LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- New team, same position. The calendar is turning, the New Year is looming, and the University of Louisville women's basketball team is flirting with a No. 1 national ranking.
This past January, the Cardinals moved to No. 1 for the first time in program history on Jan. 18 and everyone stopped for a moment to acknowledge it. But things are different almost a year later.
After his No. 3-ranked Cardinals beat Boston College 79-49 in the KFC Yum! Center on Thursday, which came just moments before Missouri knocked off No. 1 South Carolina, Louisville coach Jeff Walz was asked about the prospect of being No. 1 again (in the USA Today Coaches poll at least, which currently ranks the Cardinals No. 2).
"I mean, no," Walz said. "No."
With a game on Sunday at No. 16 Georgia Tech, a team that knocked off UConn by 13 and is one of the hottest teams in the ACC with 5 straight wins, Walz wasn't about to broach the subject.
"I don't even think about it," Walz said. "Georgia Tech's on my mind right now. They beat UConn the week before we did by 13 at home. Held them to 44 points. So it's going to be a great basketball game. I've got a ton of respect for what (coach) Nell (Fortner) has done at Georgia Tech and their post play, their guards, they're veterans. I mean, you've got some COVID kids, is what I like to call ours, like Chelsie Hall is the same way, she's played four years but she got the extra year with COVID and Tech's got a few of their post players came back. (Lorela) Cubaj, you know, impressed me if you look at their stats from the UConn game, I think she outrebounded them herself in the second half. And we had a fit trying to box UConn out, so it's going to be a ballgame."
But wait. There was a game on Thursday. Louisville hadn't played since winning at Connecticut on Dec. 19. Walz had sent his players home for the holidays.
You never know what things are going to look like when players come back, but in this case, the Cards didn't miss a beat. They opened cold offensively against a good Boston College team that came into the game with an 8-3 record and a Top 50 NET ranking. But Louisville's defense did not appear to have taken the holiday off.
Boston College couldn't find a rhythm, and when Louisville started to find the range offensively, it opened a double-digit second-quarter lead that it never gave up.
Walz played 10 players for at least 17 minutes each. Louisville had five players in double-figures, led by Emily Engstler with 14 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals in 17 minutes. Hailey Van Lith added 12 points, as did freshman Peyton Verhulst, who scored 10 points in the second half.
Louisville outscored Boston College 34-16 off the bench, 40-24 in the paint, 19-6 off turnovers and 15-6 from beyond the arc.
Post players Olivia Cochran and Liz Dixon scored 10 points each, combining for 7-of-11 shooting and 11 rebounds.
"We're going to have to have depth," Walz said. "I mean, the one thing we're really good at right now is fouling. We fouled a bunch, we put them to the free-throw line 26 times, we're just fortunate they only made 13 of them So, if we're going to get ourselves into foul trouble, we're going to have to have depth. And that's one thing that we've been trying to build and trying to establish and I was just really pleased with how well we performed. I thought the third quarter we looked really good offensively. We shared the basketball. I thought Emily played as good as I've seen her play ... I thought Haley played well. I thought she shot the ball with confidence, had really good arch on it. It's nice when you can give everybody the opportunity to get on the floor and play."
For this Louisville team, the non-conference portion of the season was about learning its new personality, playing without a dominant point guard and scorer like Dana Evans, while getting to know all the new players and where everyone fits. The next phase of the season will be about individual improvement, more learning of roles and growing into them, developing depth and improving execution.
Off the bench, Mykasa Robinson always provides a lift, Ahlana Smith is quickly warming to the same task with solid all-around play. Norika Konna has improved offensively. Liz Dixon is good enough to start. And Verhulst typifies the kind of development Walz wants to see.
"I put her in there in the second half, and within six seconds she took a shot," Walz said. "I mean, it's pretty impressive, you know, to be able to get that and I'm like, 'At least touch the ball once, run up and down one time, you know, or at least you catch it, you pass it and it comes back to you.' And she laughs because she understands. But what you saw tonight is I know what we can get from her. She's continuing to learn. It's a different level of play. She's been working really hard on her ball-handling, which has started to show -- she's more comfortable -- but she is one that I think is going to continue to get more playing time and be able to help us. We're going to need her to play, because of her size and her ability to score."
The ACC is shaping up to be brutal. It had eight teams in the NCAA's Top 50 NET rankings heading into Thursday's games. Louisville has won 11 straight, including three against Top 15 teams, but will keep being tested, including on the road.
It won't be the kind of season where Louisville rolls through the schedule with only four losses. But it has the kind of variety and depth of talent that could roll into something pretty dangerous by the season's end.
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