Reid key to Cardinals scoring punch

MONIQUE REID, WEEKLY PANERA WINNER and ANGEL MCCOUGHTRY in today's report. LOOKING AT LUCKY romps in Haskell.

CARDINAL COUPLE will be spending the next several days previewing

the returning players for Jeff's Walz's University of Louisville basket-

ball team. WE begin with last year's leading scorer, Monique Reid.

Note: statistical information is what it is. The opinions and commentary expressed in these reviews is what it is also..mainly our own. Got a different take? Feel free to comment.

Monique Reid was a bright spot for a sometimes dismal UofL women's basketball team in 2009-10. The forward from Fern Creek High School finished her sophomore year with 18.4 points per game and 9.2 rebounds per game. Both totals were leading numbers for Louisville...who went 14-18. The season was a stark contrast for Reid, who went to the Championship game of the NCAA Tournament her freshman year. A wing player, Reid started 28 of 32 games for Louisville and averaged 33 minutes a game on the court.

For most of the year, Reid was the "go to" scorer for the Lady Cards. Not possessing a dangerous three point shot, Reid created most her offense off the dribble and on the offensive boards. Few BIG EAST teams could stop her drive and penetrate move to the basket and she was most effective creating off the dribble or going to the boards after a missed shot and getting the putback.

With a lack of offensive presence on the team, Walz was forced to go to Reid for offensive production and other teams would sometimes just concentrate on shutting down her teammates with her on the floor and let her get her points.

Defense has never been the main focus of Reid's game and although she made significant strides toward improving her guarding skills from her freshman year to her sophomore year, there is still a lot she can do to get better. She possesses a great first step, good overall quickness and can back into the basket as good as anyone in the BIG EAST..why her skills don't translate over to the defensive side of her game is a mystery.

One theory is that she simply does the minimum required on defense and saves her energy and strength for when Louisville has the ball. An improvement in her ability to shut down the opposing wing that she draws as her defensive assignment will be a key to her improvement as an overall talented player. Jeff Walz's is a firm believer that defensive intensity can create a transition game for the offensive and Reid's potential for improvement when the other team has the ball could be a key in how the Cards perform this year.

Although her scoring was one of the reasons fans showed up to watch the Lady Cards last year, she'll find herself surrounded by quite a few more offensive options and talent during the 2010-11 season. When she finds teams keying on shutting her down on offensive, she'll need to develop and refine her skills on getting the ball to the open player and being more of a team player. How her game will evolve to that next level is anyone's guess...but we've seen what she can do on a team with multiple scoring weapons during her freshman year and she can be a dedicated team player when she sets her mind to it.

PROJECTION: Will start for the Cards as a wing this year and be one of the leading scorers.



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Congratulations to Chuck Fulner, who won the $10 PANERA gift cards last week. A tough decision but Chuck wrote a very good couple of paragraphs on why he likes PANERA:

"I go to PANERA because they have the best bagels in town. I prefer the "everything" bagel toasted with the low fat veggie cream cheese. It goes great in the morning with the dark roast coffee. The free wi-fi makes it a great place for business meetings, too.

The Dupont locations rocks!"

Want some? Get those entries into us on why you like to go to PANERA. E-mail to:

cardinalcouple@insightbb.com or leave a message in the comment section.

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TEAM ANGEL, Angel McCoughtry's skills camp for girls' basketball hopefuls begins today at The Basketball Academy. CARDINAL COUPLE will visit and try to get a few words with the ex-UofL star and current WNBA's Atlanta Dream player. She'll likely be in a great mood, since the Dream regained sole possession of the WNBA's Eastern Conference lead with a 90-74 win over Indiana on Sunday. McCoughtry scored 20 points in the win for the Dream as they captured their fourth victory in a row. Iziane Castro Marquez led the Dream with 22 points, Erika DeSouza added 16 and Sancho Lyttle had 13 points and eight boards for Atlanta.

The Dream shot 51% from the field in the win, their 10th of the year at home. Tamika Catchings led Indiana with 24 points but the Fever shot only 35% from the court. Atlanta looks to be fully recovered from their slow start after the All-Star break.

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LOOKIN AT LUCKY romped the field in the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Race Track Sunday. Guided by jockey Martin Garcia, the 3 yr old Preakness winner laid off the early pace and roared to the front of the pack when the horses hit the stretch. Bob Baffert had him ready to go after the long layoff and LUCKY was the odds on favorite to win yesterday. SUPER SAVER, with Calvin Borel in the saddle, contested the race early and challenged briefly in the stretch before fading to fourth. It was SUPER SAVER's first time out since winning the 2010 Kentucky Derby.

Cards fall to Syracuse 2-1 in Big East Championship game

The softball Cards lose a close one to the 5th seeded Syracuse Orange on Saturday at Ulmer Stadium. For Louisville, just a case of not being able to get the runners to the plate ..as they stranded eight base runners in the game.

Syracuse borrowed a page from the Louisville strategy playbook by jumping on the opponent early and relying on pitching. The 'Cuse was able to push a run across the plate in both the first and second innings against Cardinal pitching.

Louisville's lone run came in the bottom of third when Melissa Roth opened the inning with a walk, moved to second on a Jennifer Esteban single and then raced home on a wild pitch from Syracuse hurler Jenna Caira.

The Cards had a chance to tie it in their last at bat. Roth walked and was granted second base on an illegal pitch. She was thrown out on a Esteban fielder's choice...but Esteban advanced to second with a steal while Chelsea Bemis was at bat. The game ended, though on a double play when Bemis drilled one down the first base line that the Syracuse first baseman made an incredible catch on and tossed the ball to second to double up Esteban who thought the ball got thru for a hit.

Jenna Caira got the win for the gusty Syracuse team but she needs to restudy the rulebook about what and what not a pitcher can do while on the mound. I know she got called for at least 10 illegal pitches during the game...the last one got Syracuse coach so mad that he stormed the field, argued the call with the umpires and got tossed from the game.

Syracuse gets the automatic bid to the NCAA Championships with the Big East tournament win. It is expected that Louisville, Notre Dame and DePaul will receive at large bids to the tournament. The selection show will be on ESPNU Sunday night at 10 p.m.

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Congratulations to LOOKIN AT LUCKY, Bob Baffert and new jockey Martin Garcia for their win in the Preakness Saturday. FIRST DUDE held on for second and JACKSON BEND got third. Took then a while to sort out the photo for second.

Best racing story of the day. Very good friend of ours sends Paul to the track with a couple of dollars for wagers. He plans on getting these bet and then off to Ulmer for softball. He uses one of the automatic wagering machines and keys in the information. Since the friend had slightly overpaid him for the amount of wagers she wanted...Paul adds a couple of horses to the bet on the bottom leg of the trifecta. He likes the bet the way he had created it and punches out a duplicate ticket of it for him.

You guessed it. He added JACKSON BEND in the third spot. They already had LOOKIN AT LUCKY on top with SUPER SAVER...and about 4 or 5 horses picked to run second...including FIRST DUDE. The trifecta paid $1385 for a $1 wager. They also hit the exacta which paid $94.30 on a dollar. He never made it to Ulmer...and yes, the IRS will get their share of it...

The best part is that she knows about the exacta but Paul hasn't told her yet about the addition to win the trifecta for both of them. We're having lunch this afternoon with her and he'll present her the winning ticket then.

By Sonja
5/17/10