Basketball Eventually Beats Pitt - Friday Cardinal Couple

A Slow Start

What are the values of m and n on the line L1?

Substitution Happy Friday readers!  Jeff in today for Daryl who is trying to dig out of the craziness of final wedding plans, getting married, and honeymooning for a week in Vegas.  Congratulations Daryl, and I hope you can catch your breath soon.

The Cards basketball team escaped the snow to head northeast...that sounds weird to say it that way, but the previous winter storm did stay south of Pittsburgh and today's storm is expected to do mostly the same for them.  The team did seem to take a little while to warm up on the court, however, with a really slow shooting start marring what otherwise looked like a decent game of basketball.

 

UofL does take the win 65-56, but to borrow from Paul Harvey, stay tuned "For the rest of the story...".

The Cards started the game scoring only 21 points in the first half of play, though Pitt didn't do much better with 28.  Louisville shot 28.6% from the field in the first half, on 35 shots, though they went one for 15 from beyond the arc.

 

So it really looked like the game was going to be a "first to 40" type of outcome, but UofL did get the shooting in gear for the 2nd half, and particularly the 4th quarter where they hit almost 70% from the field, and over 55% from range, scoring more in that fourth of the game than in all of the first half.

 

Freshman Taj Roberts led the scoring, going 5-9 from range, plus another field goal for 17 points.  Three others hit that double-digit mark, Ja'Leah Williams with 11, and Nyla Harris and Jayda Curry with 10 each.

 

Add a couple of steals, and four rebounds for Roberts and she had herself, ultimately, a quite nice game.  Harris gathered up a very impressive eight rebounds, and Williams grabbed five.

 

Other than the shooting, the Cards looked like they were playing reasonably well and taking reasonable shots...for the most part anyway...but they just weren't falling at the beginning.  To be fair, though, that assessment does have an air of, "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?" given that the whole point of the game is ultimately to get the ball through the round bit of metal.

But the Cards do get it done in the end and return to another winter wonderland.  They'll take the court next at the KFC Yum! Center on Sunday at 4pm, hosting Georgia Tech.  Yes, that is a TV decided start time, with the competition being on the linear ACC Network.

FRED Report

(Dancing to the end, just like Fred Biletnikoff used to for the Raiders)

So let's take a look at the FRED report...

F - Free throws.  The Cards hit five of six free throws in the fourth quarter up in the 83% range.  Alas, with such a small sample size the one missed free throw in the first quarter drops the overall for the game to 5-7, which is 71.4%.  UofL got no attempts in the 2nd or 3rd quarter.  I do use the variant of the FRED report where 70-75% is a lower-case "f", but if you want to think it's an "F" particularly due to the great 4th quarter, I wouldn't blame you.

R - Rebounds.  Louisville out rebounded the Panthers, but not by a large margin, 38-35.  I feel like that's worthy of acknowledging, but not particularly celebrating, so we'll go with the lower case "r" here.

E - Execution/Effort.  I mean, what can you say, ultimately you've got to get the ball through the hoop.  The team did start doing so in the 4th quarter, but 28% for half of the game isn't great.  The total of 65 isn't exactly where we'd like to see the offensive production as well, so again I don't think we can award the full capital letter.  "e"

D - Defense.  11 steals, and a pair of blocks is decent, that beats Pitt's eight steals and matches their blocks.  Pitt did get more defensive rebounds, though that direct comparison is a little less relevant in my mind.  Again, I don't think we can award the full "D", here.  "d"

That results in f-r-e-d, which is at least consistent.

Pro Volleyball Leagues Get Underway

(with Jeff substituting today for Daryl, of course there is going to be volleyball...)

Both traditional pro volleyball leagues got underway this week.  Though no UofL rooting interests have yet taken the floor.

LOVB got started Wednesday in the first match ever for the league.  Salt Lake beat Atlanta in four sets.  Play continued with Houston taking five sets to dispatch Austin. 

 

PVF started last night with the Orlando Valkyries dispatching the San Diego Mojo in a sweep.

A quick rundown of Louisville alumnae in the leagues:

LOVB

:

LEAGUE ONE VOLLEYBALL 

Both Claire Chaussee and Anna "Stevie" Hall nee Stevenson play for the Madison squad.  They will start their campaign tonight vs Austin in Houston.  You can catch it on ESPN+ at 5:30.

PRO VOLLEYBALL FEDERATION

:

Aiko Jones is on the Atlanta Vibe squad and will start their season tonight at 8pm on Youtube vs the Omaha Supernovas

The whole setting squad for the Columbus Fury are Louisville alumnae, with Tori Stringer nee Dilfer joining Wilma Rivera on the team.

We've covered here that both Anna DeBeer and Elena Scott have joined the Indy Ignite for their inaugural season. They'll host Orlando for their season opener Saturday night in Fishers, Indiana.  First serve is at 7pm and can be watched on Youtube.  Depending on weather, I plan on making the drive up to see this one firsthand.  The event is officially sold out but they are selling "Standing Room Only" tickets still.

San Diego was slated to have Erin Fairs on their squad until she made the difficult decision earlier this week to hang up her knee pads and retire from competitive volleyball playing.  She has played significant roles with Athletes Unlimited in their volleyball efforts, so I wouldn't be surprised if she showed up in their front office in some role.

Lastly, Charitie Luper will be spicing things up for the Vegas Thrill.

The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast should return tomorrow. 11 a.m. .Line up to be annonced. 

--

JMcA

WBB Visits Pitt -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Wrap Up Road Trip Against Pitt

Louisville women's basketball will conclude their road trip with a game against Pitt. The Cards and Panthers will tip-off at 6:00 pm and will be aired on ACCNX. 

UofL is 10-5 and currently on a four-game win streak. Most recently, Louisville won in overtime at Wake Forest to improve to 3-1 in the ACC.

Pitt has struggled the first half of the season, going 8-8 with an 0-3 record in the ACC. The Panthers most recently lost to Duke 69-31 and fell to Georgia Tech 100-61 before that.

On the season, Pitt has outscored opponents by one point, 1009-1008. Khadija Faye is the only Panther scoring in double figures at 17.4 ppg. Nine other players average between 4.5 - 9.7 ppg. Faye has also been the top rebounder at 9.7 boards per game. Pitt's assist-to-turnover ratio has been rough with the Panthers having 85 more turnovers. 

Louisville owns the all-time series, 27-2. The Cards have won the last 23 match-ups. Last year, Louisville owned both meetings- 74-44 and 77-58.

Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared

Louisville WBB, freshman Tajianna Roberts shines -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 ROBERTS A FABULOUS FROSH FOR CARDS

Taj Roberts has put in some frequent flyers miles over the past few years.  In her third city in three years, all she has done is lead the Cards in scoring this season and scored in double figures in 13 of her 15 games as a Card. The trip from her home is San Diego, Ca, to IMG Academy in Florida to "the ville" is noteworthy, Throw in a trip to Paris and she's travelled more than most of us in the past three years. 

She was also a starter in her first game for the Cards against UCLA in Paris and responded with a game high 21 points against the top ranked Bruins. 

December saw her get Rookie of the Week honors...Her season high of 23 points came on the road against Memphis.

Before getting to Louisville, she was a 2024 Naismith Trophy Honorable Mention All-American. 

The Cards beat out Duke, Kentucky, California and Virginia Tech for her services. Robers was considered one of the top prospects coming out of high school and has proved to be the best of then nine freshmen on the Cards roster. 

She played her way into a starting role on a roster that returned two key starters in Olivia Cochran and Nyla Harris, had fifth-year grad student Merisah Russel plus proven transfers Ja'Leah Williams and Jayda Curry. A September visit to campus last year was enough of Roberts to decide that Louisville was the place to be, and her national ranking,  at the time, as 25th best freshman in the nation for high school seniors proved to be a valid preview. . 

Roberts, a 5'11" guard, glides the floor effortlessly whether on defense or offense. Her court awareness is incredible for a freshman in DI hoops and she's also adept at assists and steals.  You don't see the sometimes tentative nature toward approaching the game like you do in many freshmen, she is aggressive on defense, and loves to attack in offense, drive the lane and hit the boards with authority 

We look forward to a long and successful career for "Taj"at UofLand expect her to get even better as the season progresses. 

paulie

Early ACC Standings -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Early ACC Standings

Caption this picture of Imari Berry in the comments

While much of Kentucky is dealing with one of the heaviest winter storms in decades, the ACC basketball standings are beginning to take shape some. Before we dive deep into basketball, we take a quick look at this winter storm, where parts of Louisville were recorded to have 9" of snow and ice. A depth to that extent was last seen on Feb. 4, 1998. For many folks, Monday and maybe even Tuesday became a work from home or snow day. To those who had to brave the conditions and get behind the wheel, we hope you were safe and returned home in one piece.

Poor Louisville women's basketball. After surviving an overtime scare at Wake Forest, the Cards returned home to poor weather conditions and below freezing temperatures. But... they did return home with a win. We preached on our podcast on Saturday the importance of conference wins, especially stealing some on the road, which Louisville did.

With the newly expanded ACC, not everyone makes the ACC Tournament anymore. The format of the tournament this year reflects that of the last several years, meaning 15 (of the now 18) teams get in. The bottom three in the ACC will be SOL.

So far, everyone in the ACC has played at least three games. Five teams are a perfect 3-0 and four teams are winless at 0-3. Everyone else is somewhere in the middle.

We have some early surprises such as Georgia Tech and Florida State both sitting atop the standings. Clemson has been off to a hot start too at 3-1. On the other end of the spectrum, teams like North Carolina and Stanford have some work to do as they sit at 1-2 and 0-3, respectively.

Here is the current ACC standings:

Click on picture to make larger

There is still plenty of season left to be played, but the ACC appears to be more challenging than ever before. We will not have any in person coverage for when the Cards visit Pitt on Thursday, but we do plan to have in-person coverage at the KFC Yum! Center for Sunday's game against Georgia Tech.

(Photos by Jared. Screenshot of ACC standings came from ESPN's website)

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

Cards shake Wake 81-76 in overtime -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 LOUSVILLE WBB PICKS UP ROAD WIN AT WAKE

CARDS WBB placed five in double figures and used a strong overtime effort from Jayda Curry to defeat Wake Forest 81-76 in Winston-Salem Sunday afternoon. 

Curry totaled seven of her 11 total points in the final 1:32 to lead the Cards to the extra session win. It was a game where the Cards allowed WFU to shoot 59% from the floor and sink 10 threes, but still pulled off the "W". The Cards watched a five-point lead disappear to just a two point advantage with a minutes to go in overtime, but got a clutch three from Curry with 17 seconds left in overtime to seal the contest. 

Wake Forest took the fight to the Cards early on and had a 17-12 first quarter lead over UofL. Louisville trailed by seven midway through the second quarter, but staged a rally and two Olivia Cochran free throws got Louisville back to within one at 32-31 with 26 seconds left in the half  UofL missed al layup with 10 seconds left in the half to go in the locker room down by one.

The two squads battled back and forth in the the third quarter, neither leading by more than four points, until the Demon Deacons put together two threes from Rylie Theuefkauf to go up 54-47. The Cards were able to cut the home team's lead to two at 56-54 on a Nyla Harris layup with five seconds left in the quarter.

A close fourth quarter ensued until Wake edged ahead 67-66 with a minute to play. Louisville regained the lead 70-67 with fifteen seconds left in regulation but Theuerkauf sank a three a few seconds later to tie it at 70 and force overtime... when the Cards missed a three with a second left on the clock. 

THE FRED REPORT

(It turned out to be a beautiful day in the neighborhood for the Cards in overtime Sunday)

F-Free Throws -- Louisville continued their hot hands from the charity stripe with an 18-19 performance. Olivia Cochran went 9-9 to lead the way for UofL A definite CAPITAL "F"

R- Rebounds -- The Cards lost th battle of the boards 28-23 despite Cochran grqabbing a team high seven. No letter awarded here. 

E- Effort/Execution.  UofL won second chance points 14-3 and forced WFU into 28 turnovers, but lost the points off turnovers battle 26-15. Still, the Cards won , so we'll award a lower case "e". 

D - Defense.  The Cards allowed 59% shooting and also were beat in points in the paint 24-20, but never trailed when it counted, in overtime, so we'll award a small case "d'. 

FINALFRED TALLY -- F-_-e-d

Road wins are always good in ACC play, and Louisville finally got this one after trailing the majority of the contest. The freshmen continue to learn by experience and one can't count out what Jayda Curry did for the squad yesterday. Stay safe and warm today, don't venture out unless it's an emergency, it's terrible out there, kiddies..

Louisville WBB returns to action Thursday against Pitt at Pittsburgh 

POST GAME JEFF WALZ PRESSER

pulie

Snowy Sunday vs Wake Forest - Sunday Cardinal Couple

A Snowy Sunday

Good Sunday morning.  If you'll permit a brief aside from our coverage of sports, I hope everyone is safely hunkering down as a major winter storm passes through the Louisville area today.

I did venture out briefly to see if my (very) local coffee shop was open and operating so I could get my customary morning latte before conditions got too bad, but they were in the process of closing down, quite understandably, as I pulled in, so I didn't bother them and let them get on with what they were doing so they could get home and be safe.

Home brewed coffee is something I partake of only very rarely, but it's certainly pleasant as well.

OK, now on with sports.

Basketball in Winston-Salem

Basketball is the sole event on the calendar today.  The Cards escaped the imminent weather and header to slightly warmer climes.  They'll be taking on Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, NC today at 4pm.

For comparison, the weather forecast in Winston-Salem is to be cloudy with a high of 42 today, with a chance of rain arriving late tonight.  No solid precipitation of any type is expected for the area.  So the Cards may be challenged getting back to Louisville if they try to come back tonight, but if they elect to stay in North Carolina for the night, they shouldn't experience any problems there.

On to the game, the Demon Deacons are having a thoroughly mediocre season.  Their overall record is 7-6, and they're 0-2 in conference so far.  Conference losses have come to Clemson and Virginia, neither of which is a barnburner team in the ACC.  Outside of conference, losses came to Villanova, George Mason, Fairfield, and St. Johns.

So overall, Wake shouldn't be much of a contest for Louisville, particularly if they play like they played for most of the Miami game.

The Deacs are not a high powered offense, scoring at will, they've averaged just over 60 points per game so far this season, but they have held their opponents to just over 55 points per game on the defensive side, so the Cards will need to pay attention to their passing lanes and ball protection.  Wake has 125 steals on the season to opponents' 82, but have been outblocked by their opponents 42-34 so the threat is definitely on ball possession, not shot blocking.

No players average over 10 points per game, which is probably not surprising when the team's overall production is so low, but several are close.  Elise Williams averages 9.7, as does Rylie Theuerkauf.  Theuerkauf has notably more points on the season as she has played in all 13 games for Wake this year, while Williams has only played in 10.  Malaya Cowles is on their heels at 9.5, while Tamia Jones, and Demeara Hinds aren't far behind at 8.9 and 8.8 respectively.

That same quintet accounts for the bulk of the team's steals, with all in double digit totals for the year.

We saw that the Cards are capable of playing a composed, quality game when they beat Miami in good form.  The question is, will this same team show up today, or will they revert to some of their lackadaisical play from before the holidays?  My hope is that we're seeing the results of team development over the break, and not just a fluke.  Only time will tell for that, of course.

This game may not be the best test of that, but if we struggle against this team, we know there's more work to be done.

National linear TV coverage for this one.  The ACC Network has the game at 4pm.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

Basketball was the topic for nearly all of the CCRHP yesterday.

After a bit of catchup, and discussion of the then-upcoming winter storm that is coming through Louisville at the time of this writing, Jared, Paulie, and I took to discussing the wins at Boston College and here against Miami before looking ahead to the Wake Forest game today.

Check out the fun:

https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/Basketball-Dives-into-Conference-Play-e2t386i

-- 

JMcA

Swim & Dive Open 2025 with Win -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Sweep Mizzou to Open New Year

With basketball being the only primary sport in action for the time being and WBB being between games, that gives us a chance to look at some other squads. Luckily, the Cards hit the pool for the first time in 2025 yesterday. Louisville women's swimming and diving is ranked 8th in the nation coming into 2025 and they're looking to continue their strong form as they pursue individual and team success in the NCAAs later this spring. 

photo by Chris Carter - UofL

The Cards headed to Columbia, Missouri yesterday for their first team action since the OSU Invite on Thanksgiving week and their first dual meet since October 24th against Tennessee. It was a strong day for the Cards, especially the women, as they won 204-95 while the men won 193-107. 

Louisville got off to a hot start with a win in the 200 medley relay with the team of Abby Karl, Caroline Larsen, Gabi Albiero, and Julia Dennis putting up a 1:36.15. Even better, their time was worthy of an NCAA A-cut. The Louisville women would also go on to get wins from Fernanda Gomes Celidonio (200 Free), Paige Hetrick (100 Back, 200 Back), Mia Cheatwood (100 Breaststroke), Dennis (50 Free), Albiero (100 Free, 100 Butterfly), Kim Emely Herkle (200 Breaststroke, 400 IM), Summer Cardwell (500 Free), and the relay team of Larsen, Albiero, Ella Welch, and Dennis in the 200 Free. They earned a number of other points finishes, including sweeping the top 5 of 100 Butterfly. 

Louisville's 200 Free relay win (they also took second with Abby and Avery Karl, Lucy Mehraban, and Hetrick) was not only an A-cut time, by the way, but it was also just 0.43s away from the pool record set by Tennessee in 2016. Safe to say the Cards are pretty quick. 

photo by Chris Carter - UofL

From the boards, Lindsay Gizzi led the Cards on the diving side. Gizzi took first in the platform diving with a 222.68 (just shy of an A-cut 225), while freshman Audree Brazeau-Howes came in 3rd. Gizzi was second in the 3m diving competition, with Brazeau-Howes finishing fifth. The top five all set A-cut scores in the event. 

Louisville will get an extended break again, as they're off for three weeks until they take on UK in the Battle of the Bluegrass in Lexington on January 25th. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

You'll have three today, as Daryl is (as I mentioned yesterday) still celebrating the nuptials and I'm off for family activities. Basketball has shown quite a bit more to be excited about recently, so I'm sure you can guess what Paulie, Jeff, and Jared will cover. You can check out the live stream of the show by going to the Cardinal Couple YouTube page and clicking on the live video. Jeff usually creates that about an hour before the show, which officially starts at 11 AM Eastern. If the live time doesn't work for you, there are plenty of playback options, so be sure to check out whichever is best for you!

Cardinal Couple YouTube: Link

Spotify: Link

Apple Podcasts: Link

Google Podcasts: Link

Overcast (free account required): Link

Pocket Casts (free account and app required): Link

RadioPublic: Link

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Cards Crush Canes 74-56 -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Daryl is off celebrating her nuptials, so you'll have to put up with me today instead. You'll see me again tomorrow and Daryl should be back next week. 

Jayda Curry's 21 Leads All Scorers in Rout

In my article on Saturday, I alluded to Miami's 11-1 record being a bit misleading. Although they hadn't played much of anyone, they weren't even receiving any votes to be ranked, which is a bit of a slap in the face, to be honest, since they were still winning the games. Unfortunately for Tricia Cullop's squad, it's been a tough week. Cullop took over in Coral Gables after Katie Meier retired and left Jeff Walz alone as the longest tenured coach in the ACC. Cullop is the winningest coach in Toledo history, but that wasn't much comfort to Canes fans last night. 

After a fairly close battle against UNC on Sunday (a 69-60 loss at home), Miami came to Louisville looking to pick up a signature win against a Louisville team that has been struggling. We can put the Boston College win aside for a moment, as the Eagles were beaten 86-59 by Duke last night after trailing 42-19 at halftime. The Cards needed to beat Miami to prove to themselves that they still hoped to make some noise this season. In the end, Louisville came out on top, winning even more handily than the final score suggested.

The Cards gave up the first basket of the game, but seemingly never looked back. After Ja'Leah Williams tied the score at 2, Olivia Cochran scored the game's next five points with a jumper and a three-pointer. Louisville would go on to extend their lead to 11-4 before Haley Cavinder (yes, the twins are still there) scored her first points of the night. Cavinder would finish just behind Jayda Curry with 19 points. Not content with a seven-point lead, Louisville's boom continued, and a quick 6-0 run, all on two-point baskets, triggered a Miami timeout. Out of the break, Miami missed a three and Louisville punished, making it a 19-6 game. 

After Miami finally broke their scoring drought with a three, Louisville committed three straight fouls, starting with an offensive foul creating a turnover, and put Miami in the bonus with 1:28 remaining. Nothing much came of that, though, as Miami didn't go to the line for the remainder of the quarter after Hanna Cavinder went 1-2 from the stripe. The Cards added free throws of their own and another basket, but a turnover on the final possession of the quarter gave Miami a breakaway layup to set the deficit at 9 instead of a potential 13. Cards led 23-14.

Despite only shooting 1-6 from beyond the arc in the first quarter, Louisville finished 10-16 from the floor. That means they were 9-10 from two-point land, and that's quite alright by me. The defense held Miami to a matching number from three and allowed just 37.5% shooting from the floor overall. 

Louisville opened the second quarter with a three from Elif Istanbulluoglu, almost as if to say, "Yeah, we're just pouring it on now." Elif scored Louisville's next basket as well, on a jumper, to reiterate that the Cards were capable of scoring from anywhere with their bigs. Elif's jumper came after Hanna Cavinder's second and final basket of the evening, as she would finish with just five points, far off the pace set by her sister. 

Leading by 12, Louisville went through a short slump that allowed Miami to close back to within seven before a Merissah Russell three-ball fell. The make brought the Cards back into the game a bit, and after another Miami basket with 5:30 remaining put the lead back at eight points, Louisville went on a 12-2 run to close the half... almost. A foul on the last shot put Miami to the line with three seconds remaining and they scored a pair to set the halftime score at 43-27. 

During that run, Tajianna Roberts scored eight of her 14 points with a pair of triples and another jumper. Roberts wouldn't make another three, but she added four rebounds, four assists, and two steals to her 14 points for a solid stat line over 22 minutes. She did tie for the team lead in fouls with three, but at least one was a questionable offensive foul call. Imari Berry had a forgettable night, as she had three fouls in just six minutes and wasn't able to score. 

The third quarter saw Louisville match the first as far as the deficit goes. The Cards put on their biggest scoring run of the night with another boom to close the third, as they scored 12 points over a 2:27 span. Curry started the run with a pair of free throws to put the Cards up 17 and ended it with a three to functionally end the game. Louisville led 65-38 with 1:22 remaining in the third. Miami would again score free throws to close the quarter, but the 25-point fourth quarter deficit was too large to overcome. 

Louisville's fourth quarter left a fair amount to be desired. Curry opened the quarter with a three and Williams matched a Miami bucket to keep the lead at 28, but the Cards couldn't quite stretch it to 30. In fact, they'd stay stuck at 70 points for just under five minutes before Williams bookended the scoring drought with another jumper. Fortunately for Louisville, Miami joined them in their scoring protest for much of the quarter. After Louisville's basket at 8:34, the Canes hit two quick threes and scored a layup to cut the deficit to 20 with 7:01 remaining. 

Caption this classic pic of Walz in the comments.

Jeff Walz called timeout to get things back on track, but apparently only the defense got the memo. At any rate, Williams' jumper with 3:35 remaining was the first score for either team after the timeout. Woof. Isla Juffermans knocked down a pair of free throws with 2:50 remaining, and Louisville would not score again. I've repeatedly talked about Louisville being seemingly unable to put a complete game together. This game was pretty decent, don't get me wrong, but the Cards scored 70 points in the first 31:26 and scored four points over the last 8:34. 

To put that into a bit of perspective, that means the Cards were on an 88.8 ppg pace for just over 75% of the game and scored at just an 18.8 ppg pace for the remainder. And it wasn't just because they called off the dogs. Louisville had three of their 13 turnovers in that stretch and shot 1-9 (0-5) from the floor. Again... Woof. The Cards will take an 18-point conference win, but I am sure Walz will have plenty for Louisville to address in practice ahead of their next matchup.

The FRED Report

 

F - Free Throws: Louisville didn't get to the line very much, but they were efficient when they did. The refs only called 31 fouls total, and 19 of them were on Louisville. Two of Louisville's seven free throws came after a flagrant was awarded on review. Curry knocked those down as part of her 5-5 night and Juffermans had the other two. 7-7 is 100% so that's a capital 'F'.

R - Rebounds: Louisville was outrebounded in this one, which is certainly not ideal. Although they won the second chance points battle 6-5, they were beaten on the glass on both the offensive (8-6) and defensive (25-24) ends. The Cards were technically at a height disadvantage, but they were also outhustled for a fair number (Haley Cavinder and Ahnay Adams, both 5'-6", combined for 10 rebounds). No letter.

Fred Willard was delighted
with Louisville last night.

E - Effort/Execution: Louisville shot 47.5% from the floor and 34.6% from three. They had just 13 turnovers and forced 19 from Miami. If you exclude the fourth quarter, which I'm going to ascribe mostly to bad luck and questionable shot selection, the Cards were a glittering 53% from the floor and 42% from three. If the men's team shot 42% from three they'd score a million points per game. Louisville didn't seem to give up the fight in this one, despite how the fourth quarter looked. I'm awarding a capital 'E', but I completely understand any disagreement on that front. 

D - Defense: We've established that Miami's early opponents were bad, but they entered the game averaging 74.2 points per game and Louisville gave up just 56. Louisville let Haley Cavinder (19) and Cameron Williams (12) score their averages (18.3 and 11.9, respectively), but no one else was in double digits. The Cards also held the Canes well below their shooting averages of 46.5% and 30% from three, as Miami finished just 38.5/23.5%. I've mentioned the turnovers once already, but 19 is more than Miami's average in that category, and the Canes had just a .474 ATO ratio compared to .995 on the season. Another generous(?) grade from me: capital 'D'.

That's a final tally of F-_-E-D, which much like the game was close to perfect with a glaring question mark. 

The win moves the Cards to 9-5 and 2-1 in conference play. They've won their last three games -- their longest streak since November. The Cards won't get much credit from the voters or the committee for the win over Miami, but it should build confidence as they head into a short road trip ahead of a big home game against GT next week. Louisville will get the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest on Sunday in Winston-Salem, and they'll head to Pittsburgh on Thursday. Neither team has a conference win yet, and I'd rate it as "unlikely" that Pitt scores one against Duke before playing the Cards. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

WBB Opens 2025 Against Miami -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards and Canes to Square Off

Photo by GoCards

A winter storm may be en route to Louisville this weekend, but there's a hurricane coming first. Louisville women's basketball opens up 2025 with a game against Miami. The Cards and Canes will tip off at 7:00pm ET and will be aired on ACCNX.

Louisville is 8-5 on the year and is off to a 1-1 start in ACC play. The Cards fell to NC State in mid-December but most recently won at Boston College on Sunday. Louisville has won two straight games and three of their last four this season.

Photo by GoCards

Miami is 11-2 on the season and 1-1 in the ACC. Most recently, they fell to #17 North Carolina 69-60. Their lone ACC win came at Pitt by six points. They do have wins over 'Power Five' opponents Florida and Oregon State. The Hurricanes had won four straight games before their recent loss to North Carolina.

Miami has been outscoring opponents 74-64 and winning the rebounding battle 38-33. Haley Cavinder leads the Hurricanes with 18.3 points per game and 7.9 rebounds per game. Haley and her sister Hanna have combined for a little over 60% of the team's assists. Cameron Williams and Jasmyne Roberts are both in double figures in scoring at 11.9 and 11.5 ppg, respectively.

Photo by GoCards

Tricia Cullop is in her first season as head coach at Miami after 16 seasons in the same position at Toledo. Her time at Toledo included 13 winning seasons and a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances.

 Louisville leads the series all-time, 9-3. All but one of those games came after Louisville joined the ACC. The Cards have won the last two meetings.

Cardinal Couple plans to have in-person coverage for this game.

Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared

Happy New Year -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

From all of us, to all of you, HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

The Eagles -- Funky New Year

CARDINAL COUPLE