LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Some games need a lot of hype. Others, you know what is at stake with a simple look at the standings.
Count No. 18 Louisville's upcoming Sunday showdown vs. No. 12 Virginia Tech in the latter group. The Hokies sit atop the ACC with a 12-3 conference record while the Cardinals are just 1.5 games back at 10-3. No. 6 NC State is also 10-3 while No. 19 Syracuse is 11-3.
All of this is to point out the obvious: Sunday's matchup at the KFC Yum! Center should go a long way in sorting out who will win the conference.
"It's going to be a great game," Louisville head coach Jeff Walz said Friday. "We've got the bottom bowl sold out, the mezzanine, the club spots and the boxes are too. So, it should be a great crowd."
UofL will need every ounce of energy from the fans to keep its 13-0 home record spotless. Virginia Tech brings a dynamic attack that features one of the best players in the country: back-to-back ACC Player of the Year Elizabeth Kitley.
The All-American center ranks eighth nationally with 22.8 points per game and seventh in the country with 11.7 rebounds per game. In five career games vs. the Cardinals, Kitley has averaged 19 points while shooting 57% from the field.
Virginia Tech center Elizabeth Kitley (33) shoots over Louisville guard Mykasa Robinson (5) and forward Liz Dixon (22) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Louisville, Ky., Sunday, Feb. 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)
"I hope coach (Kenny) Brooks gets pissed off at her at practice tomorrow and leaves her at home, or she misses the bus somehow," Walz said with a laugh. "But I got a feeling he'll wait until she gets on that bus.
"She's just a big-time player. I mean, she's shooting 54% from the field. She's got a great little step back. She's got great range. Her footwork is outstanding. You can't just let her get comfortable. You've got to try to get her outside of her comfort zone. You got to try to throw different looks at her, but she also passes the ball well."
Offensively, Hokie point guard Georgia Amoore sets the table for a team that leads the ACC with 17.2 assists per game. Amoore ranks second nationally with 7.4 points per contest compared to just 3.3 turnovers.
"The kid's got 177 assists to just 80 turnovers. That's pretty damn impressive," Walz said. "And that's what I'm trying to talk to our kids about. We don't have someone that has the ball in their hands as much as Amoore does to run that offense and she does an amazing job with it. But you can still have close to a two-to-one assist-to-turnover ratio if you take care of the ball."
That is the most pressing problem for an UofL team whose assist-to-turnover ratio for the season is just 0.9. The Cardinals are coming off a tight 69-67 victory at Boston College that saw a season-high 24 turnovers for UofL. The always colorful Walz started addressing the issue on Friday by making fun of his own colorblindness with red, green and brown.
"We are going to have all our kids tested here today to see if they're colorblind," Walz sarcastically said. "I'm thinking that could be our issue, that we can't see what color jersey we're throwing the ball to. So, that will be our first step today.
"And then, it's my fault. Because normally, before a game starts, I normally ask them, 'Hey, what color shirt are you wearing? And I always know I'm in trouble when they have to look down. Then, when they do and they say red or black, I'd be like, 'Okay, throw it to the team in red.' And I forgot to do that before the game. So, I'm going to have to take accountability for that."
In all seriousness, Louisville ranks sixth in the ACC with 15.5 turnovers per game. The absence of a dominant, true point guard this season is something that Walz has noticed as Nina Rickards and Jayda Curry have often carried the duties.
"We've got to get better at taking care of the basketball, there's really no excuse for it," Walz said. "Our guards are turning the ball over way too much way too often. And you can just look at it from the assist to turnover side. I mean, we have nobody even close to a two-to-one in the guards' stats.
"And that's what you want. If you want to be a really good guard, you should be shooting to have two assists to every turnover. We're lucky to have some that are one-to-one. And that's inexcusable. That's something that we've talked about, addressed and worked on it. But now, it's just breaking bad habits and having the will to want to do that."
Despite the turnover issues, Rickards lifted UofL to that victory at Boston College. She led the Cardinals with 16 points, hit the game-winning layup in the final 20 seconds and scored six of the team's first eight points.
"She played fantastic the entire game," Walz said. "Without her, it's a loss. Just to be able to stay in the game in the first quarter, she did a bulk of our scoring."
The offensive boards proved to make a difference too. Louisville tallied 10 against the Eagles after tallying 15 in their earlier meeting this year. Forwards Nyla Harris and Olivia Cochran, with help from players like Rickards and also Kiki Jefferson, have led the way for UofL to rack up at least 10 offensive rebounds in seven straight games.
Second-chance effort ties us up 💪💻 https://t.co/bbblJtLk2d#GoCards pic.twitter.com/QnNkaQEAe5
— Louisville Women’s Basketball (@LouisvilleWBB) February 16, 2024
"You've got to put a body on everybody," Walz said. "We came up with a few big offensive boards in last night's game. And those are the plays you have to be willing to make if you want to have a chance to succeed in the postseason at the end of the year."
And as the regular season begins to wind down with just five games left, Sunday's game will feel like a postseason matchup. In a tough ACC, Louisville does not have much room for error if it wants a conference crown.
"Every game is hard," Walz said. "For us, you've just got to figure out a way to fight through this right now."
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