What Louisville coach Jeff Walz said after beating Notre Dame

Louisville head coach Jeff Walz improved to 8-2 against Notre Dame since 2020 with the Cardinals’ 73-66 win over the Fighting Irish at the KFC Yum! Center on Thursday night. Here are some of the things Walz said about his team’s latest triumph over ND.

On beating Notre Dame in a hyped up game

“It’s great. It’s awesome for us to be able to be on a nationally televised game for everyone to see what our fans are like. The great thing about it is, we weren’t a ton over our average at 9,400 tonight. The 6 p.m. start is not great, but it’s not terrible. And that’s what I love about our fan base — now, sure, would I like to get to 12 to 13 [thousand]? Of course I would. But the great thing about it is, this is what we average. It doesn’t matter who comes in here to play, they’re coming. And that’s what makes this place as special as it is. And then for us to be able to have our brand on a national stage for recruits to see.”

On Notre Dame starting 0-for-8 as a team

“We just guarded. We contested some shots. Now, we gave up a couple open ones. I told them what I was concerned about was it going to be a second game like NC State where you can’t keep giving them open shots. They just missed them. Then we finally started to defend and make them shoot contested shots.

“At NC State, like their guard [Aziaha] James said, the basket just got bigger and bigger and bigger because when you start making some it doesn’t matter where you shoot from, it’s just going in. Well, tonight I thought we defended and that basket never got huge for anybody. So they had to make tough shots. Overall, just really, really pleased with how we guarded.”

On sophomore forward Nyla Harris having a career-high 19 points

“I thought Nyla worked her tail off on the offensive end of the floor, offensive rebounding. We ended up with 13 second-chance points, and I’m willing to bet she had at least eight of them. And those were big baskets. She’s just getting better and better every game.

“We still have to work on her confidence handling the basketball. If she can continue to get more confident, she’s so quick that if she can get the ball at the free throw line or maybe a foot or two out, and if she can start making those 15 to 18 footers, now she’s going to be so hard to guard because she’s so explosive. But she’s a relentless worker, continues to go after rebound after rebound and she came up with some big ones for us.”

On the three consecutive 3-pointers Louisville made in the fourth quarter that Notre Dame could not come back from

“They’re challenging you to make them. But the thing you got to do is, you can’t just look, stare and pass. You have to be willing to ball fake. You have to cut through. You have to fill behind. Just do some basic basketball, but that basic basketball is very effective against the zone. Then you have to step up and make them. We had a lot of open shots in the first half too. Some wide-open shots. They just weren’t going in.

“That’s where you just have to stay confident. We kept telling them, ‘Take shots you practice.’ And then I’m not afraid to say, ‘You got to make a shot. If you’re a shooter, you eventually have to make one.’ I want them to know there is pressure to it. I don’t care what anybody says. There is some pressure. You spend all that time working on it, so step up and knock it down.”

On Louisville’s 14th-straight 20-win season

“It’s the staff that we’ve been able to put together. The players, obviously. And it’s just the culture that we have. I told Holly [Rowe] on the TV when she asked me about it, I said, ‘Listen, the players are what it’s all about and the relationships that you build with these players over the years.’ Dana Evans, if she was sitting here right now, would tell you that she did not like me all the time. Ok? She did not. But she knows I love her and I was going to push her to be the best she can be. And to me, that’s what it’s all about.

“Some don’t make it. Some do. And then there are some that don’t like me maybe for about six or seven years after they finish. And then they realize, ‘Ah, now I know why he was doing what he was doing.’ I said it with Holly, I said, ‘I treat them like they’re my own kids, and my own kids don’t like me all the time.’ It’s called parenting. Sometimes you can’t just let them do whatever they want. You got to have some discipline.

“People watch me coach, and they say, ‘Gosh, he’s crazy. He’s yelling at them.’ They don’t know the relationship I have with them. Those kids out there, I love them. And I know they would do anything for me. So when i’m coaching them, it’s not personal. I’m trying to get every ounce out of them. That’s what it’s all about to me. And I don’t really care what people say about me. I don’t care what they say. I got enough friends. I don’t need any more friends. OK?

“You can watch a game and be like, ‘Oh, look at that idiot.’ I don’t care. You don’t know my kids. you don’t know my players. And at the end of the day, I think we’ve done pretty good. At the end of the day, we want to win a national championship. that is everyone’s ultimate goal. But I’m not going to apologize for the last 17 years. I think there are many programs that would love to have the success that we’ve had.”