MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (WDRB) -- There was no turning point. There wasn't a controversial call for fans to howl about deep into the night.
You can nitpick the strategy that Jeff Walz employed with his University of Louisville women's basketball team but, frankly, I believe you are wasting your time.
Pardon the interruption, but Tony Kornheiser was 110 percent correct:
South Carolina was better than Louisville.
That is the purest explanation for why the Gamecocks defeated the Cardinals, 72-59, in the national semifinals at the Target Center Friday night. That is why South Carolina will play for the national title Sunday night.
"Yeah, we lost this game, but I don't think we gave up, not on one play," Louisville senior Emily Engstler said.
"I think we should all leave this arena and Minneapolis with our heads held very high. I'm extremely proud of this team, and I've had an amazing time with them."
Walz preferred to dwell on the joy the Cardinals created while winning 29 games this season instead of any frustrations created by their fifth loss.
As he should have.
The toughness of Engstler. The drive of Olivia Cochran. The sizzling creativity of Kianna Smith. The spunk of Hailey Van Lith. You could go on, just as the Cards became emotional after the game because their season did not go on.
"I told them in the locker room, you don't ever want to say that's your favorite team, because then all your past teams get mad at you," Walz said.
"But I'd put this group right up there at the top. You start back in the spring and the summer, all the way through April the 1st, and it was just an absolute joy to coach them, to watch them grow as people, watch them grow as individuals, and then to watch us grow as a team.
"There's not one second that I regret about it, a damn thing that we did, and I am so proud of these three that are sitting here, and we're going to cherish the moments that we shared together, the games that we played.
"That's all."
Sometimes it truly is as simple as the other team is better.
South Carolina was better.
South Carolina has been better the entire season, driven to win the program's second national title because of a loss by a single point to Stanford last season in the Final Four.
Louisville played to its ranking (No. 4 in the Associated Press poll) as well as its No. 1 seed. One seeds are supposed to get to the Final Four. That is what the Cardinals did.
They needed an extraordinary performance to beat a team as talented as South Carolina. The Cards did not deliver an extraordinary performance.
Three air balls in the first five minutes. Nerves? Probably.
Only five assists on 27 field goals. Too many players driving into trouble around the rim? I think so.
Giving up six three-point field goals, three by South Carolina guard Destanni Henderson. Just one of those nights? The record shows Henderson was 8 of 25 from distance in South Carolina's first four NCAA Tournament games.
Making only a single three-point field goal in the game's final minute. Credit South Carolina for chasing Louisville off the three-point line. Walz did.
But you can tie all those factors back into the reason most observers forecast a South Carolina victory with the Gamecocks favored by 8 points.
South Carolina was better. South Carolina played on this stage last season.
"I think this is Louisville's first time being in the Final Four (with this group of players)," South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said.
"Sometimes when the lights come on, it just takes you a little bit longer to just kind of get your equilibrium."
That happened. Twice. The Gamecocks blitzed Louisville 13-4 to start the game. Then South Carolina did it again with a 17-8 blast to start the second half.
Maybe the Cards could have survived one of those lapses. They could not survive two.
There is one 6 foot, 5 inch center like Aliyah Boston in all of the women's college game -- and the Gamecocks have her. Boston has the hands, the footwork and the touch to score with persistence around the basket.
She punished Louisville with 23 points and 18 rebounds. That's what a consensus national player of the year is supposed to do.
"She's 6-5," Walz said. "That impacts it. She has good hands. She moves well. She finishes on both sides of the floor. She goes after the ball. She's good. She's really good. It doesn't take me to tell you what she's good at.
"I've got a six-year-old that can sit there and watch the game and be like, yeah, she's good. Yeah, she's really good."
Here is what is also really good: The program Walz has built at Louisville. You don't stumble into four Final Fours in 14 years. Walz has done it in different ways with different stars with different expectations.
As I wrote before the game, Mike Krzyzewski failed in the 1986, 1988, 1989 and 1990 Final Fours before he finally broke through with the first of his five national titles at Duke in 1991.
The fourth time Krzyzewski fell short of a championship his Blue Devils team with Christian Laettner and Bobby Hurley lost by 30 points to UNLV.
Why?
Because UNLV was better. Just like South Carolina was better than Louisville Friday night.
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