Louisville Women ’ s Basketball Marching Toward The Top
By Jeff Nunn of CardinalSportsZone . com | Photos by Adam Creech , courtesy University of Louisville Athletics
The old saying is “ If you wanna be the best you gotta beat the best .” The University of Louisville Women ’ s Basketball team wants to be the best and they are dominantly marching their way straight to the top and taking on all comers .
Louisville came into this season ranked No . 10 in USA Today ’ s preseason coaches poll . The schedule ahead of them appeared daunting , as they would have to face six teams ranked in the preseason top 25 ( No . 1 UConn , No . 5 Notre Dame , No . 8 Ohio State , No . 12 Duke , No . 14 Florida State and No . 24 Miami ).
Louisville also had the possibility of playing No . 11 Oregon and / or No . 23 Michigan in the Preseason Women ’ s National Invitation Tournament , making that potentially eight preseason top 25 teams as well as a trip to Lexington to face nemesis Kentucky – never an easy trip .
The Cards are coming off of a season that ended in the Sweet 16 and are returning nine players from that team . Included in that nine are Asia Durr , the ACC ’ s preseason player of the year , and Myisha Hines-Allen . They also bring in the nation ’ s top recruiting class that includes Dana Evans , Lindsey Duvall and Loretta Kakala .
UofL head coach Jeff Walz confidently marched his wealth of talent into this season like a proud peacock . The look in his eye during preseason interviews was as easy to read as a mother goose nursery rhyme . And that message was that he was sitting on something very special .
It didn ’ t take long for everyone to see exactly what coach Walz already knew when , in the second game of the season , Louisville played No . 8 Ohio State in Columbus , Ohio . It took overtime , but Louisville prevailed 95-90 . Just four days later , Louisville faced No . 24 Michigan in the Preseason Women ’ s National Invitation Tournament . Louisville destroyed them by 25 points and , only two days later , would play No . 11 Oregon in the championship of the NIT . The Cards easily handled that challenge winning by 13 points .
Since winning the NIT , Louisville has been smashing opponents like they are driving an armored tank through a pumpkin patch . This well-oiled machine has enjoyed a school record run of victories that include a 22-point win over Vanderbilt , a 13-point victory at Indiana , a 24-point victory at Kentucky , a 6-point win over Duke and highlighted by a 100- 67 win over then second ranked Notre Dame .
With that victory over Notre Dame , Louisville climbed to the second ranked team in the country , which is the highest regular season ranking in school history . Also with that victory , the Cards improved to 19-0 that extended a program record for consecutive wins to start a season , which previously stood at 15 .
All the winning is fun for the Cards but looming ahead is a date with top ranked UConn . On Feb . 12 , Louisville will travel to Storrs , Connecticut , for a 7 p . m . battle that will likely be the barometer of how close they are to being the best .
32 EXTOL SPORTS / FEBRUARY 2018