Men’s basketball isn’t the only team playing a home game at the KFC Yum! Center today. At noon, the 14th/13th ranked UofL women’s team (11-2) will host UT-Martin (6-5). The Cards return home after a three game road trip, with two of those games being out west. UofL’s only 2 losses this season have come on the road. They lost to Texas A&M and Kentucky, both teams that are ranked in the top 10 in both polls.
The Cards will also have to get used to playing without leading scorer and rebounder Monique Reid, who is out for the season with a knee injury. With high hopes coming into this season, it certainly hurts losing Reid and Tia Gibbs, who has been out with a shoulder injury. Sophomore Shoni Schimmel now leads the team with 13.8 ppg and leads the team with 4.8 assists per game.
So if you don’t have a ticket to the men’s game, try to make it out to the women’s game. It will be well worth it! If not, you can hear it on 790 AM and 101.7 FM or see it on CardsTV.
Before anyone gets too excited about the game on Saturday, let’s remember that the Cards have a big game tonight. 4th ranked Louisville (12-0) will host 12th ranked Georgetown (10-1) as they open up Big East play. It seems like in recent years, the game before the UK game was an easier one, not much to worry about. That is not the case this year. Not only is it a conference game, which we know how important those are in the Big East, but it is against a good Georgetown team.
Georgetown enters the game with only 1 loss on the season, a 67-63 loss to Kansas in the Maui Invitational. Their best wins are at Alabama 57-55 and they have actually beaten Memphis twice. In Maui they beat them 91-88 in OT and 70-59 last week at home. While Louisville has struggled in their last few games to pull out wins against sub-par opponents, Georgetown has been just the opposite. They have won their last 4 games by an average of 22.8 points per game.
6’2 senior guard Jason Clark leads the Hoyas in scoring at 15.7 ppg and is close to 40% from 3 point land. He already has scored 1,074 career points entering this game. He should easily end the season in the top 20 or top 25 for career points scored by a Georgetown player.
For Louisville, Gorgui Dieng has posted a double-double in 5 straight games. In all of those games, he has had at least 13 points and 12 rebounds. Without a true backup center, he has been critical in games for the Cards.
This game will match the two best defensive teams (statistically) in the Big East as far as field goal % goes. While Georgetown shoots 48.7%, Louisville has held teams to 36.3%. And while Louisville shoots 44.1%, Georgetown has held teams to 38.8%. So this could definitely be a game that ends with neither team scoring 70.
Getting a win tonight would be huge in a couple of different ways. Starting out 1-0 in the Big East, and a solid win providing momentum going into Saturday. The game is at 7:00 pm and can be seen on ESPN2 and heard on 790 AM and 101.7 FM.
