Dream drop another one...Youman, Juneau BIG EAST All-Academic... Okoro wins shot put

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SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE PRESENTS:

-Dream interrupted by Di & Mercury

-Five from UofL named to BIG EAST awards

-Chinwe Okoro wins Nigerian shot put

-What do you think?

The tough early season sledding continues for Angel McCoughtry and the Atlanta Dream. Last night it was our favorite here at CARDINAL COUPLE, Diana Taurasi and the Phoenix Mercury putting an "L" on the Atlanta record...with a 92-83 win in Atlanta.

Di is seen here asking George Bush to
give up the presidency and join the WNBA

Di had 20 for Phoenix and Candice Dupree contributed 18 in the Mercury win. Atlanta got Angel McCoughtry to toss in 24 - her second best performance of the season- and Courtney Paris added 13 but it wasn't enough to keep Atlanta from sliding to 2-6 on the season.

The Dream trailed by 20 points in this floater with five minutes left and never had an answer for the Mercury's fast paced tempo. The Dream used to run the ball pretty well too...but never got rolling last night. Atlanta gets San Antonio Sunday.

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Two Lady Cardinal student-athletes were selected for BIG EAST Scholar-Athlete Sport Excellence Awards. UofL's Nicole Youman (Field Hockey) and Sara Maude Juneau (golf) received the prestigious honors- a total of five Cardinals were named...giving Louisville the most student-athletes on the list out of all the BIG EAST schools. Joining Sara and Nicole were Chris Philpott (football), Michael Eaton (cross country) and Austen Childs (tennis).

Youman also had 19
assists her senior year.

Youman was the 2010 BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Year and scored 17 goals her senior year. She was a four year starter for former Cardinal field hockey coach Pam Bustin and hails from Black Mountain, Australia.

Juneau was also named BIG EAST Player of the Year in her sport...golf...and it was the second year in a row she captured that honor. She led the BIG EAST with a 73.2 stroke average and was ranked in the nation's top 25 women's collegiate golfers by Golfstat. 

Congratulations to these five Cardinals who have combined successes on the field of play with academic excellence. The award is given to only one student per sport each year and academics, athletics and volunteer service to the community are the judging criteria.

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Former UofL track and field star Chinwe Okoro won the Nigerian shot put event, throwing her career best of 16.79m/55-1. Her toss qualified her for the 2011 All-African games. Okoro will also attempt to qualify in the discus today.

Okoro was part of the
Cardinal throwing team.
They were the best in
the BIG EAST

She was a valuable thrower for the Cardinals program a UofL and finished her senior season with All-American honors in the discus and shot put at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships

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Does it matter if college athletes
are gay or lesbian?

All across college campuses, student-athletes are leaving their high schools and hometowns to arrive on college campuses as incoming freshmen and begin classes. Whatever happened to a summer break? Sue Favor takes a look at the issue on her They're Playing Basketball blog. It's an interesting read and you can access her blog over on the infamous left side of our blog. Also, does sexual orientation matter when it comes to athletes? We've posted a poll over on the left side and feel free to leave your comments and opinions on it here in our comments section. ESPN recently did an article on it that you can read on Sue's blog.
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Field Hockey Cards fall to IU 3-2 in overtime

WELCOME TO HUMP DAY @ CARDINAL COUPLE

The Wednesday reports:

-#8 Field Hockey falls to Hoosiers

-Naismeth watch list for NCAAWBB

-Taurasi bares it for ESPN

The good news for UofL Field Hockey fans is that Pam Bustin's team climbed two spots in the national rankings to #8. The not so good news is the loss in Bloomington to IU in overtime...3-2.

Amber Thomas, pictured right, scored both of Louisville's goals...leading the Cards to a 2-1 advantage in the second half. Louisville played the Hoosiers close in the first half, allowing just a penalty corner score by Brenna Moeljadi. The Cardinal offense couldn't find the net in the first 45 minutes, though...despite a 3-2 advantage in shots on goal.

Thomas got her first tally off a penalty corner when Hayley Turner had a shot rejected by IU goalie Alex Mann but Thomas collected the rebound and sent the ball into the net. Just a couple of minutes later, Thomas gave Louisville the lead on a penalty corner...deflecting a Tuli Lim attempt and knocking in into the back of the cage.

IU tied the game with no time remaining in regulation off of a penalty corner play resulting in Moeljadi's second score of the afternoon. Louisville missed two shots on goal in the overtime and took the loss when Corey Brautigam advanced to the circle and got one by Cards goalie Erin Conrad.

Louisville outshot the Hoosiers 19-10 in the match and held a 10-5 advantage in corners. Stepping up big for IU was Mann..who had 10 saves.

The Cards continue the road trip with a BIG EAST match against Rutgers on Oct. 9th. and then #3 Princeton on the 10th.

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30 women's college basketball players have been named to the Naismeth Watch List...which signifies the best in NCAA hoops. Surprisingly, junior UofL wing Monique Reid did not make the list. The Cards will face 12 of the 30 this year, and the BIG EAST has 5 players selected for the honor.

Danielle Adams, a former UofL target now at Texas A&M got selected and UK center Victoria Dunlap appears there also. UofL will face two selections when they begin the regular season in the KFC YUM! Center when Tennessee visits...Angie Bjorklund and Shekinna Strickland. The twin towers of Xavier...Amber Harris and Ta'shia Phillips got picked as well. BIG EAST nominees Maya Moore, Tiffany Hayes (Connecticut), Skylar Diggins (Notre Dame), Deirdre Naughton (DePaul) and Sugar Rodgers (Georgetown) will also face the Cards in the upcoming season.

The list is a good one but I'm still not convinced that Reid isn't one of the top 30 players in the nation. The good thing is that she's a junior and has all season to earn her way on the selection roster for her senior year.

The Lady Cards are busy at work with practice and CARDINAL COUPLE will be on campus Wednesday to watch practice and get a few quotes and photos. No...I'm not going to try and post up Asia Taylor and take her to the hoop. Mama didn't raise no fool....

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ESPN the Magazine hits the newsstands Friday and pictured above left is one of two possible cover photos that are being considered. Yes, it's Diana Taurasi, former Connecticut and current Phoenix WNBA player. Heck of a job there by the stylists and such to make Di look much different that she does when she's advancing the rock on the hardwood. The other cover being considered is a shot of Taurasi standing...holding a basketball that is strategically placed. The photo is by Sheryl Neilds, ESPN..and one would assume that she gets paid quite well for the work she does.

Publicity for the upcoming piece boasts that readers will see Taurasi in "a whole new light" after reading the article. This observer already does...just by seeing the photo. And, no...that isn't a spider crawling up her thigh...it's a tat. At least it isn't a caricature of Geno...

Amazing what can be done with lighting, hairstyling and makeup these days, isn't it?

Whatever happened to...

CARDINAL COUPLE recently received an e-mail from a reader asking whatever happened to former UofL Lady Cards guard Kiara Evans. Ask and ye shall be told...

Evans was one of the highly heraled recruits during Jeff Walz first year at the University of Louisville. She was a playmaking, high scoring guard out of Norcross, GA. Unfortunately, playing time never developed for her during her only year at Louisville and she saw an average of 7.4 minutes in 35 games for the Cards in the 2007-08 season.

Sometimes...freshmen look for opportunities to increase their playing time by transferring to a different school...and this was the case for Evans. She moved her skills to Long Island University and sat out the mandatory transfer year. She returned to the court for the 2009-10 season and saw about 30 minutes a game for the Blackbirds. Evans averaged 9.9 points per game for LIU, dished out 206 assists and nabbed 61 steals for Long Island. She has 2 years of elgibiliy left and is the returning 3rd leading scorer for the Northeast Conference team that went 22-10 last year.

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A furious fourth quarter rally helped the Atlanta Dream improve to 12-4 last night as they got by the Phoenix Mercury 94-88. The Dream defense looked pretty weak in the first half...but they got it together and used a 20-10 scoring advantage in the final stanza to get the "W".

Angel McCoughtry tossed in 18 points for the victors. Phoenix played without Diana Taurasi (back strain) but she still contributed in her own way...drawing a technical foul from the bench in the 3rd quarter for referee baiting.

Taurasi is debating whether to return to the WNBA after this season. She makes probably 10x the money playing in Europe that she does stateside and probably enjoys the thrill and excitement of playing EuroBall in Russia. I know I would...Her complaint is that playing in two leagues wears her and other dual league players down too much and causes injuries.

Way to "man up" and keep a stiff upper lip, "Di". Good luck in the land of borsch and vodka. Maybe you could just transfer your citizenship and play for them in the Olympics as well. It's hammer (and sickle) time...DT. Good luck, comrade...and be careful driving the ice coated roads over there after swilling too much Smirnoff.