How Louisville hopes to cope with Ole Miss women's defense in Sweet 16 of March Madness
SEATTLE — It doesn’t take a basketball genius to know that Ole Miss women’s basketball has arrived in the NCAA Tournament by winning with defense.
It might take a basketball genius to solve that Rebels defense, though.
Louisville coach Jeff Walz, speaking to reporters Thursday is hoping the Cardinals' versatile attack can create that breakthrough. The Cardinals (25-11) meet the Rebels (25-8) on Friday (9 p.m. CT, ESPN) at Climate Pledge Arena.
“I think the good thing about it is I'm not sure what our identity is,” Walz said. “So if we don't know it, I'm not sure they know it. We have games we shoot the three well. We have games we'll score in the post. We can shoot some pull-up jumpers. You've just got to be flexible. You've got to be able to adapt and adjust and figure out, 'OK, if they're not allowing you to score this way, how can we score the basketball.' ”
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The Rebels’ defensive dominance has been covered thoroughly by now.
They held Gonzaga to their worst offensive showing of the season in round one and limited top-seeded Stanford to its second-worst scoring performance in the last four seasons to advance to the Sweet 16. If Ole Miss advances, it will be because it imposes its will on the Cardinals defensively and does just enough on the other end of the floor.
Louisville produced a defensive masterclass of its own in the Round of 32, holding Texas to just 51 points. Against Drake in the previous game, Louisville shot 51.6% from the floor and racked up 83 points.
“We have taken a lot of pride here that when someone will always ask me: ‘What's your philosophy? What kind of offense do you like to run? What do you do?’” Walz said. “And our philosophy is we try to win. So if we gotta play zone, we play zone. If we need to play man, we play man. If we need to run sets, we run sets. So we'll have to adjust (Friday). We'll figure out – try and figure out what they're trying to do to stop us and then adjust to it.”
Whatever point of attack the Cardinals land on, it will run through star guard Hailey Van Lith, whose 19.5 points pace Louisville. Chrislyn Carr is the only other Louisville player who averages double figures at 11.2 points per game.
If the Rebels can limit her production, Walz’s list of options will shrink significantly.
“If our plan A doesn't work, we'll go to plan B,” Walz said. “If plan B doesn't work, we'll go to C. Then if we got to go to D, then we'll just start praying.”
David Eckert covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at deckert@gannett.com or reach him on Twitter @davideckert98.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Louisville hopes to cope with Ole Miss women's defense in Sweet 16
