are clickable to see their Bios
Well, this is close to an impossible task. Louisville has no exhibition games to analyze. A ton of new players. UConn, on the other hand, is easy. Two exhibition games, lots of articles, a ton of returning players makes is easy to figure things like starting lineup and strategies.
I'll take my best shot at Louisvile.
Tajianna Roberts a 5'10" sophomore guard is the leading returning scorer and the only returning starter. She clearly has no fear as she scored 21 points in her first game last season and it was against at the time No. 1 UCLA. A five star prospect, she was ranked 24th by ESPN Hoopgurlz. She shot the most three pointers but only hit them at 31%.
Laura Ziegler, a 6'2" forward that transferred in from Saint Joseph's, will crash the starting lineup. She is pre-season All-ACC along with her teammate Tajianna Roberts. At SJU she led the Hawks with 17,5 PPG, 10.4 PPG and 4.3 APG. She was a finalist for the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year award last season at Saint Joseph's. A terrific player who is stepping up in competition in the ACC.
Reyna Scott is a 5'10" senior transfer guard from Oklahoma. She started 16 games for the Sooners, She started in the UConn/Oklahoma Elite Eight game playing 21 minutes and scoring 8 points, handing out 6 assists and had 2 steals. A nice game. She should be starting for this Louisville team at point guard.
MacKenly Randolph is a 6' sophomore forward. Her claim to fame is she is the daughter of NBA great Zach Randoph. She only averaged 13 MPG as a player off the bench before starting late in the season. I'm guessing she might start this season.
Highly regarded sophomore, 5'10" Amari Berry was a McDonald's AA and the 19th ranked players in her HS class. She led the team in three point shooting last season at 36%. She averaged only 12 MPG but expectations are high for her.
The third transfer is Skylar Jones, a 6' junior guard from Arizona. She started the majority of their games. She averaged 10.7 points, three rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.6 steals per game for the Wildcats.
6'3" sophomore forward, Elif Istanbulluoglu was the only big off the bench last year. Will she start this season? Time will tell.
Coach Walz has turned Louisville into a clone of South Florida with so many foriegn players.
Ziegler is from Denmark, Elif Istanbullouglu is from Turkey, Yevhenuua Putra, a 6'3" freshman forward is from Ukraine, Isla Juffermans is a 6'4" freshman forward from Australia.
Walz isn't shy about what this group is trying to do: play faster, play freer, and win bigger games.
"I hope we're going to be deeper," he said. "We've got players who understand what we're trying to do. That means we don't have to slow things down."
"We've built a culture on expectations of going hard each day," Walz said. "We've really worked hard to find players who understand you have to earn things — nothing is given. We want good-character players who believe in that. And I think our success speaks for itself."
The UConn/Louisville game last year was a blowout in the Huskies' favor. UConn won 85-52 at the Barcley Center behind 21 points and 8 rebounds from Sarah Strong, 18 points on 4-7 from deep for Azzi Fudd and 8 points, 10 reboundes and 6 assists from Paige Bueckers.
LIke I said, I haven't seen them play. If you want to get a feel for how Louisville approaches the game here is a hightlight video of last year's game.
Final Prediction
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