Louisville coach Jeff Walz rips national media over women’s college basketball coverage

Following a 70-65 loss in the ACC Tournament championship game, Louisville Cardinals women’s basketball head coach Jeff Walz took the national media to task over what he deems lazy “dead horse” narratives and coverage.

Walz, in his 19th season at the helm, has seen his program slide back in recent years after a dominant run that included five Elite Eights, two Final Fours, and a national title from 2018 to 2023. While the last two seasons before this one were solid, the Cardinals failed to make it past the second round of the NCAA Tournament. However, they’ve bounced back well this year, with a 27-4 record and an appearance in the ACC title game.

At his postgame presser, Walz was asked a question by Andrew Haubner that started by noting that “this program hasn’t been to the standard that you built for it,” which led the longtime head coach to launch into a sarcastic rant about how his team has “really sucked” and he’d be happy to “take a buyout” if the reporter launched a GoFundMe to pay for it.

Walz then directed his annoyance at the perception that his Louisville program is down, and at how that narrative persists even as they’ve found success.

“We’ve been to the tournament every year and won 20 games for 16 or something straight. So that’s the narrative, and that’s what we do in this business. So we’ve been to the tournament every single year, got beat in the first round two years ago, a second round loss, and then five straight Elite Eights before that. Now, where are you going with this question? Because you’re comparing us to Oregon?”

The reporter asked to finish his question.

Louisville falls in a tough 70–65 overtime loss to Duke in the ACC Championship game.

After the game, Jeff Walz had an exchange with a reporter, pushing back on criticism about the program over the last couple of seasons.

Walz defended the consistency of Louisville women’s… pic.twitter.com/iOraAiDhRZ

— 35KYSports (@35KYSportsMedia) March 8, 2026

“The question I had for you is, how have you managed to take those two years of fans or people that might not know otherwise or people in the media who might not know otherwise, and stay the course, build things into where you’re right back here in a championship game? Has there been anything that’s been different over the last year?

“No, I can’t help ignorance,” replied Walz. “If you’re ignorant and you don’t know anything about the sport or the game, you’re going to be ignorant. You can’t help it. It’s why you don’t argue with stupid, because you’ll eventually lose. Because they’ll wear you down. So you don’t.

“Yes, our expectations are extremely high. There’s no question about it. But our last two years, if somebody’s going to say we had a bad year, I’d be like, ‘What the hell are you looking at?’ Because we’re ignorant. We got beat the first round one year. We got upset, our second-round loss last year was a great game at TCU. And then, that’s it. So I think in the 19 years now, our COVID year, we didn’t have a tournament. Our third year, we didn’t go to the tournament. We’ve gone to Sweet 16, I think, 12 times in like 15 years. But you don’t hear about that. You never even heard about it when we were going to five straight Elite Eights.

“Because you got to be the one that they’re focusing on. There are a lot of teams out there, but that’s where if you want to grow this game, we got to do homework.”

That interaction came after a question from USA Today reporter Meghan L. Hall, asking Walz to follow up on comments he’d made earlier in the week about wanting more national headlines for Louisville. That led to an extended diatribe about how his team and the sports in general get covered.

So, I asked this question to Walz.

I found it interesting that he took exception to ESPN when there are other outlets that also contribute to coverage.

Could be that he believes they help control narratives, but calling them out raised an eyebrow. https://t.co/0XO6miFvx4

— Meghan L. Hall (@ItsMeghanLHall) March 8, 2026

“As I’ve said from day one, what hurts women’s basketball, and I’ve said this for 20 years… I think we’re lazy in women’s basketball,” he said. “When we start the year with a narrative, we stick with it. It doesn’t matter. If somebody comes along that we didn’t think was going to really be good, we don’t put any extra work in. Because first off, it costs money. We’re just going to put in what we’ve done, and then we beat that dead horse. I mean, we will absolutely beat the sh*t out of it.

“But we will never cover, and it’s not just us. I’m talking nationally. There have been some really… Iowa has done some amazing things with the way they’ve played this year. You barely hear about them. And it’s sad, but that’s women’s basketball. We pick with the ones we want to pick with, and we stick with it. That’s why our game is where it is. We’re growing, but not the way I think we could.

“But you also have to put the resources into it with ESPN and the networks and go, ‘Hey, I know at media day, we didn’t think Mackenly Randolph was going to be any damn good, but, wow, she turned out to be good. So we’re going to go to Louisville and actually do a feature story on her.’ God forbid, if they would try to look at other players around the country that have really stepped their game up. We just don’t do it.

“On the men’s side, I see it all the time. So it’s not just us, it’s nationally. And again, I’ve won a lot, I’ve lost some. I’ve complained, win, lose, or draw, when it comes to national media, how we do things, because I do think our game could grow. It’s amazing. I listen to them, and it’s like, we talk about the same people. It’s like, man, let the country know about Taina Mair. I think the kid’s one of the best point guards in the country. You barely hear about her. But that’s because ESPN doesn’t want to. It’s a little too much extra work, possibly, to cover that kid.”

There is certainly a strong case to be made that, despite women’s basketball’s popularity booming in recent years, it remains undercovered in the national media. Especially in the wake of Caitlin Clark’s departure, we have seen a drop-off in national awareness of individual players currently in college.

One thing I will say is that, as someone who covered Jim Boeheim for a long time, I hear a lot of his gripes in what Walz is saying. He embodies the “I don’t care what people think” mentality while also making it abundantly clear he desperately cares what people think. And one does wonder if the chip-on-the-shoulder mentality he brings with him overinflates the magnitude of the narratives he’s talking about. To put it more specifically, we all see what we want to see, and a guy who’s been there for 19 years and has found success but not wall-to-wall coverage might be looking to affirm the narratives he’s discussing and ignore the things that counteract them.

To wit, Walz specifically called out ESPN for not covering the sport and his team in a deliberate manner. However, he did appear on ESPN’s College GameDay before the ACCT championship game (where they also discussed Iowa), and the Cardinals saw a substantial number of their games appear on linear TV. Also, say what you want about ESPN’s women’s basketball coverage, but their networks and platforms showcased over 3,000 games this season, and their ratings continue rising.

Louisville head coach Jeff Walz breaks down what his team needs to do to beat Duke in the ACC Tournament championship 👀 pic.twitter.com/Z13WCJ1Rnh

— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) March 8, 2026

Not to say that women’s basketball couldn’t benefit from further coverage, but from the outside looking in, it seems like ESPN isn’t the issue when it comes to a lack of coverage and narrative concerns around the sport. Walz’s concerns are valid, but they might be better directed at other national media that don’t offer valuable or consistent coverage of their sport. At the very least, take them to task for having uneducated analysts discuss the sport, which is where the real harm comes in.

Can all national coverage be lazy and stick to narratives that existed before the season started? Absolutely. And we see that all the time in every sport, especially in the NFL, NBA, MLB, and college football. There are issues with how women’s college basketball is covered, but as valid as some of Walz’s concerns are, they’re not as hyper-specific as he might see them from his vantage point.