LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Everybody wanted to ask the Louisville women’s basketball team about having to play away from home in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. And, yes, it is a different situation. The program hasn’t had to do that since 2015.
But junior Hailey Van Lith said that while the Cardinals love playing at home, they aren’t all that concerned about hitting the road. And given the program's history, perhaps they shouldn't be.
Under Jeff Walz, Louisville is 12-2 on the road in the first two rounds of the tournament and has advanced to two of its four Final Fours (2009, 2013) after starting out on the road. The Cardinals are also a perfect 13-0 in the first round under Walz.
“I would really say personally I don't know if a lot of us – like, care,” she said. “I mean, we just want an opportunity. That's what it comes down to. We just wanted an opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament and we got it and it happened to be on the road, but that's not going to affect our mindset.”
Louisville will face Drake on Saturday night at 7:30, and head coach Jeff Walz said his team understands its defensive assignment against the Bulldogs, who have perimeter threats at every position, and who put immense pressure on opposing defenses.
The Cards’ late-season improvement has been built on its defensive development, so the game will pose a make-or-break test.
“We're playing a team tomorrow night in Drake that, if you're not mentally engaged, it's just not about your physical effort of running up and down the floor, they read and react extremely well at the offensive end,” Walz said. “If you have a mental breakdown, they're going to expose you, and that's something that we've talked to our players about. We've shown them film. That's where you can't miss a shot at the offensive end, get frustrated and jog down the floor because, if you do, you're going to give up a three or a layup. Then all of a sudden, it's the old, hey, that's my fault. No, I've already told them, when the horn sounds, your rear end is sitting on the bench next to me because we're not at a time of the year that it's OK for that if you want to continue to advance in this event. So they understand it.”
Louisville turned in as impressive a defensive performance as any team in the history of the ACC Tournament when it held Notre Dame to 38 points in a blowout semifinal win. That culminated a month of steadily improved defensive play, according to Mykasa Robinson, the team’s senior captain and emotional leader.
“We really flipped a switch with our defense,” Robinson said. “I think earlier in the year we really focused on some different things. I think right now we've all really been able to engage with each other, be focused, locked into the scout. I think our intensity is different now. March, we all know it's win or go home. So, our mindset and our intensity has been different.”
Walz said some losses, and some not-so-gentle urging from the coaching staff, helped drive the defensive point home.
“I really think they've noticed it and paid attention to it the past month,” he said. “As I've said, if we lose tomorrow night, I want it to be because we've missed shots. That's it. I don't want to walk in here to a press conference and say we didn't follow a scouting report. We left their shooters open. We turn the basketball over. I want to say we had shots.”
Having shots and making them, of course, are two different things. Louisville has been prone to cold streaks this season. At times it will rush on offense or shoot a bit quickly, but often the shots are open and just don’t go down.
Walz has had teams catch fire in the NCAA Tournament. They seem to get another level of confidence from somewhere and they shoot the ball like they believe it’s going in every time. While Walz can’t flip that switch with his team, he says they have worked on shooting,
“I'm big on you shoot shots you shoot in practice,” he said. “I tell them all the time, I'm not going to take you out for missing a shot as long as it's a shot you take in practice. And we do talk all the time about time and score, understanding the game.”
And NCAA Tournament games, Louisville understands, mean more than any – no matter where they are played.
“I think for us, we play good on the road,” he said. “We compete hard on the road. We competed hard at Notre Dame. We competed hard at Virginia Tech. We play well on the road, and I think it gives us a little chip on our shoulder and adds a bit of fuel to the fire. I have no problem playing on the road. Of course, we love our fans, and we show out great at the Yum! Center, but I know we're going to have a good number that traveled with us because that's how they roll. We're excited to play. We're going to come out and just play hard, and what happens, happens.”
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