What Louisville HC Kenny Payne Said After 75-68 Loss at DePaul

CHICAGO - Taking on former longtime conference foe DePaul after a few extra days off, the Louisville men's basketball program could not take advantage of a golden opportunity to snap their lengthy road losing streak, falling 75-68 to drop back under .500 on the 2023-24 season.

The Cardinals were facing a Blue Demons squad whose only previous win on the season came against South Dakota, and whose losses included Purdue Fort Wayne, Long Beach State and North Illinois.

However, issues that have beleaguered Louisville all season long, such as a lack of offensive flow, poor shooting and bad defensive rotations, spelled doom for them. Their loss at DePaul extends their road losing streak to 21 consecutive games, their longest since dropping a program record 31-in-a-row from 1937 to 1941.

Louisville's last win in a true road environment was a 67-64 decision back on Jan. 2, 2022 at Georgia Tech.

"Very disappointed in how we came out today," head coach Kenny Payne said. "I went into this little week of preparation and talked about what I saw in DePaul, and what I thought their team was. I'm watching them, they're scoring points, they shoot the ball at a high percentage, they shoot the three at a high percentage, they play with energy, they fight. So we went out, and everyday we prepare for that. Then we get in the game, and to me, it felt like we played for ourselves, not for Louisville. That's a problem.

Nothing against DePaul, they played a really good game. They did what they typically do, and we didn't handle it. I thought we did things in the second half pretty decent, but we dug ourselves a hole and it was hard to get out of."

Here's what Payne had to say following the loss:

(Photo of Kenny Payne: Matt Stone - Louisville Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK)

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