The University of Louisville released their full non-conference schedule for the upcoming season. The Cards finished last season with 24-2 record that concluded with a trip to the Elite 8, where they lost to the eventual national champions, the Stanford Cardinal.
Here are a few facts about this season’s upcoming team:
- Louisville returns 4 out their top 5 scores, including 2 double-figure scorers (Hailey Van Lith and Kianna Smith). Olivia Cochran finished the season with a 9.9 ppg, just missing out on averaging double digit scoring.
- Out of the 12 non-conference games, five of them played in the NCAA tournament last year and four won at least 20 games last year.
- Louisville begins play with an exhibition match up vs Union College on November 4th in the KFC YUM! Center.
Got your calendar and pencil handy? The non-conference schedule is here! 📅✏️
➡️: https://t.co/ZcgifxQxuP#GoCards pic.twitter.com/35hVfsJH0T
— Louisville WBB (@UofLWBB) August 13, 2021
There are 4 marquee games that will definitely draw a lot of national attention:
- Arizona November 12th, The Invitational, Sioux Falls, S.D (Arizona made it all the way to the NCAA Women’s Championship game, under the direction of coach Adia Barnes. Barnes played for the Wildcats from 1994-1998, before being drafted by the Sacramento Monarchs in the 4th round of the 1998 WNBA draft.
- Michigan December 2nd, Big 10/ACC Challenge, KFC YUM! Center
- Kentucky December 12th, Jimmy V Classic, KFC YUM! Center
- UConn December 19th, Basketball Hall Of Fame Women’s Showcase, Uncasville, CT (Louisville and UConn were set to meet in the Mohegan Sun Classic last year, but Covid restrictions didn’t allow that to happen)
As for the rest of their non-conference schedule, here are details:
- Louisville will play a total of 9 games as the home team (7 in the YUM Center and 2 neutral site games) and three road games.
- After the Cards trip to Sioux Falls, they’ll return home for two games vs Bellarmine (Nov 16th) and UT Martin (Nov 18th), before they head on a three game road trip.
- On the Cards west coast road trip, they’ll make stops at Washington (Nov 20th), Cal Poly (Nov 23rd) and finish up at Colorado State (Nov 28th).
For the Cards final five non-conference games, Louisville will return home for four consecutive games. The Big10/ACC matchup with the Michigan Wolverines on December 2nd, is the start of the Cards home stand. The Cards will also host Belmont (Dec 5th), uk (Dec 12th, Jimmy V Classic) and EKU (Dec 16th) before heading on the road to face UConn (Dec 19th, Basketball Hall Of Fame Showcase).
