The forgettable ESPY awards show will soon be erased from our TIVO’s and memory banks in a hurry. Can’t be gone soon enough.

The least favorable part for some University of Louisville fans was the women’s basketball team’s win over Baylor being eclipsed by Florida Gulf Coast’s victory over Georgetown. A great win, the one over Baylor, loved every unbelievable second of the game.

However, with UofL going on to defeat California and Tennessee in follow-up games, Jeff Walz’ team proved that it had the makings of a national contender. To continuing classifying the win over Baylor as an upset after those subsequent victories belittles their overall performance.

A trip to Los Angeles, rubbing shoulders with fellow athletes and idols was nice. They earned a reward. But a trophy for an upset? No thanks. Who wants to be remembered for an upset? Hopefully not the UofL women; their expectations should be higher.

UofL, after all, was among the nation’s top 15 teams most of the season. Florida Gulf Coast may never be hard from again. These realities had to have a bearing on the ultimate selection.

The Cardinals proved they beat just any team in the country, any team that is except the UConn powerhouse, having lost something like 15 games in a row to the Huskies.

A win over UConn would have been an even bigger than the Baylor surprise … and a second national championship in one season. That would have been something to get excited about, something to treasure.

Share this

By Charlie Springer

Charlie Springer is a former Louisville editor and sportswriter, a public affairs consultant, a UofL grad and longtime fan.

3 thoughts on “Respect for UofL women’s basketball benefits Florida Gulf Coast”
  1. I will respectfully disagree with the part about a win over UConn being a bigger upset than the actual win over Baylor. Baylor was #1 in the nation. One loss in two years. The best player in the nation in Brit Griner. A regional game that was pretty much in Baylor fans back yard (Oklahoma City).

    Louisville scored 82 points. No one in Griner’s four years put that many points on Baylor. And Louisville, a team that had stuggled with three-point shooting at times, was up by 20+ in the second half!

    It’s being called by many the biggest upset ever in women’s college basketball. Although a win over UConn would have been equally shocking…the Huskies had struggled a bit in BIG EAST play…losing to Notre Dame several times.

    Baylor looked invincable. Most pundits were already handing them the title.

    82-81 Cards.

    Paulie

  2. what I thought about the ESPY award was that the University of Louisville have had a great year that they didn’t want to give them anymore award then they have too because I thought that the women deserve that award, but little do I know but anyway GO CARDS!!!!!

  3. Well said, Charlie. And I felt the ESPY awards program was a colossal bore, made even more maddening by trying to follow it from a voiced-over translation in our hotel room. ESPY is NOT an abbreviation for Espanol. Will never watch the show again – unless UofL is in the running for some category better than Best Upset. Go Cards!

Comments are closed.