Coaching
Walz began coaching middle school and high school teams before finishing college. [2] His first college position was assistant to Paul Sanderford at Western Kentucky, [3] where he coached his sister Jaime Walz, who earned Kentucky "Miss Basketball" honors in 1996. [2]
When Sanderford moved to take the head coach position at the University of Nebraska, Walz followed him as an assistant. [3] While at Nebraska, he helped the program go to a school record three consecutive NCAA appearances. [2]
In 2002, Walz accepted a position as assistant to Brenda Frese (then Brenda Oldfield) at Minnesota. Frese won AP Coach of the Year honors after improving Minnesota from 8–20 to 22–8. The University of Maryland persuaded her to accept the head coaching position and Walz also made the move. He spent five seasons at Maryland, helping them to become a national power, including a national championship at the 2006 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament.
Walz made the transition to head coach in 2007, accepting an offer from the University of Louisville. [4] The school moved into the top 15 in attendance in his first year, averaging 6,456 fans per game, and attracting a total of 77,480 people that season. [5] [6]
When the women's team (along with the U of L men's team) moved to the KFC Yum! Center in 2010, attendance took another major jump. In both of the first two seasons that the Cardinals women spent at the KFC Yum! Center (2010–11 and 2011–12), the team ranked second in national attendance behind Tennessee. [7] [8]
Walz received a pay increase from his athletic director Tom Jurich, prior to the 2012–13 season.
Walz took the 2012–13 team to the national championship game, falling to UConn 93–60.
The Louisville Cardinals are the NCAA athletic teams representing the University of Louisville. The Cardinals teams play in the Atlantic Coast Conference, beginning in the 2014 season. While playing in the Big East Conference from 2005 through 2013, the Cardinals captured 17 regular season Big East titles and 33 Big East Tournament titles totaling 50 Big East Championships across all sports. On November 28, 2012, Louisville received and accepted an invitation to join the Atlantic Coast Conference and became a participating member in all sports in 2014. In 2016, Lamar Jackson won the school its first Heisman Trophy.
Freedom Hall is a multi-purpose arena in Louisville, Kentucky, on the grounds of the Kentucky Exposition Center, which is owned by the Kentucky State Fair Board. It is best known for its use as a basketball arena, previously serving as the home of the University of Louisville Cardinals and, from 2020 to 2024, as the home of the Bellarmine University Knights. It has hosted Kiss, Grateful Dead, Chicago, AC/DC, WWE events, Mötley Crüe, Elvis Presley, The Doors, Janis Joplin, Creed, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, Coldplay and many more. As well as the Louisville Cardinals men's basketball team from 1956 to 2010, the arena's tenants included the Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association from 1970 until the ABA-NBA merger in June 1976, and the Louisville Cardinals women's team from its inception in 1975 to 2010. The Kentucky Stickhorses of the North American Lacrosse League used Freedom Hall from 2011 until the team folded in 2013. From 2015 to 2019 it has hosted the VEX Robotics Competition World Championship Finals yearly in mid-April.
Denzel Edwin Crum was an American men's college basketball coach at the University of Louisville from 1971 to 2001, compiling a 675–295 (.696) record. He guided the Cardinals to two NCAA championships and six Final Fours. Honored in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame since 1994, Crum was one of the major figures in the history of sports in Kentucky and in college basketball.
Sports in Louisville, Kentucky include amateur and professional sports in baseball, football, basketball, horse racing, horse shows, ice hockey, soccer and lacrosse. The city of Louisville and the Louisville metropolitan area have a sporting history from the mid-19th century to the present day.
The Louisville Cardinals men's basketball team is the men's college basketball program representing the University of Louisville in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) of NCAA Division I. The Cardinals have officially won two NCAA championships in 1980 and 1986 ; and have officially been to eight Final Fours in 39 official NCAA tournament appearances while compiling 61 tournament wins.
The 2009–10 Louisville Cardinals women's basketball team represented the University of Louisville in the 2009–2010 NCAA Division I basketball season. The Cards, coached by Jeff Walz, played their final season at Freedom Hall at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Kentucky, before moving into the KFC Yum! Center in Downtown Louisville for the 2010–11 season. The Cardinals were a member of the Big East Conference.
The Louisville Cardinals women's basketball team represents the University of Louisville in women's basketball. The school competes in the Atlantic Coast Conference in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The Cardinals play home basketball games at KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky.
The 2013–14 Louisville Cardinals women's basketball team represented the University of Louisville during the 2013–14 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Cardinals, led by seventh-year head coach Jeff Walz, played their home games at the KFC Yum! Center and were in their first and only year in the American Athletic Conference. The school joined the Atlantic Coast Conference in July 2014.
The 2014–15 Louisville Cardinals women's basketball team will represent the University of Louisville during the 2014–15 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Cardinals, led by eighth-year head coach Jeff Walz, play their home games at the KFC Yum! Center and were in their first year in the Atlantic Coast Conference. They finished the season 27–7, 12–4 in ACC play to finish in third place. They advanced to the semifinals of the ACC women's tournament where they lost to Florida State. They received at-large bid of the NCAA women's tournament where they defeated BYU in the first round, South Florida in the second round before getting upset by Dayton in the sweet sixteen.
The 2015–16 Louisville Cardinals women's basketball team will represent the University of Louisville during the 2015–16 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Cardinals, led by ninth-year head coach Jeff Walz, play their home games at the KFC Yum! Center and were in their second year in the Atlantic Coast Conference. They finished the season 26–8, 15–1 in ACC play to finish in second place. They advanced to the semifinals of the ACC women's tournament where they lost to Syracuse. They received at-large bid of the NCAA women's tournament where they defeated Central Arkansas in the first round before losing to DePaul in the second round.
The 2016–17 Louisville Cardinals women's basketball team represented the University of Louisville during the 2016–17 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Cardinals, led by tenth-year head coach Jeff Walz, played their home games at the KFC Yum! Center and were in their third year in the Atlantic Coast Conference. They finished the season 29–8, 12–4 in ACC play to finish in a tie for fourth place. They advanced to the semifinals of the ACC women's tournament where they lost to Notre Dame. They received an at-large bid to the NCAA women's tournament where they defeated Chattanooga and Tennessee in the first and second rounds before losing to Baylor in the Sweet Sixteen.
The 2017–18 Louisville Cardinals women's basketball team represented the University of Louisville during the 2017–18 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Cardinals, led by 11th-year head coach Jeff Walz, played their home games at the KFC Yum! Center in their fourth year in the Atlantic Coast Conference. They finished the season 36–3, 15–1 in ACC play to win a share of the regular season title. They defeated Virginia Tech, NC State, and Notre Dame to win the ACC women's tournament. As a result, they received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA women's tournament. As the No. 1 seed in the Lexington region, they defeated Boise State and Marquette to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. There they defeated Stanford and Oregon State in the Elite Eight to advance to the school's third Final Four. In the Final Four, they lost to Mississippi State in overtime.
The 2018–19 Louisville Cardinals women's basketball team represented the University of Louisville during the 2018–19 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Cardinals, led by 12th-year head coach Jeff Walz, played their home games at the KFC Yum! Center in their fifth year in the Atlantic Coast Conference. They finished the season 32–4, 14–2 in ACC play to win a share of the regular season title. They advanced to the championship game of the ACC women's tournament where they lost to Notre Dame. They received the at-large bid to the NCAA women's tournament as a No. 1 seed in the Albany region where they defeated Robert Morris and Michigan in the first and second rounds, Oregon State in the sweet sixteen before losing to Connecticut in the elite eight.
The 2019–20 Louisville Cardinals women's basketball team represented the University of Louisville during the 2019–20 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Cardinals, were led by 13th-year head coach Jeff Walz, and played their home games at the KFC Yum! Center in their sixth year in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The 2020–21 Louisville Cardinals women's basketball team represented the University of Louisville during the 2020–21 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Cardinals, were led by 14th-year head coach Jeff Walz, and played their home games at the KFC Yum! Center in their seventh year in the Atlantic Coast Conference. On January 18, 2021, following a 12–0 start, the Cardinals were ranked number 1 in the AP Poll for the first time in program history, garnering 20 of 29 first place votes.
The 2021–22 Louisville Cardinals men's basketball team represented the University of Louisville during the 2021–22 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team played its home games on Denny Crum Court at the KFC Yum! Center in downtown Louisville, Kentucky as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference. They were led by interim head coach Mike Pegues. The Cardinals finished the season 13–19 overall and 6–14 in ACC play to finish in a three-way tie for eleventh place. As the eleventh seed in the ACC tournament, they defeated fourteenth seed Georgia Tech in the First Round before losing to sixth seed Virginia in the Second Round.
Paul "Buster" Sanderford is a retired college basketball coach who coached from the 1970s to 2000s. From 1976 to 1982, Sanderford accumulated 163 wins and 19 losses while coaching the women's basketball team at Louisburg Junior College. At Louisburg, Sanderford won the NJCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship in 1981 and lost the championship in 1982. As part of the Western Kentucky Lady Toppers basketball team from 1982 to 1997, Sanderford won the Sun Belt Conference women's basketball tournament seven teams and reached the final of the 1992 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament. With 365 wins and 120 losses, Sanderford has held the record for most women's basketball wins at Western Kentucky for over twenty years.
The 2022–23 Louisville Cardinals men's basketball team represented the University of Louisville during the 2022–23 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team played its home games on Denny Crum Court at the KFC Yum! Center in downtown Louisville, Kentucky as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). They were led by first-year head coach Kenny Payne.
The 2012–13 Louisville Cardinals women's basketball team represented the University of Louisville during the 2012–13 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Cardinals, led by sixth-year head coach Jeff Walz, played their home games at the KFC Yum! Center as members of the Big East Conference before the conference would split. They finished the season 29–9, 11–5 in Big East play to land third in the regular season standings. They lost to Notre Dame in the semifinals of the Big East women's tournament. They received an at-large bid to the NCAA women's tournament. As the No. 5 seed in the Oklahoma City region, they defeated Middle Tennessee and Purdue to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. There they defeated No. 1 seed Baylor and No. 2 seed Tennessee in the Elite Eight to advance to the school's second Final Four. Playing as one of three Big East teams in the Final Four, they defeated Spokane regional champion California Golden Bears in the National semifinal round. In the National Championship, they lost to Connecticut.
The 2024–25 Louisville Cardinals women's basketball team will represent the University of Louisville during the 2024–25 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Cardinals will be led by eighteenth-year head coach Jeff Walz, and will play their home games at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky. This season will be their eleventh year competing in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
