Coach Jeff Walz confirmed the junior guard’s exit from the program one day before the No. 3-seed Cardinals open the Women’s NCAA Tournament against Vermont
The day before a team opens the NCAA Tournament is supposed to be about final walkthroughs, travel logistics, and the kind of quiet focus that March demands. For the Louisville women’s basketball program, today brought something else entirely.
Coach Jeff Walz confirmed that junior guard Skylar Jones is no longer with the program and will not play any part in the Cardinals’ postseason run. Her biography page was removed from the Louisville athletics website shortly after the announcement. Walz offered little in the way of explanation beyond saying the split was best for both sides, and that is where the public information ends.
Who Skylar Jones was for Louisville this season
Jones arrived at Louisville as a transfer from Arizona, where she spent her first two college seasons before joining the Cardinals. She brought experience and versatility to a backcourt that leaned heavily on its bench contributors, and she appeared in all 34 games this season as a reserve. She averaged 8.4 points, 2.9 rebounds, 1.1 assists, and 1.5 steals per game, scoring in double figures 15 times across the year.
Her best moments came early. She dropped 21 points in a win over Colorado, scored 20 against Ball State, and delivered 17 in an overtime victory at North Carolina State. At her peak, she looked like exactly the kind of reserve weapon a tournament-caliber team wants in its rotation.
The latter portion of the season told a different story. Over her final five games, Jones averaged just 9.2 minutes and 4.8 points. In the ACC Tournament, she played seven minutes in a win over North Carolina and just four minutes in the title game loss to Duke. The writing had been on the wall for weeks, even if the formal exit still arrived with a jolt given the timing.
Walz says the rotation will not miss a beat
To hear Walz tell it, the Cardinals have more than enough to work with heading into the postseason. He pointed to the depth and quality of the players still on the roster, noting that Mackenly Randolph played the full 45 minutes of the ACC championship game without running out of gas. His message was clear: the team is not thin, and it does not need to panic.
Louisville also has genuine star power coming off the bench in the form of ACC Sixth Player of the Year Imari Berry, who averaged 11.2 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 2.7 assists per game this season. If the Cardinals are going to go on a deep run, Berry will almost certainly be central to it, and Jones’ departure does not change that equation.
What comes next for a team with real expectations
Louisville enters the Women’s NCAA Tournament as a No. 3 seed with a 27 and 7 record, and they open at home at the KFC Yum! Center against No. 14-seed Vermont, which also finished 27 and 7 on the year. Tip-off is set for noon on Saturday, March 21, on ESPN. Being a heavy favorite in the first round gives the Cardinals some runway to find their footing even amid the distraction of a last-minute roster change.
The home-court advantage matters here. Playing in Louisville in front of a crowd that has followed this team all season could be exactly the kind of environment that helps the group refocus quickly and move past the noise of the past 24 hours.
For Skylar Jones, no next steps have been publicly announced. Whether she pursues another transfer opportunity or takes a different path remains to be seen. She leaves behind a season with real highlights and a program that is turning its full attention to what comes next.
For Louisville, the tournament starts now, one player lighter and with a lot left to prove.
Story credit: el-balad