This Week's Laundry is Mixed Load

TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

( Back from her trip to Bayou Country, Sandy Walker returns today to share her laundry list all things UofL sports relevant. The University of Louisville womens' basketball team plays Rutgers tonight in the KFC YUM! Center at 7 p.m. in BIG EAST action. Both teams are coming off of conference-opening losses, Louisville to DePaul and Rutgers to St. John's. Should be a good one...Rutgers center Monique Oliver coming off a sprained ankle. See you at the YUM! Jenny will have the recap Tuesday night/Wednesday morning)

VOLLEYBALL

Volleyball signee, Maya McClendon, was named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA seventh annual Under Armour Girls High School All-America Teams.  Check out details at http://www.gocards.com/sports/w-volley/spec-rel/121412aaa.html .

 

SOFTBALL

 

This year’s Bullpen Dinner will feature Olympian Danielle Lawrie as the keynote speaker. The annual dinner will be held in the Regency Ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on Saturday January 26 at 7:30 p.m.   You can find out now to be a part of the celebration by checking out http://www.gocards.com/sports/w-softbl/spec-rel/121012aab.html .

 

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LACROSSE

 

By a vote of the players the lacrosse team has again named the trio of Katie Oliverio, Monica Negron and Janaye Dzikewich as this year’s captains.

 

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WOMEN’S HOOPS ON TV


 

THIS WEEK PER NCAA.COM

Tuesday	Rutgers at Louisville	CBS SN	7 p.m.
	Detroit at Green Bay	horizonleague.com	8 p.m.
	Utah vs. Colorado	Pac-12 Network	8 p.m.
	Stanford vs. California	Pac-12 Network	10 p.m.
Wednesday	Texas at West Virginia	WVUSports.com	7 p.m.
	Oklahoma at TCU	FSSW Plus	8 p.m.
	Cleveland State at Illinois-Chicago	horizonleague.com	5:30 p.m.
	Kansas State at Texas Tech	FSSW	8 p.m.
Thursday	Virginia at Georgia Tech	ESPN3	7 p.m.
	Wake Forest at Florida State	ESPN3	7 p.m.
	North Carolina at North Carolina State	ACCDN/YT	7 p.m.
	Eastern Washington at Northern Arizona	NAU-TV	8:35 p.m.
	Iowa at Wisconsin	BTN	8:30 p.m.
	Illinois at Northwestern	BTN.com	8 p.m.
	Nebraska at Indiana	BTN	6:30 p.m.
	Wright State at Milwaukee	horizonleague.com	8 p.m.
	Central Michigan at Toledo	STO	7 p.m.
	Texas A&M at Kentucky	FSN	6 p.m.
	Missouri at Tennessee	SPSO	8 p.m.
	Florida at Mississippi State	SUN	8 p.m.
	Georgia at Alabama	CSS	9 p.m.
	A&M-Corpus Christi at McNeese State	ESPN3	6:30 p.m.
	Louisiana-Monroe at Troy	Sun Belt Network	1 p.m.
	Seattle at New Mexico State	AggieVision	8:30 p.m.
Friday	Washington State vs. Southern California	Pac-12 Network	11 p.m.
Saturday	Villanova at Pittsburgh	BETV	6 p.m.
	Portland State at Northern Arizona	NAU-TV	8:35 p.m.
	West Virginia at Kansas State	FSN	4 p.m.
	TCU at Iowa State	Cyclones TV	7 p.m.
	Texas Tech at Oklahoma	SSTV web stream	8 p.m.
	Detroit at Cleveland State	horizonleague.com	2 p.m.
	Youngstown State at Valparaiso	horizonleague.com	2:35 p.m.
	Wright State at Green Bay	horizonleague.com	3 p.m.
	Illinois-Chicago at Loyola Chicago	horizonleague.com	3 p.m.
	FIU at UALR	Sun Belt Network	2 p.m.
	Pepperdine at BYU	BYUtv	4 p.m.
	Idaho at New Mexico State	AggieVision	8:30 p.m.
Sunday	Boston College at Clemson	RSN	1 p.m.
	Georgia Tech at North Carolina	ESPN3	2 p.m.
	Miami (Fla.) at Florida State	RSN	3 p.m.
	Fordham at Charlotte	CBS SN	2 p.m.
	Rutgers at Notre Dame	ESPNU	3:30 p.m.
	Wisconsin at Michigan	BTN	2 p.m.
	Michigan State at Illinois	BTN	4 p.m.
	Nebraska at Penn State	ESPN2	2 p.m.
	Oklahoma State at Texas	FSN	12:30 p.m.
	Baylor at Kansas	FSN	2:30 p.m.
	Southern Miss at Memphis	FSN	4:30 p.m.
	Toledo at Bowling Green	STO	2 p.m.
	San Diego State at Colorado State	CBS SN	5 p.m.
	Ohio State vs. Arizona State	Pac-12 Network	3 p.m.
	Colorado vs. Utah	Pac-12 Network	5 p.m.
	Lafayette at Navy	CBS SN	12 p.m.
	Tennessee at Florida	ESPNU	11:30 a.m.
	South Carolina at Georgia	CSS	1 p.m.
	Kentucky at Missouri	ESPNU	1:30 p.m.
	Alabama at Ole Miss	SPSO	2:30 p.m.

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BASKETBALL

RUTGERS AHEAD

 

The women will host Rutgers at home tonight at 7:00

Tonight one of my favorite coaches comes to town bringing with her a Rutgers University squad which represents one of 3 distinct schools which she has brought to NCAA final 4 contests.    At times I think Vivian Stringer is one of the lesser known still active women's basketball  "foundation" and coaches.    Any lack of notoriety is due not to a lack of accomplishments or caring but instead to her more quiet and stoic outward appearance under which radiates the fire of a competitor and champion.  To it we are truly privileged to have such a remaining active icon of the sport coming to our arena.

Through life she has faced and overcome multiple personal challenges and tragedies in the same way she teaches her players to handle and overcome issues.     Her addressing of challenges began as far back as 1955 when she legally fought and defeated her high school which had refused her as a cheerleader because she was black.     Adversity has continued to arise through severe medical issues of a child, the unexpected death of a husband and a media firestorm as late as 2007 when Don Imus, on his radio show, made derogatory racial remarks about her successful Rutgers team.   

She is currently the 3rd most winning coaches in women's basketball history and is leading all active NCAA women's basketball coaches.   While achieving this level of success her quiet but powerful on and off the court demeanor causes her to also be known and thought of by her players as their 2nd, and for a few their first, mom for their lifetimes.

With this history no one should under estimate any team she brings to town.  While this year’s team may not appear to be one of her strongest threats it would be foolish to take them lightly.  They come to tonight's nationally broadcast game, on the CBS sports network, with a Sunday 4 point loss to St John's in a contest similar to Louisville's Saturday loss to DePaul where they fought back from a major point deficit only to come up a bit short in the end.   This makes both teams hungry and eager for a contest which would restore their credibility.   The ending story in the Rutgers loss is a particularly sore point as after battling back to a 2 point game with less than a minute left, a referee mistakingly indicated the St John's player had a 2 shot foul where a 1& 1 was correct.  After a missed first shot, the error was discovered and the player was given a chance, and was successful, in hitting the 1 & 1 in a do-over which sealed the win for St John's.   I think this unfortunate situation, which ended their 9 game home winning streak, might create a greater than normal desire for a comeback win.  

The Scarlet Knights high scoring threats in Big East play have been Sophomore Betnijah Laney  and Senior Erica Wheeler while 6'2" F/C Monique Oliver's 11.1 ppg. average leads the team in scoring for the season. This could provide an exciting match-up with Louisville's Sara Hammond.      See you at the pre-game warm ups.   

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BIG EAST BASKETBALL NEWS
 

There is hope for all as on Saturday Notre Dame showed a national television audience that currently top-ranked Connecticut could be defeated as a 73-72 score took the Huskies down at their home arena in Storrs.

Sandy W.



 

Jenny's thoughts on the Georgetown win

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(Jenny O'Bryan is a columnist for CARDINAL COUPLE. Today, she looks at the UofL WBB win over Georgetown and the team.) 

What a huge road win against a top 20 team! Never mind that the team tried to give it away during the last 6 minutes of the game. Somehow, they gutted it out, and finished the game differently than they have been previously finishing games. Getting the “W”, on the road, after almost letting it slip away shows growth for this team. Growth that I will gladly celebrate!

Truthfully, I have been seeing a lot of growth these last few games. Not all have been in the win column, but growth nonetheless. That is what one wants to see, right? Your team getting better each time out on the hardwood. Each outing gets us closer and closer to post season play, and every outing builds upon the last. This team is never going to be the preseason top- ten team that it was predicted to be. Injuries and a transfer changed the landscape for this team. Given that, the Coaches and the team deserve a lot of credit for reworking their game plan and remaining competitive.

Lets start with the growth that has been happening. First, last night ended up in the win column. Those hard losses at St. John’s and Rutgers provided valuable lessons. Both of those games could have/should have been won and it slipped away. Yesterday’s game against Georgetown should have been a win, and by most measures a sizable win. They got the win, in the end. Not always pretty, but, they came out on top. A win is a win, so they say.

The inside game has come along nicely. Our bigs have started to show a lot of growth and settled in to some maturity on the floor. Less fouling, more solid defensive work and some big minutes in the paint recently have blown some much needed fresh air in to this team.

The biggest (positive) stat from yesterday’s game that I have yet to see mentioned is in the assist category. 15 assists on 19 made shots! That is huge. That tells me this team is starting to trust each other. They are finding each other, passing the ball, and trusting the player with the best shot to take it. There is ball movement in the half court offense that looked really, really good yesterday. The half court offense has looked very strong and has shown a lot of growth over the course of this season. At times, I have complained there has been too much dribbling and standing around, and not enough ball movement. I am very pleased to see less of that and increased movement of both the ball and players.

The half court defensive game has looked very strong as of late. I believe one of Coach Walz’s greatest strengths, that I have witnessed, is coming up with game plans to stop the leaders on opposing teams. Our team has not always followed that game plan, but, when they do, they win games. Our defense is looking cleaner, and less fouling is a result of that. Our tough half court defense has also created a lot of last second shots due to the shot clock expiring. Continuing to execute game plans as set forth by the Coaching staff and containing star players is paramount as we move forward to some stiffer competition (UCONN and Notre Dame). I believe that success lies in the half court defense, which is where the defensive effort appears its strongest for this bunch.

Even in the areas of growth, there remains opportunity to further the game. That being said, the two greatest weaknesses of this team that have been exposed in every single loss are turnovers and rebounding.

Not taking care of the ball is incredibly frustrating. As a fan, it is so hard to watch. I cannot imagine how infuriating it is as a coach. Handling the pressure on the ball has got to get better, and fast. The Cards seemed to move the ball well in the first half of the game last night, by passing through the pressure. Albeit, there were some missed passes, but it seemed to be effective when passes were made and caught. Clean up your passes!! At some point in the game that changed and trying to dribble through the press became a nightmare. I do not know the number of turnovers due to the press, but it seemed huge. In my mind this is one of the two areas of growth that has yet to be figured out.

Rebounding. There were 19 made shots yesterday out of 40 attempts by the Cards. That leaves 21 offensive boards to be had, four were snagged by the Cards, 2 in each half. That is abysmal. Alternately, the Cards gave up 18 offensive boards to the competition yesterday. All the hard defensive work is for naught if you cannot rebound the missed shot. Every lost game this season the Cards have lost the rebounding stat to the opponent. More specifically, the offensive board stat has been lost to the opponent. Strong half court defense is great, but you have to rebound the missed shot, and not give the opponent second and third chance opportunities. Rebound, rebound, rebound. It can’t be said enough!

Yesterday, having given up a lot of second and third chance points, the Cards were able to pull this one out. A lot of turnovers, and yet the W is still in the Card’s column. With stronger offensive teams, this game is a loss. No doubt about it. But this game was a win. On the road and in the Big East, every win is worth celebrating. I will continue to look for growth, both as a team and with individual players. It is happening. So, Lady Cards, congratulations for a hard fought win! No doubt, you are already hard at work getting a little better, for your next outing. I look forward to seeing you then.

(Coach Walz will tell you that he wants consistency from the Lady Cards. This win, as Jenny pointed out, was hard fought and the defense looked very consistent at times. Always room for improvement.)

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