Why Louisville women's basketball coach Jeff Walz is ready to answer 'the question'
Jeff Walz knows the question is coming.
Heading into his 16th year as Louisville’s head coach, it’s almost become an expectation, whether it’s from his family, friends, fans or the media. For all of the success he’s had with the Cardinals, one piece of hardware has eluded Walz and no one lets him forget it.
“I love the question and we get it often and I understand,” he said. “'When are you going to get over the hump?' I'm like just come out and ask the question: when are you going to win a national championship? Because that's the only hump that there is.”
Louisville has reached the Elite Eight in the last four NCAA tournaments and is the only program in the country to earn the No. 1 seed three times during that span. The Cardinals have amassed four Final Four appearances and made the national championship game in 2009 and 2013 but lost to UConn both times. But fans — and the team — want to check off that last box and wonder when that’ll happen.
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Walz pointed out Louisville is one of only five programs to reach four or more Final Four appearances in the past 15 years, a list that includes defending national champion South Carolina, UConn, Stanford and Notre Dame. U of L reached the Final Four last season but ran into the Gamecocks and lost 72-59.
Having a national title expectations means progress. Louisville had only reached the 20-win threshold 10 times before Walz arrived. In his time, the Cardinals have had 12 consecutive 20-win campaigns and 14 in the last 15 seasons.
“That's just where our expectations have gotten, which is great,” Walz said. “The great thing is (being asked) when are you going to win the big one? I always laugh because I always felt what's the big one because here 15 years ago, it was the second round. And then now we get to the Sweet 16 and then it's like it's a Sweet 16 game. The next one's always the big one.”
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For Louisville guard Hailey Van Lith, the outside narrative around the program’s lack of a national title is somewhat contradictory.
“It's funny to me, because last year, during the tournament, we weren't good enough to be in the Final Four,” she said, but now that we didn't win the national championship, it was like, 'Oh, well, they're not good enough to ever get over the hump.' But when we were playing, you guys didn't think we should be there in the first place. So, you never can make everyone happy.”
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The Cardinals want to win it all. Coming up one game short of the title game last year is still on their minds. They lost three starters from that team but return Van Lith, forward Olivia Cochran and a host of key reserves while adding in crucial pieces from the transfer portal. Cochran described the feeling of falling to South Carolina as devastating but gave U of L confidence knowing it had the talent and ability to reach one of the highest levels of the tournament.
“It makes us hungry,” she said. “We talk about it every day in practice, because we tasted it. We’re hungry still, so we want to get back to that situation. We're making sure that our freshmen and our newcomers know that we want to get back there. Every day is gonna be a dogfight. Even when Coach Walz is on our butts, you got to push through that.”
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The 2022-23 season starts Monday, and Walz is prepared to answer “the question” as many times as it’s thrown his way. It’s a gift and a curse considering how far the program has come under his tutelage. Besides, there are worst questions to be asked.
“I'd rather have this than be sitting here going, 'Well, do you think you'll be back next year? You think you'll have a job? How many games do you have to win to keep your job?'” he said. “So, I'm fine with this. I think it's great.
“Our goal is to win this damn thing and we're going to keep plugging along until we do. When the day comes that I retire if we hadn't, well damnit, we haven't. That's all I can tell you.”
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville women's basketball not shying away from NCAA title question
