A WBB Comparison -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Taking a Look at This Year vs Last

As the Louisville' women's basketball hiatus continues through at least Christmas, and maybe even the New Year, I felt it was a good time to look at how this team compares to last year's at this stage. Many people thought last year's team was good enough to contend for a national title. Many more people think this year's team has the chops. Let's take a look at how the two teams stack up against each other to this point. In an effort to maintain consistency, I'll be cherry picking the games from last year's schedule to try to get a representative sample that is comparable to this year. I can't just pick the first four games and call it a day because of the ease of the opening schedule. Similarly, I can't just pick the four games leading up to the conference season because then last year's team will have a month's worth of games as a head start. (Note from future Case: To be clear, I didn't look at any stats and barely at scores before selecting these games. They are selected based on comparison to schedule state and game-to-game comparability as noted below.)

The games I've selected from the 2019-2020 season for this comparison are Western Kentucky, Murray State, Oregon, UT Martin, and Syracuse. The first two are the opening two games on the schedule. Unfortunately, we didn't have a comparable early road game, so a home game against Western will have to do as the comparison to SEMO. Last year's Oregon team was quite a bit better than this DePaul team, but Louisville didn't play another ranked neutral site game last season, and the closest ranked team would be Kentucky. A rivalry game is comparable only to rivalry. UT Martin was a non-conference game following a ranked game (DePaul this year and Kentucky last), and Syracuse was the first conference game. The home/away split for UT Martin and the conference game are reversed for the years so I'd say they cancel out.

Both teams through our segment are 5-0 (2019-2020 team was 12-1 at this point with a loss at Ohio State following the big Oregon win), but the victories are very different. Louisville's average margin of victory this season is 15 points larger than last year's selected segment. Primarily, that is coming from Louisville's scoring, which is up nearly 20 points per game (89.8 in 20-21 vs 71.2 in 19-20). Of course, Louisville is shooting the ball a lot better this year across the board. The Cards are shooting 4% better in every category when compared to our sample from last year. 

Interestingly, Louisville's assist-to-turnover ratio is nearly identical year over year. The 2019-20 sample had an ATO of 1.18 with two negative games in the sample and this year's team has an ATO of 1.19 with two negative games so far. Even more interestingly, Louisville's assist numbers have risen by a couple of assists per game, while turnovers have been flat. This is likely best explained by an outlier ATO game against EKU (1.77) and an outlier turnover game against DePaul (22), but it is still interesting. 

The improvements do not stop at the offensive end, though. Louisville's rebounding margin has gone up by about 7 rebounds per game, as the Cards have really gotten after it on the boards this year. Their worst performance so far is an even rebounding game against Duke. The worst from last year's sample is also the first conference game, when Louisville was out-rebounded by 6 against Syracuse. Perhaps the biggest (and most telling) change (other than the scoring margin) from year to year is Louisville's comparative defensive performance. I didn't chart opposing field goal percentage (though I can add that in the future), but I did look at blocks + steals for Louisville and their opponents. In last year's sample, Louisville's margin in blocks + steals per game was just 0.2. They were negative against Oregon and even against both UT Martin and Syracuse. So far this year, that average is at 9.6. Louisville's worst performances in this metric have been a pair of +5 games against UT Martin and Duke. For a team that is nearly flat in turnovers per game, this means that Louisville's defense has stepped up significantly to protect the rim and force steals. 

In all, the jump in performance by this year's team appears to match statistically to what we've seen in the eye test. I'll be interested to see how this develops as the season goes on, and, in an effort to get a better representation of last year's team, I'll work in more of last season's non-conference games once this season's team gets more than five games under their belt. Seeing how Louisville performs when they come out of an extremely long break will be telling, but they look very good right now. From where I'm sitting, there seems to be plenty of reasons to be optimistic about a potential run in San Antonio.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

Last week, we added Daryl to the mix for the first time since we left the radio station. This week, the Skype call will be even more full (and my audio normalization will be even more tested) as we bring Jared back in as well. With the team still on hiatus, we won't have as much basketball to cover, but we'll still do our best to bring you the joy and excitement of UofL women's athletics. Plus, it's Christmas Week! We'll talk about some of our Christmas favorites as the holiday draws near. Tune in to the Cardinal Couple YouTube channel at 11AM EST for the live show, or check out the recording after we wrap up around noon. You can also check out the podcast here, where you can listen via anchor in your browser or find the link to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform to have the show pushed directly to your device when it posts.

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

Fridays with Daryl: WBB Postpones Again -- Some Thank You's -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

CARDS WBB VS. MIAMI POSTPONED

Hello again, Cardinal faithful!

It's good to be back but I hate to be the bearer of bad news here.. There has been another postponement in the Women's basketball schedule.  News out of the Louisville program is that Sunday's scheduled matchup with the Miami Hurricanes has been postponed as of Thursday evening.  I think that was pretty much expected.  It feels like I haven't watched the Cards play a basketball game in a month! 

The next scheduled matchup for WBB would be a second meeting with Duke on New Years Eve, however, the Blue Devils program announced Wednesday evening that it would be pausing all team activities due to positive tests. Which makes the matchup a big IF right now with 2 weeks from Wednesday's announcement landing on 12/30.  I really wouldn't be surprised if we've watched the Cards play their last game of 2020 already.  So for now, we continue to wait. 

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There were four WBB  in the ACC last night. 

-- A good night in the Carolinas, it would seem, with home-standing NC St. taking down Wake Forest 79-65. The Wolfpack are now 7-0 and the Demon Deacs check in at 4-2. in "the battle of I-40". 

-- In Chapel Hill, UNC surprisingly silenced Syracuse 92-68. Banghart's bangers up their record to 6-2, while Q's squad takes their first loss and is 4-1. 

--  The Fighting Irish battled their way to a 84-78 win over Virginia Tech in South Bend. It was a match up of Dara Mabrey's previous squad (VT) against her new one (ND). UND evens it out on the season with a 3-3 record and Kenny Brooks' squad takes their first defeat and is now 6-1.

-- Clemson appears to be "for real" as of now --  with a 72-69 win over FSU in Littlejohn Coliseum. Those glassy-eyed Tigers are 7-1, while FSU takes their first conference loss and go to 3-1. 

Just three undefeated schools left in ACC conference games:  Louisville, NC State and Georgia Tech. In all games, it narrows the undefeated down to two, the Cards (5-0) and the Pack (7-0). 

IN OTHER NEWS

The University of Louisville, Adidas and Cardinals Forever Donovan Mitchell and Angel McCoughtry have all partnered to create the gift that every Louisville fan wants to find under the Christmas tree this year.  And this truly is the gift that keeps on giving... UofL News reported how the four partnered to create this shoe that will fund scholarships for future students in the Louisville area to be able to pursue a higher education at our favorite school. 

Check them out! & read more about the initiative here:

 https://www.uoflnews.com/post/uofltoday/former-card-donovan-mitchell-gives-back-to-alma-mater-with-exclusive-adidas-shoe-for-change/

Members of both of the men’s and women’s basketball teams will wear the limited-edition shoe in upcoming games.  It's power moves like this that make us realize how much bigger than basketball the games really are.  It makes me even more proud to be an alum and a civilian of one of the most passionate cities in America.  It really says a lot that after signing a $195 million deal with the Utah Jazz, a kid from New York makes giving the Louisville area youth a priority.  

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One week until Christmas, Louisvillians! 

I know how tough this year has been for us as a program and as a city but I want to wish everyone a warm and blessed holiday season.  THANK YOU to our essential workers and front line workers who literally kept us running.  THANK YOU to the voices who spoke out about injustice and THANK YOU to those who continue to put others health and safety first.  Mask up, my friends and we will get through this.  

Happy Friday...You will be hearing from us on the show Saturday morning as scheduled. 

Daryl Foust

Basketball News -- Diving News -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 WBB News

We're still in the COVID-19 gap where Louisville women's basketball has not been active.  Although names of players, coaches, and staff who tested positive were not released for privacy and HIPAA purposes it appears the Cards have been able to address and isolate those cases without any new cases.

That being said, as of right now we can prepare to see the Cards in action this Sunday at the KFC Yum! Center against Miami.  Tipoff is set for 1:00 p.m. Given that nothing changes between now and then keep an eye out for that preview in a couple days.

More basketball news coming and this one isn't so positive. Nyah Green has entered her name into the transfer portal.

Green is a redshirt freshman this year and came into the program as a McDonald's All-American. Green saw action in all five games this year. She scored a career-high six points against DePaul, but logged a career-low one minute against Duke.

As Coach Walz begins to settle in on his starting lineup and in-game lineup, we can maybe assume that certain players will start logging more minutes while others will be less fortunate. Louisville, however, looked very good against #24 DePaul and playing time was plentiful for the Cards WBB student-athletes. DePaul knocked off #9 UK yesterday

Green did have a legion of players in front of her on the roster and depth chart so it is not too surprising to see her seek opportunities elsewhere. She will be eligible to transfer and play immediately due to a decision made by the NCAA yesterday, allowing any student-athlete to have immediate eligibility upon transferring.

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Not much has changed in the standings with ACC women's basketball. Georgia Tech is 2-0 in conference play giving them the top spot. Louisville and NC State both sit at 1-0 in the ACC, although the Cards are 5-0 while the Wolfpack have played an extra game at 6-0. Other undefeated teams (in conference play only) at 1-0 are Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, Syracuse and Florida State.  Miami sits a bit further down at 4-1 overall and 1-1 in conference play. Pittsburgh and Clemson also have  1-1 ACC game records. Five ACC squads are still looking for their first conference win -- North Carolina, Notre Dame, Boston College, Duke and Virginia. 

Diving News

Ever heard of a virtual swimming and diving meet? Well, COVID-19 has allowed the world to come up with some creative concepts and alternatives including this.

There was an international meet that the Louisville Diving team was a part of. Each team filmed themselves from their home pool (Ralph Wright Natatorium for Louisville) and the tapes were submitted to a judging panel. Louisville was the only team from the United States of America.

Abby Andrews and Kayla Wilson in the women's three meter. They finished 10th and 11th, respectively. The women's platform included Else Praasterink and Abbie Erickson. Erickson was one spot from the podium and fourth with Praasterink right behind at fifth.

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For me, it is a Friday as I will enjoy the true Friday this week with a day off from work. I would love to wish you a Happy Friday, but since it is still just Thursday I will say Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared

Holly Aprile Interview -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

HOLLY APRILE INTERVIEW

I had the opportunity to chat with Louisville head softball coach Holly Aprile on Tuesday -- originally intended to catch up with how the fall season of  Louisville Softball went. The Coach and I got into more than just that, though -- going into roster strengths and new student-athletes on the roster. Holly is always such a fun and informativv interview for me to do and yesterday's chat did not disappoint one bit. 

Ah, the marvel of modern technology. I was actually chatting with her in New York but it sounded (cell phone wise) as if she was right around the corner and we were doing it person-to-person instead of on our phones. 

I think you'll enjoy the interview, we catch up on the Softball Cards and hope that we'll be able to watch their pursuits and accomplishments in just a few short months.  

You can hear our chat at the link below: 

LINK:   HOLLY APRILE INTERVIEW  

Have a wonderful Wednesday, stay safe and GO CARDS! 

paulie

Reliving Past UNC and FSU Games -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 Reliving Past UNC and FSU Games

With no games for a few days because of positive COVID-19 cases within the Louisville program we sit back and patiently wait to see our Cards in action again.

The North Carolina and Florida State games have been postponed with a slight chance of cancellation. So, instead we will revisit recent games between the Cards and these foes.

North Carolina, who Louisville was scheduled to play this past Sunday, has not been to the KFC Yum! Center since Jan. 3, 2019. The Cards and Heels played in Chapel Hill on Jan. 19 last season with Louisville hanging on down the stretch for a 74-67 win. The prior season, which I will highlight, was just as close with a 73-66 score.

Here are some photos from that 73-66 win in 2019:

The Cards and Seminoles have played a little more often with those last two games ending in Florida State's favor. FSU topped the Cards by two in the ACC semifinals last season. During the regular season, the Cards lost at home by eight. That will be the game I highlight below. The two foes have split the prior two meetings before that.

Here are photos from the Feb. 6, 2020 loss:

UofL and FSU will get a chance to play in Tallahassee on Jan. 10, 2021 so I won't feel as bad about their first game getting cancelled if that ends up being the case..

On a side note, it's crazy the difference a year makes in terms of photography. The UNC game photos are from January 2019 and the FSU game photos are from February 2020. I am certainly glad my photos have gotten better over time as I continue to grow and develop as a photographer.

I'm sure the rest of the crew here at Cardinal Couple is equally as grateful that they have better quality photos to post. We'll call it part of Paulie's magic he works most days for us.

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There has not been an announcement made yet about the home game against Miami as Louisville, Miami, and the ACC continue to figure that out and if the game will be possible  Miami looked pretty good in holding on to knock off UNC yesterday 67-63. North Carolina might be lamenting they are in ACC part of their schedule already, they went 5-0 in non-conference action but are 0-2 in the league now. 

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San Antonio for a "bubble" NCAA Tournament?  The Texas city has emerged as a potential site for ALL of the NCAA Tournament games this spring. The 2021 NCAA Final Four was scheduled there already. Trying to work out the logistics, venues, scheduling and hotel stays for over 60 teams for an extended time is a challenge, make no mistake about it. The city is "in talks" with the NCAA about hosting the entire event. I'd be interested in your thoughts about this. Leave them in the comments section.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

ACC WBB Update -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 ACC UPDATE AND STANDINGS

Even though our UofL women's basketball team is on a hiatus this week, there was still plenty of ACC WBB action yesterday, plus a few other postponement besides the Cards. All told, four games on the ACC WBB schedule were played Sunday, while four others were either cancelled or postponed. 

First off, North Carolina State remained undefeated ay 6-0 with a 75-62 win at Boston College, who is now 4-2. Kayla Jones had 25 for the victorious Pack and Elissa Cunane had a monster game with 23 points and 15 rebounds. This one was decided in the fourth quarter, when Ms. Wuf's team overcame a 60-42 deficit to out-point the Eagles 28-9 in the final quarter. 

Florida State has played just two games this season, but they've both been wins. Yesterday they used a strong second half to down Virginia 69-51. Tied at 28 after the first half, the Seminoles won the second half 41-23. Four FSU players ended up in double figures. Virginia is now 0-5 on the season, the only winless club in the ACC. 

Clemson took their perfect mark to Pittsburgh, bit it was the Panthers getting the 80-71 win. Another one that was decided in the fourth quarter, as Pitt erased a 61-49 third-quarter deficit Norfolk State with a sparkling 31-10 fourth quarter. Pitt improves to 3-2 on the season -- Dayshanette Harris with 21 for Pitt. Clemson is now 6-1 on the year. 

Georgia Tech visited Notre Dame and put an impressive 82-67 beating on the Irish. After a 15-15 first quarter, the Yellow Jackets stung UNC the rest of the way and had five double-figure performers for Nell Fortner. The Ramblin Wreck is now 4-1in the schedule, Notre Dame and Nicole Ivey fall to 2-3 with the loss, despite 21 points and nine grabs from Maddie Westbeld.

Postponed or cancelled games yesterday were: UNC at Louisville, Syracuse vs, Binghamton, Wake Forest against Norfolk State and Duke vs, Miami , The ACC matchups will be made up, the non-conference contests are cancelled. 

Today, UNC plays the Hurricanes in the Watsco Center in Coral Gables. It's a 2 p.m. tipoff and will be available on the ACC Network 

Here's how the conference looks this morning.  Five schools remain undefeated for the season. NC State is 6-0 and so is Virginia Tech. The Cards are 5-0, Syracuse 4-0 and FSU 2-0. With one loss, we find Clemson and UNC at 5-1, Georgia Tech and Wake Forest are 4-1, Duke and Miami 3-1. Rounding out the standings are Boston College at 4-2, Pitt at 3-2, Notre Dame at 2-3 and Virginia at 0-5. 

I

In conference games, Georgia Tech is 2-0, then six school check in at 1-0 (Louisville, NC State, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, Syracuse and FSU). Clemson and Pitt are 1-1 in ACC play. North Carolina, Miami, Notre Dame, and Duke sit at 0-1 and Boston College and Virginia are 0-2 in conference play. 

Overall, the ACC schools are 53-17 (81.2%) in games this season. 

The Cards lead the ACC in scoring with a 89.8 points-per-game average in five games. Syracuse is allowing the least points with a 53.0 defensive point-per-game stat. In margin of victory, it is UNC on top with an average win of 31.3 points. Virginia Tech leagues the lead in threes made with an impressive 70 in six games for Kenny Brooks Hokies. 

Dana Evans has the leading scoreing average in the league with 21.0 points a game. -- a total of 105. It's actually Elizabeth Kitley (Virginia Tech) who has the most total points with 109 -- in six games. Kitley also leads the ACC with 12.7 rebounds a contest.  

The top five scorers (% wise) are Evans, followed by Jayla Everett (Pitt) at 19.6 a night, Ivana Raca with 19.0 a contest for Wake Forest, Maddie Westbeld (18.2) and Kitley (18.2) 

Other Cards in the top five numbers:   Olivia Cochran is tied for fifth with 9.0 rebounds a game. Evans has 23 assists, which is fourth-best in the league. 

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I hope you've enjoyed reading this  "Mathematical Monday monologue", or maybe you're muttering "Paulie, tell your statistics to shut up!" Either way, have a marvelous Monday (you never know when your "number: is up...groan) OK, I'm done...

paulie  

Sunday Cardinal Couple - More Postponements

 Basketball Pause Announcements

More fallout from the UofL WBB pause in activities was announced yesterday.  When the pause was first announced on Friday, it included the postponement of the UNC game originally scheduled for 4pm today. The ACC, finding out that Duke had also gone into COVID protocol, arranged some schedule scrambling. UNC now goes to Miami for a 2 p.m. game Monday.  FSU will travel to Clemson to play on Thursday.  

During the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast, the crew discussed the expectation that the Florida State game, scheduled for 8pm Thursday, would also need to be postponed.  The announcement came later in the day confirming the delay.

The 1 p.m. game next Sunday against Miami might also be in jeopardy.  We believe that the pause timeline would, if UofL is cleared by their testing, run its course just in time to resume activities for the Miami game, though it would likely mean that Louisville would play the game without any practices for preparation for the team.

After Miami, UofL isn't scheduled to play again until 3pm New Year's Eve, again against Duke, so without considerable further spread of Covid-19 through the program that game will almost certainly proceed as planned.

Apparently Jeff Walz had proposed to the ACC to allow Duke and UofL to play their two games in the schedule back to back to ease scheduling and travel, if the Miami game also gets postponed, that would, in a sense, happen, though without the scheduling and travel benefits.

As Nick pointed out in the comments yesterday, there is some space towards the end of the season for games to be inserted, though not much.  The last currently scheduled game is on February 28th, and with the ACC tournament starting March 3rd, I imagine teams would be hesitant to try to insert a game in that gap.  There is a week between the Clemson game on February 21st and Notre Dame on the 28th, so there would be room to insert a game there.  But to find another week gap to insert another game with the typical three or four days between games we have to back up to the January 17th to the 24th gap between NC State and Wake Forest.

Obviously, the main concern is the student-athletes, coaches and staff. We hope they come though all this OK. 

Winter Graduation

UofL held their 2020 winter graduation yesterday, and like most large events in 2020, this one was virtual.

Winter graduations are typically smaller affairs compared to the traditional spring affairs, but there are always several athletes participating and we always try to highlight them as we find out about them.

From the current Volleyball squad, Piper Roe graduated, with former volleyballers Melanie McHenry, Natalie Palastro, and Akela Yuhl also getting their degrees.

In soccer, Emina Ekic and Amari Hopkins were in the ranks of the newly degreed.

Congratulations to these folks, and if you hear of any that we missed, let's celebrate them in the comments.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

Daryl Foust joined the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast yesterday.  Daryl made a number of appearances on the show during the WCHQ years, and we gladly welcome her voice back on the show.

There was plenty of material to cover on this one, with the basketball activities pause and recaps of the UT Martin and Duke games before the pause among the subjects covered.

Check it out below.

JMcA

WBB Put on Pause -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Positive Test and Contact Tracing Halts Basketball Activities

Someone quipped on Twitter earlier this fall that the "empty helmet image" accompanying an announcement is undefeated. This graphic has been used for bad news in football before this season but it saw renewed vigor as we approach 200 canceled football games on the year. The basketball version of this phenomenon is a basketball sitting alone on the floor. Louisville fans that frequent the Go Cards website will be familiar with this photo over the last couple of weeks.

It was used anew yesterday as the news that we'd been hoping to avoid struck. The Louisville Women's Basketball Program has been forced to pause all team activities due to a positive Covid-19 test and subsequent contact tracing. The official release notes only one test and only says that it is within the Tier-1 individuals. Tier-1 includes student-athletes, coaches, managers, and other team associated staff (strength and conditioning, etc). We'll be keeping an eye on the situation, obviously, to see if it develops further or if things smooth back out a shade. 

The first fallout of this pause is the "postponement" of tomorrow's scheduled game against North Carolina. I have my doubts about anything listed as a postponement at this stage, as the schedule gets tighter as the year goes on. Finding a replacement date will be quite the challenge. As we know, the requirement to qualify for the NCAA tournament will be 13 games played, so we should assume that any postponed game is canceled. That way, any rescheduled game becomes just a bonus. 

The question now becomes how much of the season this will affect. The University of Louisville has handled Covid situations pretty well so far, as we've seen most teams that have participated have to deal with it in some way. In all cases, the respective team sorted things out quickly enough to avoid catastrophic scheduling issues. We'll see how it goes for women's basketball. If they follow the same schedule as the men's team, which returns to full team practice today, they'll almost certainly be forced to postpone Thursday's game against Florida State. The risk will be the game against Miami. The men's team returned to limited activity 8 days after their announced pause. After two days of limited participation, they have a full practice today. They don't return to the court until they open the conference season against NC State. 

The timeline for the women's team is tighter. If they return to limited activity after 8 days, that would be next Saturday. That would give them no practices before a game against Miami scheduled for next Sunday. Given the holiday break following the Sunday game, there may be some ability to shove the Miami game back a day or two once the Hurricanes have arrived in Louisville. We'll just have to see. For now, we wish the very best to whoever has come down with the illness and hope for a quick recovery (or none required at all). Any updates we get about the situation, we'll be sure to pass along to you, dear reader.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

Saturday morning means time for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour. We're without Jared this week, as he banks for the last time before four straight weeks off. That said, it's the first show with our new addition, Daryl, on the podcast! Goodness, I wonder what we'll have to talk about. We'll review the big conference opening win earlier this week but the big topic of the day will be yesterday's big news. Tune in at 11AM to the Cardinal Couple YouTube Channel for the live show, or check out the rebroadcast anytime after the show ends. As always, subscribe to the podcast on your podcast player of choice to have it pushed to your device as soon as it's posted. Be sure to like and review the podcast if you're able so that we can reach even more Cards fans1

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

FRIDAYS WITH DARYL -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 In the category of "What Will They Think Of Next?", the Cardinal Couple crew has asked and received a confirmation that noted local sports writer, huge Cardinal fan, radio star and all-around great person DARYL FOUST will be joining us weekly here on these humble pages.  Today's article is actually being posted by Paulie, since our website and Blogger can't seen to reach an accord on granting Daryl author privileges. I was holding out hope that our I.T. "expert" Worldwide Jeff could solve the riddle, but, it was still INTERNET 1 - JEFF 0 as I went to post this. 

I also ran into trouble posting a certain segment of Daryl's article today and had to leave it out. My apologies. That's was happens when you let the "old guy" do stuff on-line, I suppose. 

We are excited about our addition of Daryl and hope you will be, too! The floor is yours, Daryl! 

paulie. 

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Hello again Cardinal Couple faithful!  And happy Friday to ya.

You might’ve heard me on the show once or twice before but this is my first time in print for CC! I’ve bounced around many roles with our favorite university since graduating in 2015 but as of March 12 earlier this year, I had all sport related positions eliminated due to the national pandemic.  I had just finished up my last home games as the light switch operator for Men’s and Women’s games at Yum! At the beginning of March. I also worked as a board operator for CBB games over at 93.9 but when I went in for my shift that night, the tournaments had all been immediately suspended. Therefore, my assistance wasn’t needed to run the board for commercial breaks.  No games being played, no work to be done, and eventually I found myself very unemployed.  Even my full time position had been eliminated.  I just recently, however, returned to my day job but as part time when Paulie reached out to me with an opportunity to write for Cardinal Couple to contribute.  So here I am!!  I’m very happy to have the opportunity to talk about the Cardinals and some games!!

We know things can change at any moment so I am treating every game like it could be the last and I said it before the season got started that I believe this team will also be in that mindset.  2020 has brought a lot of things into a new light for a lot of people.  Including me.

So I hope you are staying safe and warm out there #CardNation, it’s a pleasure to be back.

Today the university announced that it would be honoring the legendary men’s basketball head coach, Denny Crum, by naming the future Athletics dorm to be located across from the practice facility on Floyd Street after him. If you haven’t seen the video announcement AD Vince Tyra shared via Twitter, here it is.

https://twitter.com/vincetyra/status/1337104903123120134?s=20

She’s a beaut! Congratulations, Coach Crum.  

For now, the WBB squad looks to move to 6-0 when they welcome a Tobacco Road foe, North Carolina, to town on Sunday afternoon.  Louisville beat UNC 74-67 in Chapel Hill a year ago. Dana, Liz and "E" and Mykasa Robinson are the only players who saw minutes in that matchup and are back for this Sunday’s game.  We will talk more about that on Saturday’s show.

Yesterday the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame recognized Cardinal forever, Jill Morton (1997-2000), when it announced its 18-player Silver Anniversary women's basketball team, recognizing players from the 1996 season.. she became Louisville’s first women's basketball All-American her senior season and was Louisville's first WNBA draft pick, going to the Charlotte Sting with the 34th pick of the 2000 WNBA Draft.

Have a great weekend, Louisvillians.  I look forward to checking back into the airwaves with you on Saturday.. however, I will miss the donuts. 

 

Go Cards!

o   DARYL 

Cards Open ACC with Win -- Jill Morton -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

Cards Claim Conference Win at Cameron

Louisville women's basketball opened ACC conference play when they visited Duke for a rare Wednesday game. Yes, today is only Thursday so don't get in that weekend mindset quite yet.

The Cards left Cameron Indoor Stadium with a 73-49 victory to put that first tally in the ACC wins column.

Overall shooting was rather poor in the first quarter, but the 5-for-5 shooting from three-point range helped the Cards to a 21-12 advantage. Duke held a small 4-3 lead early in the game, but Louisville had a stretch of three straight three-pointers that saw the Cards pull ahead 9-6.

Louisville went into halftime holding a 35-22 lead. Evans led all scorers at the time with 13 points. The second quarter was quiet for Louisville, who won the quarter 14-10. The Cards struggled with shooting, including a fair number of missed layups. The only three-point attempt was a miss, but a 6-0 Dana Evans run helped ignite some offense.

Duke cut the Cards lead to six points midway through the third quarter before Louisville stepped it up a notch defensively. Louisville would hit a 15-point lead, but allowed a late score to end the quarter with a 49-36 lead. Evans had a quiet quarter with two points. Smith saw a small spark and pushed her point total up to 13 at the buzzer. Louisville went 0-4 from three-point range in the third quarter.

A little splash from three-point range from Evans off a nifty assist from Mykasa Robinson just before the break in the fourth quarter put the Cards up 20, triggering a Duke timeout. Depending who you were rooting for, it either got progressively better or worse form there. HVL contributed five of the next seven points, igniting a Duke timeout as the lead grew to 27. The Cards would win by 24.

Duke, who usually relies on amplified crowd noise from the small Cameron Indoor Stadium, played in front of an empty arena. The Blue Devils announced they will not allow fans for men's and women's basketball games this  season.

Louisville finished with a 44.4% shooting from the field with a solid 43.8% from three-point range. They also had an impressive showing from the free throw line, going 10-11.

Evans led all scorers with 24 points. Kianna Smith had 15, HVL had 14, and Olivia Cochran had 11. Cochran also had 12 rebounds to complete her double-double.

Surprisingly, Ahlana Smith and Norika Konna both saw few minutes, seeing seven minutes and six minutes, respectively. Robinson saw a fair amount of minutes and even though her scoring issues continued she was effective with six rebounds and one assist to go along with no turnovers.

Layups, which has been a weird issue in recent years, seemed to be Louisville's Achilles heel for much of the night. Whether it was a fast break or a contested shot in the paint Louisville was frustrated by the point blank range shot all night.

The Cards limited their turnovers to 12, quite an improvement from their mark fo 22 against DePaul. The 23-4 points off turnovers advantage proved to be the difference maker in the game. Duke actually won the fast break battle, 10-9. The Blue Devils also had the advantage in second chance points 15-11.

It was a relatively quiet night with fouls and whistle interruptions. The two teams combined for 22 fouls. Allowing the game to go on without constant interruptions will award the officials an A for the game.

F-R-E-D Report

(Fred Mertz stunned by the realization Louisville held Duke to under 50). 

Free Throws- 10-11 for 90.9% certainly earns a Capital "F".

Rebounds- Louisville and Duke tied with 38 rebounds a piece. The Cards are averaging nearly 50 rebounds per game. Duke had been out-rebounding foes by 24 a game. We cannot award a letter here for an averaage showing on the boards. 

Effort/Efficiency- The 44% shooting from the floor and nearly 44% from three-point range is always a good mark to hit. 23 points off turnovers is also a big number, especially when you when by 24, showing to be a big difference maker. On top of that Louisville, limited its turnovers and made smarter shots. There is certainly enough evidence to award a Capital "E".

Defense- The Cards held Duke to less than 50 points. They also forced Duke into 1-16 shooting from three-point range and forced 18 turnovers. The only area of concern would be allowing 36 points in the paint, including a couple open looks after giving up offensive rebounds. Still, there's a strong case for a Capital "D".

So we have a F-_-E-D after last night on the Fred Report. .

Louisville is now 5-0 on the year with a 1-0 mark in conference play. They host North Carolina on Sunday at 4:00 p.m., on ACC Network. Georgia Tech is the only other team with a conference victory after defeating Boston College. We'll see four more conference games tonight.

Jill Morton Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame

Jill Morton will be joining the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame as a 2021 recipient. Morton played for Louisville from 1996-2000. To give you an idea when that was, Morton was starting her freshman year the same time I was turning two. Paulie was celebrating his 80th birthday back then... or close to it, right?

Morton is Louisville's 12th leading scorer all-time. She finished her career with 1402 points. She also holds a career 44.5% three-point shooting mark, which still ranks first in program history. Her 201 three-pointers is seventh all-time at Louisville.

Morton is also Louisville women's basketball's first ever All-American. She is also the Cards' first ever WNBA draft pick, going 34th to the Charlotte Sting in 2014.

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

Radio Daze

We are back on air/internet/podcast for our Cardinal Couple podcast this Saturday and hope to have Daryl joining us. As for myself, I'm back to banking this Saturday and will be out. Abbott and Costello are taking some time away from learning baseball rosters to teach me how to convert a 5 into two 10s.

Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared