#20 DePaul up next for the #5 Louisville Cardinals women's basketball team. The two squads are at the Mohegan Sun Arena for a 6:30 p.m. tip-off that will be shown on ESPN.
Five keys to a Cardinal win:
1) Defense. Slowing down the potent Blue Demons scoring must be job #1. 91 and 128 points for Doug Bruno's squad in their first two games and they have hit 28 threes in their contests against Texas A&M and Chicago State. Louisville is allowing just over 60 points a game. Walz has depth, speed, length and quickness on this year's squad. Let's hope it shows itself when DePaul has the ball and open shots aren't available.
2) Points-in-the-paint. DePaul is similar to he Cards in that they are a guard-oriented squad, so I hope to see Louisville work the paint against the Big East foe and get big efforts out of Cochran, Dixon, Russell, Balogun, Robinson and VanLith. Quick and accurate passing creates open looks and the closer you are to the basket when the shot goes up, the better chance it has of going in is the theory here.
3) Run, run, run. Louisville just might be able to wear out the Blue Demons like they did SEMO and EKU with a relentless, consistent push the pace and get the ball down the court offensive mind-set . Get it and go could be a big factor on how the Cards approach the attack today.
4) Threes. We saw a re-emergence of Cardinal "beyond the arc" shooting skills against EKU after the dull SEMO effort. The question is, will Doug Bruno and DePaul tty to force Louisville to take outside shots by employing a zone defense? If it comes to that, let's hope Evans, Van Lith, Balogun, Konno and the rest are "letting three-dom ring" successfully.
5) Rebound by committee. The concept has worked well in the past two games, and if the Blue Demons are missing shots, the Cards must grab the errant attempts and prevent second-and-third attempts after missed shots. DePaul loves the "three", so it'll be important to track down the long-range misses and get the ball into scoring opportunities.
DePaul has been playing "in masks" so far this year. Will that continue in Connecticut and, if so, will Louisville adopt the same philosophy?
It should be a good one. DePaul does lead the all-time series 17-15 and I still remember the sting of watching them beat the Cards back in March of 2016 when they took a 73-72 win over UofL in the NCAA Tournament second round at the KFC YUM! Center. Time for payback, even though none of the players on either current roster were playing then -- it's time to even the score.
(For more on the contest, I politely suggest you might read Paulie's Cardinal Couple preview of today's game.)
--sonja--
--sonja--
Five keys to a Cardinal win:
1) Defense. Slowing down the potent Blue Demons scoring must be job #1. 91 and 128 points for Doug Bruno's squad in their first two games and they have hit 28 threes in their contests against Texas A&M and Chicago State. Louisville is allowing just over 60 points a game. Walz has depth, speed, length and quickness on this year's squad. Let's hope it shows itself when DePaul has the ball and open shots aren't available.
2) Points-in-the-paint. DePaul is similar to he Cards in that they are a guard-oriented squad, so I hope to see Louisville work the paint against the Big East foe and get big efforts out of Cochran, Dixon, Russell, Balogun, Robinson and VanLith. Quick and accurate passing creates open looks and the closer you are to the basket when the shot goes up, the better chance it has of going in is the theory here.
3) Run, run, run. Louisville just might be able to wear out the Blue Demons like they did SEMO and EKU with a relentless, consistent push the pace and get the ball down the court offensive mind-set . Get it and go could be a big factor on how the Cards approach the attack today.
4) Threes. We saw a re-emergence of Cardinal "beyond the arc" shooting skills against EKU after the dull SEMO effort. The question is, will Doug Bruno and DePaul tty to force Louisville to take outside shots by employing a zone defense? If it comes to that, let's hope Evans, Van Lith, Balogun, Konno and the rest are "letting three-dom ring" successfully.
5) Rebound by committee. The concept has worked well in the past two games, and if the Blue Demons are missing shots, the Cards must grab the errant attempts and prevent second-and-third attempts after missed shots. DePaul loves the "three", so it'll be important to track down the long-range misses and get the ball into scoring opportunities.
DePaul has been playing "in masks" so far this year. Will that continue in Connecticut and, if so, will Louisville adopt the same philosophy?
It should be a good one. DePaul does lead the all-time series 17-15 and I still remember the sting of watching them beat the Cards back in March of 2016 when they took a 73-72 win over UofL in the NCAA Tournament second round at the KFC YUM! Center. Time for payback, even though none of the players on either current roster were playing then -- it's time to even the score.
(For more on the contest, I politely suggest you might read Paulie's Cardinal Couple preview of today's game.)
--sonja--
--sonja--
