A quick turnaround for the Louisville WBB squad -- facing Bellarmine today at noon in the KFC YUM! Center. What do we know about Chance Dugan's Knights?
It's been a learning process so far for Bellarmine, in their first season of DI ball. The Knights are 0-4, with losses to Ball State, WKU, Western Illinois and Evansville. At least the Knights have lowered the margin of defeat each time they've played -- arguably against weaker competition -- but's it's a sign they are getting more into a rhythm of things and following sound on-court fundamentals. After getting a couple of key players finally back onto the court, BU has looked considerably better in their last two outings.
Bellarmine is led in scoring by Tasia Jeffries (17.0), a Louisville Butler grad that transferred in after starting her career at St. Louis, but she's only played one game for the Knights. Breia Torrens is next in points-per game (16-0), she's played in the last two for Dugan and is a senior who also came from Butler High School and has been a Knight all four of her years. It's been a shuffling lineup scenario for BU, only two of the players on the listed 12-player roster have started all four games.
Bellarmine has Danielle Feldkamp, who you might remember was a 6'3" post who played at Louisville Mercy on the roster and she and 6'3" freshman Lucy Robertson are the main board threats for Bellarmine. Torrens looks to be the three-point threat, she's launched 20 of them in just two games.
What do I expect? Certainly, for Louisville to look better than they did against NKU Friday, first off. My guess is that Walz will try and run, run, run on the Knights and maybe work the inside-out game a bit more if the points-on-transition aren't developing. . Dana should be able to create pretty easily on the Knights front court and Hailey Van Lith needs to continue the solid defense she showed Friday. The shots will fall, it's a matter of time. Kianna Smith gets my "player to watch" today -- she was sparkling and effective when Louisville needed her against the Norse and went to the boards with aggression. Liz and Olivia should have strong games inside for the Cards on both ends of the court, I expect Walz might play everybody for extended minutes again today -- with UNC scheduled to come up Tuesday -- he probably doesn't want to wear the starters out too much.
This one at noon at the YUM! (but wouldn't it have maybe been great to play it at Freedom Hall and bring back a wealth of old Cardinal WBB memories?) Yes, they're will be fans in the house for this one and the ACCNX will have the feed for viewing. I heard my ol' buddy Don Russell is handling the internet feed broadcasts and calling everybody Dana Evans.... Nick Curran is doing a yeoman's job with the Cards radio calls on 790 WRKD AM Cards Radio along with AJ. a bit of trivia -- Nick got his start in college basketball broadcasting as the play-by-play guy for Knights WBB Hoops.
--sonja--
It's been a learning process so far for Bellarmine, in their first season of DI ball. The Knights are 0-4, with losses to Ball State, WKU, Western Illinois and Evansville. At least the Knights have lowered the margin of defeat each time they've played -- arguably against weaker competition -- but's it's a sign they are getting more into a rhythm of things and following sound on-court fundamentals. After getting a couple of key players finally back onto the court, BU has looked considerably better in their last two outings.
Bellarmine is led in scoring by Tasia Jeffries (17.0), a Louisville Butler grad that transferred in after starting her career at St. Louis, but she's only played one game for the Knights. Breia Torrens is next in points-per game (16-0), she's played in the last two for Dugan and is a senior who also came from Butler High School and has been a Knight all four of her years. It's been a shuffling lineup scenario for BU, only two of the players on the listed 12-player roster have started all four games.
Bellarmine has Danielle Feldkamp, who you might remember was a 6'3" post who played at Louisville Mercy on the roster and she and 6'3" freshman Lucy Robertson are the main board threats for Bellarmine. Torrens looks to be the three-point threat, she's launched 20 of them in just two games.
What do I expect? Certainly, for Louisville to look better than they did against NKU Friday, first off. My guess is that Walz will try and run, run, run on the Knights and maybe work the inside-out game a bit more if the points-on-transition aren't developing. . Dana should be able to create pretty easily on the Knights front court and Hailey Van Lith needs to continue the solid defense she showed Friday. The shots will fall, it's a matter of time. Kianna Smith gets my "player to watch" today -- she was sparkling and effective when Louisville needed her against the Norse and went to the boards with aggression. Liz and Olivia should have strong games inside for the Cards on both ends of the court, I expect Walz might play everybody for extended minutes again today -- with UNC scheduled to come up Tuesday -- he probably doesn't want to wear the starters out too much.
This one at noon at the YUM! (but wouldn't it have maybe been great to play it at Freedom Hall and bring back a wealth of old Cardinal WBB memories?) Yes, they're will be fans in the house for this one and the ACCNX will have the feed for viewing. I heard my ol' buddy Don Russell is handling the internet feed broadcasts and calling everybody Dana Evans.... Nick Curran is doing a yeoman's job with the Cards radio calls on 790 WRKD AM Cards Radio along with AJ. a bit of trivia -- Nick got his start in college basketball broadcasting as the play-by-play guy for Knights WBB Hoops.
--sonja--
