Louisville's WBB Coach Jeff Walz On The Participation Trophy Society Of Today

FirefightnRick · December 4, 2016

We need more of this guy around. Started out as an assistant at WKY.

Rick

Edited December 4, 2016 by FirefightnRick

UTAmaverick · December 4, 2016

couldnt agree more. losing has become acceptable.

wait until kids get into the real world and see what life is about. "i thought i could just get a degree and party for four years and be handed a $60k job"...i laugh.

TheTastyGreek · December 4, 2016

Walz was a player at Northern Kentucky for 4 years.

3 of those teams had losing records.

Someone call me when a guy who isn't a loser has something to say on the topic.

He lost 3 straight years, won the last one. He's 1-3. He's a loser. The world should have spit him out onto the reject pile 20 years ago.

Oh, wait...

Job well done, ruthless meritocracy!

Graddean · December 4, 2016

I agree TastyGreek is right. The guy is wNting to blame society and anything else for his team's loss. If his players are that way, he recruited them. He likes to call others losers so he doesn't come off as one.

FirefightnRick · December 5, 2016

BTW...Walz is 236-84 as a head coach.

Rick

Edited December 5, 2016 by FirefightnRick

Censored by Laurie · December 5, 2016

"what's wrong with kids these days?"

- parents these days

Greendylan · December 5, 2016

"Parents just don't understand."

- Will Smith & Jazzy Jeff (1988)

Quoner · December 5, 2016

southsideguy · December 5, 2016

here here, I think he is correct with his message. When I was young on I was on a losing team and it made me want to win more. If you lost you didnt get a trophy. We don't like to keep score because it might hurt someone feelings. Life is full of winners and losers like it or not. The snowflakes can't understand that.

UNTLifer · December 5, 2016

On 12/4/2016 at 1:03 PM, TheTastyGreek said:

Walz was a player at Northern Kentucky for 4 years.

3 of those teams had losing records.

Someone call me when a guy who isn't a loser has something to say on the topic.

He lost 3 straight years, won the last one. He's 1-3. He's a loser. The world should have spit him out onto the reject pile 20 years ago.

Oh, wait...

Job well done, ruthless meritocracy!

Here's a +1 for missing the point.

On 12/4/2016 at 1:27 PM, Graddean said:

I agree TastyGreek is right. The guy is wNting to blame society and anything else for his team's loss. If his players are that way, he recruited them. He likes to call others losers so he doesn't come off as one.

And another swing and a miss.

TheTastyGreek · December 5, 2016

34 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

Here's a +1 for missing the point.

That was literally one of his exact points from the rant. Kids at a tournament play 4 games, lose the first three, win the last one, don't realize they went 1-3 and are losers.

Well, he went to college, played 4 years. Lost the first three, won the last one. He's a loser. So, by his own measure, screw him and his loser opinions.

I'm sure he'd agree. Unless he's a snowflake or a hypocrite.

BillySee58 · December 6, 2016

Yeah, I wish more coaches had this mentality. Then they'd stop complaining that four years isn't sufficient time to turn a program around. And Benford would be gone!

Graddean · December 6, 2016

There is a big difference between losing and being a loser. I think Walz lost sight of that in his rant. At some point in our lives, we have all lost at something. yet, I doubt many of you consider yourselves to be losers. The only losers are those who will not even try. If you fail to put out your best effort, you are a loser. If the other person or team is simply better than you or your tea,, the loss does not make you a loser.

FirefightnRick · December 6, 2016

2 hours ago, TheTastyGreek said:

That was literally one of his exact points from the rant. Kids at a tournament play 4 games, lose the first three, win the last one, don't realize they went 1-3 and are losers.

Well, he went to college, played 4 years. Lost the first three, won the last one. He's a loser. So, by his own measure, screw him and his loser opinions.

I'm sure he'd agree. Unless he's a snowflake or a hypocrite

His POINT and yours are Apples and Oranges...

But you know this.

Rick

Edited December 6, 2016 by FirefightnRick

UNTLifer · December 6, 2016

2 hours ago, Graddean said:

There is a big difference between losing and being a loser. I think Walz lost sight of that in his rant. At some point in our lives, we have all lost at something. yet, I doubt many of you consider yourselves to be losers. The only losers are those who will not even try. If you fail to put out your best effort, you are a loser. If the other person or team is simply better than you or your tea,, the loss does not make you a loser.

Exactly. Losing and being a loser are two different things.

TheTastyGreek · December 6, 2016

4 hours ago, FirefightnRick said:

His POINT and yours are Apples and Oranges...

But you know this.

Rick

His POINT was that "you gotta have a will" and that his team didn't show it. He blames it on "everyone gets a trophy". And he's an idiot, or full of shit. More on that after a brief digression to the greater cultural point.

Now, if you want to personally believe that participation ribbons and touchy-feely softness in athletics is a symbol of a weakened, soft generation... You can make an argument for it. I think you can make just as compelling an argument that Kids Today(tm) are on a high-achievement, intense treadmill of pressure to succeed. And the rigorous weeding out process in everything; athletic, academic, social, and otherwise, is more brutal now than ever. Because there are shitty, lazy, mostly worthless kids in every generation, and they'll usually (not always!) grow up to be shitty, lazy, mostly worthless adults. Just like there are high motivation, tenacious kids, sometimes with metaphorical whipmarks on their backs in every generation, and they usually (not always!) grow up to be highly successful, driven and self-motivated achievement-oriented adults. It was true in 1960, and it's true in 2016, and it was true in the 1700s, and it'll be true in another 200 years from now. Kids today that are soft and lazy don't get whipped in the face with a belt buckle. But high achievement kids a generation ago didn't have the same challenges and forge of competitive difficulty that this generation does. And I say that as a guy near 40 who grew up as part of that previous generation.

Anyway, even if you think Kids Today(tm) are wrecked and ruined, hearing this guy make this argument in explaining a loss is horseshit. Because EVEN IF he's right, and every kid in this generation is subject to have-a-hug, trophy-for-everyone wussification... EVERY PLAYER IN THE GENERATION WENT THROUGH IT. You're coaching kids that had that same cultural softening as your opponents. He's in his tenth season at Louisville, and every player on that roster is his, two or three times over and again. He's had some of these women in his program for over a quarter of their entire lives. So, if they're soft and entitled... Why did the opposing coach fix the problem and Walz couldn't?

Now, frankly... I think any kid talented and motivated to wind up playing basketball at Louisville never bothered to keep a Participation trophy, assuming they ever got one. Because you go down that roster, and they're all winners, Frankly, they're bigger winners, more talented, and relatively greater achievers than their whiner coach ever was when he bounced a ball. Walz is coaching at LOUISVILLE. 9 out of his 10 years, he's been recruiting to a Big East or ACC school in the heart of basketball country. How many schools are a clear level above Louisville in women's basketball? I can think of four: UConn, Baylor, Stanford, and Notre Dame. Once upon a time, you could throw Tennessee in there, but I don't think that's true anymore. Otherwise, he's right there with anyone else, and he can have his pick of the talent outside of maybe 5 or 10 girls in any given year. He's not picking through the snowflake pile, even if you're of that mentality about Kids Today(tm). He's picking through All-Americans, kids who've excelled in AAU against rival top talent for most of their lives,

So, if his incoming kids are soft, delicate snowflakes... Who is at fault that he got stuck with them? Pick through your share of the cream of the crop better. Or, if they didn't toughen up in 4 or 5 years under him... Who is at fault for that? Use your years with them to toughen them up.

And who, exactly, on his roster is he accusing of being victim to Participation Trophy Culture? Is it Cortnee Walton? The girl who finished her degree a year and a half ago, that went 30-0 in high school, won a state championship and a national championship in high school, lettered in two different sports beyond basketball, is on track to finish with a grad degree from Louisville, and also won an award for volunteering and civic involvement that only got awarded to five kids in the whole country? All while not missing a single game last season? Is she a delicate snowflake? Because she seems pretty kick ass, and based on all she did before even getting to Louisville... It doesn't seem like she learned it from Jeff Walz.

Again, even if Walz is right, and everyone in this generation of college kids is a soft, delicate snowflake... The other team is made up of snowflakes, too. And if the other coach is better at packing a snowball than Walz is, then the blame isn't on the snowflakes.

The hell with Jeff Walz. Again, if you take his OWN POINTS and apply them to his history, he's a loser. Not my word, not my rationale... His.

"Everybody thinks they should get a job. Everybody thinks they should get a GOOD job! And that's not the way it works!"

Well, how did Jeff get his job? How did this guy, who only played one actual year on the court at Northern Kentucky, get his job? Did the AD at Louisville say: "Hey! I need a guy who averaged 3 minutes a game for a Division 2 school back in 1991 to come in and teach these girls how to be winners!" Did sheer awesomeness, tenacity, and a culture of ruthless meritocracy reward this spare part on a losing team for a shitty program in the Great Lakes Valley Conference 25 years ago with a head coaching job at an ACC school?

No. I actually gave him too much credit earlier when I said he had one winning college season. Jeff finished up his bench career at a D2 school without ever playing for a winning team (LOSER!). Then, he went home to be an assistant coach for a 7th grade boys team. Lucky for Jeff, his little sister was Kentucky's Miss Basketball back in 1996. He steps up to be an assistant for her high school team, and when she verbals to WKU, ol' Jeff gets to tag along as an assistant there. If his sister were two years older, Jeff likely spends the rest of his career gathering up dodgeballs as just another middle school redass coach in too-tight short shorts.

But, he didn't. Jeff rode the coattails of his supremely talented player (as so many high school coaches do) and little sister to a college assistant job. And when the head coach that hired him moved to Nebraska the next year, Jeff tagged along. And as soon as the guy who gave him his college break started struggling at Nebraska, he hopped on another woman's coattails, and rode her success to Minnesota, then to Maryland, and then after a decade he got his own head coaching job.

He's been at Louisville for ten years now. He has a team full of exceptionally talented, highly acclaimed overachievers, just like the little sister who got him through the door in the first place. And he's won almost 3 out of every 4 games he's coached. But whether you're talking Big East, AAC, or ACC...He's never won his conference, he's never won his conference tournament, and he's never even won his division. If he has any coaching trophies, they're the equivalent of the '5th place loser trophy' he's talking about in his rant. And it isn't society's fault.

So, in conclusion... Jeff Walz can take his wagging finger and wave it in the mirror. His roster of superstars got beat, and he says it's because his team didn't have the will to win. And he says it's society's fault, not his. Even though almost every girl on his team had that will to win before they got to his team. Even though every player on Jeff's roster is a better example of achievement, talent, fortitude, success, and not-loserdom than Jeff was at their age.

Jeff Walz blaming society for his team's assumed weak will is as absurd as the old regime here saying that games sell themselves. It's a horseshit rationalization from people who ought to know better. Either he's an idiot because he doesn't realize it, or he's an asshole because he's trying to avoid the blame himself.

If you think society is ruining this generation, the proof of it isn't playing ACC basketball at Louisville. All of those girls have spent their lifetime feasting on Participation Trophy kids and leaving tire tracks on their backs. And if you think Jeff Walz is right when he says that people are too often rewarded with something because of fortune, luck, circumstance, or just soft-hearted surrender to feelings... His entire career is a shining example of it.

Army of Dad · December 6, 2016

Tasty comes back to the basketball forum (yay!); posts about women's basketball and generational bias (meh).

Personally, I'm blaming Benford and RV for this terrible turn of events.

MeanGreenHoops · December 6, 2016

8 hours ago, TheTastyGreek said:

His POINT was that "you gotta have a will" and that his team didn't show it. He blames it on "everyone gets a trophy". And he's an idiot, or full of shit. More on that after a brief digression to the greater cultural point.

Now, if you want to personally believe that participation ribbons and touchy-feely softness in athletics is a symbol of a weakened, soft generation... You can make an argument for it. I think you can make just as compelling an argument that Kids Today(tm) are on a high-achievement, intense treadmill of pressure to succeed. And the rigorous weeding out process in everything; athletic, academic, social, and otherwise, is more brutal now than ever. Because there are shitty, lazy, mostly worthless kids in every generation, and they'll usually (not always!) grow up to be shitty, lazy, mostly worthless adults. Just like there are high motivation, tenacious kids, sometimes with metaphorical whipmarks on their backs in every generation, and they usually (not always!) grow up to be highly successful, driven and self-motivated achievement-oriented adults. It was true in 1960, and it's true in 2016, and it was true in the 1700s, and it'll be true in another 200 years from now. Kids today that are soft and lazy don't get whipped in the face with a belt buckle. But high achievement kids a generation ago didn't have the same challenges and forge of competitive difficulty that this generation does. And I say that as a guy near 40 who grew up as part of that previous generation.

Anyway, even if you think Kids Today(tm) are wrecked and ruined, hearing this guy make this argument in explaining a loss is horseshit. Because EVEN IF he's right, and every kid in this generation is subject to have-a-hug, trophy-for-everyone wussification... EVERY PLAYER IN THE GENERATION WENT THROUGH IT. You're coaching kids that had that same cultural softening as your opponents. He's in his tenth season at Louisville, and every player on that roster is his, two or three times over and again. He's had some of these women in his program for over a quarter of their entire lives. So, if they're soft and entitled... Why did the opposing coach fix the problem and Walz couldn't?

Now, frankly... I think any kid talented and motivated to wind up playing basketball at Louisville never bothered to keep a Participation trophy, assuming they ever got one. Because you go down that roster, and they're all winners, Frankly, they're bigger winners, more talented, and relatively greater achievers than their whiner coach ever was when he bounced a ball. Walz is coaching at LOUISVILLE. 9 out of his 10 years, he's been recruiting to a Big East or ACC school in the heart of basketball country. How many schools are a clear level above Louisville in women's basketball? I can think of four: UConn, Baylor, Stanford, and Notre Dame. Once upon a time, you could throw Tennessee in there, but I don't think that's true anymore. Otherwise, he's right there with anyone else, and he can have his pick of the talent outside of maybe 5 or 10 girls in any given year. He's not picking through the snowflake pile, even if you're of that mentality about Kids Today(tm). He's picking through All-Americans, kids who've excelled in AAU against rival top talent for most of their lives,

So, if his incoming kids are soft, delicate snowflakes... Who is at fault that he got stuck with them? Pick through your share of the cream of the crop better. Or, if they didn't toughen up in 4 or 5 years under him... Who is at fault for that? Use your years with them to toughen them up.

And who, exactly, on his roster is he accusing of being victim to Participation Trophy Culture? Is it Cortnee Walton? The girl who finished her degree a year and a half ago, that went 30-0 in high school, won a state championship and a national championship in high school, lettered in two different sports beyond basketball, is on track to finish with a grad degree from Louisville, and also won an award for volunteering and civic involvement that only got awarded to five kids in the whole country? All while not missing a single game last season? Is she a delicate snowflake? Because she seems pretty kick ass, and based on all she did before even getting to Louisville... It doesn't seem like she learned it from Jeff Walz.

Again, even if Walz is right, and everyone in this generation of college kids is a soft, delicate snowflake... The other team is made up of snowflakes, too. And if the other coach is better at packing a snowball than Walz is, then the blame isn't on the snowflakes.

The hell with Jeff Walz. Again, if you take his OWN POINTS and apply them to his history, he's a loser. Not my word, not my rationale... His.

"Everybody thinks they should get a job. Everybody thinks they should get a GOOD job! And that's not the way it works!"

Well, how did Jeff get his job? How did this guy, who only played one actual year on the court at Northern Kentucky, get his job? Did the AD at Louisville say: "Hey! I need a guy who averaged 3 minutes a game for a Division 2 school back in 1991 to come in and teach these girls how to be winners!" Did sheer awesomeness, tenacity, and a culture of ruthless meritocracy reward this spare part on a losing team for a shitty program in the Great Lakes Valley Conference 25 years ago with a head coaching job at an ACC school?

No. I actually gave him too much credit earlier when I said he had one winning college season. Jeff finished up his bench career at a D2 school without ever playing for a winning team (LOSER!). Then, he went home to be an assistant coach for a 7th grade boys team. Lucky for Jeff, his little sister was Kentucky's Miss Basketball back in 1996. He steps up to be an assistant for her high school team, and when she verbals to WKU, ol' Jeff gets to tag along as an assistant there. If his sister were two years older, Jeff likely spends the rest of his career gathering up dodgeballs as just another middle school redass coach in too-tight short shorts.

But, he didn't. Jeff rode the coattails of his supremely talented player (as so many high school coaches do) and little sister to a college assistant job. And when the head coach that hired him moved to Nebraska the next year, Jeff tagged along. And as soon as the guy who gave him his college break started struggling at Nebraska, he hopped on another woman's coattails, and rode her success to Minnesota, then to Maryland, and then after a decade he got his own head coaching job.

He's been at Louisville for ten years now. He has a team full of exceptionally talented, highly acclaimed overachievers, just like the little sister who got him through the door in the first place. And he's won almost 3 out of every 4 games he's coached. But whether you're talking Big East, AAC, or ACC...He's never won his conference, he's never won his conference tournament, and he's never even won his division. If he has any coaching trophies, they're the equivalent of the '5th place loser trophy' he's talking about in his rant. And it isn't society's fault.

So, in conclusion... Jeff Walz can take his wagging finger and wave it in the mirror. His roster of superstars got beat, and he says it's because his team didn't have the will to win. And he says it's society's fault, not his. Even though almost every girl on his team had that will to win before they got to his team. Even though every player on Jeff's roster is a better example of achievement, talent, fortitude, success, and not-loserdom than Jeff was at their age.

Jeff Walz blaming society for his team's assumed weak will is as absurd as the old regime here saying that games sell themselves. It's a horseshit rationalization from people who ought to know better. Either he's an idiot because he doesn't realize it, or he's an asshole because he's trying to avoid the blame himself.

If you think society is ruining this generation, the proof of it isn't playing ACC basketball at Louisville. All of those girls have spent their lifetime feasting on Participation Trophy kids and leaving tire tracks on their backs. And if you think Jeff Walz is right when he says that people are too often rewarded with something because of fortune, luck, circumstance, or just soft-hearted surrender to feelings... His entire career is a shining example of it.

This and the Jimmy Johns collection box post are my two favorites post I've read here.

TheTastyGreek · December 6, 2016

42 minutes ago, Army of Dad said:

Tasty comes back to the basketball forum (yay!); posts about women's basketball and generational bias (meh).

Personally, I'm blaming Benford and RV for this terrible turn of events.

Hey, man... I tried to just do jokes.

I blame society.

Censored by Laurie · December 6, 2016

well. Tasty clearly just won this thread...but participation trophies all around for everyone else who chimed in.

Thanks for a great thread and let's all go to CiCi's together in celebration.

meangreenacct · December 6, 2016

17 minutes ago, Censored by Laurie said:

well. Tasty clearly just won this thread...but participation trophies all around for everyone else who chimed in.

Thanks for a great thread and let's all go to CiCi's together in celebration.

Only if you give a speech about the individual contributions of each poster and what makes them special before handing out the trophies...

Censored by Laurie · December 6, 2016

Just now, meangreenacct said:

Only if you give a speech about the individual contributions of each poster and what makes them special before handing out the trophies...

it's been a while since I've been, but does CiCi's serve whiskey?

forevereagle · December 6, 2016

Just going to post here so I can go to CiCis too.

TheTastyGreek · December 6, 2016

9 minutes ago, forevereagle said:

Just going to post here so I can go to CiCis too.

Hop in the suburban with the rest of the gang. Pizza's on CBL. And help yourself to as many trophies as you feel you deserve.

FirefightnRick · December 6, 2016

12 hours ago, TheTastyGreek said:

His POINT was that "you gotta have a will" and that his team didn't show it. He blames it on "everyone gets a trophy". And he's an idiot, or full of shit. More on that after a brief digression to the greater cultural point.

Now, if you want to personally believe that participation ribbons and touchy-feely softness in athletics is a symbol of a weakened, soft generation... You can make an argument for it. I think you can make just as compelling an argument that Kids Today(tm) are on a high-achievement, intense treadmill of pressure to succeed. And the rigorous weeding out process in everything; athletic, academic, social, and otherwise, is more brutal now than ever. Because there are shitty, lazy, mostly worthless kids in every generation, and they'll usually (not always!) grow up to be shitty, lazy, mostly worthless adults. Just like there are high motivation, tenacious kids, sometimes with metaphorical whipmarks on their backs in every generation, and they usually (not always!) grow up to be highly successful, driven and self-motivated achievement-oriented adults. It was true in 1960, and it's true in 2016, and it was true in the 1700s, and it'll be true in another 200 years from now. Kids today that are soft and lazy don't get whipped in the face with a belt buckle. But high achievement kids a generation ago didn't have the same challenges and forge of competitive difficulty that this generation does. And I say that as a guy near 40 who grew up as part of that previous generation.

Anyway, even if you think Kids Today(tm) are wrecked and ruined, hearing this guy make this argument in explaining a loss is horseshit. Because EVEN IF he's right, and every kid in this generation is subject to have-a-hug, trophy-for-everyone wussification... EVERY PLAYER IN THE GENERATION WENT THROUGH IT. You're coaching kids that had that same cultural softening as your opponents. He's in his tenth season at Louisville, and every player on that roster is his, two or three times over and again. He's had some of these women in his program for over a quarter of their entire lives. So, if they're soft and entitled... Why did the opposing coach fix the problem and Walz couldn't?

Now, frankly... I think any kid talented and motivated to wind up playing basketball at Louisville never bothered to keep a Participation trophy, assuming they ever got one. Because you go down that roster, and they're all winners, Frankly, they're bigger winners, more talented, and relatively greater achievers than their whiner coach ever was when he bounced a ball. Walz is coaching at LOUISVILLE. 9 out of his 10 years, he's been recruiting to a Big East or ACC school in the heart of basketball country. How many schools are a clear level above Louisville in women's basketball? I can think of four: UConn, Baylor, Stanford, and Notre Dame. Once upon a time, you could throw Tennessee in there, but I don't think that's true anymore. Otherwise, he's right there with anyone else, and he can have his pick of the talent outside of maybe 5 or 10 girls in any given year. He's not picking through the snowflake pile, even if you're of that mentality about Kids Today(tm). He's picking through All-Americans, kids who've excelled in AAU against rival top talent for most of their lives,

So, if his incoming kids are soft, delicate snowflakes... Who is at fault that he got stuck with them? Pick through your share of the cream of the crop better. Or, if they didn't toughen up in 4 or 5 years under him... Who is at fault for that? Use your years with them to toughen them up.

And who, exactly, on his roster is he accusing of being victim to Participation Trophy Culture? Is it Cortnee Walton? The girl who finished her degree a year and a half ago, that went 30-0 in high school, won a state championship and a national championship in high school, lettered in two different sports beyond basketball, is on track to finish with a grad degree from Louisville, and also won an award for volunteering and civic involvement that only got awarded to five kids in the whole country? All while not missing a single game last season? Is she a delicate snowflake? Because she seems pretty kick ass, and based on all she did before even getting to Louisville... It doesn't seem like she learned it from Jeff Walz.

Again, even if Walz is right, and everyone in this generation of college kids is a soft, delicate snowflake... The other team is made up of snowflakes, too. And if the other coach is better at packing a snowball than Walz is, then the blame isn't on the snowflakes.

The hell with Jeff Walz. Again, if you take his OWN POINTS and apply them to his history, he's a loser. Not my word, not my rationale... His.

"Everybody thinks they should get a job. Everybody thinks they should get a GOOD job! And that's not the way it works!"

Well, how did Jeff get his job? How did this guy, who only played one actual year on the court at Northern Kentucky, get his job? Did the AD at Louisville say: "Hey! I need a guy who averaged 3 minutes a game for a Division 2 school back in 1991 to come in and teach these girls how to be winners!" Did sheer awesomeness, tenacity, and a culture of ruthless meritocracy reward this spare part on a losing team for a shitty program in the Great Lakes Valley Conference 25 years ago with a head coaching job at an ACC school?

No. I actually gave him too much credit earlier when I said he had one winning college season. Jeff finished up his bench career at a D2 school without ever playing for a winning team (LOSER!). Then, he went home to be an assistant coach for a 7th grade boys team. Lucky for Jeff, his little sister was Kentucky's Miss Basketball back in 1996. He steps up to be an assistant for her high school team, and when she verbals to WKU, ol' Jeff gets to tag along as an assistant there. If his sister were two years older, Jeff likely spends the rest of his career gathering up dodgeballs as just another middle school redass coach in too-tight short shorts.

But, he didn't. Jeff rode the coattails of his supremely talented player (as so many high school coaches do) and little sister to a college assistant job. And when the head coach that hired him moved to Nebraska the next year, Jeff tagged along. And as soon as the guy who gave him his college break started struggling at Nebraska, he hopped on another woman's coattails, and rode her success to Minnesota, then to Maryland, and then after a decade he got his own head coaching job.

He's been at Louisville for ten years now. He has a team full of exceptionally talented, highly acclaimed overachievers, just like the little sister who got him through the door in the first place. And he's won almost 3 out of every 4 games he's coached. But whether you're talking Big East, AAC, or ACC...He's never won his conference, he's never won his conference tournament, and he's never even won his division. If he has any coaching trophies, they're the equivalent of the '5th place loser trophy' he's talking about in his rant. And it isn't society's fault.

So, in conclusion... Jeff Walz can take his wagging finger and wave it in the mirror. His roster of superstars got beat, and he says it's because his team didn't have the will to win. And he says it's society's fault, not his. Even though almost every girl on his team had that will to win before they got to his team. Even though every player on Jeff's roster is a better example of achievement, talent, fortitude, success, and not-loserdom than Jeff was at their age.

Jeff Walz blaming society for his team's assumed weak will is as absurd as the old regime here saying that games sell themselves. It's a horseshit rationalization from people who ought to know better. Either he's an idiot because he doesn't realize it, or he's an asshole because he's trying to avoid the blame himself.

If you think society is ruining this generation, the proof of it isn't playing ACC basketball at Louisville. All of those girls have spent their lifetime feasting on Participation Trophy kids and leaving tire tracks on their backs. And if you think Jeff Walz is right when he says that people are too often rewarded with something because of fortune, luck, circumstance, or just soft-hearted surrender to feelings... His entire career is a shining example of it.

Looks like Jeff got his job doing a good job at Western Kentucky, then did a good job since. He's taken two teams to the National Championship. So he's done well and his message is spot on.

Rick