Track and Field and more on women's basketball

FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

( Staff Columnist extraordinaire Jenny O'Bryan brings us the Friday Edition of CARDINAL COUPLE. Track and Field, Nita Slaughter and a shameless pitch to get you to the St. John's game Sunday up next. Grab a seat and call a friend...CARDINAL COUPLE comin' at ya!)  


There are no results to report today for Louisville Women’s Athletics, and only one team competes today and that is Track and Field.

The Track and Field team heads out for a weekend of competition.  The squad splits up and hits the road with most of the squad headed to Lexington, KY for the Rod McCravy Memorial.  The distance runners headed to Bloomington, IN for the Indiana Relays, which also starts today. 

You can get a schedule of events and live results through out the day by going to this Louisville Athletic website: 

 http://www.gocards.com/sports/w-track/spec-rel/012413aaa.html.

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As many of the Women’s basketball followers know, injuries have continued to plague the team this year.   In my mind, one player that has stepped up and started to make the most of her additional time on the court is Antonita Slaughter. 

Slaughter, a junior, has been playing some great, reliable basketball.  There was a nice article by The Courier Journal this week in regards to Slaughter, and you can find it here: 

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20130124/SPORTS02/301240039/Hard-work-gets-Louisville-s-Slaughter-starting-spot

It is great to see Slaughter playing hard and consistently.  Keep it up ‘Nita, your team is benefiting from your play, hard work and consistency!

( Editor note: Jeff Walz confirmed Slaughter being the most consistent Cardinal on the season in his post-game remarks after the UC game. Against Marquette, she totalled 14 points and had (4) first half threes.)

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Another interesting link I found on the internet this week was 2012-13 team statistics across the nation.  The top 50 teams were ranked in categories such as offense, defense, steals, turnover, assists, etc.    

Of particular interest to me was where Louisville was ranked in terms of steals.  I have been very impressed this season with the high-pressure defense.  Any given game so far this season you can find Bria Smith and Jude Schimmel (specifically) and the Cardinals (as a whole) getting in passing lanes, disrupting passes and deflecting balls   The quick hands of this team defensively have kept them in many a games when the offense has been stagnant.  According to the link provided, Louisville ranks 6^th in the country in steals per game. 

In general, I am not a big statistics fan.  I despised the courses I had to take in college many years ago, and generally believe stats can be manipulated to further whatever agenda the statistician is looking for.  That being the case, I just found it interesting. 

On some level these stats are likely a bit deceptive as there are things that are not taken in to account, such as strength of schedule.  The better the team you are playing, the harder they are to guard defensively.  That is not accounted for in these stats.  It is purely numbers.   Take a look and see how our Cards stack up against teams across the nation.
 

http://espn.go.com/womens-college-basketball/statistics/team

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As Jeff mentioned yesterday here at The Couple, Women’s Basketball plays St. John’s Red Storm on Sunday at the KFC YUM! Center at 1:30.  Coach Walz is asking the Cardinal Faithful to sell out the lower “bowl” and help open the curtains to the upper deck.  The goal for this game is 13,000+ fans. 

The Cards lost twice to the Red Storm last season, once during regular season conference play in Queens, New York and the second time in the Big East tournament, in overtime.

While the Red Storm is always dangerous and starters are returning, I am looking forward to seeing what the new coaching staff is doing at St. John’s.   I mentioned it last summer when the news broke that Kim Barnes-Arico was leaving St. John’s for Michigan that I was a huge fan of hers.  I am excited to see how her former team looks without her at the helm. 

If seeing the Cards redeem themselves from the two losses last year is not enough to get you to the YUM! Center, perhaps a BIG Birthday Celebration for Louie (The Cardinal Bird) is.   Grab the kids and come help celebrate Louie’s birthday with some of his best friends as well as propel our team to a win at home.  

( We're hearing that there will also be cake and ice cream served somewhere at the KFC YUM! Center pre-game to celebrate Louie's birthday. The media hasn't been informed of the exact location. The KFC folks have seen what we do to a media buffet and also cookies at halftime. No chance they let us in on this...we may send Timmy the Intern in early disguised as a caterer to brief us...)
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