Attrition continues for Louisville women’s BB, but outlook improving

...

Dog Days Arrive For Louisville Fans

Forever until September.

July only now arriving, still only one-third of the way through a record hot summer. Dog days. Boring. Not much happening in University of Louisville athletics.

Wrong.

• Over at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium, seats are still being installed at a record slow pace, at least four or five chair backs at day. Advertising panels are being added to the video scoreboard. Workers are putting finishing touches on the luxury suites, with interior decorators breathing down their necks.

• Football players doing individual workouts. Charlie Strong awaiting test scores.  Attracting four-to-five-star transfers at a record clip.

• At the new KFC Yum! Center, the video scoreboard is up, as well as ancillary units. Massive heating and air conditioning system nearing completion. Exterior glass being sealed. Marble flooring going down in the spacious lobby. Plush red seats being added, getting snatched up by corporations and fans as fast as they can be installed.

• On campus, players working out, following through on individual instruction. Rick Pitino hiring new assistants, awaiting test scores and securing transfers. Meeting himself coming and going to the airport attending summer shoe camps.
  

• At Jim Patterson Stadium, baseball coach Dan McDonnell is conducting youth camps, padding his salary. But he’s also keeping a wary eye on the Aug. 15th signing deadline, hoping most of the seven underclassmen and two high school recruits picked during the Major League draft are enrolled next semester.

• Women’s basketball coach Jeff Walz is salivating over the prospects of a top five recruiting class, hoping  the chemistry is as good as the player rankings. Trying to forget all the injuries, knowing it could never be as bad as last season.
  

• Tom Jurich is still breathing a sigh of relief that the Big East was untouched during the latest round of conference expansion. But he’s not waiting for the phone to ring either. Not Tom Jurich.

No sitting around for some during the dog days.

...

Huge: Shoni Schimmel Picks Louisville

Lady Cards Land Highly Ranked Recruit

This is not just another commitment for the University of Louisville women’s basketball team. This is the reason Jeff Walz has spent many of his waking hours on the West Coast, mentally and physically, hoping to land this phenomenal basketball player.

She’s the reason Walz is doing cartwheels today. She’s the reason Geno Auriemaa at UConn is wondering what in hell is going on at Louisville. She’s the clincher for making this the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation.

Shoni Schimmel, a multi-faceted, exceptionally-talented 5-foot-9 guard from Portland, Ore., has made her decision. She wants to play for Jeff Walz and the Lady Cards, picking U of L over UCLA, Oregon, Rutgers and South Carolina.

She will join the Lady Cards next season, at the ready when Louisville opens against Tennessee in the new basketball arena. Talk about things coming together.

Schimmel averaged 29.9 points, 8.6 rebounds, 7.3 assists and 5.8 steals as a senior, earning Parade Magazine first-team all-American honors. She finished her career as the No. 6 all-time scorer in Oregon with 2,120 points. She was Player of the Year in Oregon during her junior and senior years and was a first-team All-Stater all four years.

She is also believed to be the highest ranked Native American women’s basketball player ever. Based on numerous reports, her physical skills are exceeded only by her intense desire to win.

Check out the video:

*     *    *

With Schimmel’s decision, interest in women’s basketball will escalate rapidly, even among those who heretofore have considered women’s basketball beneath them. Seat selection for the upcoming season in the brand new 22,000-seat KFC Yum Basketball Center will begin in August at the Yum Practice Center. Call 852-5151 to get on board.

...

Louisville Women May Play Again At Freedom Hall

Lady Cards Accept Invitation To Women’s Basketball Invitational

By Sonja Sykes

The University of Louisville women’s basketball team has accepted an invitation to compete in the new 16-team Women’s Basketball Invitational. The full field and tournament pairings will be announced Monday.

Teams not making the NCAA Tournament or WNIT are eligible. First-round match ups will be on Wednesday and Thursday next week. The tournament features an east coast, west coast bracket format, with higher seeded teams hosting home games, and retaining most of the revenue.

Coach Jeff Walz is hopeful Louisville (14-17) can secure a first round game at Freedom Hall. He noted that junior guard LaToya Johnson and freshman guard Nikki Burton could be available for the game. Both have recovered sufficiently from injuries to possibly play if cleared by the U of L medical staff.

...

Planet Earth Calling Louisville Basketball

Moments like these don’t come along often enough.

My, but  it feels so good, the incredible high University of Louisville fans are luxuriating in right now. The players, too. Especially the players.

A huge win in the final game at Freedom Hall, Kyle Kuric being born a star against No. 1-ranked Syracuse. That’s what U of L basketball is all about, winning the big ones over the decades.

But if competition in the Big East teaches us anything, it is that your last win has no bearing on the next game. The biggest challenge facing Rick Pitino is getting his basketball team back to Planet Earth. As soon as possible.

Win a big game against a good team, get all giddy, overconfident, and look downright impotent losing against a mediocre one in the next game. That’s how this season has gone for U of L, lacking true leadership, struggling for consistency, working like a dog to assure itself of a place in the NCAA tournament.

Wednesday, at 9 p.m., Louisville will face the winner of the Rutgers-Cincinnati game, two teams that don’t exactly get the heart pumping. At Madison Square Garden, where U of L has had more than its share of highs and lows.

*     *      *

Speaking of struggles, the U of L women’s basketball team finally reached bottom in a season-ending 37-point loss to Notre Dame in the Big East women’s tournament. The Lady Cards finished with a 14-17 record one season after playing in the national championship game.

A nightmarish season included many injuries to key players, making each game a significant challenge. If Jeff Walz had not found walk-on Shelby Harper and enticed Gwen Rucker and Brandie Radde to return, he would have had only five players at the end of the season.

With a top five recruiting class coming in, the outlook is improved for next season. But those incoming freshmen will need some seasoning and the veterans have some things to work on themselves. Sonja Sykes discusses the outlook for next season.

...

Jeff Walz Makes Promise After Louisville Loses

Last game at Freedom Hall

Jeff Walz came close to apologizing to University of Louisville women’s basketball fans after his team was defeated by South Florida 63-60 in the closing seconds to nail the lid on a losing regular season record.

“I promise you this will not happen again,” he told the crowd of approximately 5,000 people attending the final regular season game ever at historic Freedom Hall. “I’m very proud of this team. They have fought so hard despite so much adversity and injuries. We will be back.”

USF’s Alysson Speed hit her eighth three-point shot with four seconds remaining to give her team the win. The Lady Cards’ record is 13-15, and the last regular season game is at Rutgers on Monday. Here’s the shot:

The best player on the floor was U of L’s Monique Reid, finishing with 33 points and eight rebounds during her 39 minutes.

Seniors Chauntise Wright and Brandie Radde were honored in pre-game ceremonies.

...

Walz Visits With Top 10 Recruit

stextbox id=”custom”]

By Paul Sykes

The travel itinerary between games is intense for Jeff Walz as he skips across the country to Portland when he hopes to persuade Oregon point guard Shoni Schimmel to join the Louisville women’s basketball team’s 2010 class.

Schimmel, a 5-foot-9 top 10 point guard, has narrowed her selections down to Oregon, Stanford, Louisville, Rutgers and Duke. She’s an innovative, game-changing point guard garnering Pete Maravich comparisons as a three-point specialist.

She was recently in town to see the Cards play UConn and returned home impressed with the large turnout and the fervor of the Louisville fan base.

Schimmel’s younger sister, Jude, is a 2011 prospect. Their Portland Franklin High School team is coached by their mother, Ceci Moses.

*     *    *

Other U of L recruits at the UConn game included Sarah Hammond, of Rockcastle County, and Kyvin Goodin-Roger and Makayla Epps, both from Marion County.

Kyvin is the daughter of Tick Rogers, former U of L guard, and Makayla is daughter of Anthony Epps, ex-Kentucky guard.
[/stextbox]

...