No. 9 Louisville head coach Jeff Walz and G Imari Berry met with the media to discuss their 88-80 overtime win over NC State.
NOTE: Click the video above to watch the full press conference!
On her 33-point game today...
BERRY: I'm just getting the hang of my pull-ups, my layups, back and forth with them and stuff, that's what I did.
Have you gotten more used to, you know, I know in high school you were a starter and a starter. Now, I mean, you're over here, you're coming off the bench. I don't know if that's been, like, an adjustment for you.It feels like this season, that's been a lot of, an easier transition for you. How have you kind of adjusted to that role and still playing at a high level?
BERRY: I mean, at the beginning of the season, I was starting and I just felt like I wasn't, playing my best. So, I decided to come off the bench and I've just been doing good ever since then. So, I've just been sticking to that.
Against North Carolina, Coach Walz told us that, if you, I think his quote was if you're one of those kids that if you figure it out, you could be the best player in the game. Is that something that he tells you? And what do you think has led to starting to figure it out?
BERRY: I mean, just working out every day, coming in the gym. I don't feel like you're just coming in, shooting a couple free throws, working out before practice. So, I mean, just getting used to just playing basketball every single day, every morning. So, I mean, that's kind of what I've got to now.
So, kind of going off that a little bit, if you look at your numbers last year versus this year, the jumps are crazy. I looked at, for example, your free throws, but you sank those two to three. Like, you've improved about 30-something percent.
Is it just getting in the gym more and kind of getting used to the college game and knowing what to expect a little bit or what's going on?
BERRY: Yeah, getting in the gym and the South Carolina game, kind of prepared me for moments like this. It was loud in the gym. So, I mean, the noise just, cancelled it out so, I just knocked down both free throws.
Was that your choice to come off the bench or the coach's choice? How was that?
BERRY: Kind of both. We had a meeting and, discussed it. So, I mean, both of us.
The first quarter, I think they had control of the game. What did you all switch up after that?
BERRY: Ball pressure, rebounding offensively. He was not rebounding all offensive. So, I mean, just getting in there, trying to get folks on the ball.So, I feel like we just did that. That's what kind of helped us, push the ball in transition and get a couple layups and, a couple layups and stuff.
Imari you were down 11, about another round to the third quarter. They had all the momentum. All of a sudden, you ride along. I mean, can you kind of walk us through that moment?
BERRY: I mean, I just learned how to get the ball in my hand. Rebound, push the ball, try to get, a couple passes. The pull-up was there and the layup was there. So, I just took that.
NC State's got a pretty big front line. You guys outrebounded by nine. You had 12. How did you move? I guess, what was your approach to attacking them last year?
BERRY: Well, at halftime, we mainly discussed, that I had to get in there and get a couple folks in it. So, I just felt like the ball was kind of coming for me.So, that's what I did.
What makes you all such a tough team in overtime?
BERRY: Nobody can stop us. There's no foul players out there to shoot the ball, drive, shoot layups, knock down free throws. So, it's kind of hard to guard us.
This is your second road win of the season. I think you guys have won ten or eleven games in a row now or something like that. It just feels like everything is turning in the right direction for you guys. What's been working so well?
COACH WALZ: Well, I didn't think that first quarter was turning in the right direction. I didn't feel the second quarter was turning in the right direction until Imari hit back-to-back shots. I think she scored maybe eight straight for us.
What's unique about this group is, I think, our overall depth. Imari tonight scored 33. I think Elif may have scored 23 in our Miami game. And I don't know how many other people we've had in the mid-20s. It's just not who we are. We normally will have five or six that can get 15 to 17.
But when you've got five on the floor, then everybody kind of has to guard. And then we're pretty darn unselfish right now, which is something I'm continuing to preach and really hit hard on.
Thursday at Notre Dame, Reyna Scott played lights out. And we kept getting her the ball. And everybody was excited about it. It wasn't a situation where I need to get mine now.
Hey, she scored her 10, so now it's my turn. It was like, hey, just keep throwing it to her. Tonight, Imari. And our kids are embracing the fact that it's going to be somebody different every other night. And if it's not your night shooting the ball, then rebound it. Set screens. Communicate on defense. And that's what we did a really good job of.
You mentioned just your overall depth. A lot of players have been moving a lot of little things. Mackenly Randolph, what kind of growth have you seen from her? You've got a lot of sophomores on this team, or specifically from freshman to sophomore.
COACH WALZ: Well, she worked this summer on her shooting. She went through a stretch here in the past three or four games where she got back to shooting line drives. Everything was flat.
And when she took that through from the corner there in overtime, I mean, I was kind of blocked by the official. I was sitting down. But I could just tell by the arc on her. And that's what I said. I said, that's great arc. And she hits it. And she's put the work in. She's put the time in. She's been working defensively as well because that's where she was getting attacked at the beginning of the year.
People were trying to isolate her and take her to the basket. But she's got fight. She's got some pride. And she knew, hey, this is an area in my game I've got to work on. And she has. I'm kind of shocked she only had one board today. But it was a big one because I think she scored on the offensive rebound and got fouled.
But overall, we're plus 15 with her in the game. Plus 18 with Skylar in the game. So it's been fun. I'm hoping we'll continue to buy into this team concept and not start worrying about am I going to be all-conference, am I going to be first-team. I mean, we're a team.
Honestly, by the time the year ends, we might not have anybody all-conference. Because it's tough. It's like who do you put? Imari's been playing great, but E's been playing really well, too. Taj's been playing. Laura. So I think we're a team that you look at and you're like, damn, okay, tonight Laura goes two for nine. She has five points. E has four. But she has seven boards. Taj has four. But then you get Imari steps up and goes for 33. Skylar has 17. Mack has 12. That's what makes us as unique as we are.
Now, we did not put on a very good three-point shooting demonstration there in the first half. I let my assistants be in charge of three-point shooting there in the first half. I took over in the second.
NC State is one of the best rebounding teams in the ACC. What are you guys able to do, especially in the offensive end, to kind of exploit some things?
COACH WALZ: That was a big focus of ours, was to try to keep Khamil off the glass. She's so, so talented. Tilda as well. They do a great job of getting to the ball. And we thought our guards were going to have to rebound. Our posts were going to do everything we could to keep them off the glass the minutes. And then our guards were going to have to rebound.
But E came up with seven. Laura comes up with seven. Obviously, Imari comes up with 12. Hardy had five. Skylar has five. It's something that we continue to preach. We have to team a rebound.
Now, it's really the craziest thing because, you're going to write down probably that we had 21 offensive points. It looks fantastic. We scored 12 second-chance points. Do you know how bad that is? I mean, we played any over.We'd miss it, get it, miss it, get it, miss it, get it, miss it, get it. And then they would get the rebound. So then everybody's like, man, we had 21 offensive rebounds. They ended up with eight or nine and got eight points off of it.
Our goal every game is to get between 15 and 20 second-chance points. And I tell them, I could care less if we get six offensive boards, we kick them out, and we make six threes. Perfect. 18 points. I don't care. I used to be, when I first started to coach, it was all about the number. How many are you going to get? It's free-throw shooting. I'm the same way. I don't care what our percentage is that's a free-throw line. Don't care.
It's the number of points we get. We have gone and played games where we have shot 15%, but we make the first, we miss the second, we get the rebound, kick it out, we hit a three. So now we just scored four points on what would have been two if we make two. So we really work hard on going after offensive rebounds at the free-throw line as well. So I was just really, and we turned them over.
And NC State does an unbelievable job. Wes does throughout the years. He's a phenomenal coach. His kids take care of the basketball. And for us to turn them over 19 times was not characteristic of what they do. And then we did do a great job of scoring in the transition, which was something that we had talked about before the game started.
After the North Carolina game, you were talking about Imari. And you said that if she can figure it out, she can be one of the best players in women's college basketball. Was this her figuring it out?And what do you think is?
COACH WALZ: I'll tell you a week from today. It's the consistency. She's such a great kid that I'm telling you it probably hurt her to take 23 shots. Like she'd rather pass it. Complete opposite of me. If I could shoot it and score like you would, I used to joke, I tell our post players all the time, we'll work on post-entry passing. I'll jump in the drill, and I'll fake the pass, and then I'll shoot it.
And I'm like, guys, if I miss it, that's my pass to you. But Imari wants to always get everybody else involved, but she's such an elite scorer. I'd love to see her get 14 to 20 shots every single night. But that's a mindset to try to change. Because she does want to get everybody else involved, and she enjoys seeing other successes as well.
Imari said earlier in here that she was starting at the start of the season, and then you and her had a conversation about, well, maybe it's better if I come off the bench. I guess what has that kind of done for her this season, just kind of that role sort of switch up?
COACH WALZ: Well, I just thought at the beginning of the year she was so passive. I was like, hey, let's just give yourself a chance to watch the start of the game. Let's just watch it and then see how that goes. And I think it took some pressure off of her as well. And she's embraced it. And that's the thing. I tell her all the time, when Dana Evans was here as a sophomore, she had earned the starting point guard spot.
But for our team, Arica Carter was better starting. Just because of the fact that when I put Dana in the game, our tempo increased.And Dana embraced it as well. She was like, coach, whatever is the best thing for the team, I'm willing to do it. And the kid was sixth player of the year her sophomore year.
And then obviously goes into the starting lineup her final two years and player of the year as a junior and senior. It's not going to impact the minutes they play. It impacts the handshakes. All the BS they all do. Which is why on the road, I don't even let them go out. I talk to them. The choreograph that they do for 30 minutes in their room of the fancy, like guys, it's all that matters. It's what they care about. I go, at the end of the game, if you're in the game, that's what matters. Starting, it's great. At that time, that makes you feel good. But, man, when you're in there at the end, in an overtime game or regulation, that should tell you what coach thinks of you.
Jeff, I was looking at Imari. You've only been like eight players this quarter, 30-something, had a double-double. So what's your last – because last season you talked a lot about your team turning the ball over and having trouble with that.
COACH WALZ: We were really good at that last year.
You guys have gotten better by a solid, I think, three or four games. What's led to that with a lot of the same players that have been getting in the gym showing up?
COACH WALZ: Well, I just think they're understanding now value of a basketball, what it can mean to us. And we're also – we're trying to make less one-on-one plays. We're doing a great job of coming off the ball screen.If somebody jumps in the passing lane, we're making the pass to a teammate who's then knocking down the shot.
So I think that's been a big part of it. You look at tonight's game, it was uncharacteristic of Reyna to turn it over six times. I mean, she had six of her 13, which is uncharacteristic of her. So I thought overall we did a great job of taking care of the basketball. Then she bounces back and she has five assists.
So, we just got to keep getting better each day. And we can't sit there and think we've arrived because we haven't. We have a long, long way to go. I'm going to point out – I keep telling them, man, it would be really fun to see if we all just played good on the same night. Not 33, that's great. I'm just saying good. If we all played good, I'd like to see what this team can do.
Jeff, I have one kind of non-game question for you. The NCAA announced last week that they're moving the transfer portal window and the portal will shrink in 15 days. I was just wondering if you had any overall thoughts on that.
COACH WALZ: I'm not a fan of it. No. I think it's terrible. That's just my two cents, and I made that note. I think personally I've put forth – I've argued – I think you should have seven days to go in the portal once your season's over. And I know there are coaches, oh, I've got to recruit during my season.
You know what, guys? Wait until that day when everybody goes in the portal and seven kids commit on the same day. Now, how in the hell did that happen? If coaches aren't talking to players, if AAU coaches – they already know what they're going to do. But I think the trickle-down effect is going to be massive and nobody's even thought about it. So I think what's going to happen now, get kids seven days to go in the portal once their season is over.
Once it's over, you either know you want to transfer or you don't. It's no longer, okay, I finished my year the first weekend in March, and then here comes April, and I'm planning to stay until all of a sudden a guard from Louisville leaves, and now I need a two-guard. And now all of a sudden you're getting an offer for two times as much as you were making at the school you were just at. Now I'm in the portal. And everybody, well, that's tampering.
Well, let me tell you, people, this shit goes on all the time.But if you just let them say you've got seven days, so you're either going in or you're not, if you're happy where you are, that's the great thing. But now I think what's going to take place is during those two weeks, teams that thought they had their roster back are going to lose kids because another team lost a kid.
And now it's like, well, shit, now I've got to find a kid. That's my personal opinion. Now no one calls me, so that's okay. For some reason I'm not a popular person with the NCAA at times. They all just don't have my back. Either has my back, so it's okay. I appreciate that. I appreciate it. And then, a, I do want to say what an unbelievable crowd. The fan base here is outstanding. They get behind their kids. They cheer. They're loud.
It's an unbelievable venue to come play in. I enjoy each time we come. So I think that's a tip of the hat to all the fans, especially in the weather today. If you want nice wet weather, come up to a little sunny 60 every day. This stuff down here, it's for the birds.
