Cardinals searching for consistency
Jeff Walz says it isn’t hard to keep his team humble.
Louisville women’s basketball became the nation’s second ranked team following three wins in the Paradise Jam last week, which included a victory over top-ranked Oregon. The Cardinal head coach shows his team film to prove they aren’t consistent yet.
“Consistency is one of the things we strive for, when you’re able to show a group how well we defended against Oregon and then how poorly we defended other times, we just need to become more consistent,” Walz said. “Part of that is the fact that we have four new players in our rotations that are learning how to defend how we want to defend.”
The Cardinals limited Oregon to 34.2 percent and Oklahoma State shot 25.4 percent from the field in Paradise Jam, but Boise State shot 61.4 percent and scored 82 points Nov. 24 at the KFC Yum! Center in a Louisville win.
Walz believes consistency comes with practice, but says game performances is always the overarching thing.
“I always say, there are a lot of players that are fantastic in practice and then when the lights come on it’s just a struggle. Sure I look at practice and I want us to practice well, but also the game is where it all counts. In ’09 when we went to our first Final Four, we looked like the Bad News Bears at practice. Then all of a sudden, we would go out in a game and I would be like ‘this isn’t the team I saw for three days in practice.’”
Louisville plays Ohio State in Columbus Dec. 5 as part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge seeking consistency.
“I challenge them because if you want to be elite, you have to be able to do both,” Walz said. “That’s going to be something for a few of our new players to grasp.”
