Jeff Walz comments on OU game:
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Louisville Head Coach Jeff Walz
(On the game) "It's the fourth game of the year. I'm going to challenge my players. They've got to learn to finish things out by themselves when they're on the floor. I thought we just kept our composure and kept digging away and digging away. Finally I thought we were back in there. My goal was to be down 10 at half. That's what I told them at the under 12 timeout when we were down 15. That was our goal to get it to 10 going into half then we'll regroup. Next thing, I know Tia Gibbs, she's done that before... She just comes out and starts shooting really well. We go into halftime up five. At the end there, I was real impressed by how well they kept us out of our offense in those last nine minutes. We had some charging calls, they converted on every turnover. Finally, when we settled down, we started to do some really nice things. I think it was a six-point game with maybe 2:20 left. Shoni comes up with a big and-one, which was very crucial for us. I think we fouled, they go up four. With about 1:20 left, I told Jude, `We've got to just attack. They're not going to want to foul. Don't foul them, just drive it.' And she drives it and she gets back-to back layups for us. Then it was tied. I'm not sure our kids knew it was tied because we were about to foul when the ball was thrown inbounds. Thank goodness we didn't. Then, at the end, of regulation, I think we thought we were up 1 because we dribbled around in the backcourt. Then, in overtime, we came out and executed. I was really pleased. We set a few things up.. Antonita Slaughter's 3 that she hit was set up out of a play we had run the play before. I was just proud of them. Shoni's pass there at the end when it's a 3 point game, it's a great pass, that's what I want thrown. That's how we play. Jude Schimmel makes the play of the game by just getting her hand on it because if she doesn't, it's their ball under their basket an now we got problems."
(On impressions of Aaryn Ellenberg) "She's special. I told after the game, I grabbed her and told her `Hey you're as good as we've played.' And that's UConn and Rutgers. We've played against a few good players in our league. She's right there at the top of them. She's special. She's explosive. That 3 she made when we were up six... I thought we defended it well and she hits it. Our whole goal was that if we lose, she can't beat us. One thing we've normally done a really good job of in the past is we're going to try and make some players who normally don't score much have to score. Ellenberg still figured out how to get 22."
(On adjusting to new rules) "It's hard because then you're telling your kids not to play hard. The way I look at it was it should've been Oklahoma's ball out of bounds. They both left their feet to go after it. She was there to pick it up, my kid took her feet out from under it. I told Bria Smith the fouls you can't get any more are those cheap ones in the backcourt when someone gets the rebound and throws it to the outlet and you go try to steal it. That's a foul. They're going to get you for two or three, guarding the ball handler. You can't pick up those cheap ones. The other four that she picked up, I'm fine with. At one point, I think they'd shot 18 to our two [free throws]. It's definitely frustrating."
