UofL to face DePaul twice in 2011-12 Women's Basketball...we look back at: UofL v. UK

TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE:

-Big East releases 2011-12 matchups in WBB

Doug Bruno, DePaul's WBB head coach
has a rowdy home games fan base for the team.

-We look back at UofL vs. UK in WBB

The format for Big East women's basketball has changed a little bit for the University of Louisville women's basketball season.Instead of playing Cincinnati twice next year...as the Cards have for the past couple of seasons...Louisville will now face DePaul on a home and away basis next season.

Louisville is one of ten teams who will face changes in their repeat opponent. Only three repeat matchups remain the same for 2011-12:

-UConn vs. Notre Dame
-Pittsburgh vs. WVU
-Providence vs. Villanova

According to information released from the BIG EAST conference, the determining factors involved in deciding just who repeat opponents are comes from minimizing travel costs, geographical rivalries, television inventory, RPI implications and competitive issues.

We understand the RPI implications part. Both DePaul and Louisville will most likely be ranked in the NCAA Preseason top 20. Cincinnati won't. This would also cover the competitive issues and possible television interest. As far as travel costs...I'm  guessing it is less expensive to get to Cincinnati than Chicago. Call me crazy. The geographical rivalry part is another question mark. Cardinal fans have always travelled well to watch the Lady Cards play in Cincy. It seemed like Louisville had more people in the seats in Cincy last year than the Bearcats did for the game up there in the 2010-11 season. Will the travel to Chicago draw the same amount of Cardinal fans? 

Cincinnati ended up with Marquette as their doubles partner. Elliott vs. Mitchell in the coaches box. Once again, the geographical and travel costs items don't make sense here...but the good news for fourteen BIG EAST team is that they didn't end up with either UConn or Notre Dame twice.

Louisville's home games in the BIG EAST will be against:
Connecticut
DePaul
Marquette
Notre Dame
Providence
USF
Syracuse
Villanova

Away games:
Cincinnati
DePaul
Georgetown
Pittsburgh
Rutgers
St.John's
Seton Hall
West Virginia

No times, dates or television coverage has officially been released yet.

WE think that the Cards could have beaten Cincinnati twice in the upcoming season and every potential win in the BIG EAST is huge...when you look at the night in - night out level of competition in the NCAA's strongest women's conference. Cincinnati will improve this year over last year's marks...Janelle Elliott is a good coach and has recruiting well...but the talent level in the Queen City still isn't what Louisville has. Against DePaul, the Cards face a team that has some questions marks now that Felicia Chester, Sam Quigley, Deidre Naughton and China Threatt have graduated...but Keisha Hampton, Anna Martin and Katherine Harry return for Bruno's team...who made it to the third round of the NCAA Tournament in 2011 before bowing out to Duke.

Bruno has signed four players for the 2011-12 season, point guards Chanise Jenkins and Brittany Hrynko...both ESPN Top 100 ranked. Wing Alexa Gallagher and shooting guard Negan Rogowski complete the signing class.
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WE LOOK BACK AT:

Sunday, December 5th. Kentucky vs. Louisville in the KFC YUM! Center



Becky Burke and Shoni Schimmel combined for twelve
3-pointers in the 26- point win over Kentucky last season.

 A sold out arena saw the Louisville Cardinals gain a measure of revenge against in-state rival Kentucky with a 78-52 win. Louisville was led by Shoni Schimmel's 26 points and Becky Burke added 21. Both girls hit six three-pointers each in the contest. Louisville held Kentucky to 28% shooting. Louisville came out on fire in the first half and a 11-0 run over a three minute stretch in the first half saw the Cards stretch a 17-12 lead to 28-12 with seven minutes remaining in the first twenty minutes. The Cards led by as many as 19 in that first half and looked in control over the 5-0 Wildcats. UK never led in the contest.

UK would manage to get within 10 points of the lead midway thru the final half...closing the gap to 55-45 with nine minutes remaining but the Cards went on another run...13-3...and closed the door on UK, leading 68-48 with six minutes to go.

Becky Burke commented on the win:

"It feels really good. They didn't let up on us last year and we didn't let up today."

Freshman Schimmel knew that her upperclassmen teammates were still smarting from last season's 101-67 loss to UK in Memorial and reflected on the mindset going into Sunday's game.

"Everybody kind of made it a big deal, so I'm thinking maybe it is a big deal. I understood what happened last year. We weren't going to let it happen again."

Defensive pressure was a key element in the 26 point Cardinal win. Intensity on the Cardinal side and lack of defensive hustle from the Cats.The Cats turned the ball over a season high 22 times and time-after-time failed to check the long range efforts of Schimmel and Burke.

"It's the worst day we've had trapping and rotating since we've implemented this defensive style. If you don't hustle...you can look silly out there. Today was a bad day to look silly, but we did." UK head coach Matthew Mitchell commented after the game. "We just did not get pressure on the basketball. Things we normally do, we didn't do."

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