



SEATTLE – By this point, continued achievement in the Women’s NCAA Tournament in Louisville need to have the Cardinals talked about in the identical breath as South Carolina, UConn and other powers in the sport.
Alternatively, Jeff Walz feels like the Cardinals are the frequent choose group to get dumped early in March Madness.
“We’re not normally the sexiest selection, we’re not the ones that everyone says, ‘Oh, you get it, this is an alert, place them in your bracket, pencil them in,'” Waltz stated. “We’re typically the ones that everyone says, ‘Oh, I consider they are going to drop in the 1st round, perhaps they are going to get beat in the second round,’ and then they are mad that we maintain winning.”
The Vols and No. five seed Cardinals will play in their fifth straight regional championship game against higher-seeded Caitlin Clark and No. two seed Iowa in the Seattle Regional four tournament on Sunday.
The Elite Eight has come to be an anticipated location for Louisville, even in a season like this a single exactly where it did not appear like a probably outcome. Right after a rough start off to the season that did not reside up to preseason expectations, the Cardinals (26-11) have hit their stride by winning 11 of their previous 14 with the only losses for the duration of that span coming to Notre Dame and Virginia Tech.
The Cardinals outlasted top rated-seeded Mississippi in the Sweet 16 on Friday to continue their quest for a second straight Final 4 and fifth all round.
“You perform your complete life to play on the national stage in the Elite Eight with a packed home.” You cannot trade him for any other situation,” Louisville standout Hailey Van Lith stated. “So it really is going to make or break you. That variety of stress, types diamonds or crushes you. So we’ll see which side we come out on.”
Louisville’s streak of 5 consecutive Elite Eight appearances became the nation’s longest active streak Saturday immediately after UConn lost to Ohio State in the semifinals of the Seattle Regional three. The Huskies have created 14 straight Final Fours and just about every Elite Eight considering the fact that 2006.
Iowa (29-six) would like to start off the type of run that Louisville is on. In spite of their achievement with Lisa Bluder as head coach, the Hawkeyes have only created a single Elite Eight look in the previous 30 years. The Hawkeyes reached the 2019 regional final only to be swept by Baylor.
Iowa’s only trip to the Final 4 was in 1993.
“I consider that expertise is a wonderful teacher, and I certainly consider that is the expertise that they had on their side,” Bluder stated. “Every single game you play, the stress builds a small bit a lot more, does not it? I consider when you have been there a lot, you know how to deal with it a small superior. So I consider it really is to their benefit.”
But even though Louisville has a lot more expertise at the spot, Iowa has Clark.
The 1st-group All-American had 31 points in Iowa’s 87-77 Sweet 16 win more than Colorado. The win place to rest two years of disappointment immediately after the Hawkeyes lost in the round of 16 and round of 16 in the earlier two NCAAs with Clark on the floor.
“This group hasn’t been to the Final 4 or the Elite Eight for us, but we’ve had the chance to play each and every other for 3 years now, so it really is not a thing we’re going to shy away from.” “We’ve been to a lot of massive games,” Clark stated. “But I consider that is the most significant point about (Louisville), they have expertise in this circumstance, they are truly properly coached.
IN THE Previous
A lot of interest will be paid to the clash among Van Leete and Clarke, even if they possibly will not compete generally. The two have a history of playing with each other for USA Basketball, like the FIBA World Championship-winning beneath-19 group coached by Waltz.
“I played point guard with her in USA Basketball.” “We had been roommates for a even though for the duration of the trip, so I know her quite properly,” Clark stated. “A wonderful particular person, but also a truly superior basketball player.”
ELITE Knowledge
The Hawkeyes are not totally devoid of expertise to get to this point in the tournament. Iowa’s Monica Cinano was a freshman for the Hawkeyes when they reached the regional final in 2019. Cinano was a bench player for the Hawkeyes at the time and played just two minutes in the loss to Baylor.
On Sunday, she could make the distinction in interior Iowa. Cinano has scored at least 14 points in ten of his final 11 games.
“She is phenomenal. I just like the demeanor he plays with. “She’s a competitor, she’s fierce, but she tends to make you smile, she’s obtaining enjoyable, and that is what I like about players,” Waltz stated.





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