Notebook: Kenny Payne on Offseason Improvements, Roster Additions and More

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - It has been an eventful offseason for the Louisville men's basketball program.

Not long after the Cardinals' season ended back in March, head coach Kenny Payne and his staff got to work flipping the roster. While Louisville did lose seven players to the transfer portal, Payne and Co. were able to supplant the departures with several talented portal and high school additions.

On Friday, Payne spoke to the local media for the first time since falling in the ACC Tournament. He answered a plethora of questions regarding the newcomers, how the program has improved overall since last season, and more.

Below are some of the more significant takeaways from his nearly 45-minute press conference:

Payne is aware of the pressure and expectations to win, but is still adamant on sticking to "the process."

At this point, the gory details regarding last season for the Cardinals are very well documented. Payne's first season at the helm was the worst season in the modern history of the program, with their 4-28 record setting the mark for most losses in a single season at Louisville by a wide margin.

As you can imagine, the pressure to turn things around and get Louisville back to their winning ways has only gotten higher with time. Payne knows this as well as anyone does, but in order for wins to come, he says he first has to get his guys to understand "the process of winning."

"Listen, elephant in the room guys. I know we got to win games," he said. "Every single time we take the floor, our job is to win games. But, I am building a program. I am changing a culture. In order to do that, I got to first get them to understand the process of winning. That's more important than saying, 'let's just win this game.' If I bring nine new guys in this program, and I only talk about wins and losses, and not the process, how can I, in my mind, have sustained success?"

For Payne, the "process of winning" is essentially understanding the sacrifices that players have to make in order to be elite from both a personal and a team standpoint, and not cheating the system or finding shortcuts.

"I believe the process helps you win, not just winning," he said. "I want this program to be good every single year. In order to do that, the process of telling kids the truth. The process of working kids harder than they've ever worked in their life so that they appreciate the work ethic. The process of doing everything in this program that's needed, so that they feel good about being at Louisville, from the way we eat, to where they sleep, to how we train, to the truth that we tell them, to making them play basketball and work on their games in a way that they never even thought about before."

For fans that might not be exercising patience towards the way that Payne is operating the program, he believes that if he can inject stability into a program that has been anything but stable for over half a decade, more widespread support will follow.

"I gotta make sure that there's a stableness to this program, that there's not hiccups in the road," he said. "So that people know that there won't be, 'What's next?' Now, the 'what's next?' is basketball and winning, not a scandal, not somebody does something stupid. There won't be that. I think people will support if we're stable as a program, and they know we're doing the right things."

Louisville newcomers are embracing work ethic, displaying coachability and competing at an extremely high level.

As has been previously mentioned many times this offseason, Payne and his coaching staff landed an impressive haul of newcomers for next season, bringing in nine overall.

They are set to bring in transfers Skyy Clark, Tre White and Danilo Jovanovich; 2023 prospects Dennis Evans, Trentyn Flowers, Kaleb Glenn, Curtis Williams Jr. and Ty-Laur Johnson; plus JUCO transfer Koron Davis. According to 247Sports, their high school recruiting class comes in at No. 5 nationally, while their transfer class is 27th.

Obviously, this collection of talent means nothing if they don't put in the work. Fortunately, not only are they welcoming Payne's insane work ethic with open arms, they are being 100 percent receptive to coaching.

"I like the fact that they are gym rats, and have work ethic across the board," Payne said, "They all are unbelievable in the gym, and focus. I like the fact that they listen, and I'm constantly talking about the ability to listen and apply."

Part of that has been the influence of the transfers that came in, and the prior experiences they have. Clark and White were starters as true freshman at Illinois and USC, respectively, while Jovanovich went to a Final Four at Miami.

"All three of those guys come in from winning situation, so they understand the sacrifice that it takes to win," Payne said. "I'm happy about the transfers that have came in here because of that. And, they're hungry to be a part of this, and to help this program get back to where it needs to be."

As a result, competition during practices have been extremely fierce amongst both the newcomers as a team as a whole. With the amount of team-wide talent, no longer is there any complacency, and playing time is far from a given for anyone.

"Sometimes they lose their mind a little bit when they're playing against each other, because you look to your left, you look to your right, guess what? I'm not head and shoulders better than this guy," Payne said. "I look to my right and I say, 'Oh my god, he's just as good as me. If I don't play well, coach is gonna see me get whipped.' That's what's happening in our practices."

The returners from last season are taking steps forward in their own ways.

With so many new faces on the team, Louisville doesn't have many returners from last year's debacle. In fact, there are only four scholarship players that back for year two under Payne: Mike James, Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, J.J. Traynor and Emmanuel Okorafor.

That being said, since these players know what it is like to be at rock bottom, they have each taken step forward in their own unique ways to make sure that Louisville does not have another season like last year.

James appears to have taken the most noticeable and vocal of the leadership roles among the newcomers, according to Payne. On top of that, he is continuing to improve his own skillset and usefulness on the team.

"He has worked so hard on his ball handling, on his shooting. that I could put him all over the court now, and he'd be comfortable. I like that," Payne said. "And, his ability to lead when he's never been in a position in college to lead. Now, he's vocal now. He's dragging guys along and telling guys, 'Stay away from this, we can't do this, we got to eat right, we got to train right, go harder.' That's leadership."

Traynor, who has struggled at times with his confidence and finding his voice, has taken a large forward in this department. Now, he operating physically and mentally, at an energetic level, and can properly concentrate on playing the game of basketball.

"No longer am I watching him hold his head down when he misses a shot," Payne said. "I'm watching him now have the confidence to get past it. To just play basketball, knowing that his success is predicated on how he digests energy."

After joining midway through last season and struggling with injuries and adjusting to college basketball, Okorafor has benefitting immensely from not only a full offseason of preparation, but also his time in Canada at GLOBL JAM.

"He worked hard, and this summer, he goes to Canada and he performs," Payne said. "People look at him and say, 'Wow." The people from NBA Africa say, 'Wow, he's gotten better.' I like that."

Harkening back to the days under Rick Pitino, Huntley-Hatfield has made significant progress when it comes to toning his physique. After playing the entire 2022-23 season at around 15 to 20 percent body fat, Payne says that Huntley-Hatfield is now down to eight percent.

"I love that," Payne said. "That means he's he's understanding what I'm trying to do.

Payne believes that the roster overhaul will elevate what he is trying to do from an X's and O's standpoint.

One aspect of last season that many, whether they be fans or media, were critical of was Payne's actual in-game management and strategy. Even with an entire season under his belt, it is still hard to completely identify what Payne wants to do on either side of the court.

Heading into next season, when asked what is going to be carrying over from last season, Payne said that much of his actual philosophy is going to remain the same. He believes that, with a roster that is unquestionably much more talented than that of last season's, some of what he wants to run on both ends will be more evident.

"The philosophy doesn't change," he said. "The fact that we didn't have the success that we wanted to have last year, well, we should be better this year. We have to be better this year, I understand that. I'm not scrapping what I was doing, what I'm doing is saying, I brought in a better product, and more of a better product."

On defense, Payne believes that side of the court will be much better by default because, not only to they have more talent and more depth, but because the players are buying in. It's all about giving as much effort as they can, whether it's in man-to-man or zone defense, controlling the tempo and creating havoc.

"If you create havoc, and you control the tempo, and we push it, then now I can play more numbers," he said. "We have to not allow the offense to run their offense, and be smooth. Sort of like Bellarmine did to us. To just move the ball and wait for us to make a mistake and burn us. Well, no. Now you create the situation where you're controlling offense."

Over on offense, it's a lot of the same messaging: play fast and be versatile. However, given how often Louisville turned the ball over a season ago, becoming a much better passing team is priority No. 1.

"None of that matters if you can't pass the ball to each other," he said. "So offensively, I need a group that's a very good passing team. Then, I think we have the ingredients to be a winning basketball team."

But if some of what he is trying to run doesn't work, Payne isn't going to handcuff himself. He's open to branching out and trying new tactics if the situation calls for it.

"I'm not the coach that's going to be uncomfortable trying new things," he said. "I'm not that guy. Whatever it takes to win, I want to do. Then we'll figure it out. We got to get better man to man defense? We'll figure that out at practice, and go from there."

(Photo of Kenny Payne: Jamie Rhodes - USA TODAY Sports)

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