What Kenny Payne, Louisville Players Said After 79-54 Loss vs. Maryland
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Playing in their first game following the Maui Invitational, the Louisville men's basketball program was once again blown out of the water, falling 79-54 to Maryland in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge to extend their winless start to the season.
Here's what head coach Kenny Payne, guards El Ellis and Fabio Basili had to say following the loss:
Head Coach Kenny Payne
(Opening Statement)
“First all, Maryland is a very good team. They played really well. About the second half, the last thing I said to the guys before walking out on the court was the first five minutes was: ‘fight and be desperate and don’t let them make a run’. Those were the last words I said and then Maryland made three or four straight threes and we turned the ball over. A lot of credit goes to them. We did not compete. We did not fight. We didn’t meet their intensity. At times, it looked like we gave up. I asked the guys if that was the case. Have you given up? This is really hard. It’s not easy. There is only one way out and that is to fight with every bit of fire that is in your body and to understand that no matter who we are facing we probably won’t be the most talented. But if you have a will and if you play desperately on the defensive end, then fight to get rebounds, be efficient offensively – then we have a fighting chance. A lot of this is new to them because a lot of them are, for the first time, playing in severely different roles. I am asking them to be selfless and to try to play the right way and compete every second of every day in practice as well as games. It is hard. We are going to keep plugging away. We are not giving up. It is hard. They need to have success and it needs to come in the form of a W. But nobody, any opponent that we play is not going to feel sorry for us and give us a W. They are going to come in here and try to be ahead by 30 or 40 and we have to have pride and understand what it is. We got dropped off in the jungle and we have to make it out. It is survival of the fittest.
(About why the team is still developing competitiveness after seven games)
“I think it starts with individuals. I think who you are as a person and understanding that every time you practice or play, you are being evaluated by something or somebody. If you don’t understand what evaluations mean, you better ask questions or you better go see how to play a role differently because if I am watching film and I see a guy who doesn’t compete on the defensive end, who doesn’t hit people to get rebounds, then I am watching that film and telling them to go after him because he will lay down. That is an evaluation. So, whenever you look at our team, you look at how many turnovers and how they scored 21 points off our turnovers. That is a huge thing that is happening every single game. That is killing us. We have to do a better job of taking care of the ball. We have to do a better job whether it is the first half or the second half being better defensively. If not, teams are going to beat us. We can’t manufacture enough points for a bad offense. We have to get stops. Hopefully, we will get stops.
(About playing kids who are desperate with less execution )
“I have to definitely look at that. There was a reason I put Fabio (Basilo) and Devin Ree in the game to give them a chance to see. They work hard in practice. They deserve an opportunity. I can’t look into the eyes of players who are tentative and say I am going to leave you out there. I need to see aggressive players. I need see confident basketball players. And these fans deserve to see confident basketball players. We have to fix it. I don’t have all the answers today. Some of that is psychological, some of that is personality stuff. I can only tell you that it is disheartening to me to see guys playing the game from Day One when all I ask you to do is be in great shape, play with great energy and be super confident. That is all I am asking. Yes, I want you to play together, but if you are confident, and you play with energy, you have a chance. I haven’t gotten to that point yet. I am not giving up on it. I think, as I said, they haven’t given up on us. We haven’t given up on them. We just got to fight our way out.
(When you asked the team about giving up, did you get the response you were hoping for?)
“I really wasn’t hoping for any kind of response, I just wanted the truth. I wanted them to be able to say their truth and for the most part they did. They said that they’re not giving up. They said that there are times when adversity hits and they panic and they don’t play together. They haven’t understood fully how to handle adversity as a group, as a team, and that’s one of the areas that they want to continually try to get better at.”
(Do you want the team to look at the way they played at the end of the game to draw something from that about the way you compete?)
“Of course, I do. I want them to see what confident basketball players do, regardless of whether they’re better than you or not – it doesn’t matter. When you step on the floor, you play with confidence, you play with great energy, you play with determination. Defensively you play with a desperateness. We’ve got to have more guys as a group that play that way. We’re playing a tough schedule, we’re playing great teams. We’ve got Miami coming in here in the next couple of days. There are no cupcakes in this. Every single team can play. You are fighting for your life, for your livelihood, for not just this university, for your family’s name. We all are being evaluated by this – how are we going to handle it? As a leader, I’m being evaluated by this. I’m not in any way discouraged. Am I hesitant about it? Not at all. Do I feel like we’re not going to get it done? Not at all. I know I’m going to flip this program around. My heart goes out to young people who have doubt. My heart goes out to players who may think that life is going to be easy and they don’t have to give 110 percent in order to be pretty good. And I want them to have success so that they can go out and prove to people they belong. And then I want to win games. I want to win games. I want them to have success.”
(In regards to the start of the second half, you talked about the several threes that Maryland hit coming out. What was going on with the defense to start the half?)
One of the game plans was in transition. We know they’re a great transition team. So, you can't jog back, you have to sprint back. You have to communicate. You may not be on your particular man at the moment. Just get to a man, get to a shooter. We came back and we were hesitant. We sprinted back, went back to the lane the guy stops at the three point line. Two guys are guarded, two guys are semiguarded and one guy's guarded by nobody. He's wide open. It's not good enough. We talked about sprinting back, communicating. May not be your man, but find a man so that they don't get transition threes.
(Offensively, the turnovers were better tonight, only 13 but only six assists. Is that just a matter of not being a good passing team? Not good at setting other guys up or guys trying to do too much by driving the ball?)
“A little bit of all of it, to be honest with you. We have to become a better passing team. There were plays when we had Brandon in the post with a defender on his back and we threw it to the inside hand. There were plays when we're coming down the court and we're panicked, and we dribble it off our foot. Things that, if you're patient, if you're confident you wouldn't think would happen. But for us for some reason, it’s happening. We got to figure that part out. I want to be the type of team that is a good passing team because that leads to good offense. I want to be a team that can get the ball in the lane off the drive. Right now, if you look at our starting group, other than El Ellis, everybody else is semi-timid to attack the lane. That's a problem. We got to get those guys better at attacking the lane, being under control and making passes to other players.”
Guards El Ellis and Fabio Basili
(When Kenny was in here, he told us he asked you guys if you had quit. What was your reaction to the question and what was the team’s response?)
El Ellis: “We told him no. We’re competitors, why would we quit? Things happen, we’re going through a rough time right now, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to quit. We just have to keep playing.”
(It was an 11-point game at halftime and they came out and hit five straight threes and had a dunk. What was the defensive breakdown there at the start of the second half?)
Fabio Basili: “We came out and coach told us to be locked in for the first five minutes, but we fell off a little bit and they hit some threes. That was really it. We’ve got to be more locked in coming out of the half.”
(Fabio, it seemed like when you got in there, you made a real effort to give a lot of energy. What was your mindset going in?)
Fabio Basili: “I stay ready at all times. I'm here to play and be a team member and I’m just ready to play at all times.”
(Do you feel as a team you’re playing hard enough and giving enough effort? Kenny (Payne) talked a lot about fight.)
El Ellis: “I would say at times we are, but not for a full 40 minutes. That starts, like Fabio said, we’ve got to be locked in. We have to come out ready to play each game. We’re playing really good teams and we can’t have mental lapses and not come out ready to play.”
(To piggyback off that, what do you think is the cause of the lapse on defense to allow for the opposing team to go on a run?)
Fabio Basili: “We’ve got to be desperate. We can’t let the other team be more desperate than us. That’s really it. Who’s the most desperate team out there on the court.”
(Photo of Kenny Payne: Jamie Rhodes - USA TODAY Sports)
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