Jeff Walz says Louisville 'gave the game away' in loss to Kentucky WBB

Kenny Brooks and Louisville head coach Jeff Walz have squared off multiple times before back when Brooks was at Virginia Tech in the ACC, but things were a little bit different on Saturday.

Instead of Louisville vs Virginia Tech, it was Louisville vs Kentucky. Brooks led the Cats to a 71-61 victory in overtime, and Walz was quick to point out why the Cardinals couldn’t get the win in his postgame press conference.

A member of the media went to ask Walz about Kentucky’s length and if it caused any sort of havoc for Louisville, but he cut the reporter off mid-question.

“No, it’s our free throws, not length, whatever you want to call it,” Walz said. “You gotta make free throws. We gave the game away. So, it is what it is. It’s okay.”

Part of the gameplan for the Cardinals was for them to try to get the Cats to turn the ball over, and they succeeded in doing that, forcing 24 Kentucky turnovers. However, Kentucky, and specifically Georgia Amoore, never let the frustrations get to them, and Walz was impressed with that.

“[Kentucky] played really, really hard. Amoore’s as good as there is,” Walz noted. “And what I was impressed with her is as rattled as we got her, she turned the damn ball over eight times guys. We did a heck of a job. But she kept playing, and that’s what I’ve always admired about her is no matter how rattled we got her, you never saw it on her face, and that’s the sign of a great point guard. I’ve got a ton of respect for her. I always have.”

But still, Walz believes that the result was more indicative of the bad Louisville did, rather than the good Kentucky did.

“We just gave the game away,” Walz mentioned again. “And credit to them, but length or no length, we gave up nine offensive boards and we got nine. The problem was we gave up one or two there in overtime when we had a damn boxout and all we had to do was get the ball. Instead, we held them — and it’s a good call — and then we put them at the free throw line, and then they made theirs when it mattered. So, the length wasn’t that big of a deal.”