What Louisville HC Kenny Payne Said After 89-77 Loss at Boston College
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. - Hitting the road to take on Boston College, the Louisville men's basketball program blew a halftime lead and completely fell apart in the second half, suffered an 89-77 loss to clinch a losing record in conference play.
Here's what head coach Kenny Payne had to say following the loss:
Head Coach Kenny Payne
(Opening Statement)
First of all, hats off to Boston College for doing what they had to do in the second half to come out with a win. I thought the first half, we put them on their heels. The second half, they came out and punched us in the face, and we submitted to it. We didn't make the adjustments, we didn't fight back. Obvious by them beating us by 20 in the second half. We gave up 89 points in the game - way too many. They shot 64 percent from three. You can't win a game if the offense is that efficient. Hats off to them. They played a really good game, a very physical game. We knew it was going to be that type of game. We knew how well they shot the three coming into the game. I just thought that, when we attacked them, and they made their run on us, we wilting instead of fighting back.
(On what the team needs to do to show a more forceful response to adversity)
Well, I would like for us to fight. I would like for us to fight for every possession. Multiple guys helping each other. Fight. We talked about before the game that every inch is earned. We're trying to play to get deflections, we're trying to play to make every pass hard, every dribble hard, and we're not gonna let them beat us with the three point line. I thought that we just submitted all those things. We took for granted that, the way we played in in the first half, was going to be the same way - and it wasn't. They were more physical, they were more disciplined on offense, and they kept doing what they were doing. They set good screens, they got each other open, and they took advantage of guys that they felt like couldn't guard for us.
(On what the was biggest change from Boston College in the second half)
I thought the first half, we were the aggressor. We brought the physicality to them, we played harder than them, we attacked them. Then in the second half, they got more physical. They set harder screens. They fought harder. They were more disciplined, and and took advantage of our turnovers. We never made the adjustment of being careful, and taking care of the ball. We stopped playing team ball and sort of went into iso-ball, and we didn't take advantage of situations where the ball is moving and gets into a mismatch, and we attack it right away. We we sort of took our time with it.
(On his takeaways from the first half)
The biggest thing, Ty-Laur (Johnson) was really good. It shows his importance of why he has to play a certain way. I thought he put them on their heels, I thought he made - for the most part - pretty good, good decisions, and he played a lot of minutes. They were physical with him, and they set a lot of screens on him, and I thought it took a toll on him. He didn't make the adjustments to fight through it the way he did it in first half. Then he took a hard hit to the face, and that hurt us. I thought that we didn't take care of the ball. I thought we took some bad shots. More importantly, anytime a team shoots 60 percent from the freedom and 64 percent from the three, you're not winning that game.
(On if the game was as physical as it appeared on TV)
Definitely. I thought they were very physical with us. I thought that they brought a force, they brought a swag. They brought some physicality, they gave us some hard fouls. Maybe we set stuff back, I don't know, but we didn't respond to them being more physical with us. They may have set some hard screens, we didn't. They may have set hard screens, we didn't fight through those hard screens. Whether they're illegal screens or not, I'm not saying they're a dirty team, I'm saying there's a physicality that you have to play with in a game like this. And we didn't step up to it.
(On the mounting injuries)
There's never a moment I expect it. I expect things to go south. It's a great learning lesson for these guys. That we're gonna have injuries, we're gonna have things that are going to happen that we didn't foresee, and we just gotta keep fighting. I'm in no way discouraged, I'm in no way feeling sorry for myself or the guys. I want them to go out and fight. They're good enough to win games, even though we're down. But they have to know how important it is that each player that steps on the floor plays a certain way. If you don't play that way, you're not winning. We don't have the manpower. We have no wiggle room for mistakes.
(On how big of a challenge Quinten Post was)
I think when you have a guy that size, that demands a double team, and him take the double team and pick it apart with his passing, it's a great weapon to have. I think he can shoot the three, I think he's a really good post player. I think he's so big that if he gets close to the basket, he can cause you problems. When you try to help off of him, he finds other places that creates offense for him, and he hits something. For example, he'll hit a three point shooter right in the shooting pocket. Example, he'll make a pass to the cutting guy to the post, and he'll hit him right in the hands so he has nothing to do but lay it in. He's a very good passer, it's a great weapon to have, and he's deserving of the being one of the best big man in this conference.
(Photo of Kenny Payne: Jamie Rhodes - USA TODAY Sports)
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