After losing the 2009 national championship game, Louisville missed out on the NCAA tournament last season for the first time in six years.
The seventh-seeded Cardinals are thrilled to be back in the field and will open against a 10th-seeded Vanderbilt team making its 12th consecutive tournament appearance Sunday in Cincinnati.
Forward Monique Reid scored just 5.9 points per game as a freshman in 2008-09 when Louisville went 34-5 and fell 76-54 to then-No. 1 Connecticut in the title game.
Reid, now a junior, is averaging a team-best 15.8 points on a very young Cardinals team which features four first-year players in the rotation.
"We're really excited about things," coach Jeff Walz said. "We'll try to get our freshmen prepared for this. Just trying to get them to understand it's one and done now, you've got to come with your A-game or there is no second day.
"We're really going to just make sure they're focused and prepared to play the Vanderbilt game, we're not going to look past that game. They're a very good team, play in a very good league, and we know we're going to have our hands full."
Louisville (20-12) opened the season 12-5, averaging 79.1 points and outscoring opponents by 19.4 per game.
Since Jan. 12, though, the Cardinals have gone 8-7 while averaging 60.9 points on 40.5 percent shooting.
After knocking out Villanova 69-47 in the opening round of the Big East tournament despite shooting 39.3 percent, Louisville shot 38.1 percent and went a season-worst 2 of 18 from 3-point range in a 63-53 semifinal loss to then-No. 7 Notre Dame.
Reid was held to six points but had 11 rebounds. Freshman guard Shoni Schimmel, second on the team with 14.3 points per game, scored 12 on 5-of-17 shooting and was the only player to reach double figures.
The Commodores (20-11), meanwhile, dropped four of their last seven, including a 69-56 loss to then-No. 16 Kentucky in the second round of the SEC tournament.
Vanderbilt, averaging 71.6 points to rank second in the SEC, is 14-1 when scoring more than 70. Louisville is allowing just 53.3 points per game over its last nine.
The Commodores, one of only five teams to record at least one NCAA tournament victory in each of the last 11 seasons, are led by senior guard Jence Rhoads.
Rhoads is averaging a team-best 11.9 points and earned second-team All-SEC honors for the second consecutive season. Rhoads, however, has scored a total of just seven points on 18.2 percent shooting in the last two games.
Despite her best player struggling, coach Melanie Balcomb is confident in Vanderbilt's ability to make a run.
"I feel good about this team because of our resilience. We've been really resilient," Balcomb said. "We'll be at full strength for the NCAA tournament and that's what I'm looking forward to - actually having my deck stacked for the first time."
