Despite Mounting Losses, Kenny Payne Doesn't Believe Louisville Has Quit
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Another day, another blowout loss for the Louisville men's basketball program.
Halfway through their slate of ACC games, the Cardinals are not only still searching for their first win against league competition, but are continuing to make history for their futility. Following a 76-62 loss on Saturday at Notre Dame, Louisville has matched their longest losing streak of the modern era at 10 games, and one more loss will mark their longest since World War II.
"We played with a lot of lack of energy, which is disappointing," head coach Kenny Payne said after the game. "We played with a lack of pride for what Louisville is. I'm very upset about that. I want more. I want guys to not feel like it's okay to let guys just constantly beat you one-on-one and constantly drive you to spots, constantly move the ball and have no respect for you. When you step on the court, it's bigger than basketball. It's not the YMCA league, or a summer league, or something like this. You're playing, and people are watching you."
As if sporting a 2-19 overall record isn't bad enough, recently, the losses have become even more unfathomable for a program as proud as Louisville's. After seemingly making progress in the energy and effort department earlier this month, it's almost nowhere to be found now. Louisville suffered back-to-back 20-point losses against North Carolina and Pitt. They lost by 10 to a Boston College team that KenPom has lowest-ranked team in the ACC not named Louisville. Most recently against the Irish, they found themselves trailing by as much as a 30 to a team who had just one win the ACC.
With just over a month left in the season, and the losses only continuing to get more emphatic, one might draw a conclusion that Louisville has already thrown in the towel on an already long-lost season. However, if you ask Payne, even with the apparent - and sometimes blatant - lack of overall in-game energy, he doesn't believe that to be the case.
"I'm not the guy to keep elephants in the room. For me, if I smell it if, I think it, if I hear about it, I'm bringing it up," he said after he was asked if he thinks the team has quit. "After the game, I asked them, 'Is this too much? Do you feel like you've let go?' To a man, they all said no."
For Payne, it's not so much that the players have actually quit, but that it is perceived that they have based off of their body language alone. Actions such as slumped shoulders, a head down, or even communication not being as constant as Payne wants it to be.
"I said to them, 'then you're misinformed on what what your body's saying vs. what your words are saying'." he said following the Notre Dame game. "There are times when we have players that you look at them with the eye, and you see that they look like they've given up. But in their mind, they don't believe they look like that. Well, that's a problem. And we address that problem. So, am I saying that they've given up? No, I don't believe they given up. I just think this is hard."
To Payne's credit, there is some evidence that Louisville hasn't quite mailed it in yet. While the Cardinals did manage to get down by as much as 30 points in the second half against the Fighting Irish, for a while, it looked like they might come back from that massive hole.
Partially, that is because Payne threw some wrinkles to his lineup. Emmanuel Okorafor, who made his debut against the Irish after joining the team less than two weeks ago, played 15 minutes in the second half. Fabio Basili and Devin Ree, two guys who have barely seen the court this season, played a combined 17 minutes. The only starters to play double digit minutes in the second half were Mike James and El Ellis, who wound up being Louisville's only double-digit scorers for the game.
This was no accident. It got to a point where Payne wanted to give a majority of Louisville's minutes to guys that he believed would give him the most energy on the court. And for a while, it worked.
"I needed guys on the floor to bring energy," he said. "I can't just leave you out there, and you don't have the energy, you don't have the pop or you're not talking. ... I need them to know that they're in a battle. I need them to know that nothing is going to be easy."
Even if the players had gotten to the point where they had quit, that's not an option for Payne, and the way in which he conducts practices is a non-negotiable. No matter how hard it gets for Louisville, or how many losses the Cardinals pile up, he's still going to fight for his players and make sure he gets the most out of them.
"I think that for some of these guys, this is new," he said. "Instead of just playing basketball, we are trying to get you to play winning basketball. ... There's a lot to this, and we have guys that are still struggling to grasp it.
"I love them, though. I love them and I want them to get it, and I'm not letting go. If they have a tendency, or if there's a thought of giving up, then this will become torture. Because we're going to practice a certain way, and I'm gonna demand that you play a certain way."
(Photo of Kenny Payne, Louisville Players: Matt Stone - Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK
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