What Kenny Payne, Louisville Players Said After 73-68 Win vs. Bellarmine

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Hosting crosstown foe Bellarmine, the Louisville men's basketball program was able to avenge last year's season-opening loss to the Knights, overcoming a halftime deficit and holding off a second half rally to escape with a 73-68 win.

Here's what head coach Kenny Payne, guard Skyy Clark and forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield had to say following the win:

Head Coach Kenny Payne

(Opening statement)

“First of all, I’m proud of our guys. The way they defended in spurts in that game was really good, the discipline that they had to stay down on shot fakes. The first half we shot a lot of jump shots. I think we had 20 points in the second half in the paint, shot 55 percent. We knocked down a couple of 3s, but we played the way we needed to play to win the game.”

(In the first half, 15 of your 29 shots were 3s, you didn’t get to the line, they didn’t foul you until about a minute and a half left in the half, is that what you wanted to do and at halftime did you tell them they needed to attack the rim more?)

“I’m always saying we’ve got to attack the rim more, we’ve got to attack the lane more, we’ve got to put the defense on their heels. If you don’t get it off the first drive, spread, pass it, pass it. Get a second drive, get a second lane touch. And then, and only then, if you get to the lane and they collapse after the second lane touch then you throw it out. If not, they’re in scramble mode and you go finish or get fouled. We only did it the first time and then we threw it out and just accepted the jump shot.”

(After last year’s game against Bellarmine, how rewarding is it to see the guys finish the game the way you wanted to, knock down free throws and be able to get the victory?)

“For me, I’m proud of those guys in the locker room. I hope that people understand that a year ago was very hard for all of us and you can see that we’re a better team and we’re not even close to as good as we can be. We’ve got a lot of growth to do. We’ve got a lot of growing up to do, but we have the ingredients to be a pretty decent team.”

(It seems like when Ty-Laur is on the floor, the offense runs more smoothly. Are you toying with the idea of putting him out in the starting lineup to begin with?)

“I cannot do that yet. I’ve got to make him earn it. I’ve got to make him be a part of something and learn that, yes, we are a different team with him, but if I give him something, is that the right thing to do? No. Nobody would want me to do that. He really doesn’t want me to do that or he wouldn’t have done what he done. I’m not just picking on him when I say this. I’ve got a bunch of great kids, he’s one of them. They just are learning. This isn’t AAU. This isn’t high school where you can just go and come. You have a responsibility, this is a business. You’re being taught things that you’ve never been held accountable before in your life. It’s new to them. He’s very talented, he’s a great kid, he’s a winning player, he is vital for our basketball team. We all know it. He just has to keep having his feet held to the fire to do the right thing and we’ll watch him grow and grow and grow until he’s a force to deal with.”

(In the second half, Brandon Huntley-Hatfield was a lot more of a force inside posting up, getting rebounds, what changed?)

“I think Brandon started the game off sort of like he started in the last game we played. There may be a little doubt, unsure and as the game went on, he got more comfortable and got more confident. He played well, I think he got double-digit – 10 rebounds. I’m expecting that every night. And when I don’t get that, I’m upset.”

(On the improvement of the team, so you can turn the page and not have to hear about last year as much at this point)

“I want to hear about last year, but I want to hear it from my own people, see it from my own eyes. That’s the reason I went back and watch every game that we played last year. For me, to be honest with you, it’s about every day getting these guys better. I can’t listen to the critics, to the supporters, I’ve just got to get the guys better. I’m truly locked in to this team. Yes it’s hard, yes it’s difficult. Yes, there are elements about this that we have to overcome. There are things that happen that are obstacles. I can’t use them as excuses. You don’t want me to. So, we’re just going to get it done.

Guard Skyy Clark and Forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield

(On any kind of encouragement for Ty-Laur Johnson before second half)

Clark: “Absolutely. As you can see, Ty-Laur is a very vital piece of this team. Like (Kenny Payne) said last game, he is the energizer bunny, so we need him on the floor at all times. We’ve all been freshmen before, we're going to learn, but like I said, we need him on the floor because he really gets us going.”

(On what was so different in the second half)

Clark: “We came to halftime, and we just we said we're good. I just tried to calm everybody down. I know what I needed to do to rally the guys. Like I said, Ty-Laur (Johnson) came out in that second half and really helped us, so he was a really big part of that. But really, it was just that (Bellarmine) was a very, very different basketball team on offense and defense. They help in the gaps a lot and they switched one through five, so it was just something that we haven't seen before. We just needed to go through it in the first half and then in the second half, we knew what we needed to do.”

(On 15-of-29 shots in first half being threes and whether Kenny Payne told the team to play differently in second half)

Clark: “Yeah, definitely. Coach (Danny) Manning, he told us about that stat in the first half, how many 3s we took. We know we’re a driving team. Like you said, we get fouled, I think we get fouled the most in the country, so we just needed to get back to what we do.”

(On what changed for strong individual second half performance)

Huntley-Hatfield: “I played basketball my whole life, so I know how I'm performing. I got those two fouls, and I wasn't on the boards how I wanted to be or how I envisioned myself or how I tell myself before coming into the game. So, we just got in the locker room and then (Kenny Payne) called me out, basically making it seem like I was having a bad game, and I didn't want that to happen, so I just told myself I'm coming every time (on the boards) and to just be physical, and that’s what I wanted to do in the second half.”

(On what it means to beat Bellarmine after losing to them last season)

Huntley-Hatfield: “It means a lot. We have a new team this year as everyone knows, and we just wanted to remember last year and how it went. Louisville vs. Bellarmine – we all knew what was at stake. They’re a very good team. A very, very disciplined team. So, we just wanted to have the right focus, 1 through 15. We just wanted to come out here and be different than last year, and I feel like we did that.”

(On equaling last season’s win total and the opportunity this team has to turn the page)

Clark: “Absolutely. This season, we’ve got some really big goals that we all believe we can achieve. Like Brandon (Huntley-Hatfield) said, this is a whole new team with a lot of new players and a lot of new faces. I think the biggest thing is that we fight. It may look sloppy at some times, but we’re all in there fighting for 40 minutes.”

Huntley-Hatfield: “This year is this year, and this team is very different. We have a lot of different players – a lot of very, very good players. We just wanted to start building that cohesion really early when we all got here around May. We all knew how last season went. The new guys that came in, they all witnessed it and had seen what was happening to us. We all felt it, the guys that returned. We just wanted to stay within ourselves, not focus on the outside noise too much and not let it affect us. We know what we have in the room every single day and we just want to focus on each other, and we’re going to continue to do that for the remainder of the season.”

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