LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – The University of Louisville women’s basketball team earned a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and is set to open against Drake in Austin, Texas, on Saturday at 7:30. But the Cardinals have played like a Top 10 team on multiple occasions this season.
Most recently, ESPN commentator and former Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw noted that the Cardinals were playing like a Top 10 team during their run to the championship game in the ACC Tournament.
But there are other examples. They got up 17 on a nationally ranked Ohio State team. They led by 12 at Notre Dame. They’ve just had trouble looking like a Top 10 team for a full 40 minutes, and that will be the challenge in this tournament.
Louisville is 5-10 against teams in the NCAA field. It held leads in a good many of those losses. It is a No. 5 seed for only the second time in school history. The first time, it went to the NCAA championship game in 2013 and upset Baylor in its second game. That team had lost 8 games going into the tournament, but caught fire. Walz is hoping his current team can do the same.
“We've lost more games than we've lost here in one season in about 10 years,” Louisville coach Jeff Walz said. “But it's one of those where it's understanding, you know, we've also been a one seed, I think, for three or four those years. So, we're 23-11. And our players needed to stick together, even when there may have been some out there going, 'Man, what's wrong with them? What's wrong with them? They're not that good. They're not that good.' I think we're damn good. But we have to prove it. Now, I thought the last month of the season we played really good basketball. And it's because we've gotten better at the defensive end of the floor. And we also do a pretty decent job of scoring the basketball. It's not like we're terrible. You know, we're averaging close to 73 points a game. But what we've got to do is to make sure we're ready to guard, that's going to be the big thing on in Saturday's game.”
Drake comes into the tournament with momentum. It knocked off the top two seeds to win the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. Louisville is 13-0 in first-round NCAA games under Walz, with an average winning margin of 26.5 points. But Walz doesn’t expect an easy game against Drake.
The Bulldogs lead the country in defensive rebounds per game (32.1) and rank third nationally in assists per game (20.8), fifth in blocks per game (5.8), fifth in field goal percentage (.480) and fifth in rebounding margin (+10.5). The Bulldogs are led by Katie Dinnebier, who is 15th nationally in assists per game (5.7) and 19th in assist/turnover ratio (2.34). Maggie Bair is 11th in the nation with a .603 field goal percentage.
They’re a good-shooting team with multiple three-point threats and efficient post play.
"They are a well-coached team," Walz said. "They're a ballclub where you can't have mental breakdowns. As I've been saying for the past month, 'my bads' will get you sent home. If you don't close out on all of them, they all shoot the three, I mean every, single player on the roster, except for one, has made a three. . . . So, you've got to be prepared, you can't fall asleep, you can't just back off of one player and say, I'm not going to step out on the floor and guard them. You've got to be prepared for a five-out. They pass and cut and they read. It's not A goes to B goes to C. You overplay, they'll back cut. If you go under, they'll, they'll flare it. So, they do a really good job. They play hard, they've got nice size. . . . I'm very impressed with them. I've seen them a few times during the year on TV, and we have the utmost respect for them. I can promise you that there's nobody on this ballclub who's going down here thinking it's an easy game."
In his own team, Walz sees a group that has been close, that has come short of finishing a few opportunities, but that is playing its best basketball at the right time.
"I know what our team has done," Walz said. "And I'm really impressed with the way we've competed and how we’ve gotten better throughout the year. And I also go back and look at some of our games. We were right there and about four of them, had chances at Wake, were up 12 in the second half and lose at Notre Dame in overtime and a 3-point game here at home. Duke’s a 3-point game with 40 seconds to go. We go overtime with South Dakota State. Our Gonzaga game goes overtime. You win just 3 or 4 of those and you’re 27-7 and everybody’s probably thrilled. But you can’t worry about it. You can just continue to get better, and I think we’ve done that. I like where we are right now. I think we’re playing really good basketball, and have a chance to go into this and put our best foot forward."
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