Cards-Cats rivalry needs to be embraced

The Louisville women's basketball team has ascended to the point where it can be considered one of the nation's elite programs. The Cardinals reached the national title game two seasons ago and last year they received a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament. This year the momentum had continued, with an 8-0 start and a No. 7 national ranking.

But for U of L, there has been one frustrating constant during this boom time. For some reason, the Cardinals cannot seem to beat the University of Kentucky. On Sunday afternoon, in front of a mostly red-clad and entirely raucous crowd of 14,862, U of L's fast start once again turned into a slow stumble. An apparent win once again turned into a loss.

This time, the Cardinals gave up a 15-point second half lead and fell to the Wildcats, 77-68. They were outscored 48-26 after halftime, as UK's quick, relentless guards wore down U of L.

It was the fourth consecutive win in the series for the Wildcats, who have improbably seized control in this rivalry during a time U of L has otherwise been at its best.

Yes, it is just one game, and yes it is just December, and yes, the Cardinals will be fine. But this must be frustrating for them. Even if this rivalry is not an end-all, the Cardinals know what it means to their constituency.

Of course, U of L coach Jeff Walz has long maintained that this game is not much different than the others. And after Sunday's loss, he stuck to his familiar talking point.

Story continues after video.

"It's one game, you know, now we're onto the next," he said. "Again, unfortunately for us it's been four years. We aren't thrilled with this. There's no question about it. But what do you want me to do, throw in the towel and say, 'OK, we quit?'"

Of course not. No one expects that. Walz continued on.

"Three of the past four years we've seemed to advance further in the NCAA tournament (than UK), which is what we all play for," he said. "... (Wildcats coach Matthew Mitchell) does a great job, but I'm sure two years ago he would have traded a loss for a chance to play in the Final Four, so... "

If given the option, that's probably true. But that's not how this works.

And really, trying to diminish the significance of this rivalry doesn't do much good. This is an important game to both fan bases, and women's basketball is a sport that still has room for growth, so it's probably for the best to tout this as a meaningful event.

I asked Mitchell about the significance of this win, aside from the ways it will benefit the Wildcats' NCAA tournament portfolio.

"I think it's a great win for us because Louisville is a quality team and a quality program and is well-coached and has really good players, and so we're very proud that we could come into a very good team's building and win a game," Mitchell said. "It's a great win for these players because they had to fight for it and they had to dig down deep and find a way."

Moments later, my colleague Steve Jones followed up about about Walz's suggestion that Mitchell would have traded one of those wins in past seasons to advance to the Final Four like the Cardinals did two seasons ago.

"I think Louisville has a fantastic basketball program," he said. "I think they're well-coached. I think they have very good players and they've done a great job here and have had great success and I congratulate them for that."

In other words, he's not going there.

Yes, surely both coaches would prefer success deep into March to success on this one December day. But that doesn't mean that this game shouldn't embraced for being more significant than many of the others.

Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at 502-582-4372 by email ahimmelsbach@courier-journal.com and on Twitter @adamhimmelsbach​