Don’t know why Tia Gibbs left the Vanderbilt basketball program a couple of years ago to transfer to the University of Louisville.
Homesickness, whatever. Vanderbilt deeply regrets that she didn’t stick around.
Her three-point shot never looked more natural than it did Sunday as Louisville ripped Vanderbilt 81-62 in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Gibbs had her best game ever in a U of L uniform, collecting a career high 19 points, making good on five of seven three-point attempts.
And would you believe a career high eight rebounds? Let’s just say Tia was highly motivated for some reason.
A strong contingent of between 2,000 and 3,000 Louisville fans saw their team play one of the better games this season, improving its record to 21-12. Monique Reid was good for 25 points, Shoni Schimmel 19 and Keisha Hines 16.
Equally encouraging was the continuing emergence of Charmaine Tay at guard with five assists, two rebounds, a blocked shot and two steals in 19 minutes of play, coming on at just the right time.
But what Vanderbilt will remember most was the performance of Tia Gibbs.
When asked about how they planned to attack Xavier on Tuesday…an unnamed Lady Card (by request) responded with a haughty ‘We are going to play our game. They gotta stop us.’
Gotta love the Cardinal spirit. Let’s hope her words are prophetic…
Well, the Big East may not have quite lived up to expectations in the men’s tournament, but the women sure are holding up their end of things. By my count, nine Big East teams went into the first round, and all nine have come out. Uphill road from here on out, though, because all but three are facing higher seeds, and five of the other six BE teams are mid-range seeds facing number 1 or 2 seeds. But there’s still a very good chance that the women will do better than the men and have more than a pair of teams advance to the Sweet 16. And the Cards have as good a shot as any of those mid-range seeds of knocking off a top two seed. After all, they played #2 Xavier tough on that same court early in the season, and Louisville is vastly improved since then.
Was hoping to make it up there but couldn’t and won’t be able to make it Tuesday. I hope the crowd is as awesome as it was today. Go Cards!