Louisville basketball: Cards collect major ACC hardware but deserved more

Louisville women’s basketball stars Asia Durr and Dana Evans collected the first of what could be many pieces of hardware for the program.

Let’s be honest, with how talented the whole women’s Louisville basketball program is, there’s a few more players on the team that deserve ACC honors along with the two that earned them.

The two who got the honors, senior guard Asia Durr, who for the second straight year has been named ACC Player of the Year, and sophomore guard Dana Evans who was named Sixth Player of the Year, earned their rights to those titles.

Remember that list of Durr’s accomplishments we talked about? We can add to that because since then she’s tied her own scoring record with 47 points on senior night in Louisville’s 92-63 dominance over No. 10 NC State. That night she also broke the ACC record for threes with 11.

She very well could’ve made both of those higher had she played the last three minutes of the game.

Durr is the first player in the program to ever earn conference player of the year honors multiple times. She’s a three-time first-team All-ACC selection and it all came with the hard work she’s put in since day one.

https://twitter.com/UofLWBB/status/1103310820568678401

Evans, who’s played off the bench in 25 of 29 games this season only starting in four, is second on the team in scoring averaging 10.5 points a game. She’s seventh in the ACC in assists averaging 4.1 a game and is shooting 86.7 percent from the foul line.

Evans, unlike Durr, has a lot of time to grow and improve with Louisville. She’s still young and if she sticks to playing hard like she does she could see herself as an ACC Player of the Year a couple more times.

Evans just needs to put herself out there more, get deeper into more plays, and that’ll come with age I think. The next two years, after two years of being able to learn and grow behind both Asia Durr and former Card and ACC Player of the Year in 2015-16 Myisha Hines-Allen, will be Evans years to shine and show the fans just what she’s learned from the two stars.

Like I said, there are a few other Cards that should be on the ACC Player of Year list. Senior Sam Fuehring, redshirt senior Arica Carter and junior Jazmine Jones are all names I’m shocked to not see given the ACC honor. Not to mention Jeff Walz led his team to a 27-2 overall record, going 14-2 in the ACC, beating six teams in the top 25, not to mention finally slaying UConn.

The story of Clemson head coach Amanda Butler is great, leading her team to a 18-11 overall record and 9-7 in ACC play after Clemson was 1-15 last season, but Walz was without question the best coach in the ACC this season.

Fuehring, who’s had four double-double seasons at Louisville averages 7 rebounds a game, averages 10.4 points a game and has had 42 assists this season, is a superb defensive player.

Carter and Jones are two quieter players that don’t get enough recognition for what they do. Carter has 83 assists this year and averages 8.6 points a game. Jones, who has started all 29 games this season, has 36 steals this year along with 76 assists.

The two that won the honor earned it no doubt. If Durr wouldn’t have gotten the ACC Player of the Year honor, I would’ve questioned all that is women’s college basketball. Evans made her mark this year for the future and to see her name on the list wasn’t much of a shock either.

The two along with the other Cardinals that should’ve been given the honors as well and the rest of the Cardinal team deserve each and every award and honor they receive. They have the wins, the hard work, the blood, sweat and tears to prove it.