Monday Cardinal Couple -- Cards defeat St. John

MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

(Game report...Louisville lost to Notre Dame 83-59 in the BIG EAST women's tournament semi-finals tonight. Shoni Schimmel had 20 in a losing effort for the Cards. Louisville trailed by six at the half, but Notre Dame blew out to a 31-point lead in the second half. Louisville did draw within 18 late against the Irish reserves. Jenny will have much more in the TUESDAY edition of CARDINAL COUPLE.)


-HAMMONDS 22 points, 11 boards lead Cards to semis

-Softball crushes Illinois State on final day of Classic

-DAY 3 Big East Tournament recap.

If you listened to the Saturday broadcast of CARDINAL COUPLE radio, we laid it out for you. Paulie predicted  that Sara Hammond would step up big for Louisville against St. John's.

www.crescenthillradio.com


Sara, if you were listening...thanks for making me look like a "stinkin' genius". The 6'2" sophomore from Mt. Vernon, KY had her highest point total of her career and recorded a double-double with 22 points and 11 rebounds in Louisville seven-point win 62-55.

A win that should have been a double-digit win...why Bria Smith fouls on a three-point attempt with Louisville up by ten is subject to federal investigation...and a game that early on looked like Louisville was playing St. Matthews' Community Center, not St. John's.

The Cards, behind the efforts of "The Hammer" hit five of their first six shots and led early 15-2. Then, just as inexplicably portrayed against Syracuse last week, the ball went out of the air for Louisville and Shenneika Smith and the Red Storm went from a cold front to a tornado warning...outscoring Louisville 22-6 to lead at halftime 24-21.

Louisville missed a glaring 24 of 27 shots after the streaking start and a head-scratching 0-11 from beyond three point range.

The Cards kept it loose and light in the locker room at halftime, though...according to post-game comments by associate coach Stephanie Norman. Louisville regained the lead in the final twenty minutes when Shoni Schimmel (scoreless in the first half) drained a three to make it 32-30 Cards. Right after that Hammond converted on a hoop and free throw and Louisville was on its way to the win.

Bonita was not the ref for the game. Dennis DeMayo
did just as inadequate job, though.

St. John's didn't go away, staying within anywhere from 2-5 points and it was 54-50 after a pair of Nadirah McKenith free throws and 3:11 to go. Louisville got the next four points, though...and the Red Storm never threatened the rest of the way.

McKenith basically took herself out of the game with 54 seconds to go...slamming her head into Sara Hammond during a defensive double-team by the Cards. She remained on the court, in obvious pain and also probably caught up in the emotions of the loss to Louisville and had to be helped to the locker room. She had injured a leg the night before against Seton Hall and was noticeably hobbling at times in the Louisville game. Tough way for the sparkling St. John's senior to go out.

Whether St. John's (18-12) has done enough to earn an NCAA bid remains to be seen. They did win seven out of eight down the stretch and they are hosting NCAA First and Second round action like Louisville.

Big efforts by senior Monique Reid inside and Bria Smith defensively down the stretch as the Cards go to 24-7 and will face Notre Dame tonight.

We wish the Cards the best of luck in this very tough matchup. Hopefully, the Bulls gored the Irish enough to soften them up for Louisville.

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Cardinal Softball continues to hit everything in sight, romping Illinois State 9-3 Sunday to go 20-3 on the season.

Alicja Wolny opened the scoring for Louisville with her sixth round-tripper of the season...off that poor, battered scoreboard in left that's become a favorite punching bag for Louisville batters...and the Cards led 1-0 after an inning.

After a ISU score, Louisville made it 3-1 in the third when Katire Keller tripled and scored on a throwing error. Wolny drew a walk and reached home on a Maggie Ruckenbrod double.

ISU got a run in the fifth to make it 3-2 but Louisville countered in the bottom half of the inning when Wolny was walked again, Chrisanna Roberts came in to run for her and scored on another Ruckenbrod double. Ruck came to the place also when Hannah Kiyohara singled and it was 5-2 Cards.

UofL produced four more runs in the sixth. Keller led off with a walk, Jordan Trimble doubled and Wolny got another base on balls to load the bases. That set the stage for another Ruckenbrod double to clear the bags and make it 8-2. Kiyohara singled home Ruckenbrod and it was 9-2 Louisville.

Caralisa Connell got the win to go to 12-2 on the year...pitching four innings. Rachel LeCoq got her second save of the year with three innings of relief.

Louisville hosts WKU on Tuesday with a 5:30 start time.

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DAY 3 of the BIG EAST Tournament saw the top seeds advance to the semifinals.

-Notre Dame prevailed in a 75-66 win over USF. The Irish put four players in double figures in a closer than expected win of the never-say-die Bulls.

-Connecticut demolished DePaul 94-61 to advance to tonight's action. Breanna Stewart's 21 was one of five Huskies in double figures.

-Syracuse held off Villanova 61-56 to earn the right to face UConn. Kayla Alexander went off for 34 points for "Q" and company. Nova leading scorer Laura Sweeney did not play...concussion suffered against Georgetown kept her out.

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CARDINAL COUPLE Pick 'Em Contest still has...eight entries that are "perfect" or 11-0. CARDINAL COUPLE staffers consists of three of the eight in Jenny, Quentin Voigt and Sonja! Those left with a fighting chance below:

11-0  Quentin Voigt, Jenny O, Sonja, PDX Phil, Curtis F, Allen H, Nick B and Andrea S.

10-1 Perry S, K. Starks, Carol W, Sally K, Micha L, Andy L and Matthew Mitchell for Governor.

Other Cardinal Couple staffers...not so good. Jeff McAdams and Paulie are 9-2, Sandy Walker, Timmy the Intern & Bill The Goat 8-3, David Watson 7-4, CoCo 2-9 and the Staff Chimps 1-10.

Three games left. Good luck!

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Speaking of tournaments, have you purchased your NCAA Round 1 and 2 tickets forLouisville's apperance at the KFC YUM! Center? If not, what are you waiting for? Go to www.gocards.com and get in on the action!

Louisville is also a game watch party for the Selection Show March 18th. Admission is free that Monday night at the KFC YUM! Center to join the Lady Cards as they find out who their opponents will be. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the show begins at 7 p.m.

BE there!

Paulie

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Bulls avenge January loss, Cards fall

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THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

(Jenny O'Bryan with the post-game report on Louisville WBB loss to USF Wednesday Night in the KFC YUM! Center.)

Cards give a home win away in a tough defensive battle.
 

To hear Coach Walz talk in the post game interview with Matt Andrews, the Cards did not follow the scouting report tonight.  While that may have been true, even following the scouting report on a night with such poor shooting, it was going to be hard to win this battle. 

The Cards started the game sloppy.  The first 5 drives down the court there were missed shots or turnovers.  It looked like it was going to be a long night, and it was.  The first 6-8 minutes of the half was tough basketball to watch.  The Cards looked slow and uninspired.   

With 7:41 seconds left to play in the first half, the score was 22-12, USF.  The remainder of the half, the Cards held the Bulls to just 2 points with a strong defensive effort sparked by a Bria Smith steal and a coast to coast easy lay in.  Hammond took a charge next defensive set down court, and the Cards mounted what would turn out to be the best 8 minutes of basketball for the night.  The Cards took a 2 point deficit into halftime, down 24-22.  Hard to believe with the offensive woes and the slow start, the Cards were down just two at the half. 

The second half started much as the first, with the Cards just seemingly not present.  USF started the half on a 6-0 run and the Cards were never really in it the remainder of the way.  Sure, there were stretches of the game that the Cards looked good defensively, but it was not consistent. 

It was a brutal, physical game.  Had to be a tough game to play, physically.  The Cards had little offensive firepower tonight, shooting a season low 30% on the night.  They did shoot well from the free throw line, going 82% from the line.  It kept this from being a blowout.  It was still a big loss, in conference play, at home.  Those are especially hard losses. 

Andrea Smith, for the Bulls, could not be contained this evening.  Matching her career high of 35 points.  Unfortunately, it was not in the Cards tonight, in more ways than one. 

The Cards are playing for seeding in the NCAA Tournament.  These last games of the season matter.   It could be the difference between a 3 seed and a 6-7 seed. 

As a parent of a high school athlete, who also plays club volleyball, I find myself continuously amazed at the lack of consistency from the team (and individual players), from game to game.  I found myself thinking that tonight, except with these college kids.  How does a team play such great ball this past Sunday, and then not today?  It takes a greater mind than mine to figure that out.   Good luck with that, coaching staff...

I commend this team for all of the success it has had this year, despite all the injuries.  Losses like these are hard, because they could have been won.  21-6 is not a bad record, especially when you look at the personnel issues.  It is just hard to see such a tough loss on one’s home court. 

(Editor's Note: A flat effort from a team with so much to gain with a win tonight. Discretion being the better part of valor, I'm not going to editorialize on this very disappointing loss. Expected much more out of this Louisville squad this evening.)

Post game Walz below

COACH DISCUSSES LOSS TO USF
  

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One of the most intriguing things on the night was the newest player on the bench tonight!  Not sure how many of the Cardinal faithful caught this, but freshman volleyball middle blocker 6-3 Davionna Holmes was suited up and sat the bench tonight.   Her bio on the University of Louisville website indicates she was a dual sport athlete in high school and an “excellent basketball player”.  LINK BELOW:
 

Davionna Holmes

Not sure what we will see of Holmes on the hardwood the rest of the season.  Coach Walz had another middle blocker volleyball player on his team before, and we all know how well that worked out.  Gwen Rucker, while she opted to just focus on volleyball after her sophomore year, is stated to be one of the highest IQ basketball players Coach Walz has ever coached. 

I look forward to seeing what Holmes brings to the hardwood.  We all know that another body banging in the paint or shooting the long ball (which she is said to have led her high school conference in) can only be a good thing.    Welcome to Walz’s world, Ms. Holmes.  We hope you like it, and get the chance to contribute.
 

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It was asked earlier in the week what recruits were at the game this past weekend vs. DePaul.  Please keep in mind, just because a recruit was there is no indication of how hard they are, or are not, being recruited by the Coaching staff.  Any recruit can call the Athletic office and indicate they would like to attend the game.   With that caveat, the recruits that were known to be at the game were:

Janelle Cannon- 2013 signee

Sydney Brackemyre- Verbally committed in the class of 2014

Ashanti Thomas, 2015 out of Lexington, has been to several games this season and I believe was at Walz’s summer camp last year.

Dominique McBryde, 2015, out of Bedford, Indiana.

Celina King, 2016 out of Cincinnati, OH.  This kid was intriguing to me because she has her own youtube channel(or whatever you call it) and her own website!!  She has 22 videos posted.    

Tyuana Robinson, 2016

There is plenty of information on these kids if you google their names “and basketball”.  Until, or if, we know how hard the kids are being recruited, I will not bore you with lots of websites.  Google those you want to know more about, and we will keep you abreast of accomplishments of specific players as we know the extent they are being recruited. 
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Wednesday Cardinal Couple -- USF visits Lady Cards tonight

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WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

(Game report...Louisville loses to USF 73-62. Cards down by two at half after a horrible start, but could get no closer. Jenny will have the full report in the Thursday Edition of CARDINAL COUPLE)


-South Florida 'Bulls' their way into KFC YUM! Center

(Quentin Voigt with the pregame look at Louisville WBB opponent tonight -- the South Florida Bulls.  Paulie follows with some garbled non-sequiters and nebulous rambling.)

Layin' a "Bullish" beat down

The South Florida Bulls (17-7, 6-5) are visiting the KFC YUM! Center on Wednesday, Feb 20th. at 7 p.m. with one thing on their mind. How do they manage four more points or allow Louisville four fewer points than were put up the last time they met. The score January 20th. in Tampa at the Sun Dome was 78-75 in favor of the Cards.

USF hit nearly half of their shots that night, including long range attempts, and 12 out of 13 freebies. When they went ahead by nine points in the second half, thanks to some timely scoring by freshman Alisa Jenkins, I'm sure their collective confidence began to soar. The tide seemed to be turning against the visiting Cardinals.

Coach Walz got a timeout. A 30-second variety..where he spoke animatedly to his squad. What he said, I can't tell you, but determination was what I read on those faces as they resume the frey.

The margin began to dissipate...seven points...down to four points...another two-pointer dropped in...then another. The score was finally tied. The intensity scaled upward, bodies were flying to the ball, trying to secure positions on the floor to block the progress of an opponent or take a charge. At the final buzzer, all of the Sun Dome crowd exhaled at once as they seemed to release the pent-up tension.

The players in the drama remain for the re-engagement. For the Bulls are twins Andrea and Andrell Smith. The 5'8" seniors average 16.3 and 14.5 ppg, 5.2 and 5.0 boards and are fast, lithe and athletic. Inga Orekhova, the 6'2" 'Soviet assassin' from Sevastopol in the Crimea, brings her special skill set and accuracy with the three-ball. Coach Jose Fernandez also brings a collection of role players...6'1" Jenkins, 5'8" Courtney Williams, 6'4" Akila McDonald and 6'4" Caitlin Rowe. All are good rebounders, good free-throws shooters and are quick on their feet.

Both teams have shown their mettle and their desire to win. Who will prevail?

At home, I think the Lady Cards do...and are good for an additional four points. Make it 79-72 UofL. Go Cards!

-Quentin Voigt


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The thing that strikes me most about this deep, talented and aggressive USF is their record. Put this squad in any other conference in college basketball and they are already at 20+ wins and have only one or two conference losses. 

Yet, they toil in the BIG EAST and are part of the zombie apocalypse mid pack clawing at the top four above them...Louisville, Cuse, UConn and Notre Dame.

The Smiths are game-changers. The Russian Rocket Inga could stand on the Second Street Bridge and drain threes into the rims on Denny Crum Court. All mentioned above in Quentin's scout above are capable of throwing double-digits at an opponent.

They'll give the Cards a tussle tonight. Road wins in the BIG EAST are as difficult to find, though...as a honest politician on Capitol Hill...and the Cards prevail here.

If...

Bria Smith's new found, endless love with the free-throw line and driving the lane (and actually scoring) continues. You're a year older now, Bria dear...show some responsibility.

If...

If you look closely, you can see Sonja's head
where the "I" is on the Louisville table front.!

Sara Hammond's decision to become "Hammer...Queen of the Boards" continues. 13 grabs against DePaul is impressive. 12 grabs against the Bulls should get her an Oscar for Best Supporting Paint Player in a Conference Game.

If..

Der Schimmel can create an offensive attack similar to Patton's march through the Rhineland in WW II. Attack and score, Shoni. The fans love it when you do. I'll take a 50% shooting night anytime from the juggernaut junior.

(I don't ask for much, do I?)

Toss in a little Nita consistency...a few minutes of Vails paint presence...Mo going strong for 15 and the bench contributing....simmer slightly till ready and serve piping hot to 10,000+ patrons.

Cards by 13. More if Louisville can hit 70% or better from the stripe.

Need this one to keep pace with third-place Syracuse who defended their turf with a 58-45 win over hard-luck Rutgers last night. C-Viv still stuck on 899 career wins. Won't be any easier for her Saturday...going against St. John's in Queens, NY.

The Bulls won't make it easy. As of 2/16/13, they were the leading rebounding team in the BIG EAST with an average of 45.6 secures a game. They hold a +6.2 advantage over opponents in rebounds a game. Louisville needs a hot shooting night to limit the number of grabs available for USF.

Be the ball, Danny....be the ball...


-Paulie


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Wednesday Cardinal Couple -- Boogie with Bulls

WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

GAME REPORT

Louisville breaks a 66-66 tie with back-to-back threes from Shoni Schimmel and Nita Slaughter and hangs on to win 78-75. Shoni with a career high 38 in the game and career high eight three-pointers. Jenny will have more on this "Cardiac" win later...

-Boogie With the Bulls tonight

(Quentin Voigt provides the scout on the University of Louisville women's basketball team's next opponent...a visit to Tampa and game against the South Florida Bulls.)

Wednesday, January 30th. 7 p.m. brings the next test for Jeff Walz's Lady Cards...a showdown in the Sun Dome in Tampa against Jose Fernandez's USF Bulls.

These Bulls are 14-5 on the season and 3-3 in BIG EAST play. Conference losses have come against Notre Dame in Tampa, a four point win by UND in overtime. USF has also fallen on the road to DePaul by 16 and at Villanova by three.

USF's Andrell Smith

Players to watch for USF included the Smith sisters Andrea and Andrell. Andrea averages 17.7 ppg and Andrell contributes 15.9 ppg. Inga Orekhova is good for 11.6 for the team and all three are deadly from long range. The front line features Caitlin Rowe and Akita MacDonald, both 6'4" and they and freshman Alisha Jenkins are the major rebounders for Fernandez's squad.

The Smiths and Rowe came from Gulf Coast Community College, where they won the National Junior Community College title in the 2009-10 season.

Last time out, USF handled Marquette 58-48 in the SunDome on Saturday. Freshman guard Courtney Williams had 10 points in the win and Jenkins grabbed 11 rebounds.

The Russian Rocket - Inga Orekhova

Like Louisville, when USF gets on a run, they're hard to handle. I look at this one as a very close contest and predict the Cards win by three.

-Quentin Voigt

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USF is a dangerous, dangerous team. The Russian rocket Orekhova can bury you from deep. The Smith's are hard-nosed, aggressive ballers that can score from anywhere. Louisville trailed USF last year at halftime and was fortunate to go on a late run in the YUM! to win 63-57. Sheronne Vails and Cierra Warren combined for 24 points last year against them. Warren, of course...is gone. There's still an APB out on Vails, according to some, too.

UofL's Andrell Smith

Louisville is headed into an arena that holds 10,000 but has only managed to get an average of 1100 in for games. Wouldn't surprise us if that isn't doubled tonight...Louisville does have a sizable fan base in the area and opponents do love to come  out and cheer against the Cards when they come to town.

Just in case any football fans have wandered over here and are confused...the Andrell Smith USF guard and Andrell Smith UofL wide receiver aren't related. They're both excellent at their respective sports, though

How does Louisville pull off the win in hostile territory? Honestly, I don't think they do tonight. The Bulls came darn close to knocking off Notre Dame in the Sun Dome.

But, if they do win on the road, they'll need super efforts out of Bria and Shoni, along with a return of the Vails from last year and a strong Sara effort. We know we can count on Nita for a big game. I do hope it's a big enough effort to get the Cards a win. Really, I do.

I hate to say it, hope I'm dead wrong...but I'm calling "Bull" on this one. USF by 6. Prove me wrong, please.

You might be able to watch this one on BullsVision for a fee. It's unclear whether the video or just the audio is being offered over there. Sign up at the official USF sports site. We'll probably just give AJ and Matt a listen on WKJK 1080 or gocards.com.

I may switch over and give USF Bulls women's basketball play-by-play guy Alex Perlman a listen. He's one of the best young announcers in the business. Even if he attended Syracuse and looks like attorney Cary Agos on "The Good Wife". (Which has Sonja enamored with him...)

Coach Walz talks about stealing wins on the road in the BIG EAST. If the Cards can pull this heist off, the team's picture should be posted in all the post offices...because it will be the theft of the century. Let's hope Al Capone, John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson are sitting on the Cardinal bench. "Theft in Tampa". Let's hope so.

Jenny will be by to do the recap later tonight or tomorrow.

-Paulie
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Cardinal Couple Thursday Edition - Big East Standings Check

THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

( Staff columnist Jeff McAdams yawns, stretches, hits the snooze button one more time and then has a dream about the Thursday CARDINAL COUPLE article due. We're not sure, but he think Rip Van Winkle was patterned after him. But, when he does finally get around to posting, he's golden. Jeff looks at the BIG EAST WBB today and a volleyball addition. Then goes back in for a nap...The beauty of CARDINAL COUPLE is that there are no deadlines, no rush-rush articles or screaming editors. Just a bunch of chimps who somehow ended up with a website and the ability to type. Enjoy!)


(I was all set...had my schedule for the day laid out...to write up the Friday edition of the Cardinal Couple...then I went back and checked my email and saw that I was slated to write today's edition, not Friday.  You can just call me Mr. Organized.)

Big East Standings

Its very early in conference play, of course, but let's check on the Big East Rankings...mostly because its fun to see UConn not be in one of the very top spots.  Rankings are very jumbled this early on since there haven't been many games played by each team yet, so wins and loses are radically magnified in their impact on rankings right now.

Tied for first place at 2-0 is Notre Dame, Seton Hall, and Villanova.  Notre Dame clearly deserves the lofty rankings.  Seton Hall beat Cincinnati and Pitt, which suggests that they're not a team to be totally rolled over this year, but they haven't contended with any real powerhouses yet.  Villanova knocked off Cincinnati and DePaul...and beat DePaul in convincing fashion...so let's keep an eye on Villanova this year...usually not a powerhouse of a team, but maybe they've got something to them this year?

Tied for fourth is Syracuse and St. Johns at 1-0.  Syracuse got a solid win over Marquette, and St. Johns won a close game against Rutgers.  Hard to draw too much of a conclusion here, although after seeing Rutgers a couple of days ago, I'll be keeping something of an eye on St. Johns as well.

Tied for sixth are the 1-1 teams.  That includes the Cardinals, of course with the win over Rutgers and the loss to DePaul.  Also with us in the sixth spot are UConn, DePaul and Georgetown.  UConn, as I'm sure most of our readers are aware, lost a hot contested matchup against Notre Dame, so no shame there, and they will certainly climb back up in the rankings.  Their win was last night with a pretty lopsided score over Georgetown.  DePaul, well, let's not dwell on their win, but their loss was to Villanova as mentioned above, so they are clearly a beatable team.  Lastly, Georgetown, as mentioned, got pummeled by UConn, which shocks no one I'm sure, and they beat up on Providence for the conference opener.  Neither of those games shines much light on how good of a team Gtown is.

In 10th place, we see the 0-1 teams.  South Florida, Pitt, Marquette, and Providence.  Only Providence has a losing non-conference schedule, so as always with Big East women's basketball, it would be unwise to look past any games with USF, Pitt, and Marquette.

That leaves Rutgers and Cincinnati in the basement, tied for 14th, at 0-2.  Rutgers looked like they're a better team than that on Tuesday, despite the loss.  Cincinnati, with losses to Seton Hall and Villanova doesn't look to be much of a contender, but this early, you just can't tell.

The Big East looks to be a powerhouse conference again this year, though those days are numbers with slated departures from the conference.

Spring Enrollments

I'm only aware of one women's athlete that has enrolled in the spring semester.  And, of course, since I'm writing about it, that means its a volleyball player.

Javoni Faucette graduated from Francis Howell Union High School in St. Charles Missouri in three and a half years...quite an accomplishment...and has started here at Louisville for the spring semester.  Congratulations Javoni, and welcome to Louisville.

If anyone is aware of any other spring enrollments for athletes in other sports, we'd love to hear about them in the comments.


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(CARDINAL COUPLE has gone to a word verification system for comments. We were tired of having to catch and delete spammers who were clogging out comments e-mail box with spam advertising for toliet items, cheap loans, Cigarettes, perverse sexual items and sites and toasters from Target. You still DO NOT HAVE TO REGISTER to comment at Cardinal Couple. You just have to be able to type in a few characters to prove you're not a bot and are a human. Timmy the Intern, Co-Co  Cletus and Bill the Goat are incensed beyond belief. Thank you for your understanding.)

iinthetownwhereiwasbornlivesamanwhosailedtheseaandhetoldusofhislifeinthelandbenaththedeepskyofbluandseaofgreenweallliveinayellowsubmarine

Monday Cardinal Couple -- Staff predictions on the Louisville WBB season

MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Staff predictions on the upcoming Lady Cards in the BIG EAST

We asked our staff writers to join Sonja and I in predicting how Louisville would do in the BIG EAST this year. Here's what we came up with:

(Note: the majority of these came in after the loss to DePaul)

We also tossed in a tie-breaker. What color shirt will Coach Walz wear Tuesday night against Rutgers?

Paul

I predict a 13-3 record in the BIG EAST for Louisville. I see losses to UConn, Notre Dame and Syracuse. The Cards will win several very close ones (I thought we'd squeak by at DePaul by 2-4) but I see double-digit losses to UConn and Notre Dame. The Syracuse game is one I put a lot of thought into. It's the final game in regular season play and we're 1-3 up there lifetime. The 'Cuse could be battling for a tournament berth by then and they might just squeak by us in that one. In order for me to go 13-3, we better win.

Walz will be in a white, long sleeve dress shirt Tuesday night. Lookin' GQ.


Sonja

10-6 is what I come up with. I predicted the loss at DePaul. We beat them in the KFC YUM! Center. I also see losses to Notre Dame, UConn, Rutgers, St. John and at USF.

Coach is in a red shirt Tuesday.


Jeff M.


I'm tempted to wait until Sunday to turn this in, but I'll go ahead and step out on a limb.

I think we drop 3 games. UConn and Notre Dame and DePaul. I think we've got a chance to win one of these, but my prediction is that we lose three.

I think we also could drop one somewhere else, but I'm not sure where...maybe to DePaul again if they're a little more healthy. Of course, I hope we're healthy then too.

On Walz, I'll go with a light blue thin vertical striped shirt.


Sandy

I show a 12-4 BIG EAST record. I also start with a loss as I would have picked last night's DePaul game as a win for us. If for no other reason, out of loyality and being hopeful.

I don't feel good about us on the road this year and with both UConn and Notre Dame on the road, I show losses in home arenas at Hartford and in South Bend. I predict a split with USF winning at home and losing in Tampa. I also show a final season loss at Syracuse. Hope I am wrong about the Syracuse loss as even with a good Big East Tournament this would particularly hurt our NCAA Tournament draw, which we don't need after finally receiving home games in the first two rounds.

(No shirt selection by Sandy. She's busy enough, we surmise, with her own weekly laundry concerns.)


Jenny

I am going 13-3. Louisville loses the rest of the way to UConn and Notre Dame. I had a wild hair we could beat Notre Dame, then Dyer went down and ND beat UConn. Maybe if we have Asia back by then...we can give ND a run for their money.

(Jenny did not have a shirt selection for Coach either. We interpret that to mean she thinks he'll go shirtless, in order to create a diversion for the Rutgers players and C Viv.)


Mark

I'll say we will go 11-5 with losses to UConn, Notre Dame, Syracuse, Villanova and South Florida. We had to rally last year to beat USF at home. Play them twice this year -- most likely will lose the road game.

Walz wears a black shirt against Rutgers.


OK, there you have it. We've laid it on the line for all to see. Got a different take on it? Feel free to leave a comment or e-mail us at cardinalcouple@insightbb.com

(We should note, in all fairness, that Timmy the Intern turned in a 0-16 selection, but had Seton Hall scrawled across it. Bill the Goat made 11 marks with his hoof in the dirt. Co-Co just handed us a picture of Shoni and then started jumping and running wildly around the CARDINAL COUPLE conference room. Darn chimps!)

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NOTE: This is the 1200th post for CARDINAL COUPLE.  We'd like to thank our writers, staff and readers for their
patronage and loyality. We had a top-five hit count on Sunday's article about the DePaul game. We appreciate you!
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Cards rally, hold on against stubborn Bulls 63-57

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THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

CARDINAL COUPLE GAME REPORT

-Vails, Schimmel and Harper lead Cards rally to defeat Bulls

-By the numbers...

-Vote for your favorite coach

-BIG EAST recap and preview

Louisville got a huge lift from Sheronne Vails at the foul line this evening and timely off the bench play from Shelby Harper to overcome a eight point USF lead in the second half and win 63-57. Shoni Schimmel had 16 points for the Cards and Vails sank 10 out of 11 free throws and finished with 14 points to send the Lady Cards to 14-2 and 3-1 in BIG EAST play.

STARTERS: Vails, Burke, Smith, Shoni and Dyer

Lady Cards warm up for the game...Asia doing it headless !
Nice picture, Paul...

The Bulls looked like they'd be a tough match up with their guard play during pre-game analysis and this proved true as they roared out to a 5-0 lead in front of 8000 at the KFC YUM! Center - behind the shooting of Jasmine Wynne. Louisville finally got on the scoreboard when Shoni nailed a three at the 17:36 mark...it was the start of a 9-0 run that gave the Cards a five point lead when Asia Taylor hit a layup with 15:01 left in the first half. USF rallied back behind some incredible long range shooting by Inga Orekhova, who nailed a couple of threes to knot it at 13-13 at the 12:31 mark.

Dee Kanter and her crew didn't do that bad of a job...
Louisville 12 fouls...USF 23.

Louisville went on a 5-0 run to grab a 18-13 advantage after a Becky Burke three and another Taylor layup and kept the five point lead at 22-17 after Vails hit two free throws with 8:48 to go. 

It was the last scoring the Lady Cards would do for awhile, though...USF responded with a 11-0 run over the next five minutes - getting three free throws from Orekhova, a layup from her and Kaneisha Saunders, layup from Wynne and a jumper from Saunders to grab a 28-22 edge with 4:21 left. Walz needed offense but it didn't develop until the Cards got two straight jumpers out of Cierra Warren in the final minute to cut a eight point Bulls lead to four...making it 33-29 at the half. It could have been two points seperating the squads, but Bria Smith missed a layup after a steal as the clock ran down.

The USF guards were killing the Lady Cards...tallying 29 of their first half points...the 6'3" Orekhova with 11 points and Wynne and Saunders with nine each. Louisville's scoring was spread out among five players...Vails and Burke with seven each, Warren with six, Shoni adding five and Taylor totaling four. Walz played everyone but Harper in the first half...Bria Smith was 0-6 from the floor, the Cards were 10-26 for 38.5% and were narrowly leading the rebounding battle 22-21.

Without Louisville's 7-8 free throw production, the gap could have been larger....Walz needed to find a way to slow down the hot guard trio for USF and create some turnovers...USF had but four in the first 20 minutes.

The team battled pretty evenly for the first three minutes of the second half. Shoni got the crowd fired up when she swished home a three to get Louisville within two at 39-37 with 16:57 to go. USF went on a 6-0 run after that, though...getting scores from (who else?) Wynne and Saunders to hold a 45-37 edge with 13:03 on the clock. The crowd was getting nervous and edgy, USF's guards showed no inclination to slow down and Louisville was on the ropes. A Shoni jumper cut it to six but USF still led 47-39 when Wynne took a fast break layup to the hoop at the 10:17 mark.

With Shelby Harper in the game, part of a four guard Lady Cards lineup, things began to change for the better. Warren connected inside, Smith knocked down a jumper and hit the plus one.  Warren cashed in again from the paint, rolling one in after a hard foul from USF's Akila McDonald. She had to leave the game, but Sherrone Vails sank the free throw and it was tied at the 8:53 mark. Shelby Harper put the Cards ahead with a driving lane layup 30 seconds later, Shoni electrified the crowd with a deep three and Vails connected on a pair of charity tosses. The Cards had rolled off a 15-0 run and led 54-47. USF started fouling the Cards and three free throws from Harper and one from Burke had the Lady Cards enjoying a 58-49 advantage with 3:50 left.

USF play by play announcer
takes a photo of the rowdy
crowd at the YUM...Fun guy
to talk to!

Game over? Not hardly. Wynne responded with a three and Caitlin Rowe connected in the paint to cut the Cards lead to 58-54 with 1:54 left. Smith dropped in two free throws to put Louisville back up by six, but Saunders found the hoop and added a free throw to pull USF back to within three at 60-57 with 37 seconds left. USF had a chance to climb within one or tie but Saunders missed a jumper and Orekhova was short with a three attempt with 22 seconds remaining. USF had no choice but to foul...and two Vails free throws and one from Harper provided the final 63-57 Lady Cards win. 

It wasn't pretty...but thanks to a gutty effort from Shelby Harper and Sherrone Vails at the end, Louisville used the 13 for 19 free throw edge (USF went 1-5 in the second half) to secure the win and survive against a gritty, never-say-die group of inspired Lady Bulls. Louisville used a four guard lineup most of the final ten minutes to counteract the quickness of the USF squad and it worked tonight. Wouldn't recommend it against DePaul, Rutgers, UConn or Georgetown...but it got UofL a "W" tonight...and Walz showed us again this evening why he's one of the best in college basketball. The substitution strategies worked well tonight, the combinations on the court clicked most of the time. Walz will kid you that he hasn't scored a point in five years here...but his coaching tonight was just as responsible for the win as any of the player's scores or efforts tonight.

Shoni's 16 led the Cards. Vails finished with 14 (and 10-11 from the line) and Warren closed out the double figure scorers with 10. Burke had eight (on 1-9 three point shooting) and Harper added six points (and six rebounds!) in 11 minutes. Smith contributed five points on 1-9 shooting, Taylor had four points and six boards in 13 minutes.

Jude, Dyer, Slaughter and Hammond played but did not score.

For USF, Wynne finished with 20, Saunders 18 and Orekhova 11 (all in the first half). Burke and the Lady Cards did the job on the Russian rifle in the second half...she was 0-2 from the field.

WHAT WE LIKED:

-Harpin' on Harper! The blonde spark plug came in and gave the Lady Cards her best 10 minutes of basketball this season. She also got the crowd back into the game and received a standing ovation when she went to the line with six seconds left in the game. Well done, Shelby! Short people rock!

-Vails assails the paint. Love the aggressiveness and pluck out of the sophomore tonight. 14 points, 8 boards, 4 blocks and just 1 turnover in 26 strong minutes.

-Shoni magic. Her 4 for 9 three point shooting a step in the right direction...we're continually amazed on just how far out she hits these from...

THINGS TO WORK ON...

-Consistency. Louisville made two great runs in this game, especially the 15-0 one in the second half...but defensive lapses and errors almost let USF back in it with less than a minute to go. Seal the deal, shut the door and turn out the light on them, ladies!

-Zero fast break points. The Cards had a couple of opportunities but missed layups. A tough one was at the end of the first half when Bria missed a "gimmie" as time ran out...could have made it a two point halftime game.

Louisville heads to Rutgers next. Tough opponent, tough place for a visiting team to play and a top 20 matchup. For tonight, though...a brief time to enjoy a...well...ugly but functional win over an opponent that got just eight points out of their post players.

BY THE NUMBERS:

-Louisville shot 37.3% (19-51) against the Bulls and went 5-18 from the deep. The Cards hit 20-27 free throws. (74.1%). USF took an incredible 18 more shots than Louisville (24-69) for 34.8%, was the same from trifecta land as the Cards and went 4-10 from the foul line. Take out Smith's 1-9 efforts and Becky's 1-9 3-point woes and the Cards shooting looks much better than it actually was. Warren was 5-6, Shoni 5-11 and Taylor 2-4.

-Louisville won the rebounding battle 44-40. Vails led UofL with eight, Warren had seven and Harper and Taylor six each. The Cards had 10 assists (Shoni 3) and eight blocks (Vails with four).

-Louisville had 19 turnovers (Shoni four) compared to just 14 USF miscues. The Cards forced six steals (Smith two) and USF had 12 robberies.

-Points in the paint went to USF 24-20. Saunders had 18 of these for USF, Warren 10 for the Lady Cards. Points off turnovers was in USF's column with 15, compared to UofL's 12. Both teams had 11 second chance points.

-Burke had 38 court minutes tonight, Shoni 35, Smith 34, Vails 26, Jude and Warren 14 each, Taylor 13, Harper 11, Dyer 8, Hammond 6 and Slaughter 1. The freshmen played 54 minutes out of the 200.

-Warrne was the only Cardinal to foul out, Harper had three and four Cardinals were whistled for one each. USF had four players with four infractions each (Johnson, Conner, Wynne and Rowe).

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St. John's blew out to an early lead and put away Syracuse 70-58 in the battle of New York State last night. Four Red Storm hit for double figures. WE'RE 8-0 this week in predictions. No BIG EAST games on tap until Saturday...when six games will feature 12 BIG EAST schools in action. The lineup:

West Virginia at Providence
Louisville at Rutgers
UConn goes to Villanova
Notre Dame visits Cincinnati
USF travels to Seton Hall
Pittsburgh heads to DePaul

Sunday action:

Syracuse hits the nation's capitol to face Georgetown
Marquette and St. John in Madison Square Arena.

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UofL Sports website http://www.uoflsports.com/ is having a contest to select the best coach for 2011. Vote for your favorite there. Some tough candidates in Charlie Strong, Arthur the Swim Coach, Karen Ferguson Dayes and Ron Mann...but we voted for Walz. A deep run in the NCAA Tournament last year, having to deal with losing two of his best players for this year but still at 16-3 and a fear that if we didn't, we'd be banned from getting halftime cookies in the Media room.

You can also get the players and coaches comments at the site from last night. Due to some dummy forgetting to take the voice recorder off of "pause" last night, all of Paul's brilliant and thought-provoking questions were unrecorded last night for CARDINAL COUPLE. Give a chimp a toy, and see what happens?
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