Who? The Cardinals of Louisville.
What? The school wanted to strengthen its ties to the state, so U of L opted to go with the state bird as its symbol. The Cardinal Bird is one of the most unintentionally scary mascots out there- birds are not supposed to have teeth like that!
Where? Louisville, Kentucky.
When? Sunday the 20th, versus Vanderbilt in Cincinnati.
Why? They didn't have a great RPI, explaining the 7 seed. They had a couple of good wins, also explaining the 7 seed.
How? They were an at-large selection out of the Big East.
Surprise? If you judge them based on last season, yes. If you judge them on this year's body of work, no.
Who's driving this thing, anyway? Jeff Walz, since 2007. A master recruiter.
RPI: 39
SOS: 20
Record: 20-12 (10-6 Big East)
Best win: Kentucky (H), DePaul (H)
Worst loss: Old Dominion (A), Providence (A)
Notable results: Louisville's gotten themselves some pretty good scalps- you can add St. John's, Rutgers, and Dayton to their list of wins- but all of those have been at the KFC Yum! Center. Their best road/neutral win might be a bad Nebraska team or a bad USF team.
All-Big East junior forward Monique Reid leads the team in scoring and rebounding, with 15.8 points and 6.3 rebounds per game, but all eyes are on freshman guard Shoni Schimmel, with her 14.3 points and five assists per game. They have no other double-figure scorers, and depth might be a problem with senior center Keshia Hines's unfortunate tendency to foul out of games (10 of 32).