What the Louisville women's basketball coach said about Nebraska prior to tournament game

USA Today

21-03-2025

What the Louisville women's basketball coach said about Nebraska prior to tournament game
Louisville women's basketball coach Jeff Walz met with the media the day before his team is scheduled to face off with the Nebraska Cornhuskers in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Cardinals enter Friday's game as a No. 7 seed with a 21-10 overall record and a 13-5 in the ACC. They lost to the Duke Blue Devils in the second round of the ACC Tournament. They enter the NCAA Tournament having lost three of their last five games, but all three losses were to Top-Ten teams.
Nebraska will play in Friday's game as the No. 10 seed. The Huskers have a record of 21-11 overall and 10-8 in the Big Ten Conference. This will be Nebraska's 17th NCAA Tournament bid overall. The Huskers hold an all-time record of 9-16. As Nebraska's head coach, Amy Williams has a 1-3 tournament record.
Tip-off is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. CT and can be seen on ESPN. Find comments from Louisville coach Jeff Walz about the Cornhuskers by scrolling below.
Center Alexis Markowski, when you see her have her best games, what's she doing for Nebraska?
Everything. Scores, defends, she rebounds the basketball. She's just really impressive. I remember her as a freshman when they came and played at our place in '22. She had a really good game against Gonzaga in that first round. That's back before the transfer portal was open or I would have handed her business cards and offered her money. I mean, you can do all that stuff now. So unfortunately, she's just a few years too old. But yeah, I mean, great, great player. I was actually there when her dad played and he was a really good player, as well.
Jeff, you have eight freshman this year and that's got to be kind of difficult getting all of those people virgin to your culture. How have they been this year and how different are they now in March than back when practice started in October?
It's a great group. I think anybody can tell you from watching us from November till now, we've grown as a team. We've gotten a lot better. Our freshman have, you know, had some ups and downs, but I think they're playing a lot more consistent right now for us. Taj has had a fantastic year from start to finish. I thought the game started off slow for her, in the terms of being able to process it. It wasn't going 90 miles an hour and you're trying to get a feel for it. That first game, she handled it well.
As a freshman playing the minutes she played, you struggle some and get tired and you get beat up. She's never had that. She's started every game and played in every single game. So it's not like she had a week off, sprained ankle or anything like that.
The rest of them have continued to grow. I mean our Clemson game with playing with out Jayda and Riss in the first round of the conference tournament, we had four freshman on the floor 50 percent of the time. Then in a game that goes overtime. So it's not like they were out there playing with a 20 point lead and you're not worried about it. So they've all got a lot of experience and hopefully they're able to carry that over to our game tomorrow night.
Just talk about your relationship maybe you have with her (Nebraska head coach Amy Williams)
Amy is great. Still be willing to bet she'd win a Horse game with anybody on her team right now. You know, it was my first year, our first year as a staff and we came in and inherited a really good group of kids. Some talented players. Anna DeForge was the best player on the team at that point in time. Went to an NCAA tournament that first year.
Amy has been around basketball her entire life. Coaching is part of the family and it has not surprised me that she has had the success every place she's been. She understands the game, her teams are very well prepared. I've been very impressed as I've watched her from afar, as well. She makes good in-game adjustments. She has a good feel of, you know, when to get someone in the game, when to get someone out of the game. I've just been really impressed.
So I'm expecting a great game tomorrow, and excited for her because she is not only a good coach, but a really good person.
Back to the freshman for a second, Nebraska has a couple including Britt Prince. What do you see from her when you watch film?
Britt is a fantastic player. We recruited her hard. My wife and I watched her play. Happened to be the same day our volleyball team was playing in the Final Four. So it worked out great for me, had a chance to go watch a high school game and then go cheer on our volleyball team.
She's been special. I mean all throughout her high school career, her AAU ball, she has a really good flare for the game, understanding the game, she's fun to watch. You know, her signature, she plays with her hair down, you know? Our first goal is we've got two kids with a pair of scissors. When the tip goes up we're just going to cut it and see if it throws her off. That's one thing I've not seen anybody try yet. So we're going to see if it works for us tomorrow. You have to think outside the box and we're trying to.
She's a great kid. She was great to talk to on the phone and fun to watch. She's really, really good.
Coach, going back to the connection with Amy, what is your memories of being in Nebraska and that fan base, but then also just does it kind of feel like a full circle moment, the start of your coaching career, the end of her playing career and now somebody that you helped assist in her senior year is coaching against you in an NCAA tournament?
Well, I'll go back. I really enjoyed my time in Lincoln. It was an eye opening experience when we had a snow storm in October. The beautiful thing about the state -- if it's going to be cold, I want snow. Everybody will tell you, I love snow-skiing, I love to be outside, but the one thing I've always said, I've spent four years at Nebraska, one year at Minnesota, and when the first snow comes, it don't leave. It just does not melt. That's the one thing about it.
So when it snowed in October, and Amy will tell you, if she remembers, I was there with Paul Sanderford was the head coach. Everything is shut down because nobody was expecting it. Paul was like, well we're still having practice. Everybody thought we were crazy, I was in my truck picking up players from their apartments, wherever they lived and we just practiced.
I loved my time there. I've still got dear friends there. You know, I was there right toward the end of Coach Osborne's reign with football and that was the first time I'd ever worked at a place where, you know, there was a wedding on a Saturday and it was football game, nobody showed up for the wedding, including the bride and groom. I mean, it was like football first.
But everybody loved the athletics. If you were an athlete, they absolutely loved you there So I enjoyed it. Amy, you know, she's a great person, like I said, really understands the game. As you're sitting there as a 26-year old, I think, or 25, I'm not sure how old I was, but it was my third year in coaching, you know, you're not expecting for this day. I always say it, it's -- I've got players now that are getting married, having families and I'm always around the same age person. They're 18 to 22 and then you see Amy and her daughter is a freshman and I'm like, how is that possible? Everything keeps on going. You kind of stay in one place because everybody around me stays the same age, and now you're seeing someone like Amy and her family and just really excited for her. What an opportunity to get a chance to come back and coach at your alma mater, and then to be able to do what she's done. It's not easy. There's pressure on her. I think she's handled it extremely well.
Keeping in the relationships theme, what was your relationship like with Dani Busboom Kelly, and, you know, how happy are you for her even it's probably bittersweet for --
We're extremely glad she's gone. She's a royal pain in the ass, nobody wanted to deal with her. What you see is all fraud. You just wait for a few months to go by and then you'll get the real Dani. Ya'll have no idea. God bless ya'll.
No, I mean, Amy -- Dani and Amy are two competitors. So they're going to get along extremely well, and I always say this, this is -- you know, I was fortunate when I got to Louisville. They had just built a new practice facility for volleyball, men's basketball then we went into the old facility. So we never had to share anything, which makes things easy. You're not fighting for practice times. They're not going to have to do that either. So everybody has got their own. So it's easy to cheer for each other when you're not trying to fight to get a practice time because you have class conflicts.
With those two leading your volleyball program and women's basketball, I think you're going to see two that are going to mesh extremely well. Dani did an unbelievable job. What she did for our volleyball program, the excitement that she brought in, her entire staff, the players. She's going to be missed, but we're excited that Dan has decided to stay and take over the reign as our head coach and I think he's going to do a remarkable job.
The day and the age of the transfer portal, for him to be able to keep every single one of them and the recruits is pretty impressive. Or they have a healthy NIL budget. Whichever one the two is. You have to laugh, guys.
I'm excited for both. What other program do you have your women's basketball coach and your volleyball coach as grads. I don't know if there's any other program in the country that has that. It's pretty special. Both of them had great careers as players and I've no doubt that it's going to continue for both of them.