Jeff Walz 'Impressed' With Early Budding Chemistry for Newcomer-Laden Team

Despite having nearly double the amount of newcomers than they have returners, the Louisville women's basketball program has been meshing well early.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - In the current climate of college basketball recruiting, most programs are bound to see a fair amount of roster turnover when the offseason arrives. The one-two punch of the one-time transfer rule and NIL almost assuredly means that some teams could be radically different than they were the season before.

No one knows this more than the Louisville women's basketball program. Between six seniors exhausting their eligibility and five more opting to enter the transfer portal, the Cardinals saw 11 players from their 2022-23 roster depart the program. Only Olivia Cochran, Merissah Russell, Nyla Harris and Alexia Mobley are returning for next season.

Fortunately, head coach Jeff Walz and his staff were ready for a potential mass exodus. With Louisville not landing a Class of 2023 commitment until Eseosa Imafidon (who plans to redshirt the upcoming 2023-24 season) pulled the trigger in May, Walz and Co. got to work utilizing the transfer portal.

When everything was said and done, they wound up bringing in one of the best transfer portal classes in the nation. After landing former Georgia Tech guard Eylia Love midway through their 2022-23 campaign, Louisville then added five more Division I transfers for next season's roster. These six newcomers comprise of the No. 5 transfer portal class in women's college basketball, according to 247Sports.

However, talent is only one part of the equation. As sports fans know, you can have all the talent in the world, but if they don't mesh well together, success is not going to follow. For a team that sports seven newcomers to four returners, building chemistry will be of the utmost importance.

Fortunately, in the short time that the current team has been around each other for offseason workouts, Walz has been "impressed" by how this team has built camaraderie.

"It's a group of 10 that I'm thrilled with," Walz said Wednesday, speaking for the first time since after the NCAA Tournament. "It has been a great offseason so far. Preseason, spring and summer. Our chemistry is as good as it's been in a long time. Just really been impressed with how well they're all bonding and getting to know each other."

On top of Love, Louisville is also welcoming Cal guard Jayda Curry, James Madison guard Kiki Jefferson, Florida guard Nina Rickards, Cal State Bakersfield forward Hennie van Schaik and UMass guard Sydney Taylor. These six transfers combined to average 76.6 points, 31.6 rebounds and 12.3 assists per game at their respective schools last season.

It goes without saying that Louisville will have a very talented team for the 2023-24 season. But on top of that, a byproduct of having to almost exclusively use the portal to reload the roster is that the Cardinals have a very veteran team. Nine of the 11 players on the team are heading into at least their third year of college, and six of them are listed on the roster as a senior or graduate.

This collective experience is already making itself apparent to Walz.

"The maturity that we have is the best that we have had in a long, long time. Part of is because of their age," he said. "We have an older team. Everyone's out for the same, everyone's out for us to succeed, to win, and it just speaks volumes for for all of them. I really like where we are as a team, because it's going to take some time."

That's not to cast last year's team or any of the now-former players in a negative light, especially to All-American guard Hailey Van Lith, who is now at LSU. In fact, Walz has been nothing if not complimentary and professional when directly addressing Van Lith's transfer and everything that went down on that front. He is just incredibly high on his current team in the short amount of time he has been with the collective group.

"It's not that [maturity on last year's team] wasn't great," Walz said. "It's just watching them all here, and especially when you have as many new ones that you have. It's kind of like, 'Okay, how are we all going to mesh?' I'm just really impressed with how coachable they are. They want to be coached, they they want to be challenged. So yeah, it's as good as it's been in a long time, and it's makes my life a lot easier as well. It's not like it's been bad here, because we've had an unbelievable success. But, this is just going to be, I'm hoping, a smoother year."

Soon, this group will have a prime opportunity to build chemistry. Louisville is the United States representative for the 2023 GLOBL JAM tournament in Toronto, Ontario, which will take place from July 12-16. The Cardinals will face the U-23 Canadian National Team, U-23 Puerto Rican National Team and the U-23 Team Africa in the Round Robin-style tournament.

Louisville will get 10 days of practice ahead of the event, which that in and of itself is already providing a huge boost from a developmental standpoint. But considering that the Cardinals will be playing against some of the best international players in their age group, it has the potential to give them a massive head start over other teams ahead of the 2023-24 season.

"It's really going to give us a chance to get them playing together," Walz said. You can play pick up as much as you want, but until you get them into some structure and they get to play against each other, and you get to start implementing what we're going to try to do offensively and defensively, it's going to be a huge advantage for us to get us going a little bit early."

(Photo of Jeff Walz: Kirby Lee - USA TODAY Sports)

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