Tuesday Cardinal Couple - Where are they now?

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TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE


-We catch up on six former Cardinal foes.


With the WNBA in full swing now, we were looking at some highlights from games over the past few days and the questions arose about some of the foes that used to play against Louisville over the last few years and if they were in the WNBA.

We started our search with an easy one. Former Connecticut star Tiffany Hayes is playing on Angel's team...the Atlanta Dream. We saw some clips of the Dream's loss to the Fever on Sunday and Hayes appears to have lost none of the swagger and bravado that she had with the Huskies. She and Stefanie Dolson didn't have the best games in the KFC YUM! Center when they visited during the winter...but it was a UConn win. Dolson's going to miss Hayes when the 2012-13 version of the Huskies take the court.

Next on our magical player discovery tour was April Sykes. Besides sharing our last name, we watched her career at Rutgers over her four years with interest and saw her turn into a very good player after some rough earlier years. Still remember her uncalled for "enforcer" tactics in the KFC YUM! as a junior at the end of Rutgers' loss to the Cards. Friends of ours who follow the Rutgers program tell us she gained a lot more maturity and level-headedness as a senior. She's switched coasts...playing for the LA Sparks now. 

We followed the career of Natalie Novosel early on...starting with her days of high school ball at Lexington Catholic. Novosel was a key component at Notre Dame all four years that she toiled for Muffett McGraw. Her final appearance in the KFC YUM! Center was less than spectacular...Notre Dame won but a post game press conference revealed "Double N" was suffering from flu-like symptoms and allergy problems. Natalie is in our nation's capitol now...pounding the hardwood for the Washington Mystics. Skylar Diggins is going to miss the punch that Novosel and Devereaux Peters provided with Irish with last year...

Keisha Hampton had a fantastic collegiate career with Doug Bruno and the DePaul Blue Demons until injury cut her senior year short. She had a way of dominating the Lady Cards inside and was part of the injury train that went off the tracks for Bruno's ballers last season...leaving him with just seven bodies for the BIG EAST schedule. 


She was drafted 23rd in the WNBA draft by Seattle but didn't make the final roster cut. 

We also checked out a couple of players who made things rough for the Lady Cards from a couple of seasons ago. Although Hampton isn't going sleepless in Seattle, Victoria Dunlap is. 


She was the undersized center that over-performed during her years at UK. Hated it when she played the Lady Cards, but we did like watching her go up against SEC opponents for the Cats. She's on a Seattle Storm roster that looks awfully strong this season and teamed up with former Vol Shennika Strickland and powerhouse Lauren Jackson. 

We also wondered where Cardinal-killer Courtney Vandersloot ended up. We'll remember for a long time the whipping she and her Gonzaga teammates put on the Cards early in the regional match-up a couple of years ago...and the furious rally that Louisville mustered to get back in the game. Vandersloot has left the Pacific Northwest and taken her game to the Chicago Sky roster. 

Which Cardinals will we be tracking several years from now in the WNBA? We're confident Angel will still be wrecking havoc on opponents. We'd like to see Monique Reid get the chance to test her inside-scoring proficiency against some of the front-liners on the next level. Can "Sho-time" Schimmel take her magic act to the WNBA and have success with it? Will Becky Burke have success in the European leagues and maybe catch the eye of a WNBA team that needs a long-range specialist? 


Who do you think might be introduced as a ex-Cardinal and current WNBA player down the road?  


Maybe we can get Walz to lobby for a Louisville WNBA franchise, trade for Angel, add C.B. and staff the rest of the team with Lady Cards. It'd liven up the summer months around here...and we have no doubt that filling the lower bowl in the KFC YUM! would be no problem with (what to call our imaginary team?)...


The Louisville Lasers?
The Kentucky Fillies?


Nice mind-wandering on a rainy Tuesday morning...have a great day everybody!
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Huskies in town to seek 10th. BIG EAST Win

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TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-#3 UConn set to play Lady Cards at YUM! tonight.

-Final pre-game thoughts from Jenny

Dolson leads UConn
in rebounding

Geno Aureimma brings the third ranked Connecticut women's basketball team to the KFC YUM! Center for a 7 p.m. matchup against the #14 UofL Cardinals WBB squad.

The game will be shown on CBS Sports Network.

Hayes is a scoring machine

Tough task ahead for Jeff Walz's Lady Cards. UConn (21-2, 9-1) has won the last ten against Louisville. You have to go back to 1993 to find a Cardinal win over the Huskies. UConn leads the series 10-1.

Geno's crew was impressive in their last outing, demolishing #13 Rutgers 66-34 at Gampel Pavillion. Sophomore Stefanie Dolson led the Husky charge with 16 points and senior guard Tiffany Hayes added 14 for UConn. 

Hartley has had an
excellent sophomore
year

UConn has four in double figures for the season. Besides Hayes and Dolson, sophomore Bria Hartley averages 14.3 a game and freshman Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis contributes 14 a contest. Kelly Faris, a junior guard, has 57 steals on the year.

Louisville has lost two on the road leading up to tonight's game. Louisville is 9-0 in the KFC YUM! Center this season and 22-2 lifetime.

Kallen Mosqueda-Lewis
is a multiple BIG EAST
freshman of the week
award winner

The Cards (17-6, 6-4) will have their hands full with the guard combo of Hayes and Hartley, the defense, rebounding and scoring of Dolson, defensive play of Faris, Caroline Doty and Mosqueda-Lewis. UConn excels at a breakneck, up and down the court pace and thrives on the transition game.

We'll have a full recap for you tonight after the action.

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(Jenny's take...)

The Huskies are beatable...as has been evidenced twice this season. It will be no small task to topple them. If the Lady Cards are to compete with UConn, here are my keys to the game:

--Louisville MUST start strong, play strong and end strong. They'll get buried with a slow start. No offensive lapses. Minutes gone by with no points and turnovers will spell defeat. Forty strong minutes needed from the five players on the court.

--Taking care of the ball. Each possession valued. The Huskies play very good defense and will work to create Lady Cards turnovers. Mental mistakes not needed tonight. Value each and every possession.

--Home court advantage. We can help them with this, as fans. We are that "6th player" tonight. It is our job to keep the energy high and help feed our team. They feed off our energy. We have to be present, loud and rowdy to entire 40 minutes. Our girls deserve no less.

For UConn...the first seven players to see the court are lethal in their own ways. Each one a weapon that needs to be defended.

Tiffany Hayes and Bria Hartley (senior and sophomore) are the consistent offensive threats. Every Husky can shoot, mind you. These two do it the best and must be contained. If the defense can do this, the Lady Cards have a chance. It's no small task, though...

Stephanie Dolson and Kiah Stokes are the "bigs" in the paint. Stokes, a freshman, spells the sophomore Dolson. Dolson has been prone to some foul trouble lately. If UofL's "bigs" can play strong and clean, get Dolson in early foul trouble...it will help Louisville in this game. Stokes is no walk in the park, though. She had a good effort against Brittany Griner of Baylor. Regardless of the "big" in at the time...defense is job #1 on them and blocking out mandatory.

Kelly Faris and Caroline Doty are both intelligent players. They see the floor. They assist the shot and can take the shot. Doty, despite the chronic knee trouble, is playing quite well recently. Faris can do anything asked of her and leads UConn in steals. Two dangerous players.

Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis (KML) is usually first off the bench. She has a pretty shot, great moves. Gets compared to Maya Moore a lot. This freshman will be the BIG EAST Freshman of the Year. Another sniper in the bushes, she'll shoot opponents down with her accuracy and speed.

Know this.

The Huskies do not take a game, or any minutes, off. They may start out of synch occasionally...but it doesn't last long. A Lady Cards early lead would be great. A Lady Cards early clunker will be disastrous.

Personally, for me...a successful game against the Huskies does not have to end up in the win column. It would be great, of course, but there are other things that can come out of tonight's game that can be considered a success.

Keeping the game close. Finding ways to shut down their best players. Playing hard for forty minutes. Louisville's got to give it 40 minutes tonight. Their best 40 minutes of the season. Give me that, Lady Cards, and I'll be happy.

Anything less than that spells U-G-L-Y. Play with the enthusiasm you did in the first 14 minutes at West Virginia and extend it another 26 tonight. Good luck !!

(Thanks, Jenny for the insights and observations! A tough task, yeah..you betcha. Difficult? Oh, yeah. Impossible?
No. Exciting? WE hope so. See you after the game with the results.)
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