LOUISVILLE L.J. Collier Jersey , Ky. (AP) — allowed a season high to Notre Dame in their lone loss.After an 82-68 defeat to the then-top ranked Notre Dame women’s team nearly three weeks ago, the Cardinals (19-1) have held five opponents under 50 points and a combined 32 percent shooting. Louisville is giving up just 59.6 points per contest heading into their Thursday night matchup with No. 2 UConn.Louisville coach Jeff Walz said the turnaround is the result of better execution.“We really haven’t changed anything,” Walz said Wednesday. “We’re just continuing to get better, which is something I said at the beginning of the year. … I always believe you can get better defensively, but it’s hard to get better offensively as you go throughout the year.“As you get game film, you’re able to prepare and come up with a game plan to try and stop people. Our kids have done a fantastic job and hopefully we’ll be able to keep things going.”Louisville will definitely be challenged by UConn (18-1).Huskies senior guard Katie Lou Samuelson (18.8 points per game) leads five starters averaging in double figures. UConn is ranked 10th nationally in scoring, putting up 81.9 points per outing.As good as Louisville has been lately, Walz acknowledges his team will be hard pressed containing the Huskies.“I don’t expect to hold UConn under 50 points unless most of them don’t make the trip,” he joked.Louisville’s wants to slow down UConn and would like to create turnovers.The Cardinals have forced an average of 19 turnovers during this latest five-game stretch, including 21 in Sunday’s 70-42 rout of Pittsburgh. Louisville won despite leading scorer Asia Durr (21.1 points Marquise Blair Jersey , 29 steals) sitting out to rest a sore knee. Walz said the senior guard would be ready on Thursday.Louisville’s perimeter defense has also thrived, holding teams to 21 percent from behind the arc over that span. The Cardinals have gone from 182nd nationally in scoring defense to being tied for 73rd.“We’ve got to communicate and box out definitely, keep people in front of us,” junior forward Kylee Shook said afterward. “I think it’s going to be a good game to see where we’re at and a good look for March because Connecticut is such a good team.”If nothing else, Walz wants Louisville to avoid repeating the first-quarter run that UConn rode to a 24-6 lead in last year’s 69-58 victory, its 17th in a row against the Cardinals. The Huskies meanwhile have won seven in a row since falling to Baylor —now No. 1 — and UConn coach Geno Auriemma seeks more of what he saw in Sunday’s 93-57 drubbing of UCF.The Huskies outshot the Knights 52 percent to 38 percent in that contest, but Auriemma suggested his team has had little margin for error this season. Especially against a Louisville team that’s clamping down on opponents.“If we were to find this state that we were in (against UCF) and able to get to it on a regular basis,” he said, “I think we have a chance to be really, really D.K. Metcalf Jersey , really good.“Whatever state that is, on Thursday night we better be in it or we’re going to be in a bad state because those guys are good, really good. And they are really good at home.” KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Gunther Cunningham’s life would have been vastly different had his family not emigrated from postwar Germany, settling in California when he was a young boy.For one thing, he almost certainly never would have dedicated his life to football.Yet Cunningham would go on to spend more than five decades in the game, including coaching stints in college and the CFL before making a name for himself in the NFL. He worked for six different franchises over 34 years in the league, including a two-year stint as head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs.Cunningham died on Saturday after a brief illness. He was 72.His wife, Rene, said in a statement Monday that Cunningham died in Detroit Cody Barton Jersey , where he had served as defensive coordinator and a senior coaching assistant for the Lions before retiring in 2016.“My family and I are deeply saddened to hear the news of Gunther’s passing,” Chiefs owner Clark Hunt said in a statement. “He led some of the most feared defenses in our franchise’s history with his energetic and motivating coaching style. Gunther made a tremendous impact on so many lives on and off the playing field in nearly five decades of coaching.”The Lions said in a statement that Cunningham will “forever be remembered as one of the great men in our game. He left a lasting impact on every person who was fortunate enough to work with him.”Cunningham’s father, Garner, was an American serving in the Air Force in Germany when he met his German wife, Katherina. Their precocious boy was born in Munich in 1946, and the family soon moved to the U.S. and settled in California, where Cunningham — who spoke no English — was ridiculed like many post-World War II immigrants for both his accent and ancestry.It was on the football field where he found his voice.Cunningham became a star linebacker for his high school team in Lompoc, and earned a scholarship to play at Oregon. His aptitude for the game made him a natural coach, and Cunningham got his start as the Ducks’ defensive line coach from 1969-71.He later coached at Arkansas, Stanford and California before a stint with Hamilton in the CFL. He then followed Frank Kush to the Baltimore Colts http://www.cardinalsauthorizedshops.com … len-jersey , where he got his first NFL coaching job.Colts owner Jim Irsay tweeted that Cunningham was “one of the finest men in our business.”Cunningham eventually became one of the most aggressive and successful defensive coaches in the league, burnishing his reputation with the Chargers and Raiders before landing in Kansas City. He was an integral part of Marty Schottenheimer’s best teams as the Chiefs’ defensive coordinator, and was promoted to head coach when Schottenheimer resigned after the 1998 season.He went 9-7 in his first year and 7-9 in his second, and his only head coaching stint ended on a sour note. Cunningham claimed he was never told by management that he’d been fired, learning it instead from reporters when he arrived to work in the morning.Cunningham spent some time with the Titans before Dick Vermeil lured him back to the Chiefs as his defensive coordinator. He spent the rest of his career with the Lions.“I had the honor to coach with him & against him,” tweeted longtime coach Jeff Fisher, who had Cunningham on his staff in Tennessee. “You’ll never meet another man with such a passion for people, family and football. We will miss him deeply.”Cunningham was known for his fiery demeanor and colorful vocabulary — yes, he picked up English, but his players would joke that he also knew plenty of French. Even in his final years on the sideline in Detroit Gary Jennings Jr. Jersey , it wasn’t uncommon to see Cunningham drop-kicking a clipboard in frustration.But he also was the consummate players’ coach, putting their best interests first.“So sad to hear of the passing of one of the best coaches in the game,” said Rich Gannon, who was quarterback in Kansas City during the late 1990s. “I went against him and his defense in practice every day for four years with the Kansas City Chiefs and it definitely made me a better player.”Cunningham is survived by Rene, his wife of nearly 50 years, and their son Adam and daughter Natalie. The family is planning a memorial service at a later date.