LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The novel coronavirus hit the pause button on college basketball. It cannot do the same for the coaching carousel or social media.
When job openings and Twitter merge, the speculation game rages. In women’s basketball, it regularly rages on University of Louisville women’s basketball coach Jeff Walz.
His name is quick to be dropped into the speculation game for top openings. This year, it is the opening at Mississippi State, which just lost its coach, Vic Schaefer, to Texas. A source told me Wednesday that a representative of Mississippi State has asked Walz about his interest in the position.
“I have not been offered the job,” Walz said in an interview with me after he answered questions for 20 minutes on a teleconference with local media Wednesday.
During that teleconference, Walz was asked about a report that he is the Atlantic Coast Conference coach with Final Four experience who has been offered $2 million to coach the Bulldogs.
“Those are all talks again,” Walz said. “It’s the same thing that took place all of last year ... it’s just a compliment to what we’ve been doing here and what our kids have been able to do on the basketball court.”
Last year, Walz was linked to the job at Tennessee. A few years ago, it was Ohio State. There have likely been others. When Geno Auriemma finally retires at Connecticut, I’d expect Walz to get the first call.
“This is the kind of thing that happens when your program has success,” Walz told me. “If we’d lost a few more games, people would not be talking about it.”
Walz’s team lost only four of 32 games last season, while unseating Notre Dame atop the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Cards were beaten in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament in their final game. They were ranked No. 6 in the final Associated Press Top 25 poll.
If Mississippi State is actually pursuing an ACC coach with Final Four experience, Walz and Muffet McGraw have to be on the top line of the list.
It’s difficult to imagine McGraw leaving South Bend, Ind., for Starkville, Mississippi.
Here are two other things that are difficult for me to imagine:
- Walz leaving U of L after all-American guard Dana Evans announced that she will return for his senior season to be he leader of what projects to be his fourth Final Four team.
- Any college program offering a women’s basketball coach $2 million per season in a time when administrators across the nation are signaling that salary, staff and program cuts of at least 10 percent are inevitable because of revenue lost by the cancelation of the NCAA mens’s and women’s basketball tournaments.
If college football is also placed on hold, the belt-tightening will become more severe, especially outside football and men’s basketball.
I asked Walz if he expected cuts to his and other programs at U of L because of the projected revenue shortfalls.
“I think that is something that everybody is aware of, but I think we’re still waiting to hear back,” Walz said.
“I’m hearing from Vince (Tyra, U of L’s athletic director) and our senior administration on what direction we’re all going to have to go.
“You’d have to be foolish to not think there’s not going to be some financial impact on all universities, not just athletic departments.
“So we’ve got a great group of coaches here that all cheer for each other so it’s something that I’m sure is going to come. You’re just going to have to work through it when it does.”
In June 2018, Walz signed a contract extension through the 2024-25 season, worth about $1.475 million per season.
According to a story in the Dallas Morning News, Schaeffer earned about $1.6 million per season in his last deal at Mississippi State. Terms of his contract at Texas were not announced.
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