LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – It has been a different road to the same destination for the Louisville women’s basketball team. Getting to the tournament is nothing new for Jeff Walz. This is the 14th trip to the tournament for the Cardinals under Walz.
Louisville’s sixth-year graduate post player, Olivia Cochran, will be part of her 15th NCAA Tournament game when the No. 7 seed Cardinals (21-10) face No. 10 seed Nebraska (21-11) Friday at 6 p.m. in Fort Worth, Texas.
What is new for all of them is coming into the tournament one year following a first-round NCAA Tournament loss. Despite holding a double-digit lead last season against Middle Tennessee in Baton Rouge, the Cardinals faltered down the stretch to lose for the first time in the first round under Walz, and to stop a nation’s best streak of five straight strips to the Elite Eight.
The sting of that defeat has stuck with the Louisville players who returned.
“I think even for the people that weren't here last year, they kind of feel it from us who were here last year,” Curry said. “We don't want that same feeling. It sucked going home in that first round. . . . Being a part of that wasn't a great feeling and we're doing everything we can to make sure that doesn't happen this year. Focusing on our last week, we're confident in ourselves and the work we put in. So we're confident going into this game, for sure.”
“No doubt, it was a motivator for me,” Cochran said.
Walz said confidence and consistency have been keys to develop for his young team that will include eight freshmen getting their first NCAA Tournament experience. But they are not without tournament experience. With Curry and key reserve Merissah Russell missing the ACC Tournament with injuries, there were times in the ACC Tourney that Louisville had five freshmen on the court.
“I think anybody can tell you from watching us from November till now, we've grown as a team,” Walz said. “We've gotten a lot better. Our freshman have had some ups and downs, but I think they're playing a lot more consistent right now for us.”
Freshman Tajianna Roberts has been pretty consistent for the Cardinals all season. The five-time ACC freshman of the week is second on the team in scoring at 13.1 points per game, has started all 31 games and has led the team in minutes played by a wide margin.
“Taj has had a fantastic year from start to finish,” Walz said. “I thought the game started off slow for her, in the terms of being able to process it. It wasn't going 90 miles an hour and you're trying to get a feel for it. That first game, she handled it well. As a freshman playing the minutes she played, you struggle some and get tired and you get beat up. She's never had that.”
Freshman Tajianna Roberts has been Louisville's No. 2 scorer in 2025, averaging just over 13 points per game.
Walz has been waiting, not always patiently, for Curry’s confidence to kick in. He finally saw it happen this season. She missed the season’s first four games – including a loss to UCLA in Paris and an overtime loss at Kentucky – and Walz was on her all season to shoot more. In a win at Virginia, he finally gave her an ultimatum.
“It just got to a point where, as I tell her, for a year-and-a-half, I'd be begging her to shoot the ball,” Walz said. “Please shoot it. I keep telling her, no coach that I've ever had had to tell me to shoot. They'd be pleading for me to stop. Finally, our Virginia game, I just told her, if you pass up a shot, I'm taking you out of the game and I don't care if it's the first minute of the game, you will not go back in. You can just sit by me for the rest of the game. And she was like, damn he's serious. We came out and if you go back, she hit her first two shots, both threes. They called a timeout. I think we went on a 10-0 run. I said, ‘Damn, Jayda. I'm a genius.’ Like, it's not that hard, and now she's finally understanding why put in all this time and work that she has if you’re not going to shoot it. She has a beautiful shot.”
Over her last six games, Curry has averaged 18.7 points per contest, shooting 47.3 percent from the field and 44.8 percent from three-point range.
Along with Roberts and Miami transfer Ja’Leah Wiliams, it gives Louisville a potent starting backcourt, with freshmen Izela Arenas and Imari Berry contributing off the bench. In the front court, Cochran and Nyla Harris are steady contributors, with freshman Mackenly Randolph coming off a 13-point performance in the ACC Tournament against Duke.
Louisville will face a Nebraska team led by 6-3 forward Alexis Markowski, who is averaging 16.5 points and nearly eight rebounds per game, and has shot 50 percent from three-point range (15 of 30) over the past 10 games. The Huskers had to overcome the loss of 2024 Big Ten freshman of the year Natalie Potts early in the season, but have managed some big wins this season, including victories over Michigan State, Iowa and Maryland.
They are coached by Amy Williams, who played her senior season at Nebraska while Walz was there in his first season as an assistant.
She said Louisville reminds her of Ohio State in some ways.
“They're going to full court press, and all of a sudden they're trapping ball screens and really aggressive defensively and deep and lots of kids that can impact the game,” Williams said. “They like to push tempo and really get out and run in transition, so I think maybe that's the team that comes to mind from the Big Ten Conference that we feel like they resemble.”
Walz said he remembered Williams as a player, and speculated that she could beat any of her current players in a game of HORSE.
“That’s funny,” she said. “I think I remember Coach Walz telling me not to shoot it.”
The winner of Friday’s game is facing a likely matchup with No. 6-ranked and second-seeded TCU on Sunday.
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