Wednesday Cardinal Couple - Big East play begins

WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Louisville WBB nears BIG EAST Conference schedule

-Football Cards play in Sugar Bowl tonight

( Jenny O'Bryan brings us the Wednesday Edition of CARDINAL COUPLE. We're glad she's feeling better and back on the laptop!)

With the New Year comes conference play.  Big East play starts on Saturday, January 5th.      

Below is a link to current Big East standings along with the schedules of each team, thus far. Louisville is 12-2 going into the Saturday matchup and will look to avenge a 86-61 loss that the Blue Demons stuck on the Lady Cards the last time the Cards visited McGrath-Phillips arena in Chicago. The Blue Demons had five in double figures in the rout, routinely beat the Cards in the transition game all night and Katherine Harry grabbed 20 rebounds in the dismantling.

http://www.bigeast.org/portals/5/fls/19400/stats/wbasketball/2012-2013/confsked.htm

This will be the last time in the foreseeable future that Louisville will face some longtime rivals in Cincinnati, Connecticut, Rutgers and BIG EAST schools Providence, Seton Hall, Georgetown, St John's, Villanova, Marquette, USF and DePaul.  

 

Seven of the fifteen teams are already in to double-digit wins for the season with only Connecticut remaining undefeated.    The rugged play of the Big East is upon us.  For all of you who have been worried about the “soft” out of conference schedule, well, no more. 

Atop the conference, as has been historically typical, is Connecticut.  Syracuse, Notre Dame and Louisville round out the top 4.   This conference ranking is based on W-L percentages, so, I expect things will readjust very quickly as we get in to conference play and the competition steps up for a lot of teams.  For instance, Syracuse is off to a 12-1 start, but has played no top 25 teams.   I am not saying they are not good, just that so far this season, they do not seem to have been very tested. 

Saturday’s line up of games to kick off Big East play provides the opportunity to watch some really good basketball.  There are 5 games to open the conference, and likely the toughest of the day to be UConn vs. Notre Dame, to that in a minute. 

As we know, Louisville travels to DePaul to face the Blue Demons at home.  Coach Doug Bruno spent his summer as an assistant to the US Women’s Olympic team.   While the Blue Demons are currently not ranked, they are getting votes and are always very, very dangerous at home.  Look for veteran players, Kentucky native Anna Martin (senior) and Katherine Harry to provide the biggest challenges to the Cardinals. 

In what may be the marquee matchup for the day, depending on whom you ask is Notre Dame at Connecticut.   Notre Dame graduated 3 of their starters in Novosel, Mallory and Peters.  While returning Diggins and others, their lineup took a big hit to graduation.  The flip side to that, Connecticut graduated only Tiffany Hayes and added the # 1 recruiting class in the country in Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck.  After Connecticut’s rout of Stanford this past weekend, I look forward to watching this game and seeing this rivalry matchup early in the season.  Looks to be nationally televised, too.  So, catch it on TV at 4:00 and then tune in to Cards Radio to listen in on the Louisville game at 6:00 p.m. 

Providence will face Georgetown, Seton Hall will face Pittsburgh and Marquette will face Syracuse in the other 3 games in the Big East. 

It is time to buckle up Cards fans.  Big East play is here and things are about to get a lot tougher for our Cardinals.  I think they are up for the challenge, but no opponent can be overlooked!

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 

Finally, in other news, Louisville Football plays tonight in the Sugar Bowl.  While Cardinal Couple dedicates it coverage to primarily women’s sports, rest assured that we are all rooting for our Cards in Lou Orleans!  Check out any number of our favorite sites (on the left side of the page) for all your football coverage.   As Cardinal football fans like to say, “Get on the train”.  This is a big time game, on a national stage. Cards a 14-point underdog. We have nothing to lose. Go, Teddy, go!

Stay classy, Lou Orleans, stay classy.  Go Cards!!

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Finally, in the "News of the Weird" department, we received a call from ESPN yesterday inquiring if we'd like to do a "skype" with them on the upcoming Sugar Bowl game. At 11 p.m.

We politely told the caller we were a women's sports site and although we will be cheering for the Cards, we probably weren't knowledgable enough to deliver a factual report. Plus, we don't have "skype". 

If we did, we probably would have rounded up Co-Co, Cletus, Jenny, Sandy, Jeff, William Frawley, Mondo Vendo, MArkie MArk, Timmy the Intern, Bud Goode, Sonja and I and delivered a version of the 12 Days of Christmas.

Or put Jeff Walz's last post game interview to a operatic format.

Always thinking, always confused. It's not just a motto, it's a way of life here.
.
..
...