NCAA Women’s Sweet 16
Louisville hopes for home court on enemy floor
The top-seeded Louisville women’s basketball team will play its Sweet 16 game Friday at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky., on what is supposedly a neutral floor but one Cardinals fans know as enemy territory.
At least one Kentucky athlete, however, will be on hand cheering for Louisville — Wildcats football player Josh Allen, whose sister Myisha Hines-Allen is one of the Cardinals’ stars.
After Kentucky’s spring practice Thursday, Allen, a linebacker who chose to forgo the NFL draft and return to school for his senior season, spoke excitedly about watching his older sister play in Lexington against No. 4 Stanford.
“Oh yeah, I’m in there,” he said, but with one caveat. “I ain’t wearing red; I’m wearing neutral.”
Allen wore neutral colors when he attended Hines-Allen’s senior night at the KFC Yum Center and watched his sister score 18 points with 16 rebounds in Louisville’s takedown of Pittsburgh.
“She was the only senior so she had the spotlight — little jealous, but it’s just how it is,” he said. “I’m so happy that she’s doing as good as she is and how far they’re coming this year. She’s doing what she needs to do to take that next step.”
Hines-Allen, a forward playing in her fourth NCAA tournament and third Sweet 16, played her final career game in Louisville’s home arena, the KFC Yum Center, in the tournament’s second round. But with her mother and brother attending in Lexington, Friday’s game might feel familiar as well.
“It’s always great when you can have family come see you play because I’m not from here, so just the fact that they can come and see me grow as a basketball player (is great),” Hines-Allen said.
Louisville typically plays its road games against Kentucky women’s basketball in Memorial Coliseum, not Rupp Arena. Stanford, however, is in the Lexington regional for the third year in a row and has pulled off major upsets the past two seasons in Rupp Arena.
“It’s more of a home court for them than it is for us,” Louisville coach Jeff Walz said.
Hines-Allen and the Cardinals will take the floor just 2.5 miles from Kroger Field, where Allen plays his home football games.
Even when they are 70 miles apart at their respective schools, Allen keeps his sister close to his heart. Allen has “Myisha” tattooed in curling script on his right arm, along with the names of their four other siblings.
With just a year’s age difference between them, Allen and Hines-Allen were close and competitive as kids. The two played together on a tackle football team, the Bulldogs, when they were 8 and 9.
“She got hit one time and then she just stopped playing,” Allen said. He tried his hand at hoops but never stuck. Still, he insists he would beat his AllAmerican sister in one-on-one.
“I never let Myisha beat me in anything,” he scoffed. “She can’t beat me or my brother.”
“He’s a big guy now,” Hines-Allen said. “He can probably just like body me to the paint, but he’s not a basketball player, so he can’t shoot. So I’ll just take that advantage. But yeah, he’s a football player, so he’s pretty strong. I’ll give him that. That’s it.”
Hines-Allen contributed 28 points and 27 rebounds and shot 60.8% in Louisville’s two tournament games.
The day before Hines-Allen aims for a Sweet 16 win to help cap her Louisville career, Allen said he planned on texting his sister a message: “Y’all better win. And put me on the ticket list.”