What a difference a half makes.
Last night, in Charlottesville, VA, Jeff Walz's Louisville squad found themselves in a dogfight with the Virginia Cavaliers for the first twenty minutes. The Cards were up, but only 31-27. They had started the game on a 8-0 run but then lapsed into too many one-on-one attempts and straying from the offensive sets and patterns...plus the presence of 6'9" shot-blocker Felicia Aiyeotan limited the Cards to 36% shooting. Walz saw that it was time to "get back to the basics" . A 16-0 run by the Red and Black. was essential in a 24-6 third quarter that eliminated any further Wahoo worries. For women you look up to, smothering defense and a tired bunch of Cavs...follow me over to the monitor and let's look at...
Ten Things About the Virginia v Louisville game.
10) Just another day on the court. Myisha Hines-Allen may have had one of the quietest double-doubles of her career. She finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds (5 of 10 from the floor) in 27 minutes. She just went out and did work. It's what she does -- put on the hard hat, punch in and -- when it came to the 6'9" Aiyetan -- Myisha had no shots blocked by the Nigerian and out-rebounded and scored her. Quittin' time...head to the locker room, change clothes and punch out. DOOO-BLAY.
9) Bionca goes bonkers. The Philly sophomore had herself a big 20 minutes on the John Paul Jones Arena floor. 13 points, a lot of then on sweet lobs over "the Empire State building" from Dana Evans. Finishing around the basket. Dunham has gotten significantly better at that. She is the future inside, in part, for Walz's Warriors and she gave us a glimpse into that future last night. Looks pretty good. Better get out the sunglasses.
8) Re-check that stat sheet? Sam Fuehring gave Walz 25 solid minutes but did not score in the contest. She drew charges, rebounded and picked up four fouls (I say "picked up" because two of them were bogus calls) but the ball wouldn't go through the cylinder. Not that it mattered, Louisville's front line won the points-in-paint battle 34-14. We'd like to see Sam back off the three-point attempt efforts and get back to doing what she does best. Bullying people inside and scoring in the paint. Drawing charges and locking down defenders.
7) She's gonna be a good one. Over at Paulie's site, they call Dana Evans and Jess Laemmle "The Attack Yorkies" because they are under 5'6", tenacious, ever-attentive, unrelenting and -- well, they're just cute and adorable and you want to hug them., just like a Yorkie. Dana Evans played like a trusted seeing-eye dog last night, though -- with six assists and her typical 100 meter Olympic sprint speed. The shot will eventually come around -- missing two layups were unfortunate -- but Virginia guard Brianna Tinsley, another freshman, probably had nightmares last night after she fell asleep. Visions of Dana running by her in GIF style. How about a treat?
6) Depen-DURR-able. Asia Durr strikes fear into the heart of opposing coaches and those foolish enough to try and guard her. If you give her the lane, she will take you inside and score. If you prevent that, she'll stop and pop and punish you. Her game high 21 points were scored in a variety of ways. There's only way way to stop her and it's when she takes a seat on the bench. It was great to see her on the bench in the fourth quarter enjoying the blowout and chatting up red-shirt Lindsey Duvall. Hopefully, she's also imparting keys to success to her as well. She won't be with us on the floor forever. Enjoy her while you can. Greatest show on earth.
5) Hey...let's all go to the monitor! There were simply too many referee trips to the monitor last night. Checking for flagrant fouls. Moving back the time-clock but moving up the shot clock (me and Joanne Boyle still haven't figured that oddity out yet). The replay monitor IS a good thing at times, don't get me wrong here, and officials DO get graded on their performances, so they want to "get it right". but overuse of the video isn't so good. Especially with one-tenth of a second left on the shot or 1 second left in the half. Play on and swallow the whistle. Walz's frustration was evident.
4) Welcome to top 25 basketball, Cavaliers. Virginia built a 8-1 conference record this season against ACC opponents that were not in the top four of the conference standings, so maybe there was a fool's gold aspect to their impressive start. Their next six are against teams ranked in the top 25 of college basketball. It's not too hard to see them at 8-6 when they return to Louisville on Feb. 22nd.
They were tired, demoralized and woefully inefficient for most of the second half. They scored just six baskets in the final 20 minutes. That's no way to pick up a win. Yes, the Cards defense was responsible for a lot of that inefficiency, but air-balls and shots not hitting the rim are also a sign of being gassed and having dead legs. 14 second half points. Delightful defense !
3) The Charlottesville Bakery. Turnovers were the popular item at the Charlottesville bakery. UVA produced 22 of them for the Cards to feast on. Louisville scored 20 points off those turnovers. They were equally distributed, too -- nine Cavs were working the ovens. A rough night for the freshman guard Tinsley with six. Superior guard play for the Cards. I hope we tipped well after dining.
2) What kind of network are you running here? Technical glitches (from what I hear) marred the first quarter of last night's game. Paulie and I are big radio fans, we listen to away games that way -- me, while at work and him on the enclosed back porch drinking beer with the Nick Curran /AJ broadcast on and a muted TV screen. I suppose technicalissues are unavoidable but it was a nationwide thing and Cardinal fans across the land don't have the readily available option of jumping to the radio feed unless they have the radio network app downloaded What was going on back in the control booth boys? A little pre-Super Bowl partying? It was also interesting that when the feed was re-established, the TV accounts and descriptions were faster than the radio ones. That's usually the opposite. A Groundhog Eve conspiracy at hand?
1) Flu? What flu? Coach Walz was supposedly under the grip of the flu last night. Missed his weekly talk show on Tuesday because of it. He must have gotten hold of some really good meds. because he was just as vocal and demanding as always and sounded in great form during the post-game radio show. Maybe he deserves an Oscar for his performance? Of course, a 36 point-win over the team you're tied atop the conference standings with, at their place -- probably has some healing powers as well. It's probable, also, that a lot of Wahoo players and fans woke up this morning feeling like a train ran over them.
And, one did.
The Cardinal Cannonball rolled into Virginia last night and, after a tenuous start, got the engines optimized and rolled down the tracks to deliver UVA their worst loss of the season.
All aboard!
Sonja
Last night, in Charlottesville, VA, Jeff Walz's Louisville squad found themselves in a dogfight with the Virginia Cavaliers for the first twenty minutes. The Cards were up, but only 31-27. They had started the game on a 8-0 run but then lapsed into too many one-on-one attempts and straying from the offensive sets and patterns...plus the presence of 6'9" shot-blocker Felicia Aiyeotan limited the Cards to 36% shooting. Walz saw that it was time to "get back to the basics" . A 16-0 run by the Red and Black. was essential in a 24-6 third quarter that eliminated any further Wahoo worries. For women you look up to, smothering defense and a tired bunch of Cavs...follow me over to the monitor and let's look at...
Ten Things About the Virginia v Louisville game.
10) Just another day on the court. Myisha Hines-Allen may have had one of the quietest double-doubles of her career. She finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds (5 of 10 from the floor) in 27 minutes. She just went out and did work. It's what she does -- put on the hard hat, punch in and -- when it came to the 6'9" Aiyetan -- Myisha had no shots blocked by the Nigerian and out-rebounded and scored her. Quittin' time...head to the locker room, change clothes and punch out. DOOO-BLAY.
9) Bionca goes bonkers. The Philly sophomore had herself a big 20 minutes on the John Paul Jones Arena floor. 13 points, a lot of then on sweet lobs over "the Empire State building" from Dana Evans. Finishing around the basket. Dunham has gotten significantly better at that. She is the future inside, in part, for Walz's Warriors and she gave us a glimpse into that future last night. Looks pretty good. Better get out the sunglasses.
8) Re-check that stat sheet? Sam Fuehring gave Walz 25 solid minutes but did not score in the contest. She drew charges, rebounded and picked up four fouls (I say "picked up" because two of them were bogus calls) but the ball wouldn't go through the cylinder. Not that it mattered, Louisville's front line won the points-in-paint battle 34-14. We'd like to see Sam back off the three-point attempt efforts and get back to doing what she does best. Bullying people inside and scoring in the paint. Drawing charges and locking down defenders.
7) She's gonna be a good one. Over at Paulie's site, they call Dana Evans and Jess Laemmle "The Attack Yorkies" because they are under 5'6", tenacious, ever-attentive, unrelenting and -- well, they're just cute and adorable and you want to hug them., just like a Yorkie. Dana Evans played like a trusted seeing-eye dog last night, though -- with six assists and her typical 100 meter Olympic sprint speed. The shot will eventually come around -- missing two layups were unfortunate -- but Virginia guard Brianna Tinsley, another freshman, probably had nightmares last night after she fell asleep. Visions of Dana running by her in GIF style. How about a treat?
6) Depen-DURR-able. Asia Durr strikes fear into the heart of opposing coaches and those foolish enough to try and guard her. If you give her the lane, she will take you inside and score. If you prevent that, she'll stop and pop and punish you. Her game high 21 points were scored in a variety of ways. There's only way way to stop her and it's when she takes a seat on the bench. It was great to see her on the bench in the fourth quarter enjoying the blowout and chatting up red-shirt Lindsey Duvall. Hopefully, she's also imparting keys to success to her as well. She won't be with us on the floor forever. Enjoy her while you can. Greatest show on earth.
5) Hey...let's all go to the monitor! There were simply too many referee trips to the monitor last night. Checking for flagrant fouls. Moving back the time-clock but moving up the shot clock (me and Joanne Boyle still haven't figured that oddity out yet). The replay monitor IS a good thing at times, don't get me wrong here, and officials DO get graded on their performances, so they want to "get it right". but overuse of the video isn't so good. Especially with one-tenth of a second left on the shot or 1 second left in the half. Play on and swallow the whistle. Walz's frustration was evident.
4) Welcome to top 25 basketball, Cavaliers. Virginia built a 8-1 conference record this season against ACC opponents that were not in the top four of the conference standings, so maybe there was a fool's gold aspect to their impressive start. Their next six are against teams ranked in the top 25 of college basketball. It's not too hard to see them at 8-6 when they return to Louisville on Feb. 22nd.
They were tired, demoralized and woefully inefficient for most of the second half. They scored just six baskets in the final 20 minutes. That's no way to pick up a win. Yes, the Cards defense was responsible for a lot of that inefficiency, but air-balls and shots not hitting the rim are also a sign of being gassed and having dead legs. 14 second half points. Delightful defense !
3) The Charlottesville Bakery. Turnovers were the popular item at the Charlottesville bakery. UVA produced 22 of them for the Cards to feast on. Louisville scored 20 points off those turnovers. They were equally distributed, too -- nine Cavs were working the ovens. A rough night for the freshman guard Tinsley with six. Superior guard play for the Cards. I hope we tipped well after dining.
2) What kind of network are you running here? Technical glitches (from what I hear) marred the first quarter of last night's game. Paulie and I are big radio fans, we listen to away games that way -- me, while at work and him on the enclosed back porch drinking beer with the Nick Curran /AJ broadcast on and a muted TV screen. I suppose technicalissues are unavoidable but it was a nationwide thing and Cardinal fans across the land don't have the readily available option of jumping to the radio feed unless they have the radio network app downloaded What was going on back in the control booth boys? A little pre-Super Bowl partying? It was also interesting that when the feed was re-established, the TV accounts and descriptions were faster than the radio ones. That's usually the opposite. A Groundhog Eve conspiracy at hand?
1) Flu? What flu? Coach Walz was supposedly under the grip of the flu last night. Missed his weekly talk show on Tuesday because of it. He must have gotten hold of some really good meds. because he was just as vocal and demanding as always and sounded in great form during the post-game radio show. Maybe he deserves an Oscar for his performance? Of course, a 36 point-win over the team you're tied atop the conference standings with, at their place -- probably has some healing powers as well. It's probable, also, that a lot of Wahoo players and fans woke up this morning feeling like a train ran over them.
And, one did.
The Cardinal Cannonball rolled into Virginia last night and, after a tenuous start, got the engines optimized and rolled down the tracks to deliver UVA their worst loss of the season.
All aboard!
Sonja
Last edited:
