Louisville women’s basketball brand on full display at GLOBL JAM 2023
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It’s fitting that the second installment of the GLOBL JAM, a four-game international basketball tournament in Toronto, has the Louisville women’s team representing the United States. It’s just another way of noting the Cardinals are on the short list of national brands in women’s hoops.
Now, that’s not exactly why the Cards were chosen to play this week against teams representing Canada, Africa and Puerto Rico. That was by chance. The Women’s Basketball Coaches Association sent out an email to the top 16 teams from the 2021-22 season and the first one who replied won out.
It’s a good thing U of L coach Jeff Walz is quick to check his phone updates.
He didn’t need such luck while he constructed this season’s roster, which includes three highly coveted transfers in Sydney Taylor, Kiki Jefferson and Jayda Curry. They weren’t swayed by some huge name, image and likeness offering either.
The U of L brand did a lot of the convincing. That’s why, on paper, this may be a better squad than last year’s team that reached a fifth straight Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament.
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In Wednesday’s 78-55 win over Puerto Rico, the trio showed just how much more versatile the Cards will be this season.
Taylor proved her nickname ‘Swish’ was well deserved. She shot 6-for-10 from 3-point range and scored a game-high 22 points. Jefferson nearly pulled off a triple double with 10 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds. Curry had seven assists and no turnovers.
Four players in all reached double figures scoring, which happened just 10 times last season in 38 games played.
Opponents that game planned for U of L last season knew if they could slow Hailey Van Lith, who attempted 26 percent of the team’s field goals, they could win the game. But now the scouting report will be a tad bit more difficult with multiple players who can drop 20.
The success of national brands isn’t tethered to one player, they just go and find more.
The Cards did just that by signing the sharpshooting Taylor away from the 50-something schools that inquired about her services when she entered the transfer portal. Taylor ranked seventh nationally last season with 104 3-pointers.
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The three-year starter and two-time, All-Atlantic 10 player at Massachusetts, considered following her former head coach Tory Verdi, who left UMass to take over at Pitt.
Instead, she was drawn to Louisville because of how she’d fit in the system, how she fit with the team on her visit, how they’d prepare her for the WNBA and, as a bonus, Taylor said: “I heard they played in front of a lot of fans, which is really…
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