Those OTHER Cards Make Final Four!

Tough, in-your-shorts full-court press. Multiple versions of that press. Able to play zone or man, and again it's in-your-face, wear-you-out defense. An All-American senior on the team, with another senior that plays sidekick and doesn't mind being in the shadow a little (but which everyone who knows the team will tell you is the ying to the poster player's yang). A coach who believes in amazingly hard practices, amazingly tough teams, and outworking everyone else in preparation. A team that likes to run, but that can grind it out as well. Hits the threes, hits the boards, drives the lane, beats you lots of ways. Now which Louisville team is this? Even more important -- which Louisville team is in the Final Four?

Not the men. They coughed up a loss on Sunday that was their worst game of the year. These Lady Cards, though, came into a game that no one thought they could win (including, honestly, me), and they proved us all wrong. They flat-out out-played the Terrapins of Maryland -- the #1 seed -- and Jeff Walz out-coached Brenda Friese.

Angel McCoughtry did her part, but it was the entire team that brought this one home. Des Byrd on her bad knees; Candyce Bingham's solid play (and her "team mom" to Angel's "crazy aunt"); Becky Burke's amazing defense on Maryland's best player, Tolliver -- they all had a part in this amazing win.

Jeff Walz told them that if they could win the first two and get out of the Baton Rouge site and into the Sweet Sixteen, he and the staff would game-plan them into the Final Four. He kept his word. They beat a Baylor team that had been one of the hotter teams in women's basketball, and then beat a Maryland team that everyone thought was the only team that could beat UConn.

Now it's on to St. Louis, the Final Four, and a Sunday semi-final against either Oklahoma or Purdue. Odds are, of course, that it will be Oklahoma, and that the Paris twins will end Louisville's run. But, after watching this team gut out these last two wins with heart, hard work, and defense, I've become a believer. This isn't the team I saw in Hartford. This is a determined, focused, lunch-pail team. I think they've got at least one more win in them. And if they've got two ... well, that would probably mean they've beaten UConn, and that would be probably the biggest upset in women's basketball. But if there's anyone that can pull it off, it's these Lady Cards -- that OTHER Cardinal team.