Lady Cards face UT-Martin tonight in the YUM

TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE:



-Lady Cards return home to battle the SkyHawks.
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Keisha Hines (pictured right) and her Lady Card teammates return to the KFC YUM Center Tuesday night to face the University of Tennessee-Martin SkyHawks. This will be the final non-conference regular season game for Louisville before they return to BIG EAST action.



We don't know a lot about Martin, Tennessee except that it is due north of Jackson, Tennessee. Jackson has one of Paul's favorite barbecue restaurants on the face of the planet in Burnsie's Barn. We would expect that Martin has a few good chow stops as well...and Reelfoot Lake isn't too far away from Martin, either. Some of the biggest crappie Paul has ever caught and fished for came out of Reelfoot. We wonder if the town was named for entertainer Dean Martin? Maybe Beatles producer George Martin? Remember Dick Martin from Laugh-In? The incomparable, wild and crazy guy Steve Martin? Andrea Martin was a great comedian on SCTV... Oh, well...We digress. Let's look at the basketball playing Martins:


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UT Martin (7-5) plays in the Ohio Valley Conference. They're currently on a three game winning streak...in their last game they defeated Murray State in Martin, TN. 89-78. They are 2-1 in the OVC so far this year... downing Murray and Eastern Kentucky and losing to Morehead State. Other losses have come at the hands of Indiana State., Colorado, Missouri and Vanderbilt. The SkyHawks have flown past Southern Illinois, Indiana State (in a rematch), Belmont, Air Force, and Evansville in addition to their OVC wins.



UT Martin likes to put points on the scoreboard. They've hit the 90+ mark once, 80+ three times and 70+ twice. Missouri held them to their season low...30 points. On the road, UT-Martin is 5-5, at home 2-0. They started the season with ten straight in their visitor uniforms. They aren't hesitant about taking the three either...averaging 23 a game (92-280).


No rest for these birds during the holiday season...after Louisville, they travel to Lexington to face UK on Thursday. This is the first meeting between Louisville and UT-Martin.

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Beware these two. UT-Martin is led by freshman Heather Butler (left) and junior Taylor Hall (right). The two combined for 50 points and 11 threes against Murray State. Butler has been named OVC Freshman of the Week four times so far this season. Fellow freshmen Beth Hawn and Jasmine Newsome have also earned the honor once. Butler's seven threes against Murray State tied a team record and her 37 points in the contest were the most made by a freshman in a single game this season and were the eighth most scored points by a player in Division I this season.

Hall, who played her first two years at Roane State Junior College, has been named OVC Newcomer of the Year once this season and OVC Player of the Week once. No wonder they're both smiling...
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Louisville will need to perform the full court defensive pressure that Jeff Walz preaches early in this one to keep the SkyHawks from setting up and drilling the Cards from outside with uncontested threes. The Cards will also need to shake the slow start syndrome..which plagued them in all three of the Las Vegas games. If the Cards can benefit from their 1-2-2 press early on...they should be able to pick up a lot of points in the paint and some transition baskets.
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Haven't heard anything yet about this...but if some of the Lady Cards went home for the Christmas break, getting back to the 'Ville could be a problem for some of them. The big storm on the East Coast has paralyzed flight and other forms of travel. Sherrone Vails is from Odenton, Maryland. Charmaine Tay from Irvington, New Jersey and Becky Burke from Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania. Let's hope these three Lady Cards have flown safely back to the nest if they did travel over the break.

UPDATE 3:45 p.m. Charmaine Tay is still unable to get a flight out the New York area and probably won't be in uniform tonight. Everyone else is good to go. .