Everything Jeff Walz said after Notre Dame beat Louisville in ACC Tournament
Jeff Walz had a little extra time to think through what he was going to say in Friday’s postgame press conference, just like his Louisville Cardinals are going to have some extra time to prepare for the NCAA Tournament after a 77-68 ACC Tournament loss to Notre Dame.
Walz was ejected in the final minute of his team’s quarterfinals defeat to the Irish. He picked up a second technical foul for yelling at the officials. Here’s everything Walz said to the media, from an off the cuff name, image and likeness (NIL) pay-for-play proposal in the segment about Louisville’s turnovers and what he thought about the officiating at the end.
Opening statement after Notre Dame vs. Louisville
“First, I always like to congratulate Niele and Notre Dame. I thought they played a really, really good ballgame, a really good first half. Really gave us fits, and we did not respond well in that first half, especially at the offensive end. We looked anemic at times. It was really, really poor.
“Then I thought our energy level really picked up in the second half. I thought we competed. I thought we fought. Unfortunately fell a little bit short, but I was proud of how we competed there in that second half. But unfortunately you have to play a whole game. You can’t play halves. That’s what we’ve done a lot this past month is we’ve played halves of games.
“I’m not in it for moral victory, to make you feel good. It’s a loss. We’ve got to get tougher. We have to be able to fight. I thought we showed that in the second half, but first half was not very good.”
On not starting well vs. Notre Dame and having more turnovers than made shots for a while
“It’s impressive. It’s not easy to turn the ball over more than you make a field goal.
“We work on it in practice. If you don’t give a shit then it’s hard. We think of new ways to turn the ball over. We have turned the ball over five straight games on an inbounds pass after a made basket. It’s special. I’ve never had a group that’s — I mean, how do you practice that? Like okay, basket is made, when you take it out, look before you pass it and then throw it to your team. I don’t know how else to practice it. We somehow still figure out a way to do it.
“They have to care. Players have to care, as well. They have ownership as well as coaches do. Believe me, it’s my job to get it fixed, but I can’t play for them. I can’t pass fake. I can’t ball fake. You can’t stare where you want to throw it, then throw it. Good teams are going to step in front and steal it.
“Until we get to the point where it really matters — see, this is where NIL could really improve our game because see, if I could fine like, say, $500 a turnover, I’ll guarantee you we wouldn’t turn that thing over one time. They’d care.
“But they get all this good stuff, it’s all great, but let’s make it pay for play. The game will get cleaned up, I promise you. Our game will get better. If you pay for play, it’ll get better, because that’s really what it is. We just can’t fine them. As a player, would you not care more, Jayda, if I said, every turnover it’s $500 — you’re out two grand tonight.
“We’d make money as coaches. Our athletic department would make money off our players. Our NIL would come back to the school. But they’d start changing.
“They have to care. That’s where we are right now, that we’ve got to care. The ball has to matter. Every possession matters. We’re going to work for a week and a half on just grinding that in and instilling that into them.
“The fight we showed in the second half, I think this is a ball club that can still get to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, and then once you get there, anything can happen. Anything can happen. It’s who’s playing the best that night and then what crew you’ve got on the game. Anything can happen. I’m excited because they showed that fight.”
On how to play like Louisville did in the second half s. Notre Dame all the time
“Yeah, it was really important. Now I told them in the locker room, if we don’t have a few of them start to compete a little harder, then I know what six I’m playing. It’s not a grade school team. It’s not my daughter’s fourth and fifth grade team where everybody gets to play the same amount of time.
“You earn your playing time, and if you’re not going to compete and play hard, at least be a damn good cheerleader on the bench because I’m not putting you in the game. We have a few of them that have about a week and a half to show me that they’re going to compete or we’ll have a few extra on our cheerleading squad.”
On the officiating
“You know what, I’ve donated enough to the fund. But I will tell you I am looking forward to going back and looking at the pass that went inbounds to see if the girl was out of bounds and threw it in and then the other one picked it up and stepped out of bounds, because if that’s what took place and that’s what I saw — I may be wrong, but I just need a game to be administered correctly.
“If you step out of bounds and throw it inbounds — unless the rules change and there might be an interpretation tomorrow at that says if you don’t mean to take it out of bounds but you’re out of bounds and throw it in, then it’s okay for the other player who is inbounds to catch it and then step out of bounds.
“Maybe there is an interpretation that I haven’t seen. If that takes place then I’ll apologize. But if she was truly out of bounds and then throws it inbounds, at least at the fourth grade level, they don’t let you do that. It might be allowed now, and I’m just — I didn’t read that rule. So I will check on that.
“I could be wrong, and if I am, I’ll apologize for it. But if I’m not, I don’t expect to hear anything to say that it was a missed call. That’s normally not what you get.”
