What Kenny Payne, Louisville Players Said After 80-72 Loss vs. Wake Forest

Read what the head coach of the Cardinals, forward J.J. Traynor and forward Mike James said after their loss vs. the Demon Deacons:

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville men's basketball program was able to climb back from a 22-point deficit against Wake Forest, but couldn't get over the hump in the final minutes, inevitably falling 80-72.

Here's what head coach Kenny Payne, forward J.J. Traynor and forward Mike James had to say following the loss:

Head Coach Kenny Payne

(Opening statement)

First of all, coming into this game, we knew we were playing a team that is a very good offensive team – big, strong with a dynamic point guard. If we didn’t guard the three-point line and keep them out of the paint, we knew they would carve us up. We knew that coming in, or we talked about it. I thought they did what they normally do, shot the ball well. I thought the game had two halves. The first half we were on our heels. In the second half, we had 15 offensive rebounds for us and 16 points. We shot 52 percent in the second half. We outscored them 46- 37. Moral victories? I don’t want them. I want us to play better the whole game. I just told the guys, ‘Don’t find new ways to lose’ – fight.’ I don’t care if they may have more talent than us. Fight. Fight every second you are out on the floor. I don’t want to play games, guys. I am just going to be honest with you, I have different guys missing from the game. I want every player to hit that floor and fight. I don’t want to look at a game and see Brandon Hatfield-Huntley with two points, not acceptable. That is not why I brought him here. That is not what he wanted. He’s got to give it to me. I should have not have to go through what I am going through with Jae’Lyn (Withers). He’s got to fight. I am not throwing Jae’Lyn under the bus but I am saying that to say this: I need those two to understand that there is an obligation to this program that started long before they got here. Their job is to keep it going forward. No matter what happened in the past, that is over. We are starting over. Now, I see it in stages but I just don’t see it consistently.“

(About praising them in their improvement)

“Of course I praise them for everything they do that is positive. But I also look at a game and I see multiple turnovers time and time again. How is that possible? Some of those turnovers you can’t even make up, like just lackadaisical turnovers because they are not concentrating. It is frustrating. It’s is frustrating and I know it is frustrating for them and I am going to say this again, in no way am I disappointed in any kid. My job is to help them get better. I see them getting better, but I need them to understand what winning in. I need to notice that. No excuses.”

(About the press helping the comeback)

“We went into the game talking about how we want our offense to start with our defense. Let me say that again. We want our offense to start with our defense. We didn’t do that the first half. So what happens is, we ended up doing a press and they relaxed and then we would get them on their heels and we would get momentum doing that. We could have done that in the first half, we shouldn’t have to press to be able to get deflections on the ball. We shouldn’t have to. It should be the same principles in man half court than they are in a press full court.”

(About Mike James putting together two strong games in a row)

“Mike is getting better. I see him getting more and more comfortable. There are still plays out there where I want more. I need him more in tune. Mike James is a freshman. I love what he is doing. I love what he is. I love his character. I love his fight. I love the way he attacks the basket. I need him to be better. I see him coming. I am asking him and Kamari (Lands) to make the adjustment. Make the adjustment and change and become a better player.

(About JJ Traynor finding his way)

“I just told JJ that I loved what I saw in spurts but I hate what I saw in spurts to be honest. JJ is a good basketball player but I need him to play with a fire. I need a fire. If you need to go to acting school where you need to act like you are on fire. There should be a difference between the person on the court than you are off the court. I need him to fight. I need his fire. I need him to represent his family. I need him to represent his university and have the spirit of a warrior.”

(About Brandon Huntley-Hatfield only taking two shots today, what is the causes where players have games where they don’t do much?)

“For me, watching the game and seeing what it is, it looks like they don’t anticipate what’s happening next so there’re always a step behind. It’s not just Brandon, there are other players too. I’m constantly talking about seeing the play before it happens, seeing what could possibly happen and anticipating what happens, and then you’re ahead of the game. If you’re waiting for something to happen, for example, if you’re jogging up and you turn around slowly and the ball’s right there, you should already be turned around facing the ball. If you see the ball being shot or getting ready to be shot and you’re just in La-La Land, go find a man on the attempt. Before the attempt happens, go find a man, hit him, and go get the ball with two hands. I don’t want to see Brandon go after rebounds with one hand. We saw what happened – he doesn’t come up with it, they get it, and they get a shot off. Just anticipating what could happen, seeing it before it happens, and being the aggressor.

(The 1983 team was in yesterday for practice and you’ve talked a lot with your team about the tradition here and the standard that players in the past have set. What do you hope they got out of hearing from those guys yesterday)

“For me, I go back to this. It’s a tribute to Denny because Coach Crum, what he did, he was ahead of his time. When I watch that ’83 team, I see a great passing team. I see dudes that played together. I see guys that were one unit. The ball moved and there was nobody that was playing for themselves. Everybody touched the ball, everybody was versatile, everybody could post up, everybody could shoot. I saw basketball players, and they were playing for each other to win a game. I want our guys to take their spirit – the spirit of fighting and the pride for what’s on your chest. Louisville is a proud tradition, and I don’t want to say that we’ve lost that, but something’s off and we’ve got to get it back. We’ve got to get it back.”

(El went out of the game and came back and the same thing happened at Kentucky. He plays a lot of minutes and does a lot of things. Is there a lot of wear and tear on him and is he okay coming out of this game?)

“I asked him when I came back if he was okay, and he said yes. For me, I’m frustrated with Hercy [Miller] and Fabio [Basili] as well. I put Fabio in for one minute, and I didn’t get solid play. How is that possible? You’re a good basketball player. You’ve got to be solid. I’m not asking you to go out and give me ten points, ten rebounds, and ten assists. I’m asking you to just keep us solid. That’s the challenge for me. I need guys to be on the court that cannot hurt us. Just be solid. Again, they’re not robots. They’re humans and they’re going to make mistakes. I just need them to be solid.”

(El had eight assists and two turnovers today. Is he grasping more of what you want from him with getting other players involved)

“I think so. I think there are plays where you see that he’s doing what we’re asking. He’s letting the game come to him and he’s not forcing it. He still has areas where he could get better at that, but I see him making a conscious effort. I think he’s gotten better as a basketball player. I think he’s showing that he can distribute and facilitate a game. I think he’s showing that he has a grasp of the offense and what we’re trying to do. I like that, and I’d like to see that continue. But there’s another piece to this – I need El Ellis to drag guys with him. I need him to be a positive spirit on the floor telling Jae’Lyn, ‘Come on, you can do this,’ telling Brandon, ‘Come on, you can do this.’ Not just so into himself – not that he just is, he wants to win – but I want him to talk more to those guys and help them get along. He’s a leader, he’s a captain on this team for a reason.”

Forward J.J. Traynor and forward Mike James

(For both of you guys, earlier in the year, every time it seemed like somebody would put together a run on you and build a little bit of a lead, they kind of ran away and you guys shrunk back. What's changed and what was different today?)

(JJ Traynor): “Just us sticking through it. Our practices are hard and keep getting harder. Just getting used to having your back against the wall and just working through it. I feel like we've learned that as a team and each game we just keep building on it.”

(Mike James): “I think at a certain point as a player, you just get tired of stuff happening like that to you over and over again. And I feel like as a team, we just come together and decide to fight back. We know we can compete with these teams, and we just need to stop letting them run away with games. In the first place, we need to stop letting them get that lead. When we get to that point, we just come together and fight back.”

(Mike, in several recent games you've really stepped up quite a few notches. Why is that happening? Are you doing anything different?)

(James): “I’ve just been staying in the gym and believing in myself and staying confident. That’s all I can say. Coach (Kenny) Payne tells me to stay confident before every single game. Before every single tip, he tells me to play with my heart and be confident. I feel like in the last couple of games, I've been doing that and I’ve just got to keep it up and keep living in the gym.”

(In terms of progress, when you look at these last couple of games, and coming back from a big deficit like that, how do you judge that and what are you seeing that gives you encouragement for the future?)

(James): “I’m seeing as a team, we can go on major runs at certain points when we're down. Like 12-0, 15-0 runs in the past couple of games. Why not put that in the first half and get up on them and then put them away in the second half with another run like that. I see that as improvement. In the second half, we just have to do it in the first half and put them away with another run like that.”

(JJ, when you guys were coming back like that. What's going through your mind especially when you got really close? Do you say we’re going to pull this out somehow?)

(Traynor): “I mean, we all wanted to win. So we got to get some stops and get up in them. We just started full court pressing, and tried being aggressive on the other team.”

(What does it mean to you when KP talks to you about the tradition of Louisville basketball and what has come through here before?)

(James): “It just puts it in perspective what kind of team you are on and the team we’re playing for and the community we represent. It's a big basketball tradition and this season we haven't quite lived up to the expectations. But he's been telling us how important it is to just go out there and fight hard. There have been warriors that’ve played in this uniform, and we just have to go out there and show that we're warriors too, despite our record.”

(Traynor): “Yeah, I agree. We appreciate all of the fans. We’re not having a good year and it's still getting loud in there. And everybody's still showing support. The former players, they build us up and they're always around. I feel like we can go to them when we need to talk to them. Just having that relationship is going to help us.”

(Mike, you obviously recovered from a pretty serious injury. How validating has this recent stretch been for you in fully feeling like you’re back to yourself again?)

(James): “It’s good. To sit out with that type of injury and then go through all the rehab and recovery, it was hard. I wanted to play last year because I knew I could help but just to go through the stretch that I'm having, I'm just blessed and thank God I'm in this position. Thank God that came back to where I am now and just I just have to keep it going.”

(Mike, you had some big shots going down the stretch. Would you call yourself a streak shooter when you get on one of those roles like that?)

(James): “I wouldn't want to call myself a streak shooter. I want to be a consistent shooter. So, I mean, if I get hot and I start getting on a role, I'm going to keep shooting them. I think every shot is going to go in when I put them up like that, but yeah, I guess you can say that. But I want to go from a streak shooter to a consistent shooter.”

(JJ, Coach Payne was talking about you finding that consistent fire during the course of the game. What do you think the key to that is because you were a pretty big part of the run to get back into the game?)

(Traynor): “Just having that mentality. My role on this team is to bring energy when I come in the game and just be active. Just focusing on that, doing that good things have come. Good things have come to myself and good things have come to the team. So today and moving forward, I just have to keep having that mentality of just playing extremely hard and being active.”

(JJ, where do you feel like you're growing in a post and where do you feel like the team is growing in a post? What things have you noticed specifically, where you see progress and how that process is going?)

(Traynor): “We have some good post players, so teams are going to start and have started trapping. I say just seeing the next pass and seeing the cutter is something we work on and are going to continue to work on. We just have to be strong with the ball and make sure it doesn't get deflected. But I would say that's an area we’ve grown.”

(Photo of Kenny Payne: Jamie Rhodes - USA TODAY Sports)

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