So when is Jeff going to Walz off with his first NC?

[reno tony]

Wasn't a top 10 team? Do tell about any team that could knock off Baylor (followed to a lesser degree by UTenn and Cal) that doesn't deserve to be called a top 10 team. And some teams give their best during the regular season and are happy to pick up maybe a conference title, and others see it all as preparation and the testing ground for where it matters, in the six rounds of the national championship. It's ridiculous to say a team "plays over its head" (whatever that means) when they go on a six game run that ends at the NC. Louisville played exactly at their head level, with the smarts and effort and hunger to beat teams that had hoisted up better credentials when it didn't count as much, in the regular season. The fact that they've done it twice in recent years shows it's not a fluke, and that's just how the Cards approach the season.

So unlike the Walz tsk-tskers who start peddling out the list of Cardinal failures before the season starts, I'm going to wait until the season ends to bury him and consign him back to his dish-washing job at Geno's.

First of all I did not make any poor remarks about Walz. Quite the contrary. Louisville was a five seed which ranks them between 15 - 20 in the polls prior to the Tournament. So I was referring to their regular season and was not including the tournament. They started playing well when the tourney started and made a great run. Again, just like the 2011 Men's Huskies.

Why is it ridiculous to say a team plays "over their heads." Do you think the best team always wins? The best fighter always wins? The best Olympic hockey team always wins? Teams and individuals sometimes play much better than their norm and beat teams that sometimes play less than their norm. Happens all the time.

 

[Vowelguy]

Walz already won a National Championship at Maryland. He did all the coaching, Frese is just a figurehead , who does very little coaching.

Yeah Frese just sat on the sidelines eating bon bons, barefoot and pregnant.

 

[Icebear]

Frese wasn't pregnant the year of the 2006 championship. She was pregnant during the 2007-8 season after Walz left. She gave birth on February 17, 2008.

 

[Vowelguy]

not really, if you observed Maryland timeouts during NCAA tournament games you would have seen Walz doing the coaching. Walz designed a key play that lead to Toliver getting a three pointer, and taking the Duke game to overtime.

Drawing up plays is just one part of the job. Frese is hardly the first or only coach who lets assistants draw up plays in the huddle.

 

[Vowelguy]

Frese wasn't pregnant the year of the 2006 championship. She was pregnant during the 2007-8 season after Walz left. She gave birth on February 17, 2008.

Duh. I also don't think she was eating bon and bons either.

It's called sarcasm.

 

[Vowelguy]

fyi, Louisville has 3 top 50 recruits in the 2014 class.

Given his lack of top recruits, the two runner up finishes are all the more impressive.

 

[Wbbfan1]

Did Louisville win the game or did Baylor give the game to them. I say its the latter. Baylor played dumb for three fourths of the game. Mulkey didn't respond to how Louisville was playing until approx 10 minutes left in the game. Walz had a game plan that shouldn't of worked against any of the #1 seeds. He went for broke, his players hit an unlikely number of three point shots. It shouldn't have worked against Baylor, except Kim kept expecting the refs to bail her out and her players never guarded Slaughter.

Wasn't a top 10 team? Do tell about any team that could knock off Baylor (followed to a lesser degree by UTenn and Cal) that doesn't deserve to be called a top 10 team. And some teams give their best during the regular season and are happy to pick up maybe a conference title, and others see it all as preparation and the testing ground for where it matters, in the six rounds of the national championship. It's ridiculous to say a team "plays over its head" (whatever that means) when they go on a six game run that ends at the NC. Louisville played exactly at their head level, with the smarts and effort and hunger to beat teams that had hoisted up better credentials when it didn't count as much, in the regular season. The fact that they've done it twice in recent years shows it's not a fluke, and that's just how the Cards approach the season.

So unlike the Walz tsk-tskers who start peddling out the list of Cardinal failures before the season starts, I'm going to wait until the season ends to bury him and consign him back to his dish-washing job at Geno's.

 

[DriveLH]

Walz had a game plan to stop Baylor's "plan A" office. It worked and Mulkey had no "plan B". Geno has said that coaches can lose games. Mulkey did.

 

[Icebear]

Duh. I also don't think she was eating bon and bons either.

It's called sarcasm.

Yes, but throwing in the pregnancy thing diminishes it since it is well known she was on the sidelines in a chair coaching just about as you describe making it plausible rather than sarcasm. Plus I hear she has a thing for bon bons. Throwing in an emoticon would have helped.

 

[ctfjr]

And Geno without Chris Dailey?

Sorry but I don't recall, as valuable as she is, CD taking over the coaching during any game.

 

[Icebear]

Sorry but I don't recall, as valuable as she is, CD taking over the coaching during any game.

She has and she has even coached whole games when Geno was unavailable.

 

[CamrnCrz1974]

Not trying to single out or attack anyone in this thread. But some of the criticism of Jeff Walz seems a bit silly to me.

1) He took a team with Angel McCoughtry, but not much else (in terms of elite recruits or future WNBA players), to the 2009 Final Four, losing to UConn in the national title game. Remember, as great as Elena Delle Donne was in college, she only made the Sweet 16 once.

2) McCoughtry graduated, but Louisville was back in the Final Four in 2013, again losing to UConn in the national title game. Along the way, the Cardinals beat a Baylor team at full strength (something that had not happened in two years) and a talented (though young) Tennessee team. In both games, Louisville was severely outmatched in terms of height and talent in the post, yet Walz and his staff devised a game plan to defeat both opponents.

3) Recruiting is a part of coaching. Has Walz had a top five class the past two years? No. But Louisville was in the final two for Mercedes Russell, who picked Tennessee. And Louisville has been on the final lists for several top recruits. It is only a matter of time.

4) Even without a roster of McDonald's All-Americans, Walz has taken his team to two Final Fours in the last five years. By contrast, Duke's Joanne P. McCallie has had rosters full of McDonald's and WBCA All-Americans and has yet to make a Final Four in her first six seasons at Duke.

5) Walz has dealt with his share of, shall I say, "mercurial" players (Angel McCoughtry, Shoni Schimmel), but has managed to inspire each of them in his own way and has not only had them each buy into the "team" concept, but has made tremendous improvements in their respective individual games. As many on this board know, motivating a player and getting the most out of the player can be a difficult process. What works for some players will not work for others. This individualized attention to a star player, but balancing the star within the team concept, and getting everyone to play in such a way that the sum is always greater than the individual parts is impressive.

6) In 2011-2012, Louisville had a team that lost a lot to graduation and injuries, yet was within a few points of upsetting highly favored Maryland (in College Park, I believe). That is coaching.

I agree that recruiting can be improved. But Walz does with the players he has there is great. And his Xs and Os have been really great. Sure, did Louisville get hot in 2013? Absolutely. But it is one thing to get hot for one game; it is another to get hot for the Sweet 16, Elite Eight, and Final Four semis.

Walz is a still a relatively young coach. He has done great things at Louisville. Lets appreciate him for what he has accomplished, which is pretty impressive so far.

 

[RadyLady]

Angel did a lot for that program

I think that you mean that Walz did a lot for Angel who then in turn did a lot for the program.

 

[John Glass]

Yeah Frese just sat on the sidelines eating bon bons, barefoot and pregnant.

How many Maryland practices have you seen ? if she was eating bon bons it would have been an increase in activity ... Walz ran the practices, Frese was MIA

Have you ever heard Frese when she was wearing a microphone ? her pre-game speeches sound like a rec league coach, and her in game adjustments: "we need more energy " , "we gotta play defense " pure genius

 

[DaddyChoc]

I think that you mean that Walz did a lot for Angel who then in turn did a lot for the program.

nah I meant what I said

 

[Icebear]

nah I meant what I said

Then you would be neglecting the great things that Walz did as Angel's coach.

 

[DobbsRover2]

First of all I did not make any poor remarks about Walz. Quite the contrary. Louisville was a five seed which ranks them between 15 - 20 in the polls prior to the Tournament. So I was referring to their regular season and was not including the tournament. They started playing well when the tourney started and made a great run. Again, just like the 2011 Men's Huskies.

Why is it ridiculous to say a team plays "over their heads." Do you think the best team always wins? The best fighter always wins? The best Olympic hockey team always wins? Teams and individuals sometimes play much better than their norm and beat teams that sometimes play less than their norm. Happens all the time.

I'm guessing that by "playing over their head," you meant that Louisville stepped up their game a notch during the playoffs, which is certainly true. But teams that play well in the playoffs are not magically playing better than they are capable of. They are playing exactly what they are capable of at crunch time, and that often makes them the better team in the situation, just a better team than an opponent that has more season's plaudits but can't pull it all together, as happened to Baylor in the regional semifinal. Louisville was undoubtedly the better team that night, as they again were in disposing of UTenn and Cal and whatever notions that they just got lucky against Baylor and that the Bears handed them the game. I'm just not one of those people who can throw out results and say the better team lost when say the 18-0 Patriots lose a Super Bowl to a 7 loss Giants team. Sorry, but the better team won on that night.

And I'm not really sure what worth any pre-tourney poll has in any kind of discussion of whether Louisville was a top 10 team. Polls are discarded at that point that the real action begins, and they meant nothing to the UConn men in 2010-11. There was a final WCBB Coaches poll in 2013 in which the tourney runner-up finished 3rd in a Big East top trio of UConn, ND, and Louisville, with Baylor at #4. So the Cards finished in the eyes of the voters as not only a top 10 team, but a top 3 team.

 

[DaddyChoc]

Then you would be neglecting the great things that Walz did as Angel's coach.

oh brother

 

[Icebear]

oh brother

If Angel can acknowledge it which she did then so can you. She, particularly, noted his help in teaching her to control her emotions on the court.

 

[meyers7]

It's ridiculous to say a team "plays over its head" (whatever that means) when they go on a six game run that ends at the NC.

It means they were a 5 seed that made it to the NC. And it's not ridiculous, more like a compliment.

 

[meyers7]

I'm just not one of those people who can throw out results and say the better team lost when say the 18-0 Patriots lose a Super Bowl to a 7 loss Giants team. Sorry, but the better team won on that night.

Well you are a bit confused on this point, or you don't watch very much sports. The better team (player) is occasionally beaten by an underdog. That's why they call it an upset.

And I'm not really sure what worth any pre-tourney poll has in any kind of discussion of whether Louisville was a top 10 team. Polls are discarded at that point that the real action begins, and they meant nothing to the UConn men in 2010-11.

There was a final WCBB Coaches poll in 2013 in which the tourney runner-up finished 3rd in a Big East top trio of UConn, ND, and Louisville, with Baylor at #4. So the Cards finished in the eyes of the voters as not only a top 10 team, but a top 3 team.

Really???? Now how "ridiculous" does this sound??? Polls don't count.....unless of course they help make my point. Oh brother.

 

[DaddyChoc]

If Angel can acknowledge it which she did then so can you.

nah...

 

[DobbsRover2]

Well you are a bit confused on this point, or you don't watch very much sports. The better team (player) is occasionally beaten by an underdog. That's why they call it an upset.





Really???? Now how "ridiculous" does this sound??? Polls don't count.....unless of course they help make my point. Oh brother.

Talking about getting ridiculous.

1. If you think a team that busts through to the NC game and in the process knocks off the pre-tourney unanimous pick as champion to have been just lah-lahing along and playing over their heads the whole time against everybody, then I would really love to take advantage of you in a high-stakes poker game. My wallet could use some fattening.

2. On the question of whether the better team always wins, as noted, you can go on saying that the Patriots were the better team in Super Bowl 2011 and should have won, gosh darn it. I simply say that the better team won. If your expectations were upset, my profound apologies. I know that the 1988 LA Dodgers had no right beating Oakland, but they were still the better team in the WS.

3. RT stated that Louisville was not a top 10 team in 2013, and I pointed out that the final poll showed them to be the #3 team. What part of that do you not understand? If you want to go back to early-March polls and say that Louisville was not a top 10 team and that UConn was the #3 team in 2012-13, that's your right. And you might as well cite some November and preseason polls in your future factoids about a team. Personally, in my admittedly strange accounting, UConn finished #1 last year and Louisville was voted #3.

 

[meyers7]

Talking about getting ridiculous.

Ah yep.

1. If you think a team that busts through to the NC game and in the process knocks off the pre-tourney unanimous pick as champion to have been just lah-lahing along and playing over their heads the whole time against everybody, then I would really love to take advantage of you in a high-stakes poker game. My wallet could use some fattening.

1) I don't play poker, silly game. 2) I have found people who do play poker don't know much about sports. 3) you don't seem to be able to grasp the concept of upsets.

2. On the question of whether the better team always wins, as noted, you can go on saying that the Patriots were the better team in Super Bowl 2011 and should have won, gosh darn it. I simply say that the better team won. If your expectations were upset, my profound apologies. I know that the 1988 LA Dodgers had no right beating Oakland, but they were still the better team in the WS.

Just a couple small examples of "upsets", there are many, many, many more. That's why they call it an UPSET, the underdog, the lesser team, wins. Concept has been around for a long time. It's really not that difficult to understand.

Upsets are cool things, that's why they play the games. Sometimes the better team does not win. Sometimes luck, sometimes the lesser team just outplays them. If the better team always won, sports wouldn't be much fun.

3. RT stated that Louisville was not a top 10 team in 2013, and I pointed out that the final poll showed them to be the #3 team. What part of that do you not understand? If you want to go back to early-March polls and say that Louisville was not a top 10 team and that UConn was the #3 team in 2012-13, that's your right. And you might as well cite some November and preseason polls in your future factoids about a team. Personally, in my admittedly strange accounting, UConn finished #1 last year and Louisville was voted #3.

Well for one, why were they not #2???? hmmmm? First you say polls don't count, then they do, then they don't even support your position.

RIDICULOUS!!!!!!!!!!

Just for your information, though I'm sure this will go over your head......being the better team on the day, game, inning, 5 minute stretch, etc. is quite different than being the better team.

 

[Vowelguy]

Yes, but throwing in the pregnancy thing diminishes it since it is well known she was on the sidelines in a chair coaching just about as you describe making it plausible rather than sarcasm. Plus I hear she has a thing for bon bons. Throwing in an emoticon would have helped.

If you can't figure out that references to bon-bons and being barefoot are an indication of sarcasm, I can't help you.