Louisville's tournament run ends, but Asia Durr's legacy will live on
Where do you start when summing up the career of an all-time great? If you ask Asia Durr's teammates, they suggest at the very top.
"No. 25 should go in the rafters for sure," Durr's teammate, Jazmine Jones, said in the locker room after Louisville's season-ending 80-73 loss to Connecticut in the Elite Eight.
Durr shook off a slow start in the game and finished with 21 points in the game, with 18 coming after halftime when the team was fighting to come back against a hot-shooting UConn team. It was the final chapter in a career full of records, accomplishments and accolades.
Among her numerous awards, Durr was named the ACC Player of the Year twice. She was a three-time first-team All-ACC selection. In 2018, she was named an Associated Press, USA Today, WBCA and USBWA first-team All-American. Over her four years with the Cardinals, Durr scored 2,485 career points, which ranks second in program history behind five-time WNBA All-Star Angel McCoughtry's 2,779.
Even more impressive than her point totals was how and when Durr scored them. In 2018, she scored 47 points in an overtime win against a top-10 Ohio State team, breaking the school's single-game scoring record. She repeated the feat on senior night, this time against then-No. 10 North Carolina State.
Durr also lead the team in scoring for two of the biggest home victories in program history, scoring 36 points in Louisville's 2018 rout of Notre Dame and 24 points in the Cardinals' regular-season win over Connecticut.
"She's Asia Durr. She can score under pressure. Shots that you wouldn't think she would make, not that she wouldn't make, but that other people wouldn't make," Louisville forward Sam Fuehring said. "One of the greats. Up there with Angel. Up there with Shoni (Schimmel). I'm so happy for her."
Durr was a key part of two of the best back-to-back seasons in program history맥스카지노a Final Four run in 2018 and an Elite Eight run this year. The tournament runs capped off two regular-season conference championships맥스카지노both shared with Notre Dame맥스카지노and included the ACC tournament title a year ago.
"Everybody in the community should appreciate Asia. The community, the city, the state of Kentucky should appreciate Asia for everything she's done for this program. She could have gone anywhere in the world, but she chose Louisville," Jones said.
"You go back and you look at Angel McCoughtry, Shoni Schimmel, Asia Durr. We've been spoiled in women's basketball with those three to watch," Louisville head coach Jeff Walz said. "It's been fun. She's a remarkable player, and, as I've said, as good of a player as she is, she's an even better person."
After the loss to UConn, Durr wanted one last chance to address the team as a whole. She thanked them for the experience and told her younger teammates to soak in each day because the four years passes quickly.
"This is a second home," Durr said. "I'm just thankful for everybody in my circle. What they've done for me. They've cheered me on even through my bad nights, through my bad games. I'm just so thankful."