COULD WBB HOLD A SUCCESSFUL THE BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT? --SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 HOW ABOUT  A WOMEN'S THE BASKEBALL TOURNAMENT?

Angel McCoungtry would have been fun to watch in a women's The Basketball Tournament

Always great to get a chance to watch basketball in the middle of July, even if it is on the men's side of the ledger and the single-elimination The Basketball Tournament. 

If you've watch any of the games, Louisville has a team called The Villians. THE VILLE TBT squad is a men's team, based on University of Louisville men's basketball team players trying to take down the $1 million dollar prize for winning the event against 60 other teams based on schools or cities. The Ville knocked off their first opponent...Boston vs. Cancer on Saturday. Always great to see games in Freedom Hall. Some of my best basketball memories were in Freedom Hall, men and women's games. 

Could The Basketball Tournament work on the women's side? 

Imagine Asia Durr on a Louisville women's The Basketball Tournament team!

The idea is an intriguing one. One would think Louisville, Kentucky and/or IU could definitely field women's teams for such an event...but could the event raise a 32 team or larger tournament , single elimination and could the find a sponsor to get close to the $1 million grand prize for the eventual winner...which the winning men's team receives. ? 

Could the get network television coverage for such an event, and, most importantly, would they be able to get sizable crowds to attend games, like the men  have been able to do for the men's games in Freedom Hall? 

Imagine a UConn WBB The basketball Tournament team. 

One would think the women might be able to get a competitive field of schools for send an alumni team. Certainly names like UConn, Stanford, Texas, Oklahoma, Memphis, Mississippi St, and many other school-based teams would be willing to hire a coach and enter a team. 

The Louisville team would be an interesting nucleus. what players would you like to see on it?

And, would WNBA plyers be willing to take a few games off their WNBA team game to participate in it? 

There is the premise, Feel free to leave a comment on whether you would like to see and watch and attend a women's The Basketball Tournament.

CARDINAL COUPLE Radio HOUR PODCAST

Case joined me...on the weekly Cardinal Couple Radio Hour podcast Saturday. It was a lively show and we covered a lot of topics. Check it out at the link below: 

CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR PODCAST

paulie

Ten Teams Get Perfect APR Score -- WNBA Update -- Women's Soccer Schedule -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Ten UofL Teams Earn Perfect APR Score for 2016-2017 School Year

Yes, you read that right.  This report goes back an entire school year.  The Academic Progress Rate (APR) holds institutions accountable for the academic progress of student-athletes by looking at eligibility and retention of each individual student-athlete.  Teams earn points by student-athletes staying in school and remaining eligible to compete in their respective sports.  Any team that falls below an average of 930 over a four-year span is ineligible to compete in NCAA Championships.


Louisville's 10 perfect score teams include:

-women's basketball
-baseball
-women's cross country
-women's golf
-lacrosse
-women's soccer
-women's tennis
-men's tennis
-women's track
-volleyball

Eight of those 10 teams are women's teams at UofL, and as a site that primarily covers the women's sports at Louisville we are all extremely proud of them.  Academics are an important part of a student-athlete's life and one that we highly emphasize at Cardinal Couple.

An Update on the WNBA



Three Cardinals are making their making in the WNBA currently.  Myisha Hines-Allen (Washington Mystics), Angel McCoughtry (Atlanta Dream), and Shoni Schimmel (Las Vegas Aces) have all begun their seasons with some having played two games while others have completed three.  Here's an update on how this trio of Cardinals is doing this season.

Myisha Hines-Allen: the 2018 grad has started off well on a 2-0 squad.  She has seen 20 minutes in the two games as a reserve player and has eight points and four rebounds.  Hines-Allen is shooting .500 from the field and has not attempted a free throw while committing one turnover.

Angel McCoughtry: the 2009 grad is back with the Dream after sitting out last year due to an injury.  She has played 24 minutes in one game for the 1-1 squad.  McCoughtry has 13 points, three rebounds, one assist, two blocks, and two steals to go with three turnovers and four fouls as the former Cardinal standout fills the stat sheet.  She is shooting .462 from the field with one three-pointer and no attempted free throws.

Shoni Schimmel: the 2014 grad is back in the league after sitting out last year for personal reasons.  The newly-founded Aces sit at 0-2 and the guard to take on Britney Griner head-to-head has seen 13 minutes in the two games.  Schimmel has not scored on 0-for-5 shooting and has two rebounds and one assist to go along with one turnover.

McCoughtry seems to not have missed a step while Hines-Allen is in the works of making a name for herself.  Schimmel appears to be struggling to get on her own two feet currently so hopefully she'll find her rhythm in the next couple of games or so.

Women's Soccer Season Announced

With the recent release of the men and women's soccer schedules all fall sports have now publicly announced their schedules.  Women's soccer hopes to improve from last season's 9-7-2 record.
Karen Ferguson Dayes may have lost Inger Katrine Bjerke on defense but does return a solid and exciting scoring attack.

The home lineup features non-conference opponents in Morehead State, Wright State, Xavier, Kentucky, and Eastern Kentucky.  The home ACC foes include Notre Dame, Syracuse, Virginia, Miami, and Virginia Tech.

Road matches include Dayton, Michigan, Purdue, Pittsburgh, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Duke, and North Carolina State.

The first three matches of the season are at home, beginning August 11.  Senior Day will probably be the Miami game on October 7, despite the final home match being against Virginia Tech on October 25.

Their schedule will follow their usual Thursday and Sunday lineup with the exception of a couple early matches.  On Friday August 31 the women will host Kentucky at 5:30 p.m., with the men facing St. Louis after.  Both matches will feature highly anticipated rivalries.

Other News and Notes

Baseball, the #5-seed, won their first game in ACC pool play by defeating #9-seed Wake Forest 10-2.  Josh Stowers was a single shy of the cycle while driving in six RBIs.  They face 4-seed Duke Friday at 11:00 a.m.  Duke and Wake Forest have yet to face each other, but most likely the winner of the Louisville-Duke game will advance out of pool play into the ACC semifinals on Saturday.

All of the host sites advanced to the Super Regional in the NCAA Softball Tournament.  This is the second straight year where the Top 16 seeds advanced.  In 2016, hosts Kentucky and Tennessee were upset.  In 2015, hosts Notre Dame (lost to Kentucky) and James Madison fell in the Regional.  2014 also saw two host teams fall.  2013 had three host teams lose while 2012 saw four hosts fall.

Happy Red Nose Day! Red Nose Day has been an unofficial holiday since 2015 and is aimed at defeating child poverty in all 50 states and 34 countries around the world.  It is also National Brothers Day, so gentlemen, remind your siblings that today is all about you!

On the USF campus, Louisville track and field hs participants galore for the NCAA East Regional Preliminaries. Going today for UofL on the women's side, Alexis Gibbons leaps in the long jump, Brooke Raglin sprints in the 100 meters and Dorcas Wasike stretches out in the 10,000 meters. Good luck to these Cardinal student-athletes!

Enjoy your Thursday and start preparing those pools to open up this weekend.  Go Cards!

- Jared -

Basketball Stuff... Pick Em Update... WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Receive Late Game Time Slot

Pack your sleeping bags and coffee, it's a late one!  The women's basketball team will be playing the late game Friday evening in the Sweet Sixteen.  A 9:00 tip-off time is just a rough estimate, especially if game one goes long.  If you are traveling to the game expect to get home well after midnight. Knowing ESPN, expect action around 9:30.

The Cardinals will play the Cardinal (no "S") of Stanford.  The two teams have never faced each other before meaning that Louisville has zero blemishes on their record against Stanford.

Stanford finished 2nd in the PAC-12, finishing one and a half games behind Oregon.  Their 24-10 record is highlighted by wins against UCLA, Arizona State, Oregon State, and Oregon.  The Cardinal is 4-8 against ranked opponents including a 25-point loss at UConn in November.  Be on the lookout for a Louisville-Stanford review later this week.

Paulie and I plan to be at the game(s) this weekend.  Your wonderful co-owner will be covering both games Friday and may be there Sunday win or lose.  I will head to Lex after work Friday to take some pictures of the important game and will only be returning on Sunday following a Louisville victory.

Coach Walz held a press conference Tuesday to discuss the game. He also talks about the start time. His displeasure, mostly for the fan's sake, is evident:  LINK BELOW

https://soundcloud.com/user-748907999/dr0000_1366mp3

Men's Basketball's Struggling Season Concludes

For those of you that check out the other site I contribute to, River City Cards, I wrote an open letter to David Padgett praising him for what he has done.  However, it appears his time as head coach of the Louisville men's basketball time has come to a close.  It is expected that Xavier's Chris Mack will be named the new head coach starting Thursday, but this is unconfirmed.

The Cards fell in the third round of the NIT to Mississippi State 79-56.  It was the final game for seniors Quentin Snider and Anas Mahmoud, while fans speculate Deng Adel and Ray Spalding will go pro. Rumors of player transfers are also out there.

Fans will probably suffer a couple more rough seasons before the once proud program restores its glory and dominance in the college basketball world.

Softball Cancels Indiana Game

A "small snowstorm" turned into nasty weather quickly.  If you were outside late last night snow was blowing sideways at it fell from the sky.  Roads were bad.  Due to the weather the Louisville vs Indiana softball game was cancelled.  The GoCards schedule has it listed as postponed, but the game will not be rescheduled as of right now.

UofL returns to action Friday at Duke.  This one should be on ACC Network.  Unfortunately, when the Cards play on the road we are not blessed with the voice of former ace Maryssa Becker.

Case Lives

Not that the surgery was a matter of life and death, but Case's surgery was a success.  Thank you to everyone who sent him positive wishes.  The recovery time will take a while and his date of return to the studio is unknown.  Rest that achilles, superstar!

One thing we know, he won't be trying any points after touchdown or crossovers on the soccer field for awhile. We'll have a rotating list of fill in's on The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour and may try to hook up with him via phone for updates and commentary.

NCAA Pick 'Em Update

There were 21 entries this year.  After eight games into the tournament there were no perfect brackets remaining.  The first round saw records of 26-6 down to 18-14.  Round two was going well for most folks until FGCU and Central Michigan had a say.  Everyone still has a winning record.

Ken S sits at 38-10 to lead the way.  The Real Joe Hill is a game behind at 37-11.  Paulie, Arthur, and myself are a bit behind that at 36-12.  Things continue all the way down to 28-20.

Everyone enjoy your Wednesday and don't forget that we have a 2018, and back-to-back, national champion in all star swimmer Mallory Comerford!

Just another day on the court...

Coach Walz has skills. Watch the link.

http://www.wave3.com/clip/14213499/uofls-walz-hits-from-half-court

Just walkin' off like it's no big thing.



Jared

Louisville women's basketball -- Let the Games begin! -- Weekend view -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

NCAA Tournament Time

Happy Game Day!  The moment we have all been waiting for is here!  At noon, our anticipation to see Louisville women's basketball take the court in the NCAA Tournament will reach its peak.

The Cards face 16-seed Boise State in front of a home crowd at the KFC Yum! Center.  The Broncos (23-9, 14-4 Mountain West) won the regular season outright and claimed the crown in their conference tournament to receive an automatic bid to make their fifth NCAA Tournament appearance.

Boise State last lost on Feb 3 to UNLV.  Just over a week later was Louisville's loss to UConn.  Boise State rides a 10-game win streak into the match-up, the first ever between these two teams.

Riley Lupfer is a sharpshooter for the Broncos, averaging 16.4 points per game.  Her 3.75 three-pointers per game is fifth-best in the country.  For comparison, Asia Durr averages an even 3 threes per game.  Lupfer has hit 120 threes on the year.  Shalen Shaw heads the post for Boise State, averaging seven rebounds per game.  11 of the 15 players on the roster stand 6'0 or taller, which has helped in the rebounding and blocks columns.

"Boise State is that way. It's in Idaho!"

As a team Boise State averages 69.2 points per game while giving up 61.4.  They have a rebound margin of +6, high ranking in the country.  Most of the Bronco's scoring comes in the two middle quarters, scoring 55% of their points then.  They shoot .355 from behind the arc and .731, both excellent figures.

What does Louisville have to do to win?

A 1-seed vs 16-seed match-up is expected to be an easy win for the higher seed.  The confidence boost plus the home crowd should help some.

Let Asia Durr find her shots.  If she isn't hot early do not let that cause hesitation when looking to her later in the game. "Nite-Nite" is a scorer and she will find ways to put up numbers.  To help Durr get some open looks the Cards need to pass the ball.  An extra pass or two can often put the defense out of position just enough to get some elbow room and a good look at the basket.

Combine size with strength to overpower Boise State down low.  Myisha Hines-Allen is having a highlight year with her double-doubles so feed her the ball.  "Doo-Blay" and Sam Fuehring play with a fiery emotion and they won't rest until they haul in every last rebound.

The missed lay-ups need to be cleaned up.  You can't get any closer to the basket unless you pull a Brittney Griner and dunk the darn thing.  Everyone on the team has missed an easy lay-up at some point this season and it usually follows with "#$@&%*!" coming from Walz on the bench.  A heavy presence and solid scoring down low will open up the exterior for better looks.

I won't give a prediction to the game in hopes of preventing a jinx, but all know who most of us will be rooting for (sorry Keith B, Boise State fan).  Make sure to get out there and cheer the Cards on if you can manage to get off work.  Unfortunately, I will not be able to provide pictures due to the fact it is near-impossible to get off at the bank last minute.

The Irish Visit for St Patrick's Day Softball

Thanks, ACC.  I think the university as a whole has had enough poor luck in recent years.  Playing Notre Dame on St Patrick's Day sounds like a tough one.  Game one is scheduled for today at 2:00, moved up from the 4:00 original start time.  Saturday's first pitch is 1:00 and Sunday is noon.  Days and times can change, weather pending.  I will have my green Louisville shirt on Saturday at Ulmer hooping and hollering.

The weather calls for rain this weekend.

After 25 games of non-conference play and a 20-5 record the Cards finally face ACC opponents.  The Irish took the series 2-1 last season at Ulmer Stadium.  Anyone remember the stormy Monday night last year?  The Cards went on to win 7-4.

Danielle Watson and Megan Hensley should do most of the work in the circle.  The question surrounding this team's success is if they can fix issues they have battled in the past.  Louisville continues to have problems with defensive errors, with most of them coming from the left side of the infield up to the front of the plate.

Notre Dame leads the all-time series 18-16.  A sweep sounds pretty great right now.  The Irish are 16-8 on the year and has relied on their offense to carry them.  Ali Wester is hitting .455 and Katie Marino has already sent five balls out of the park.  Can the UofL pitchers shut down the ND offense?

Lax Comes Home

After a two week trip to the southeast region of the US, the Louisville lacrosse team comes back home to the LLS where they will face Boston College.  That game will be starting right about the time the radio show concludes.

Trust me when I say the food truck is good.  The trick is keeping your food down while cheering on the high-scoring, fast-paced offense Scott Teeter has going on.  Even the hungry, stingy defense has drawn attention.

Record Breakers

The swim and dive team broke two school records at the NCAA Championships.  Rachael Bradford-Feldman made it into the record books by one hundredth of a second in the 200 IM with a time of 1:55.67.  The 400-medley relay team clocked in at 3:26.93.  The 200-free relay team finished with a time of 1:27.19, the fastest at the nationals for Louisville and falling a bit shy of a their record breaker on the day.

Another Day at the Office

Make sure to tune into the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour tomorrow morning at 11:00 on WCHQ (100.9 fm).  If you live outside the range of the station you can listen online for free or check out our new Facebook Live option on WCHQ's Facebook page.  Paulie and Worldwide will be in the studio with your truly.  Case is recovering from an injury so we send him best wishes.  In his stead we welcome my partner in crime from River City Cards, Mike Gilpatrick.  If you want to know anything about the Detroit Tigers or Louisville Baseball he is your man.  We have a full lineup ready to go so make sure to tune in!


Pick 'Em closes at noon

If you haven't submitted your picks for the NCAA Women's Tournament Pick "em" here at CARDINAL COUPLE....what are you waiting for? A full moon, good crops, the Easter bunny?

We have a $25 Panera Card for da winnah! $15 Cracker Barrel card for second-best. Jared Anderson verifying brackets while turning quarters into nickles and dimes! People from all over the continental United States entering. It is your manifest duty to grab a writing utensil, fill out a bracket and send it to us. We have dozens of chimps sitting up in the Bracket Central suite with nothing to do but ride Bill the Goat and Frank the Mule around the offices and play jarts!

You better have something in the comments section by noon today or I'm telling Mom!

Paulie 

Happy Friday and Go Cards, especially women's basketball!

Jared

Louisville women's basketball -- Cards pull rank on Commodores 79-57 -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Commodores Get Dispatched

If we borrow from the military's use of ranks and hierarchy, and figure out where the rank of Commodore fits in, I guess that makes the UofL WBB squad at least Rear Admiral's (at least based on Wikipedia's telling of it).  The Cardinals dispatched the Commodores back to Tennessee with a 79-57 win at home last night.  Depending on when you checked in on the game, the game was either much more competitive than that score would suggest, or much less.

In any event, the boatload of Tennessean's that ended up on the shores of the Ohio in downtown Louisville were sent back to Music City with the "L" and despite VU's Rachel Bell ringing it quite frequently in the first half, this battle between Birds and the commissioned officers went to the home team.  

At the end of the 1st quarter, Vanderbilt led 24-20, and even about halfway through the second
quarter it looked like this was going to be a very competitive scrap.  But then the Cards flipped a switch.  I have no idea what caused this particular switch to be flipped, but if we could super-glue it into this position, that'd be great.  Beginning about halfway through the 2nd quarter, the Cards started a 28-0 run that would extend past halftime and through most of the 3rd quarter.  A missed defensive assignment on one trip down the floor and the 'Dores found a wide open Rachel Bell (who else?) who predictably dropped the 3-ball into the basket.  The Cards weren't done, yet, picking up another 10 points before before the black and gold got a free one at the stripe.  Many props to the UofL pep band for serenading the Vandy players at the line with bad Christmas songs.  The Cards would win the 2nd quarter 22-9, and the 3rd by a margin of 25-4.

Coach Walz was very disappointed in the 4th quarter though as the second line came in to play and just didn't play up to the standards that we know, because we've seen them do it, they are capable of playing.  Vandy took the last frame 20-12, but it wasn't enough to overcome the lead gained in that 38-3 run.

Paint presence proves positive for the Cards and they controlled the boards 34-26 against Vandy. Myisha Hines-Allen grabbed ten of them for UofL.

(We're an academic school.) 

Three got into double digit scoring territory for the Cards.  Unsurprisingly Asia Durr leads the list with 25, but Arica Carter found the 3 range pretty well and ended up with 15 after dropping 3 of 5 from distance.  Sam Fuehring came up with 14, mostly by constantly running back-door cuts which the Commodore's seemed utterly incapable of stopping.  The only way they figured out to stop the back-door cut scoring was to foul Fuehring, sending her to her usual spot lined up to the left where she dropped 6 of 6.

It was announced in the post-game presser that Loretta Kakala would take a red-shirt for the season.  Somehow, Paulie found out before the game. Must have been his political connection with the "mayor-for-life" Jerry Abramson sitting next to him. 

What About Fred?

Fredrick Douglass. Social reformer, writer
and statesman. 

I'm not going to try to come up with a J-E-F-F report, and I'll leave the C-A-S-E and J-A-R-E-D reports to their respective creators.  I'll take a stab at a F-R-E-D, though.

F - Free Throws. 86.4%.  Lot's of capitals "F"'s being earned this year.  I love it!

R - Rebounds. 34 to 26, I'll take it.  Vandy had 21 defensive boards compared to our 11 offensive.  Defense has something of an inherent advantage, here, but I'd like to see our squad crash the boards on missed shots a little more.  Still good enough for the upper case R.

e - Energy/Execution.  Would've had the upper case here except for that late let down from the 2nd line.  We know they can do better. Small case "e" is the call.

D - Defense.  A 38-3 run through the heart of the game, and limiting the total to 57.  That's a pretty impressive showing on defense.  And 13 steals is always a recipe for entertainment. We'll capital "D" that! 

F-R-e-D.  Not bad at all, but room for growth.

Radio Guest

Jared will be off being a banker-man again tomorrow for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour, so Paulie
has lined up a real treat for us with Jack Grossman, of WIUX, home of Hoosier Sports, joining us.

Check in for an update from our neighbors to the north.

We'll be on at our usual time of 11am on WCHQ Radio.  That's 100.9 on the FM dial if you're in Louisville, also available via the WCHQ app, or at http://crescenthillradio.org.

Check it out, won't you?

PHOTOS TODAY FROM JARED ANDERSON (except of Fredrick Douglass, of course). 

POST GAME WALZ

POST GAME ASIA DURR and SAM FUEHRING

(don't miss Steve's eloquent but wordy and baffling post game recaps and eventual questions...)  

-- 

JMcA

USA U 23 women's Basketball -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

TEAMS HEAD INTO THURSDAY SEMIFINALS

We now know a little more about how things are going and what's happening in the USA U 23 women's basketball tryouts in Colorado Springs. For example...the team coaches are Jamelle Elliott (Cincinnati) for Team 1,  Michelle Clark-Heard (WKU) on Team 2 , Cori Close (UCLA) heading up Team 3 and Courtney Banghart (Princeton) skipper of Team 4.  Jeff Walz is not coaching any of the four squads...which is probably best...so he can over-view all the action without a vested interest in a particular squad. 


We also have some player/squad correlations. Myisha Hines-Allen is on Team 2. Asia Durr is playing on Team 4. Erin Boley suits up for Team 3. We were able to find the nine-player rosters for Team 1 and 2...but nothing complete for Teams 3 and 4...so were not sure who Rebecca Greenwell and Mariya Moore are suited up with. 

The standings after yesterday's morning and evening sessions: 

Team 2 - 2-1
Team 4 - 2-1
Team 3 - 2-1
Team 1 - 0-3

The semifinals matchups that will start this morning at 10 a.m. EDT pit Team 1 vs. Team 3 in the opener and Team 2 vs. Team 4 at 11:30. Because three teams stands at 2-1, a point differential was used to determined the seedings. 

HIghlights from yesterday's evening games: 

-- Asia Durr scored 13 points for Team 4 in Wednesday night's win over Team 1 68-56. Kristine Angiwe added 11 points on 11 free throws. For Team 1, Brooke McCarty and Jatarie White finished with 12 each. 

-- Erin Boley had 20 for Team 3 in the Wednesday night opener...a 89-50 win over Team 2.
Kelsey Mitchell had 14 for Team 3 and Sabina Ionescu delivered nine assists. Ariel Atkins ended up with 15 for Team 2. 

Earlier in the day...

Team 3 downed Team 1 77-71. Kelsey Mitchell and A'ja Wilson had 13 each for Cori Close's Team 3. Destiny Slocum nailed three threes for Team 1 in the losing effort. 

Team 2 ran past Team 4 80-57. Azura Stevens (19) and Ariel Atkins (17) led Michelle Clark-Heard's squad in scoring. Napheesa Collins tallied 13 for Team 4. Looks like Myisha's squad got the best of Asia's in that one...

Jeff Walz has been watching. Effort seemed to be on coach's mind. His thoughts: 

"I've been really impressed with the effort by the young women. i know it was a tiring day for them. They put a lot of effort into it. But, I think its been better as they understand what we're trying to do. The competition is getting better and better. Overall, just very pleased with their effort." 

After today's games...we'll know who will participate in the Gold and Bronze medal contest on Friday. Tomorrow's matchups will be televised on usab.com. I didn't see any mention of telecasting today's semifinals...but I may just pop over there to see if there is any live streaming. We know for sure that either Myisha's or Asia's squad will compete for the Gold Medal....since #2 and #4 get a rematch today. 

FIBA rules for these contests are a little different than what you might be used to seeing in the NCAA. The squads play (4) quarters...eight minutes each. There is a 24-second shot clock. The back court clock is only eight seconds. Only coaches can call time outs.

So...what does it all mean? The competition gives the coaches and committee an opportunity to see how quickly the players can learn information and how they adapt and perform under it. The styles and play may be different than what they're used to in their college programs...but with four quality coaches in Elliott, Close, Clark-Heard and Banghart heading up the practice teams (and two of them assisting Walz when the final team is chosen) it's a "show-me" period on why you should make this squad. The committee and the coaches are looking for those twelve girls that can fulfill the roles of team players, leaders, motivators and instruction followers. The talent is there in all 36 at camp. The question is...which 12 will be the best combination? 

Think about it...what coach would turn down the chance to have Kelsey Mitchell, A'ja Wilson and Erin Boley in their lineup for 32 games? Or Asia Durr, Mercedes Russell and Kristine Anigwe? Would you be tickled to coach Azura Stevens, Myisha Hines-Allen and Linnae Harper through a conference schedule? Yes...this is the best of the best. Narrowing the 36 to 12 is going to be a tough job.   

The truth is, USA U 23 could probably take all four of these practice squads over to Japan and sweep the top four spots in the competition against Canada, Australia and Japan...there is that much talent on each of the nine-team rosters.

We still don't have any insight into how the four practice squads were picked. Obviously, we would have loved to see both Myisha and Asia on the same team. We did notice that two University of Texas players are on Team 1 (Brooke McCarty and Jatarie White) and that two Notre Dame girls are on Team 2 (Arike Ogunbowale and Jessica Shepard.)  

We'll continue to monitor the action in Colorado Springs and provide you information tomorrow on today's action. Stay with CARDINAL COUPLE for your USA U 23 news! 



(thanks to USAB.com and gocards.com for some of the information used in today's article.)  


paulie
xxxxx

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

Tuesday Cardinal Couple

Basketball Heads to Warmth

The women's basketball team escaped the snow for warmer climes yesterday, heading to Tampa to prepare for tonight's matchup against the Central Florida Knights.

Let's be frank, UCF is not a daunting opponent.  Sporting a 9-12 overall record, and the only worse record in conference is Houston's 0-10.  The only reason we can't say they're 9th in conference is that Cincinnati has an equally bad record at 2-8, so they get to claim "tied for 8th".

That having been said, you can't ever look past an opponent.  We can't forget that Sara Djassi put up 28 points in the KFC Yum! Center on January 15th.  We also must not forget Zykira Lewis, who got 14.  Of course, The Knights lost Briahanna Jackson earlier in the season when she left the team, and that certainly hasn't helped matters in Orlando, but she was already gone in our earlier bout.  About the only thing looking better for UCF this time around is that its on their home floor, a small factor, but something to be considered, for sure.

This should be a good game to build on what went well two days ago when we faced USF here in Louisville.  Shots didn't fall much early on, leading to a bit of a slow start, but perseverance and not getting flustered held things together until shots started falling late in the first half and in the second.  The team played well, picked good shots, moved the ball well, and maintained their composure.  Building some confidence in that play will come in handy when the team travels to face UConn.

The game will be on ESPN3 at 7pm.

Tennis Recruiting Class 16th Ranked

Tennisrecruiting.net announced the results of the voting for the Top 25 recruiting classes in women's tennis and UofL was voted 16th.  Tennis has four women signed for the 2014-15 season, with Ariana Rodriguez and Aleksandra Mally being five star recruits from New York, and Jessie-Lynn Paul being a five star recruit from North Carolina.  Caroline Walker is local, from Sacred Heart Academy here in Louisville rounding out the class.

Future conference opponents in the list include North Carolina at 4th, Notre Dame at 5th, Duke at 10th, Virginia Tech at 14th, and Florida State coming in at 22nd.

Your next chances to see Tennis in action are Thursday afternoon starting at 3pm vs Morehead State, and Saturday starting at noon against Evansville.

TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

( Sandy Walker brings us the weekly Walker walk through Cardinal Women's Athletics. Whether it's wickets wildly waving thru the wicked winter wind or balls bouncing briskly by Bearno's By The Bridge...Sandy's knows about it and isn't afraid to share it with us, you and the staff chimps. It's Laundry Day at CARDINAL COUPLE and Sandy gets to keep all she finds in the pockets.) 



This week Sandy has spent time checking the laundry provisions for all of the women's teams.   We are happy to report that every squad appears to be well supplied with the materials they need.

Coco's young niece Stinky reacting to the Cardinal Couple's Corporate office new installation.  The

national impending budget crisis has resulted in orders for the staff to cut costs.  ( Editor's note: We have also 

cut out the Thursday afternoon buffet and jousting events which were costing us a forutne and blocking traffic on Floyd Street for rush hour. Things came to a head when Co-Co accidently rode her steed over Tom Jurich's car during competiton.)

This great invention allows us to re-use the laundry water to flush the toilet.  She just realized that we must wait until there is laundry being rinsed before she can flush. 

SOFTBALL

Junior Pitcher Caralisa Connell     

4-0 for the week by pitching two

one-hit shutouts  brought her the title of BIG EAST pitcher

of the week.   To date they have a team 12-2 record for the season.

The 18^th ranked team will next play this weekend in Orlando, FL at the Disney Wide World of Sports Complex.  Games begin in the 2013 Citrus Classic on Friday and conclude on Sunday where they will meet 9^th ranked Texas, Temple, Longwood, Georgia Tech and 10^th ranked LSU.

After that battle the team should be happy to return home the next weekend where they begin a 10 game home stand which extends through March 20^th before again hitting the road so after marking your calendars from http://www.gocards.com/sports/w-softbl/sched/lou-w-softbl-sched.html get out your lawn chairs and blankets and plan to spend some time at Ulmer Stadium.

 

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LACROSSE

Lacrosse wins again!

Saturday the team again charged to victory, this time over Old Dominion 21-3.  Six players scored multiple goals all contributed to the teams 3-0 win-loss start. 
 

For her efforts junior goalkeeper Ashley Herbst  

was named this week to the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll.  In 56 minutes of play against Old Dominion she made eight saves and collected two ground balls. Stats over the 3 games played to date find her ninth-best nationally in goals-against average, 11^th-best in save percentage clips while also ranked 26th in the nation for saves.

Coach Young is as happy as a pig with boots!

Next the team is packing their bags for Colorado as they play again this Saturday against Denver.

LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL LACROSSE NEWS

Lacrosse magazine author Robbie Levin has named Sacred Heart Academy as the 10^th ranked high school team from the South region.  In addition the magazine has listed among the girl’s games to watch the March 1 Kentucky Country Day verses the No. 10 ranked Sacred Heart Academy.  Looks like KY has some up and coming Lacrosse players available where Head Coach Kellie Young

Kellie Young

can continue this year’s change in pattern which is to recruit then train experienced Lacrosse players instead of good athletes who she then teaches the beginning steps of how to play Lacrosse.   It looks like even better days are ahead for this team.

LAX TERMINOLOGY

Foul Play!   

A violation of the rules results in a major or minor foul, awarding a free position to the fouled player. It is a major foul when a player charges, pushes, trips, blocks, or makes physical contact with an opponent; "slashes" an opposing ballcarrier;

commits a "shooting space violation;" or invades the body space of an opposing player, such as touching her stick to that player's body. A minor foul is called if a player uses her stick or foot to shield a ground ball; if a player kicks the ball or touches it with her hands (except for the goalie inside her crease). Also, no part of a player's body or stick may enter the crease while the goalie is in her position there.

(Taken from Lacrosse 101 at

 http://www.gocards.com/sports/w-lacros/spec-rel/081506aab.html)

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GRANNY’S GOT GAME MOVIE UPDATE

The Beaufort International Film Festival was the location where out of 28 submitted films, Granny’s Got Game, won the Audience Choice award after being voted their favorite.    The event was extra special as 5 of the Fabulous 70s basketball players (Judy, Mary, Sarah, Shirley, and Wanda) were able to attend. 

Granny's Got Game is a documentary film about a senior women's basketball team in North Carolina. These seven fiercely competitive women in their seventies battle physical limitations and skepticism to keep doing what they love. The film follows them for a year as they compete for another National Senior Games championship.” The movie pre-view can be seen at http://www.grannysgotgame.com/.

You can watch an interview of the film maker, Angela Gorsica Alford, and the ladies who attended on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW0pfu2fCIA&feature=youtu.be. It is hoped that eventually a showing will come to our area.

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KFC YUM! CENTER REPLAYS

I take absolutely no credit for the change  but since I complained a couple of weeks ago about the lack of replays during the women’s basketball games at the KFC YUM! CENTER I absolutely have noticed more replays being shown.   Good Move !

(Editor's note...Just to clarify, that WASN'T Sandy standing behind Louisville public address announcer Sean Moth screaming "Show IT, Show it again, Baldy!" after a good Cardinal play in the South Florida game. Unfortunately, good plays were a rarity in the USF game...unless you focused in on Andrea Smith's three-point shooting or Inga Orekhova's drives to the hoop.)

Anything that so easily increases the fan’s entertainment and enjoyment of the time spent at the games is a good deal.   Particularly for an idea that does not appear to increase the arena costs.  With more of the women’s home games now on television where the at home fan is shown multiple replays and also has the ability the view their own choice of replays we need the bucket in the KFC YUM! CENTER seat fan to experience as much of this as possible.

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SOCCER


Women’s soccer hosted their awards banquet on Feb 8 and was held at the PNC Club inside Papa Johns Stadium.    Awards went to Chloe Kiefer for Most Valuable Player and as the MVP Defensive player, Charlyn Corral was named the Offensive MVP, Megan Berberick was chosen for the 12^th Man Award, Julie Casselman earned the Cardinal Award and Angelika Uremovickh was selected for the Coach's Award.



Nicole Gerber

For an inside the look at the Louisville women’s soccer program, GoCards.com will provide weekly updates in a "Behind the Scenes" blog. Throughout the spring semester they will provide weekly blog updates. For the month of February, Nicole Gerber takes on this task.  Her article and others throughout the season can be read at http://www.gocards.com/sports/w-soccer/spec-rel/022213aac.html.



Mark your calendars for April 7 as Old Miss is coming to town for the Soccer Cards first home game this season at Cardinal Park – It appears that this season may be the last for play inside the track as Athletic Director Tom Jurich has announced a target date of spring 2014 for the opening of a new 17.5 million dollar state of the art facility dedicated specifically for soccer.  Teams currently have been playing at the Cardinal Park Soccer and Track Stadium.
 

It was opened in the spring of 2000 and seats 2200 fans which soon will not be close to enough seating for their fans. The construction which was hoped to be completed for the schools entry into the ACC now has the go ahead to begin thanks to the recently announced 5 million dollar donation by Dr. Mark Lynn and his wife, Cindy.  Their generosity brings U of L to within 3 million of their total goal.  The University of Louisville continues to grow their facilities with the intent to be the best for ALL athletes.

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BASKETBALL

Calling all Basketball fans – Wednesday is absolutely your last time this season to see the basketball women at home during the regular season.   This week’s game against Seton Hall which begins at 7:00 is also Seniors Night.  

 

  Come out to honor and show your appreciation for the women’s 3 basketball seniors, Shelby, Asia and Monique.

(Editor's note...Jeff Walz, pictured here, has felt the stress and strain of a season filled with injuries and ever-so-tough BIG EAST competiton. Coach remains optimistic, though, that this team...in whatever shape and form it travels to Hartford in...will give a good account of itsself in the BIG EAST Tournament. Coach Walz will have his first radio show tonight at 5:30 p.m. on 790 Cards Radio WKRD. Please don't call up and order a large sausage with green peppers or ask if Little Richie is going to play Weds. night and how many points is he going to score...)

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2013 NCAA Tournament Selection Show

Once again the women’s basketball fans are invited to join the team for the NCAA Tournament Selection Show where the fate of our team in the first round of big dance will be disclosed.  Doors to the KFC YUM! Center will open at 6:00 on Monday March 18 with the ESPN selection show beginning at 7:00.  Those of you who arrive late will be shuttled to the outdoor viewing station.

Admission is free where you will not only to learn what teams will be coming to Louisville for the 1^st and 2^nd rounds of play but also where you and your kids can experience inflatable’s and a free photo booth.
 

The Selection Show will be featured on the scoreboard at the arena and seating will be limited to sections 115, 116, and 117.  Fans can also purchase tickets for the March 24 and 26^th games when they can experience Louisville hosting the first ever NCAA first and second round games ever to be held at the KFC YUM! Center.
 

For more information please contact Katie Kiper at 852.0721 or email her at Katie@gocards.com.

Sandy