Payne Sees 'Improvement' in Louisville, Acknowledges Room for Growth

The Cardinals played far from perfect basketball over the course of the preseason, but head coach Kenny Payne has seen improvement in his squad from the Red/White Scrimmage to their second exhibition.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - It wasn't pretty at times, and there were moments where the outcome was very much in doubt, especially at the end, but the Louisville men's basketball program still got the win.

Hosting Chaminade for their second and final exhibition of the preseason, the Cardinals were able to rally back from an early second half hole and hold off the Silverswords long enough for an 80-73 victory at the KFC Yum! Center on Thursday night.

A high-major Division I program taking down a Division II team by only seven points is usually not something that warrants any optimism at all for the D1 squad, but it's better than the result the Cardinals produced earlier in the week. On Sunday, Louisville fell to Lenoir-Rhyne to snap a 39-game winning streak in exhibition play.

So while it was a relatively slim margin of victory given the level of competition, Louisville head coach Kenny Payne liked how his team has progressed between the exhibition games.

"The first thing I want to say about today’s game is that I am proud of our guys. There was improvement from the first exhibition to this game," he said. "We scored 80 points or so, but we played better. ... There were segments of the game when the ball was moving and we got any shot we wanted. We got layups. We got kick-out threes and were good offensively."

Louisville shot 39.0 percent from the field, which isn't great in a vacuum, but is no doubt an improvement over their 29.2 shooting percentage against Lenoir-Rhyne. They also improved their three-point shooting mark from 31.6 percent to 36.4 percent, made 14 more trips to the free-throw line that resulted in 13 more makes, while also more than doubling their points in the paint from 14 to 30.

A handful of players are also starting to stand out for Louisville, and will likely be their focal points once the regular season starts. Fresh off a 20-point game against Lenoir-Rhyne, Jae'Lyn Withers followed that up with 17 points and nine rebounds. El Ellis stuffed the stat sheet with 28 points, six rebounds and five assists. Off the bench, J.J. Traynor poured in 12 points and eight boards while Kamari Lands had a defensive +/- of 19.

"In order for us to be a good defensive team, we have to be of one accord," Payne said. "We have to be on a string with each other. We have to make the passes hard, the shots hard and be contested. We have to help each other using our voices. There were points where we did it. There were a lot of parts, most of the game where we did. We have to get better in those areas. But overall, I am happy there is growth. I am happy for those kids that they walked out of here with a win and that is important to them."

Of course, Louisville played far from a perfect game. After shooting 42.9 percent in the first half, they only shot 25.0 percent in the second, including an 0-10 cold stretch right out of halftime that partially contributed to a 16-0 run by Chaminade. Not to mention that the Cardinals had a combined 15 assists to 30 turnovers in exhibition play.

"As the game went on, and became tighter and closer, you saw the guys drive and not looking for their teammates," Payne said. "They may have gotten fouled but they may have not gotten fouled and there was a guy in the corner open. I need you to have the discipline to know you still have multiple choices. I need you to know when we are in the bonus or the double bonus that you have to win the game from the free throw line which is what El (Ellis) basically did for us tonight."

A troubling trend that has emerged over the two preseason games is the lack of execution down in the post on both ends of the floor. Louisville was out-gained a combined 62-44 in points in the paint against Lenoir-Rhyne and Chaminade, and both teams are much smaller than the Cardinals.

Part of that is still trying to get their defensive rotations right, which Louisville is still trying to hammer out. But anyone watching the games knows that this was mainly due a very clear lack of energy and effort by Louisville down on the block, specifically from Sydney Curry, Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, and at times Withers.

For a team whose calling card over the summer has been conditioning, and having the energy to be able to overcome teams down the stretch, simply not putting forth the effort to attack is a massive early red flag. Payne recognizes this, and if this continues to trend in the wrong direction, he says there will be consequences.

“We work on (energy) every day," Payne said. "We'll continue to work on it. I'm going to demand it. I've been demanding it, and I’ll demand it more. There will come a point where there will be punishments for things that you do on the court that aren't aggressive. There will be consequences for things that you do that we practice that can't get done.

"Again, I need those guys to believe that they can take on any bigs in the country, all three, and dominate. I need them to believe that. I don't need them to get in a game and say okay, I'll turn on the light switch. There are no light switches. You are the light switch. It has to be on the second your feet hit that floor, whether that's a practice, whether that's a workout, whether that's a game. No difference. I need that from them. And you're right, they weren't aggressive, and they will tell you that. Predator or prey.”

Louisville will start playing games that count next week when they host Bellarmine for the regular season opener on Wednesday, Nov. 9 at 9:00 p.m. EST. Payne says he isn't sure that the Cardinals are ready for Knights given that Bellarmine is "disciplined" and should have been in the NCAA Tournament last season, and that it's "evident" by the two exhibition games that Louisville's "got work to do."

Still, like he has said all offseason and preseason, Payne in his first year is more so worried about simply getting better than he is about the win/loss column. Put together a better on-court product, and wins will eventually come with it.

"I just got to see us get better. ...  I'm not concerned with wins and losses," he said, "I want to win so bad, but I got to be able to get these guys to get better. To become better as a team. And if that means we take losses, we’ll take losses. Just get better.”

(Photo of Kenny Payne: By Pat McDonogh - USA TODAY NETWORK)

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