Kiki Jefferson
Eric Crawford

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) - Jeff Walz got home a little early on Feb. 26. A guy who is trying to figure out how to get No. 23 Louisville to play its best basketball at the right time decided he needed some more basketball.

This time though, it was just a two-on-two matchup: Walz and his daughter Lucy vs. his wife Lauren and another daughter Lola in the driveway of their home. Lucy scored and flexed to celebrate.

"Who's this," Walz said Lucy asked Lola. "And Lola goes, 'That's Kiki (Jefferson).'

"Lucy goes, 'Yeah, that was Kiki a few months ago.'"

The example was maybe what Walz needed as the Cardinals are looking to not just find their form again, but their joy for the final two games of the regular season and the postseason that follows. He used it to talk to Jefferson.

"I said, 'You got an eight-year-old who watches you play and sees you don't seem to have the same joy that you're playing with now that you did a month ago,'" Walz recalled. "And if an eight-year-old can see it, don't you think everybody we play can see it as well?

"And it was good. Kiki and I had a great conversation. She's tired. She's mentally and physically exhausted because this is a level that she's never played at, this many games in a row. But talking to her about it, she's like, 'I can still bring that. I can still do that.'

"I know you can. This is where you fight through the wall, you push through the wall. And then when you get to the other side, win or lose, it's an unbelievable feeling."

That is not just a message meant for the James Madison graduate transfer, who is one of three players UofL will honor for Senior Night on Thursday night against Florida State. He used it as a teaching moment for his whole team at yesterday's practice, where the Cardinals said they focused on talking through issues and understanding each other more. Women's hoops legend Sue Bird even helped drive lessons home by visiting the team to speak.

"In sports, only one team wins the championship," Walz said. "So, you might live with the regret of, 'God, if I would have just made that shot, if I just would have made the pass to the runner on the left instead of the kid on the right, maybe we score.' But you don't want to live with the regret of, 'If I would have worked a little harder, if I would have worked on my skill set in the summer, if I would have just spent an extra 15 minutes on my ball handling, on the scouting report I'm not a really good three-point shooter but in the summer, I worked a little bit, but not much.'"

"Those are the regrets you don't want to have, you can't get back. And that's what we talked about: Don't live with that regret. That's a terrible feeling to have."

None of the three transfer seniors who spoke to reporters on Wednesday regretted that conversation. 

"A lot of us feel like we're really connected off the court," Sydney Taylor said. "When we get on the court, there's some miscommunication and stuff like that. So, just figuring out those little details, but nothing too crazy. We know we all love each other, and we're here for one another. But it was a well-needed talk."

"Coach Walz, he does a good job just trying to get us to leave it all on the floor," Nina Rickards said. "And now that we think about it, this is our last home game playing here and our last home game ever in our collegiate careers. So, just knowing that we gave our best effort, our best shot, it means a lot. Tomorrow's game is very important. But I just go into it giving everything I have so I have no regrets later on. I think that's how I plan, and hopefully these two, I know they will plan to finish the rest of the season."

Louisville women's basketball

Louisville's women's basketball team huddles during a loss to Virginia Tech in the KFC Yum! Center.

Outside of maybe making a deep run in or winning the ACC Tournament, Louisville likely can't use this final stretch to earn an opportunity to host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. But figuring out how to defend better, which has proven to be the biggest flaw for this UofL team, is going to be vital for living up to the program's standards of making a March run.

Over that seven-game stretch, just one Louisville opponent has not shot at least 41% from the field. The Cardinals have given up an average of 72 points per game during that period.

Walz and the players said they are trying different defensive approaches in practice, mixing up some looks. But improvement goes beyond that.

"Somebody is bound to make a mistake," Rickards said. "That's the game. It's a game of mistakes and who makes the most, who makes the least. So, I think it is just us having each other's back. If I miss my assignment, I'm not too in my head about it because I know Syd or Kiki is going to have my back if I get back door cut. So, I think just leaning into each other more in situations like that and having each other's back, it'll help us defensively and offensively, just playing off of each other."

Their coach still wants them to be able to do that for a full game. Louisville led Virginia by nine early in the 4th quarter during this past Sunday's matchup, but the Cavaliers outscored the Cardinals 26-14 in the final quarter to celebrate a 73-68 upset win at the KFC Yum! Center.

"We have to stop worrying about what the score is and play the clock," Walz said. "And that's something that we really talked about yesterday: You can't play to get up 10 and then relax. If there's 7:30 left in the game, you got to keep playing hard for the next 7:30. And then, the score will take care of itself."

Louisville hopes to avoid a cold finish it would regret come tournament time. But the three seniors from James Madison, Florida and Massachusetts do not regret the decision to finish their collegiate careers as Cardinals.

"I know I made the right choice," Rickards said. "Because I wanted a challenge. I wanted to play with players better than me or at the same level as me. I wanted to play for a coach that was going to challenge me, push me and obviously play in front of the best fans in the country."

"And just getting into play in front of like 10,000 people, that's something I've always dreamed of," Taylor said. "I'm just grateful for the experience."

"I got everything and more out of Louisville," Jefferson said. "I'm going to miss it. But I know that this is always home. I can always come back. I've made some friends that are going to get annoyed with me when I call in about a week or two, a month or two, or a year or two. But I know I always have them."

They have each other for the memories. Now, it is about having each other to not look back on those with any regrets.

"The great thing about sports is all it takes is one game or one day, and then all of a sudden, you start to believe in yourself and you start to believe in each other," Walz said. "Then, you start being able to do more than you ever dreamed that you could do.

"And we've been fortunate enough to be able to do that a lot here. We're going to see if we can keep things rolling. Because at the end of the day, I always say you're playing all these games to get prepared for hopefully the NCAA Tournament. We got our conference tournament. Sure, we're going in there to win that thing too. But you play your conference tournament and hopefully win that to get into the NCAA Tournament.

"So, we're going to keep pushing, tighten some screws up and see if we can't get it to where we're playing our best here when our tournament starts up."

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