The University of Louisville women’s basketball team lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament last month.
The Cardinals finished the season 22-11 and lost to TCU in the second round. U of L won 20 or more games for the 15th straight season, which is the fifth-longest active streak in the nation, and made their 14th straight trip to the NCAA Tournament and 16th in 17 seasons under Jeff Walz.But this roster rebuild has been different than in the past for Walz and his staff. The Cardinals used the transfer portal for two seasons to plug holes and then last season only took one player from the portal but had eight true freshmen on their roster. This time, the Cardinals are losing four seniors and have had three players hit the portal. U of L also lost associate head coach Stephanie Norman, who resigned after 18 years in the same job on Walz’s staff at U of L.
Walz and his staff have two incoming freshmen players and will look to fill the rest of the spots from the portal. The first portal addition was from Arizona guard Skylar Jones, who committed to the Cardinals on April 4 with Reyna Scott and Laura Ziegler joining her soon after.
Cardinal Authority will keep you posted on everything Walz and his staff are doing with the roster. Below we look at the roster, departures, portal entries, portal targets, and new additions for the roster heading into the 2025-26 season
.END OF ELIGIBILITY
The only following players on the Louisville roster exhausted all of their eligibility:
F – Olivia Cochran – Cochran started in all 33 games this season, averaging 10.4 points and 6.7 rebounds a game. She finished her career at Louisville with a program record 167 games played and was third with 1,058 career rebounds, and 11th with 1,601 career points.
F – Merissah Russell – Russell played in 31 games and made four starts this season, averaging 4.4 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 1.2 assists a game. She finished her career 12th on the school’s all-time list with 139 games played.
G – Ja’Leah Williams – A one-year transfer from Miami, Williams started all 33 games and averaged 6.7 points, 4.3 rebounds, and a team-best 3.3 assists a game.
G – Jayda Curry – A two-year transfer from California, Curry led the team with 14.4 points a game. She had 3.2 assists a game and hit 58 three-pointers. Curry had a school-record 41 points in an NCAA Tournament game when she hit 6 of 12 three-pointers in the loss to TCU.
Now, it’s time to build for next season
