The ACC stated on Tuesday that Jeff Walz would face a public reprimand and the University of Louisville would be fined $20,000 for comments Walz made criticizing officiating during U of L’s 73-72 loss to Syracuse on Sunday.
The following is the official release from the ACC headquarters, released Tuesday afternoon:
“The Atlantic Coast Conference issued a public reprimand to Louisville women’s basketball coach Jeff Walz for violating the ACC Sportsmanship Policy following the game against Syracuse on February 11.” In addition, the league said that Louisville has received an institutional fine of $20,000 for the infringement. The levied institutional fine will be deposited into the Weaver-James-Corrigan-Swofford Postgraduate Scholarship account.
Walz’s postgame statements about the referees were a flagrant violation of the ACC Sportsmanship Policy, which specifies that “public criticism of officials or public comments evaluating the officiating of specific contests is not in the best interests of intercollegiate athletics.” Individuals affiliated with the athletics program are consequently barred from commenting on officiating while operating in an official capacity, except directly to the Conference office.”
Walz criticized a deliberate foul call against Louisville’s Olivia Cochran, which allowed Syracuse to sink the game-winning free throws with only 2.7 seconds remaining. The Cardinals’ loss prevented them from tying Virginia Tech for first place in the ACC standings.
“It was a God-awful call,” Walz explained. “The officiating was horrible. They should feel humiliated. But you know what? I’ll receive my fine. I am confident I will receive a letter of reprimand. But at this point, someone needs to start holding officials accountable. That was the worst call I’ve witnessed in my 29 years of coaching. If we start calling that, every foul at the end of a game that a team is forced to commit is purposeful. Every foul is. We all know what it is. But calling it in a one-point game with 2.5 seconds left is just horrible. It’s horrible. It is embarrassing. It is embarrassing for our league. But we’ll never hear about it since it’s such a hallowed society that we can’t ever publicly criticize an official, God forbid. However, we will penalize coaches and call out players. But there are three individuals out there, and God forbid we come out and say a league made a statement that it was a blown call, a terrible call. “We will not do that.”
Worth it.
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