The coach called senior All-American Angel McCoughtry an "embarrassment" at halftime of Louisville's national semifinal against Oklahoma.

In one of her first practices before the season, freshman Becky Burke was relegated to pouring about 50 cups of water because she wasn't following instructions.

"They just continued practicing. It was embarrassing," says Burke, a reserve guard who hit two key three-pointers in Sunday's 61-59 comeback win that elevated the Cardinals to their first appearance in the title game tonight vs. Connecticut.

Candyce Bingham, Louisville's other senior All-American, is fortunate. "He's really not that hard on me," she says of the second-year coach. "But he's brutally honest to the point where you want to leave and not come back.

"No one has done that though."

To a player, Walz's bluntness is a key motivational tool for a team with six freshmen on the roster — two in the starting lineup — that he likens to the Bad News Bears. None was an All-American coming out of high school:

•McCoughtry originally signed to play at St. John's.

•Bingham is a castoff from Xavier, where she'd sat on the bench.

•Burke originally committed to South Carolina.

•Desereé Byrd is a shooting guard who doesn't really want to play the point.

Still, the Cardinals posed a unified front, knocking off two No. 1 seeds (Maryland, Oklahoma) and a No. 2 seed (Baylor) en route to the title game.

"We keep it real," Walz said. "I've always been a big believer in being honest with players.

"We might not have been the most talented team on the floor the past four games that we've played. But we've been the tougher team and the team with more heart."

Louisville (34-4) is faced with a monumental task tonight. The Huskies (38-0) have won every game this season by double digits, including 93-65 and 75-36 against the Cardinals.

"I told our kids after our UConn game in the Big East finals, 'When you walk out of here, if your parents tell you that you did a good job, they're lying to you. Just tell them you were awful.'

"I'm not trying to find 15 new friends. I'm there to coach a basketball team. What I do care about is when they walk off the floor they respect me."

Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma will be going for his sixth national championship. He's 5-0 in national title games, and his team is No. 1 nationally in field goal percentage, scoring offense and scoring margin. In five tournament games, UConn has won by an average of 25.8 points.

Walz concedes that the Huskies have a better team.

"What we have to do is find a way to play better for 40 minutes," he said. "That's it."

Enlarge By Mark Humphrey, AP Louisville coach Jeff Walz, talking to Angel McCoughtry during Sunday's semifinal against Oklahoma, called his All-American forward an "embarrassment" during his halftime speech. "I've always been a big believer in being honest with players."