Coaches react to Close's comments on grind

There's been plenty of reaction to UCLA coach Cori Close saying she doesn't know how much longer she can continue in the new NCAA environment.

"I've never been as tired as I've been in the last two years, and it's made me think how much longer I can do this," said Close, who will lead No. 1 seed UCLA against fourth-seeded Minnesota on Friday in the Sacramento Region 2 semifinal. "And I'm just being transparent with you about that. There are so many things that are harder, and we keep losing incredible people on the men's and the women's side."

Louisville coach Jeff Walz didn't sound close to retirement when the 54-year-old in his 19th season with the Cardinals was told of Close's comments.

"I'm friends with Cori," Walz said. "My favorite line, I would tell her, if you don't like your job, find a new job. I mean, I'm listening this morning at 4:20 as the workers outside my window at the hotel in the street are working. I mean, you choose your profession. If you don't like it, find a new profession."

Walz was speaking before 8 a.m. Texas time Friday morning, the day before the Cardinals play Michigan in the Sweet 16 of the Fort Worth Regional 3.

"I mean, of course, it's a lot of work, but we chose to do it and we get compensated for it," Walz said. "I don't think anybody is going to feel too sorry for us that you might be tired. I'm tired, too, but who is not?"

Close has been coaching for 33 years, 15 at UCLA, but NIL and the transfer portal have drastically changed the game.

Some longtime coaches have stepped down over the past few seasons for a variety of reasons, including for health issues. Others have mulled retirement.

Three-time champ Dawn Staley has seen it all in her 26 seasons. Speaking from Sacramento where her South Carolina team takes on Oklahoma in a Sweet 16 game tomorrow, she said:

"We're in a world where it's transactional. ... NIL has really changed everything. It really has changed how you have to move day to day. You have to make sure psychologically our kids are in a good place, mentally, that they're in a good place -- and their parents.

"You're actually having to do a lot of work. If you're not used that part of it, it will run you out of the business, because it's no longer just coaching. I welcome the two hours that we get to be on the court because nothing else enters into that space at that time. It's the 22 hours beyond that that you have to really go in and exhaust yourself making sure that everybody's good, from day to day, from week to week and definitely in the postseason.

"I welcome change. I like challenges. I like to figure out things and still find a way to be successful. I think when that leaves me, then I know it's time for me to move on."

Wolverines coach Kim Barnes Arico said coaching fatigue is less about age and more about adaptation.

"A few years ago when all this started to come into play, I knew as a coach and I talked to our players and I talked to our staff, times are changing," Barnes Arico said. "We need to evolve. We need to grow. We need to step up to the challenges, because if we can't, the game, the landscape, all of it is going to pass us by."

Kentucky coach Kenny Brooks said given the changes to the landscape, the experience in the Sweet 16 this year is completely different than his experience when he was the head coach at Virginia Tech at the 2023 Final Four.

"We went to the Final Four three years ago, and I remember during this time, it was moments to just really reflect," Brooks said. "You had an opportunity to just really look at the police escort that you had coming in and you got to embrace it. We won our game last week; the next day we were meeting for hours and hours and hours about recruiting and what's next.

"It's ever-changing, and that's the frustrating part, because you can never get a grasp on any of it. You think that you have it. Then all of a sudden, it's like somebody pulls a rug out and says, 'No, we're changing it,' and now it's going to be this way now. We want to get out ahead of everything, but we can't. We always seem like we're one step behind because there are so many changes."

While some coaches are outspoken on the changing landscape, Duke coach Kara Lawson deflected discussing the state of the game.

"I don't know that I'm looking to be, like, the voice of the sport or anything like that. That's not a goal of mine. I think there's plenty of other people out there that do a great job of being that," she said. "For me, I've been in college basketball, I guess this is my sixth year. When I came, everything started changing. So I don't have a view of the old way because I wasn't in coaching the old way. Just change has been what's been standard for me."

Information from ESPN's Andrea Adelson and The Associated Press was used in this report.