Louisville women's basketball coach Jeff Walz on coughing up late lead in ACC tournament to Miami -- 'My fault'

Louisville women's basketball coach Jeff Walz took the blame Friday after his team saw their sizeable late lead evaporate on their way to suffering a stunning 61-59 upset to Miami in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.

Louisville had a chance to win the game after leading by 15 points with just 5:44 remaining, but Miami scored the final 17 points of the game. Harden sealed the win with a jumper at the buzzer.

Louisville lost before the semifinals for the first time since joining the Atlantic Coast Conference. We took some poor shots, didn't defend, and didn't guard. We did everything we could to allow them to come back in the game.

I am not going to blame these kids. It is my fault. I learned a valuable lesson as a coach today.

The committee of the NCAA Division I women's basketball revealed their third and final brackets on Monday, and Louisville was one of the top four seeds. It could fall from the one-line if the Bears go deep in the Big 12 tournament.

The 10th time this season that a team lost after entering the fourth quarter with at least a 14-point lead, and Louisville is the only team that has been on the losing end of multiple such games. In January, the NC State Wolfpack came back from a 16-point deficit and outscored the Cards 31-8 in the fourth.

The first possession of the game is just as important as the last possession of the game, according to Walz. I don't know what to do for them if this doesn't sit in your gut and piss you off.

Kianna Smith shared her coach's frustration at letting another big lead disappear.

She said there was no question about it. This is the second time that has happened to us this year, and we have to learn from it and make changes.

In the final five minutes of the game, the Cards went 0 for 5 from the field and committed five turnovers. After Miami cut the deficit to eight with 3:25 to play, Walz had four of his five starters back in.

I didn't like it. I had some bad combinations that threw everything off balance.

Harden scored 15 of her 27 in the Hurricanes run of 17 unanswered points to propel them to victory.

"Safe to say we're off the bubble?" Miami coach Katie Meier asked. Is it possible that Destiny went on a 14-0 run by herself? Is that true? Wow.