Monday Cardinal Couple -- The play's the thing...

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MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE


-Cards WBB will be challenged in the 2012-13 BIG EAST 


David Watson is the Monday Featured Columnist. Today, he looks at the Cards Big East schedule and other Watson thoughts. 

The Louisville WBB squad will play sixteen games in the BIG EAST in 2012-13. It's about half their schedule and it promises to be just as tough as previous years. At least the WVU Mountaineers are gone. Louisville teams under Jeff Walz were 3-3 against them. I know the Lady Cards won't miss those trips to Morgantown.

The opponents that Louisville will play twice are South Florida and DePaul. Walz is 4-1 against USF and 4-2 against DePaul since he has been at Louisville. Maybe they'll schedule the USF game in Tampa when it's real cold in Louisville. The UofL girls would probably appreciate that. The new arena for the Bulls is supposed to be ready for the upcoming basketball season. USF has been spending a lot of money on athletic facility improvements. They must have been reading about the progress here in Louisville. 

Harry and Martin are a solid
1-2 punch for DePaul

DePaul is going to probably be a little deeper than they were last year. At times it seemed Doug Bruno had Anna Martin, Katherine Harry and three girls from the campus bookstore out there for him. Ask Coach Walz. Being without depth can be a nightmare sometimes. Martin and Harry are back. They're pretty good. 

Will St.John miss head
coach Kim Barnes Arico?

Other home games for Louisville are: Cincinnati, Georgetown, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, St. John's and Seton Hall. The Hoyas and Red Storm have new coaches. They'll probably like the KFC YUM! Center facilities but may not like the results of their games here. It's not too much of a stretch to see Louisville winning all eight home games this year. 

Muffet and Geno are probably
glad they have the Cards at home.

Road trips take women's basketball to UConn, Marquette, Notre Dame, Providence, Syracuse and Villanova. I'd take 5-3 on the road in a heartbeat. It'll probably be the last time the Lady Cards visit the Orange Dome. 


I'll take a 13-3 BIG EAST Conference record. The Cards were 14-2 back in 2008-09. How do you think they'll do in BIG EAST play? 

Once again, the BIG EAST looks to be the best conference in womens' college basketball. The ACC would dispute that, of course, and the BIG 12 might raise an eyebrow, too. It's not hard to see Baylor, UConn, and Stanford having a good chance to work their way back to the Final Four again. 


Let's hope the fourth team is Louisville.
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