Everything Louisville coach Jeff Walz said after losing to Notre Dame
Since losing six straight games to Louisville from 2020-22, Notre Dame has now won three of the last five meetings in the last two seasons. The No. 17 Fighting Irish (23-6, 13-5 ACC) beat the No. 22 Cardinals (23-8, 12-6) by a final score of 74-58 at Purcell Pavilion on Sunday.
Here is everything Cardinals coach Jeff Walz said in short video call with local reporters in Louisville after the game.
On Notre Dame’s 19-1 run in the third quarter
“Fourteen straight missed shots will do ya in. No question about that. But unfortunately, we, I thought, did a great job defensively in the first half. i thought we were locked in. We dictated what we wanted them to do, where we wanted to shoot it, who we wanted to shoot it. We contained their transition offense. I thought we played really well.
“And then the second half, we played poor. It was a poor performance, a poor coaching job. It was just bad all the way around. I told them we’re like a Jekyll and Hyde. We played 40 minutes really hard on Thursday and then played 20 minutes, I thought, really hard today.
“Starting that third quarter, good teams are going to go on runs. And Notre Dame is a good team. We never even came close to answer the run. Our shoulders slumped. Just not the response that we have to have at this time of year.
“We’re going to get back to work, head down to Greensboro on Tuesday and give it everything we got because now it’s fun time. Now it’s one and done. It doesn’t matter what your season record is. It doesn’t matter who you are. It just matters how you play that one game. We’re going to do our damnedest to make sure our kids are ready to go down there and play.”
On who he looks to in trying times like the third quarter
“It’s all of them. You can’t just have one or two people who are going to try to gather everybody together. It takes an entire team effort. At this time of the year, we’re 31 games into it now, we’re 23-8, it’s not like somebody should have to come up to you and tell you to play hard. I need ya. No, you’re 31 games in. It’s grown women basketball. It’s time to just sit there and now I’ve got to get it done.
“So I’m challenging all of them. I’m challenging every single one of them to have that fight and desire and competitiveness.”
On what he takes away from the loss at Notre Dame going into the postseason
“If we can get a 40-minute performance out of them like we got in the first half defensively. Offensively, shots didn’t go in. We missed 14 straight in the third quarter. But you got to figure out a way to not let them score 30. If we had held them to 17, like they got in the first quarter, well now all the sudden it’s 17-0. It’s a tie game at the end of the third. Now it’s a tied ballgame. You can’t let them drop 30 because emotionally you’re down because they scored the ball as well as they did. We have to figure out a way to defend.”
On being the No. 5 seed in the ACC Tournament
“We’ll have [Monday] off. We’ll practice Tuesday, fly down Tuesday. We’re going to have to work on us. We’re going to have to work on us Tuesday and really do a good job of making sure our execution is better. Making sure our job on the glass is as good as it’s been all year. We’re just going to have to play much, much better.”
