Sara Hammond to announce Tuesday morning

WELCOME TO TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE:

(We're keeping this one up here until we know the decision)

SARA HAMMOND TO ANNOUNCE TUESDAY 10 A.M.

Prized basketball recruit Sara Hammond from Rockcastle County High School has announced that she'll announce her college choice

Tuesday morning at 10 a.m.

Hammond has narrowed down her college choices to the University of Louisville and the University of Connecticut. She has visited both campuses and received in-home visits from each school last week.

Hammond is considered the front runner for Miss Basketball in Kentucky for the 2010-11 season and was a top player this summer for Kentucky Premier 17U AAU Select team. She played on the team with other UofL targets Kyvin Goodin-Rogers and Makayla Epps.

Hammond is a versatile 6'2" front line player with excellent rebounding skill and has great outside shooting range. She led Rockcastle County to a final four appearance last year in the Ky. State Girls' High School tournament and has been ranked as high as the #12th best player nationwide in the class of 2011.

WE have been supremely confident for quite sometime that Hammond is headed to be a Cardinal and that confidence isn't waning as decision day draws near. We know that UConn has really turned up the juice in their recruiting effort over the last several months...but Hammond has been considered a Louisville lean for several years and we don't see that changing.

Louisville offers several things that she has stated in the past are important to her in her college choice.

-She wants to chose a school where her parents, family and friends can see her play.

Louisville is 2 hours away, Connecticut considerably further.

-She's looking for a school where she'll see playing time and eventually get a chance to start. Louisville has needs in the front court areas and Hammond is tailor-made to fill those.

-Connecticut has an all star list of players either on campus, as returnees or freshmen and several more candidates in the class 0f 2011.

-Hammond is looking for a college that she'll feel comfortable at. She described her Labor Day weekend visit to Louisville as "the best weekend of my life."

-Hammond also has a strong source of commitment to the Rockcastle County and Mt. Vernon, KY. area and it just makes sense that she'd pick a school where those friends and fans would be able to see her play in person. The UofL basketball program under Jeff Walz, in his fourth year as Cardinal skipper has also played Tennessee, Kentucky, Middle Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Eastern Kentucky and Austin Peay. These campus are also close to Mt. Vernon as another chance for her fan base to see her in action.

-Hammond wants to attend a college where she can get a degree in her field of study. We're not sure what that is...but Louisville has a medical school, dental school, law school, engineering school and business school...as well as an arts and sciences school. Covers about everything.

The lure and siren song of the UConn basketball is a strong one. To be considered by them is quite an honor. But, it doesn't always work out there. (Note: the comments previously here in the original article have been removed after editorial review and reader request.)

WE think it is an obvious choice. WE'LL update you when she announces. WE'RE confident that it will be an announcement that will make a lot of people in RED and BLACK happy. WE'RE calling it "Cardinal."