunately the Birmingham England Sophomore was unable to pull out the match and the Cards dropped the overall match 4-3.

The Cards got the doubles point to start out with two of the three wins with Ellie Stokes and Freshman Ariana Rodriguez getting a win, and Freshman Jessie Lynn Paul teaming up with the lone Senior on the squad, Manuela Velasquez to clench the doubles point.

In the singles matches, Jessie Lynn Paul and Sophomore Olivia Boesing picked up points.

Tennis takes to the Southeast roadways next with trips to NC State, Duke (this time, it counts in conference), Georgia Tech, and Clemson.  They return to the Bass-Rudd for a 4pm Friday start on March 13th against Wake Forest, and a 11am Sunday start versus North Carolina.

A Correction

Yesterday I mentioned the large contingent of Volleyball Cards invading Colorado Springs for the USA Volleyball tryouts, but the invasion was larger than even I realized as Maya McClendon also made the trip.

- JMcA

This Week's Laundry is Mixed Load

TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

( Back from her trip to Bayou Country, Sandy Walker returns today to share her laundry list all things UofL sports relevant. The University of Louisville womens' basketball team plays Rutgers tonight in the KFC YUM! Center at 7 p.m. in BIG EAST action. Both teams are coming off of conference-opening losses, Louisville to DePaul and Rutgers to St. John's. Should be a good one...Rutgers center Monique Oliver coming off a sprained ankle. See you at the YUM! Jenny will have the recap Tuesday night/Wednesday morning)

VOLLEYBALL

Volleyball signee, Maya McClendon, was named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA seventh annual Under Armour Girls High School All-America Teams.  Check out details at http://www.gocards.com/sports/w-volley/spec-rel/121412aaa.html .

 

SOFTBALL

 

This year’s Bullpen Dinner will feature Olympian Danielle Lawrie as the keynote speaker. The annual dinner will be held in the Regency Ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on Saturday January 26 at 7:30 p.m.   You can find out now to be a part of the celebration by checking out http://www.gocards.com/sports/w-softbl/spec-rel/121012aab.html .

 

*******************************************************************************************

 

LACROSSE

 

By a vote of the players the lacrosse team has again named the trio of Katie Oliverio, Monica Negron and Janaye Dzikewich as this year’s captains.

 

************************************************************************************

 

WOMEN’S HOOPS ON TV


 

THIS WEEK PER NCAA.COM

Tuesday	Rutgers at Louisville	CBS SN	7 p.m.
	Detroit at Green Bay	horizonleague.com	8 p.m.
	Utah vs. Colorado	Pac-12 Network	8 p.m.
	Stanford vs. California	Pac-12 Network	10 p.m.
Wednesday	Texas at West Virginia	WVUSports.com	7 p.m.
	Oklahoma at TCU	FSSW Plus	8 p.m.
	Cleveland State at Illinois-Chicago	horizonleague.com	5:30 p.m.
	Kansas State at Texas Tech	FSSW	8 p.m.
Thursday	Virginia at Georgia Tech	ESPN3	7 p.m.
	Wake Forest at Florida State	ESPN3	7 p.m.
	North Carolina at North Carolina State	ACCDN/YT	7 p.m.
	Eastern Washington at Northern Arizona	NAU-TV	8:35 p.m.
	Iowa at Wisconsin	BTN	8:30 p.m.
	Illinois at Northwestern	BTN.com	8 p.m.
	Nebraska at Indiana	BTN	6:30 p.m.
	Wright State at Milwaukee	horizonleague.com	8 p.m.
	Central Michigan at Toledo	STO	7 p.m.
	Texas A&M at Kentucky	FSN	6 p.m.
	Missouri at Tennessee	SPSO	8 p.m.
	Florida at Mississippi State	SUN	8 p.m.
	Georgia at Alabama	CSS	9 p.m.
	A&M-Corpus Christi at McNeese State	ESPN3	6:30 p.m.
	Louisiana-Monroe at Troy	Sun Belt Network	1 p.m.
	Seattle at New Mexico State	AggieVision	8:30 p.m.
Friday	Washington State vs. Southern California	Pac-12 Network	11 p.m.
Saturday	Villanova at Pittsburgh	BETV	6 p.m.
	Portland State at Northern Arizona	NAU-TV	8:35 p.m.
	West Virginia at Kansas State	FSN	4 p.m.
	TCU at Iowa State	Cyclones TV	7 p.m.
	Texas Tech at Oklahoma	SSTV web stream	8 p.m.
	Detroit at Cleveland State	horizonleague.com	2 p.m.
	Youngstown State at Valparaiso	horizonleague.com	2:35 p.m.
	Wright State at Green Bay	horizonleague.com	3 p.m.
	Illinois-Chicago at Loyola Chicago	horizonleague.com	3 p.m.
	FIU at UALR	Sun Belt Network	2 p.m.
	Pepperdine at BYU	BYUtv	4 p.m.
	Idaho at New Mexico State	AggieVision	8:30 p.m.
Sunday	Boston College at Clemson	RSN	1 p.m.
	Georgia Tech at North Carolina	ESPN3	2 p.m.
	Miami (Fla.) at Florida State	RSN	3 p.m.
	Fordham at Charlotte	CBS SN	2 p.m.
	Rutgers at Notre Dame	ESPNU	3:30 p.m.
	Wisconsin at Michigan	BTN	2 p.m.
	Michigan State at Illinois	BTN	4 p.m.
	Nebraska at Penn State	ESPN2	2 p.m.
	Oklahoma State at Texas	FSN	12:30 p.m.
	Baylor at Kansas	FSN	2:30 p.m.
	Southern Miss at Memphis	FSN	4:30 p.m.
	Toledo at Bowling Green	STO	2 p.m.
	San Diego State at Colorado State	CBS SN	5 p.m.
	Ohio State vs. Arizona State	Pac-12 Network	3 p.m.
	Colorado vs. Utah	Pac-12 Network	5 p.m.
	Lafayette at Navy	CBS SN	12 p.m.
	Tennessee at Florida	ESPNU	11:30 a.m.
	South Carolina at Georgia	CSS	1 p.m.
	Kentucky at Missouri	ESPNU	1:30 p.m.
	Alabama at Ole Miss	SPSO	2:30 p.m.

**********************************************************************************

 

BASKETBALL

RUTGERS AHEAD

 

The women will host Rutgers at home tonight at 7:00

Tonight one of my favorite coaches comes to town bringing with her a Rutgers University squad which represents one of 3 distinct schools which she has brought to NCAA final 4 contests.    At times I think Vivian Stringer is one of the lesser known still active women's basketball  "foundation" and coaches.    Any lack of notoriety is due not to a lack of accomplishments or caring but instead to her more quiet and stoic outward appearance under which radiates the fire of a competitor and champion.  To it we are truly privileged to have such a remaining active icon of the sport coming to our arena.

Through life she has faced and overcome multiple personal challenges and tragedies in the same way she teaches her players to handle and overcome issues.     Her addressing of challenges began as far back as 1955 when she legally fought and defeated her high school which had refused her as a cheerleader because she was black.     Adversity has continued to arise through severe medical issues of a child, the unexpected death of a husband and a media firestorm as late as 2007 when Don Imus, on his radio show, made derogatory racial remarks about her successful Rutgers team.   

She is currently the 3rd most winning coaches in women's basketball history and is leading all active NCAA women's basketball coaches.   While achieving this level of success her quiet but powerful on and off the court demeanor causes her to also be known and thought of by her players as their 2nd, and for a few their first, mom for their lifetimes.

With this history no one should under estimate any team she brings to town.  While this year’s team may not appear to be one of her strongest threats it would be foolish to take them lightly.  They come to tonight's nationally broadcast game, on the CBS sports network, with a Sunday 4 point loss to St John's in a contest similar to Louisville's Saturday loss to DePaul where they fought back from a major point deficit only to come up a bit short in the end.   This makes both teams hungry and eager for a contest which would restore their credibility.   The ending story in the Rutgers loss is a particularly sore point as after battling back to a 2 point game with less than a minute left, a referee mistakingly indicated the St John's player had a 2 shot foul where a 1& 1 was correct.  After a missed first shot, the error was discovered and the player was given a chance, and was successful, in hitting the 1 & 1 in a do-over which sealed the win for St John's.   I think this unfortunate situation, which ended their 9 game home winning streak, might create a greater than normal desire for a comeback win.  

The Scarlet Knights high scoring threats in Big East play have been Sophomore Betnijah Laney  and Senior Erica Wheeler while 6'2" F/C Monique Oliver's 11.1 ppg. average leads the team in scoring for the season. This could provide an exciting match-up with Louisville's Sara Hammond.      See you at the pre-game warm ups.   

**********************************************************************

BIG EAST BASKETBALL NEWS
 

There is hope for all as on Saturday Notre Dame showed a national television audience that currently top-ranked Connecticut could be defeated as a 73-72 score took the Huskies down at their home arena in Storrs.

Sandy W.