Louisville Postgame Quotes
January 29, 2015 | Women's Basketball
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Head Coach Jeff Walz
(On reaching his 200th career win)
“I've never been one to get all worked up about the first one, the 100th, the 200th. Sure, I mean, it's great, because the other option is if you're losing you get fired. So the more you win, the better it is for job security. So I'm a big fan of that. You look at the players. The players are the ones who have bought in. I'm intense when I'm out there coaching. We work too hard to settle for mediocrity. I'm not going to do it. That's my job here is to get the best out of every single one of them. Sometimes you can just say go hard, and they go hard. Other times it takes a little more. Whatever it takes for me to get each individual player to reach their full potential is what I want to do. Because they all know, too, once the game is over, once we're done with practice, we have a good time. I'll cut-up with them, I'll laugh with them, I joke with him. What happens with basketball and what happens during the game stays here. I won't hold grudges, and I never have. I think that's why we've had success here. There's no mind game being played with our players. They know why they're playing. They know why they're not. If they're not, they know what they have to do to play. So it makes things real simple for them. Being able to do that, I think, allows them to have more confidence when they're out there on the floor, and I think that's a big reason why we've had the success here that we've had.”
(On reaching the 200-win plateau sooner than Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma)
“He's got probably about 700 more, and he's got, what, nine national championships? So once I get to that, then I'll start to brag some. I'm fortunate to have had great players that have come through here. I took over a program that was a good program. Tom Collins, and you go down the line to Martin (Clapp) and to Bud (Childers), all of them. They had success here. It's not like I took over a program that won three or four games. I was fortunate enough to inherit Angel McCoughtry and Candice Bingham. We did some things that others may not have done with a few players and put them in some positions where we thought they could be successful. I don't think anyone can recall back to year two who thought Dez Byrd would be a point guard. She bought into doing it, and she takes us to a Final Four. I know Angel was as special as she was and Candice, but Dez was a big part of that. We've been very fortunate here, and I have a great staff and players that have bought into what we've asked them to.”
(On the post-game video celebrating the 200-win milestone)
“I thought it was really nice. That takes a lot of work and I surely appreciate our marketing people did a great job. I'm sure (sports information director) Ira (Green) was involved with that. I just really appreciate the time that they put into that.”
(On the video containing portions of his introductory press conference)
“I was afraid they were going to show about three minutes of it, just me stuttering. For those that weren't here, it was bad. I can remember Jim Kelch - Jim texted me this morning. I can remember talking with Jim about a year or two after that and he said, 'I'll be honest with you. I was sitting next to Matt (Andrews), and I looked at Matt and said, 'What in the world, who did they just hire?'' And Matt will tell you today, they had me on, they were filling in on the radio that next day and they called and I was on it and they got to the first commercial and Matt's like, 'I told Jim, we've got to cut him off.' I was worried that they were going to show a little too much of that but, it's been a great eight years and I plan to be here for a long, long time.”
(On how long he's going to let himself enjoy the milestone)
“Well, I'll sleep on it tonight, and then tomorrow we'll start preparing for Duke. That's what keeps you in this profession. If you celebrate your wins too long, you start to lose more, so we just keep working. And that's my job to coach, that's why I tell the kids, 'I don't care if I put you out there for a minute at the end, I'm going to coach you like I coach the rest of them,' because that's only fair to them. So that's the area that I'm trying to get all of our kids to understand. I don't care if you get two minutes on the floor or 25 minutes on the floor, make the most of it and use it as a learning experience.”
(On the play in the second half)
“The second half was great. Part of it is we made some shots. We came out of the half, we had a play at half we drew up and I said 'Mariya, you're going to make this 3.' And she stepped up and knocked it down, and I just felt everybody take a big sigh, it's like okay, the ball does go in. And then we had some great defensive stops and we scored in transition. Sara I thought played really well in the second half, she played more aggressive. And you take out the last three minutes where I think they made some shots on us that we broke down and fouled. We did a great job of defending them for about 16 minutes of that second half.”
(On what he was conferencing with the referees about in the second half)
“I'm just learning more about this game. It wasn't an intentional backhand, I mean a slap, and the girl slapped Sara I the face and they told me that it's got to be an elbow or a closed fist. So I was just like okay so now I know I can slap you with an open hand but I just can't ball it up. But the officials were great. What I admire about officials, like today I was very impressed because he said you know what, we missed an offensive foul, but it's not a flagrant 1. So I'm like okay that's fine. It's when you get into the point, you're like it wasn't a foul, you called a timeout ... it's okay to miss a call. We screw up as coaches, so I admire that part, and then the game went on and (Syracuse head coach) Quentin (Hillsman) and I just had a little laugh about it.”
(On if ball movement is key for this team)
“Yeah, it has to be. We can't just come down the floor, make one pass and shoot a 3. We could do that the past two years because we had kids that were shooting 40 plus from the 3-point line. Now we have to make the extra pass because, what we did a really nice job of in the second half was we missed some 3s, but we got some offensive boards form it because we reversed the basketball and got the defense shifting. That's why we end up being so much more successful. You make 31 field goals and you've got 26 assists, there's not much one-on-one being played, and I'm willing to bet you two or three of those five that we didn't assist on were transition where we got a steal.”
(On if this is the best passing team he's had)
“It's by far the best passing team that we've had. Really, really proud of how well we are sharing the basketball. I think tonight, you saw some kids that had some good shots make passes to players that had great shots, and that's what you've got to get to. And there's still times where we're trying to teach, don't pass up a four-footer to try to get a two-footer. That's a great shot. And that takes time, it takes showing them film and breaking things down, but yeah I was really, really proud of all of them.”
(On playing so well when coming off the bench the last two games)
“It's just something I have to keep working at. These are easy points I'm getting, so I have to just play hard like I said last week, whether I'm coming off the bench or not I just keep playing hard and sprint the floor.”
(On whether it's her main focus to run the floor for easy baskets)
“Yes, because that's what working. I've been sprinting the floor and my teammates are looking for me in transition.”
(On what Coach Walz does to train the team on finding an open teammate and if she shows them special clips of NBA or WNBA teams)
“At the beginning of the season, he showed us a clip of the (San Antonio) Spurs, how well they passed the ball. He wanted us to do something similar like that because we do have great shooters on the outside. But some drills that we do are jump stop then kick; you have to always jump stop. Don't do the running pass because those are the passes that get deflected. It's just a jump stop and look for your shooters - you know where they are supposed to be, so that's what makes it so easy.”
(On staying competitive in the ACC and having games against Duke on Monday as preparation for postseason)
“Personally, I'm a competitive person whatever it is; just a game of horse, I'm looking to win. We know that we can stay with the best in the ACC, and being our first year, we want to prove ourselves that we are capable of winning the ACC championship, but it's not going to be easy though. We have Duke next; just like coach said, our schedule worked out the first half of playing kind of the lower half of the ACC teams. Now, we're starting to play more top 25 with Syracuse, Duke coming up, at Notre Dame, so it's just going to get harder from here, but I don't think we think about it too much - focusing on the ACC tournament and winning an ACC championship. We just want to get better as a team and ultimately compete with the top 10 teams and prepare for the postseason because if we want to get back to the Final Four, we are going to have to go through some tough teams like on the road at Notre Dame and on the road at Duke.”
(On the 13-2 run in the second half and whether Walz said anything special at halftime)
“No. Coach just told us that we need to pick it up on defense. We were letting them get every shot they wanted. And then, they use their press to their advantage because they're so athletic. They can get you to speed up and turn it over. And that's what they were doing the first half. We weren't cutting hard enough and we were leaving our guards out to dry, especially the back line. He just told us that we have to break their press because we were getting some transition points there at the end and that's what got us back into the game. So, I think once we just settled down and realized how we can beat them and stop trading baskets and get stops, we're going to get the win.”
(On whether this is the best basketball they've played all season)
“I don't know. It's hard to compare because the teams are a little different. So you can't really compare each game. But I think our effort in the second half was one of the best we've had this entire season from everybody. Some nights, that's the great thing about our team. We're going to have someone else step up. Whether it's Myisha (Hines-Allen), who's been doing that the last two games or Mariya (Moore), or Bria Smith, or Jude Schimmel, so I don't think you can compare whether this is our best game, but I think it's up there effort wise mentally and physically, especially the second half.”
(On whether she knew she was close to a triple double)
“Yeah, towards the end. The last time out, everyone kept coming to me like, 'Two more assists. Two more assists.' So when I came out, I told my teammates I said, 'Spot up, because I'm going to be passing it to you.'”
(On what it's like to be a part of Coach Walz's 200th career victory)
“He's just a great coach. His passion for the game is like no other. He's so smart. I've never had the chance to sit down and just pick his brain apart and ask him how he's gotten to where he is now and what goes on in his brain because he doesn't think like all the other coaches. He doesn't have a set style of basketball. He just does whatever works and whatever is going to get the win. He's one of the most competitive coaches I've ever met and he pushes us everyday. Some days we don't like him, but we know at the end of the day that he'll do anything for us, on and off the court. I'm just proud and excited for him because his hard work is paying off and, eventually here, if it doesn't happen this year, in these next five years I really think University of Louisville women's basketball is going to win a national championship and we owe a big part to Coach Walz and where he's brought this program these last eight years.”
