Women's college basketball: As the ACC struggles, Louisville positions itself as the league's team to beat

Any way you slice it, this is looking to be a down season for ACC women's basketball. At the start of the season, five ACC teams were ranked in the AP Top 25, with Duke and NC State leading the way at No. 7 and No. 9, respectively. Seven weeks later, both Duke and N.C. State have fallen completely out of the Top 25 and only three ACC teams remain: Louisville at No. 16, North Carolina at No. 18 and Notre Dame at No. 19.

Yes, that would be the Louisville Cardinals sitting at the top of the ACC almost two months into the season.

It's not exactly a surprise that Louisville is in the mix -- as head coach Jeff Walz is quick to remind everyone, Louisville was first in the ACC from 2017-2021 and from 2017-2023, the Cardinals made five straight Elite Eights and two Final Fours. But the last two seasons have been comparatively down years -- the Cardinals finished fifth in the ACC in 2024 and fourth in 2025, and had two consecutive first-weekend losses in the NCAA tournament. Perhaps that explains why they were ranked fourth in the ACC preseason poll.

Louisville is 10-3 on the season, but all three of their losses came against quality opponents – No. 1 UConn on opening day, No. 20 Kentucky in an in-state rivalry game and No. 3 South Carolina. The Cardinals turned a lot of heads when they pushed the Gamecocks to the brink before falling 79-77. 

Then on Sunday night in Chapel Hill, Louisville got its first ranked win of the season, taking down then-No. 11 North Carolina in overtime, 76-66. This Saturday, Louisville will get a chance to get another top 25 win when it faces No. 17 Tennessee at the Women's Champions Classic at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Heading into the nonstop conference play of January and February, it's worth considering not just that Louisville might be one of the best teams in the underperforming ACC, but that they might be one of the top 10 teams in the country before all is said and done and a real threat to make it to the ninth Elite Eight of the Walz era.

Here are a few reasons why Louisville is the early-season ACC frontrunner:

Six of last year's elite freshmen class returned

Roster turnover is a way of life in college sports these days, and Louisville is not immune -- in fact, the Cardinals faced one of their starters from last season, Nyla Harris, in Chapel Hill on Sunday. But Louisville actually has a lot of roster consistency from last year, with seven returnees. This means that the Cardinals have players who know Walz's system, know the conference and, perhaps most importantly, know each other on and off the court. And these are high-pedigree players.

In 2024, the Cardinals had the sixth-best recruiting class in the nation, per ESPN. Of those seven standout freshmen, six returned to Louisville this season, including Tajianna Roberts, who led the team in minutes as a freshman and came into this season on the Naismith Trophy Women's Player of the Year Watch List, the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award Watch List and as a Preseason All-ACC selection. She's leading the team with 13 points per game right now, and after a slow start to the season in the UConn game, she has shown up when it matters the most, scoring 22 points against Kentucky, 20 against South Carolina and notching 11 points, four assists and four steals against North Carolina.

Another notable player from that elite recruiting class is Imari Berry. Even though Berry is still coming off of the bench like she did last season, she's averaging 9.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.4 steals in 21.2 minutes per game, all massive increases from last season. She hit several key shots down the stretch against the Tar Heels, and while Walz is still trying to get her to eliminate in-game mistakes, he's bullish on her potential.

"She's a kid that if she can figure it out, that she can be one of the best players in this league and one of the best players in college basketball, because she can do things that others can't, athletically, and she's so smooth," Walz said.

Elif Istanbulluoglu took a major leap

This is Turkish junior Elif Istanbulluoglu's third year at Louisville, and it is already far and away her most productive season. Last season, she came off the bench and only averaged three points and two rebounds in 13 minutes per game. This year, she is a starter averaging 8.8 points and 4.8 rebounds per game. 

In the win against North Carolina, the 6-foot-3 forward had a career-high 16 points. 

"I thought Elif played extremely well. She made a couple big time shots. She's been getting in the gym, working on her 3, and it's starting to show and that allows us to spread the floor more," Walz said.

This summer, Walz was the assistant coach for the Turkish national team, and so got to spend more time with Istanbulluoglu and see her development up close.

Walz told reporters that last season, he joked with Istanbulluoglu that her middle name was "but," because she would always come up with excuses not to put in extra work. But this year, she told him she wasn't going to say "but" anymore. Things seemed to click for her this summer with the national team, when she would see the pros on her team go to the gym before practice, put up extra shots after practice and painstakingly take care of their bodies.

"She has dedicated herself to that, and it's what's changed it all," Walz said. "She realizes she has seen success now because she's putting the time in, and that, to me, is what it's all about."

Transfer Laura Ziegler is making a big impact

Laura Ziegler was one of the most noteworthy transfers into the ACC this season, and she's living up to the hype -- and then some -- early on. 

The senior from Denmark spent the first three years of her collegiate career at Saint Joseph's, where she averaged 17.5 points, 10.4 rebounds and 4.3 assists last season and was a Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year finalist.

While her stats aren't as eye-popping this season, in part because her minutes are down due to the lopsided nature of many of Louisville's wins and in part because she's surrounded by more talent on the Cardinals than she was with the Hawks, she is still making a massive impact with 11.6 points, 7.4 rebounds and 2.6 assists. Last week she was named the ACC Co-Player of the Week.

Against North Carolina, she was a key force in getting Louisville early control of the game, scoring 13 of her season-high 17 points in the first quarter. Though her offensive production slowed down after that, Walz was incredibly pleased with how she played the entire game. 

He pointed out that she's a veteran player who is able to positively influence the game even when she isn't scoring -- and since the team is still so young, her experience is invaluable.

"What I appreciate about Laura is she didn't force any shots. She played 42 minutes for us, had two assists, zero turnovers and played a great basketball game," he said.