The Cards folded in overtime. After leading Duke 78% of the time in the ACC Championship game, No. 2 seeded Louisville shot just 22% in OT which meant No. 1 seeded Duke completed its comeback to grab the 70-65 win. This loss meant that Louisville hasn’t won the conference title since their 2017-18 win. The side has also not won the regular season championship since the 2020-21 season. When questioned about these past struggles, coach Jeff Walz gave a fiery response to a reporter, leading to a heated exchange. 

“Maybe this is the antidote for some of the laziness over the last couple of years. Obviously this program hasn’t been to the standard that you built for it being,” the reporter asked. “We’ve actually really sucked, I know.  I’ve been trying to get fired,” Walz answered with some sarcasm. “My SWA is back there, and I think if you’ll start a GoFundMe, I think she will accept it, and I’ll take a buyout.”

Well, Walz’s contract was last reinstated in 2022. He was reportedly paid $1.7 million in base salary to coach the Cardinals, with that amount increasing by $50,000 each year for the rest of his contract through the 2028-29 season. Louisville would have to pay Walz $4.25 million if the school were to fire him without cause but if Walz walks out of his own volition, his buyout is $2 million. Either way, that is a heavy price to pay for the Louisville women’s basketball program that is projected to make a profit of $1.86 million in 2025-26. Which is why Walz could challenge the reporter to raise questions regarding his position. But the reporter did not back down. 

“I’m sure Kelly Graves in Eugene said the same at some point,” he fired back. To add context, Graves’ Oregon Ducks were once at the top of the basketball world. In 2020, Oregon was in the fast lane on the road to a national championship before the tournament was canceled due to COVID-19 with Sabrina Ionescu leading them. Cut to today, they have failed to make the NCAA tournament 3 times in the last 4 years and finished 11th in the Big Ten. However, for Walz, the two situations are in no way comparable.

“We’ve been to the tournament every year and won 20 games for 16 or something straight.  So that’s the narrative,” He said, “And that’s what we do in this business.  We’ve been to the tournament every single year, got beat in the first round two years ago, had a second-round loss, and then had five straight Elite Eights before that. So now where are you going with this question because you’re comparing us to Oregon?”

Walz has not finished with a sub-0.500 record since his third season at the program in 2009-10. With a career win-loss percentage of 0.771, three regular season titles, and the NCAA resume he boasted, he stands among the top coaches in women’s college basketball. For a suitable comparison, Cori Close at UCLA has a 0.709 win-loss percentage at UCLA in 7 fewer years. And yet, the reporter further expanded on his question. 

“The question I had for you is how have you managed to take those two years of fans or people that might not know otherwise, or people in the media who might not know otherwise, and stay the course, build things into where you’re right back here in a championship game?” he asked. Has there been anything that’s been denoted here?” To which Walz had a pretty straightforward answer. 

“I can’t help ignorance. If you’re ignorant and you don’t know anything about the sport or the game, you’re going to be ignorant. You can’t help it. It’s why you don’t argue with stupid, because you’ll eventually lose. They’ll wear you down,” Walz said. “Yes, our expectations are extremely high. There’s no question about it. But our last two years—if somebody’s going to say we had a bad year, I’d be like, what the hell are you looking at?”

Many fans, even media and analysts, have a short-term memory. They tend to forget the past and focus on the now. That applies to the decision-makers at the program as well. Many NBA, Men’s CBB, Women’s CBB and WNBA managements fire coaches based on recent results without giving them much chance. 

Others persist and succeed the majority of the time. To add another layer to this perception, the more a team succeeds, expectations go up along with it. In the college basketball era where players move around and last only limited years, sometimes that trends into unfair territory. Slight bumps are the norm. “There are a lot of teams out there. But that’s where, if you want to grow this game, we have to do homework. We have to educate. There’s no question about it,” Walz concluded. Looking into the future, Jeff Walz pointed out two things the team will work on ahead of the NCAA tournament.

Jeff Walz Vows To “Clean Things Up” Ahead Of The NCAA Tournament 

The season is far from over for Louisville. As they failed to win the ACC, they will get to the NCAA tournament as an at-large team. Per ESPN Bracketology, the Cards are projected to be a No. 3 seed in the Sacramento 2 region. According to Walz, bouncing back during March Madness will be up to two things: rebounding and getting back to 100% fitness.

“We’ve got to get everybody healthy,” He said. “We’ve got to get E healthy. Max’s foot has been bothering her, and I’ve got to get her healthy. We’ve got to take some time off to make sure everybody is 100%.”

In the ACC semifinal against North Carolina, Elif Istanbulluoglu fell to the floor in the fourth quarter after getting tangled up on a play. She instantly clutched her left ankle while writhing in pain. She played 34 minutes against Duke but was nowhere at her best, scoring just 4 points and grabbing 5 rebounds. 

McKinley Randolph dealt with a late-season foot injury in her 2024-25 freshman year, which could have flared up due to intense back-to-back games in the ACC tournament. They will have the week off now, giving them time to recoup and come back. On the court, Walz emphasized rebounding as the most important skill to improve. 

“Then we’ll get back to work,” he said. “It’s really just cleaning things up, execution. It’s rebounding the ball. We’ll do plenty of rebounding drills the next seven days. I can guarantee you that.” They lost 42-34 on the boards. Per Barttorvik, they let Duke grab 48.75 of their offensive boards, comfortably their worst number this season. If they improve upon that and find a way to peak at the March Madness, this team will be a handful to any opponent.