An Open Question About Louisville

[RockyMTblue2]

Seen them play a couple of times this season and something bothers me about the way they play. Freely admit I could be totally off base here, but it has been bugging me, so I decided to throw it out to my more learned brethren and sistern. Unquestionably they play with a lot of energy and JW insists on it. But it seems to me that they deliver more than their share of hard fouls - and maybe you could call them clumsy. Admittedly I do not have a large data base and it is mostly a gut feeling about the way they play.

 

[Justavisitor]

Yes. They beat up Griner pretty bad and they are largely responsible for the new rules this season. That game was a real eye opener to the powers that be that something needed to change in regards to the physicality in WCBB. Louisville took things to a whole new level.

 

[ScarlettB]

Seen them play a couple of times this season and something bothers me about the way they play. Freely admit I could be totally off base here, but it has been bugging me, so I decided to throw it out to my more learned brethren and sistern. Unquestionably they play with a lot of energy and JW insists on it. But it seems to me that they deliver more than their share of hard fouls - and maybe you could call them clumsy. Admittedly I do not have a large data base and it is mostly a gut feeling about the way they play.

They deliver more than their share of hard fouls. Always have under Walz. I have seen him put players in games specifically for this purpose. It's one of his tactics.

 

[ThisJustIn]

they beat up Griner pretty bad

And the myth continues....

 

[John Glass]

if playing physical is plan, then freshman Emmonie Henderson might be the player to do it

 

[phil sampieri]

Seen them play a couple of times this season and something bothers me about the way they play. Freely admit I could be totally off base here, but it has been bugging me, so I decided to throw it out to my more learned brethren and sistern. Unquestionably they play with a lot of energy and JW insists on it. But it seems to me that they deliver more than their share of hard fouls - and maybe you could call them clumsy. Admittedly I do not have a large data base and it is mostly a gut feeling about the way they play.

The play in the Louisville game final by #33 on Dolson really bothered me because the player looked down at Dolson as if to say( there.)To his credit when she went to the bench later you could see Waltz saying something to her.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

They deliver more than their share of hard fouls. Always have under Walz. I have seen him put players in games specifically for this purpose. It's one of his tactics.

I assume you are referring to his "hack a Kia" and I have seen him do it a couple of other times. The problem is, for better or worse, his players do then seem to foul with excess enthusiasm. I'm not sure he minds, but I don't think his intent is any more than to intimidate, he isn't trying to injure someone. Which - to be fair - is exactly why a Rutgers team of some 14 years ago or so was instructed to strut and talk smack. As one of the players on the team said, if you are a nobody, and not respected (in the game playing sense, not as a "person"), you need to make "them" take notice. It worked and resulted in a FF appearance.

Is it my favorite part of the game? No. Am I delighted with the new enforcement of the rules? Heck yeah. Except for a few foul fests, games are much more enjoyable to watch up and down the WBB spectrum! and scoring is up. Do I really have a problem, so long as injury is not intended? No.

 

[ScarlettB]

I assume you are referring to his "hack a Kia" and I have seen him do it a couple of other times. The problem is, for better or worse, his players do then seem to foul with excess enthusiasm. I'm not sure he minds, but I don't think his intent is any more than to intimidate, he isn't trying to injure someone. Which - to be fair - is exactly why a Rutgers team of some 14 years ago or so was instructed to strut and talk smack. As one of the players on the team said, if you are a nobody, and not respected (in the game playing sense, not as a "person"), you need to make "them" take notice. It worked and resulted in a FF appearance.

Is it my favorite part of the game? No. Am I delighted with the new enforcement of the rules? Heck yeah. Except for a few foul fests, games are much more enjoyable to watch up and down the WBB spectrum! and scoring is up. Do I really have a problem, so long as injury is not intended? No.

Yes I was referring to his "hack a Kia" games in particular. I also don't think his intent is to injure anyone and I don't have a real problem with trying to intimidate the other team's players by using physical play as long as it is done within the rules. I do think Jeff uses it as a tactic sometimes, when things aren't going LVille's way. He uses his bench to try to get the other team's top players to foul out in retaliation for getting hacked. Sometimes it works, sometimes not, but his style of play was effective under the old rules. It will be interesting to see how it works this year. So far, the Cards are having a great season.

 

[Striper69]

I was at the game yesterday. I didn't notice them giving any hard fouls.

 

[easttexastrash]

Hmmm...I've never noticed.

 

[JoePgh]

Yes. They beat up Griner pretty bad and they are largely responsible for the new rules this season. That game was a real eye opener to the powers that be that something needed to change in regards to the physicality in WCBB. Louisville took things to a whole new level.

What relevance did Louisville's post defense against Griner have to the new officiating policies this year that have to do with hand-checking on the perimeter? Clarifying what can be done in post defense is an item that is sorely lacking in the new guidance that was given to officials this year.

 

[mhshuskies]

I wondered if Caroline maybe meant to send a message to Louisville early in the NC game, especially in light of how physical they were with Griner?

 

[easttexastrash]

Sims is proving to be the biggest beneficiary of the new rules, IMO. She is so hard to contain off the dribble that players are putting their hands on her and sending her to the FT line. EDD would have benefited greatly as she was bumped and grabbed A LOT!

 

[Waquoit]

Yes I was referring to his "hack a Kia" games in particular. I also don't think his intent is to injure anyone and I don't have a real problem with trying to intimidate the other team's players by using physical play as long as it is done within the rules.

How do you hack someone within the rules? A hack is breaking the rules by definition.

 

[ScarlettB]

How do you hack someone within the rules? A hack is breaking the rules by definition.

Sometimes it depends on how the refs call the game. His strategy in the "hack a Kia" game was to bring in a player off the bench to hard foul her. That player got called for 5 fouls within a period of about five minutes. Many games are pretty physical, especially in the paint, but we all know the refs don't call every foul. IMO the Big East refs in particular were used to the physical play of teams in the league and called the games accordingly. Jeff used that to his advantage whenever possible.

 

[Geno-ista]

They deliver more than their share of hard fouls. Always have under Walz. I have seen him put players in games specifically for this purpose. It's one of his tactics.

A couple yrs ago inLouisville, it looked like a rugby match. I thought a fight would break out! We could have lost that game. It was in doubt till the end.