Jeff Walz announce the leaving of his three players

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Life moves quickly for all college basketball coaches. But Jeff Walz is attacking it on skis. No, really. The University of Louisville women’s basketball coach is taking efficiency to new heights – and using a ski lift to do it, occasionally.

With his family on vacation in Breckinridge, Colo., he had Bluetooth in his ski helmet and could talk with transfer portal targets while winding his way down the slope with his kids. In the Mountain Time Zone, he was able to have Zoom calls with recruits finished before dinner time with the family.

He has been invited by the U-20 National Team in Turkey to be an assistant coach for a team that will feature Louisville player Elif Istanbulluoglu, who just completed her freshman year.

“I’ll get a chance to work with E for about three weeks, and then I’ll be a part of their staff that plays in the under-20 European Championships that will be held in Lithuania the first of July,” Walz said on his radio show. “So really looking forward to that because I’m excited about being able to be over there with her.”

Walz has lots of news. Yes, the program came up short of the NCAA Elite Eight for the first time in five years this season, with a transfer-heavy club that nonetheless finished with a record of 24-10.

“I’ll never apologize for what we’ve done here,” Walz said. “. . . In 15 years (to make the NCAA Tournament) we’ve been to 12 Sweet Sixteens, eight Elite Eights and four Final Fours. I don’t think it’s bad.”

It’s the opposite of bad. There are few examples like it, of a women’s program going from zero to consistent national player in that kind of span.

At a pivotal time in women’s college basketball, when television ratings are up and the value of these programs is on the rise, Walz has been working hard to keep Louisville in the lead lap – and to keep the program moving forward.

It will be on the move next season. It has accepted an invitation to open the season with a game in Paris, France. It will face UConn in the Women’s Champions Classic in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, with Iowa and Tennessee playing in the other game. It will play in Orlando twice before Thanksgiving, a WBCA event against South Florida and three games in an exempt tournament. It will play in the ACC-SEC Challenge. And Walz is trying to get a game at Memphis in the FedEx Forum.