What Kenny Payne, Louisville Players Said After 75-54 Loss vs. Pitt
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville men's basketball program was dealt another blowout loss in ACC play, this time coming 75-54 at the hands of a surprisingly competitive Pitt.
Here's what head coach Kenny Payne, forward Jae'Lyn Withers and forward J.J. Traynor had to say following the loss:
Head Coach Kenny Payne
(Opening Statement):
“Pittsburgh was a very good team, a well-coached team with fight. They are not overly talented, but they have a mentality that they are going to be the aggressor. I thought we were on our heels. At the beginning of the game, I thought we set a pretty decent tone but from that point on, after we got to 16 points, they just put pressure on us and kept us on our heels. At the end of the day, we shoot 33 percent from the field, 25 percent from three, who are you going to beat? We had 17 turnovers and they had 25 points off those turnovers. Who are you going to beat? They made 14 threes … 14! We talked religiously about desperately closing out, not casually closing out, not fundamentally putting their hand up and not really trying to contest the shot, willing that shooter to miss. They are a driving team that can shoot. They said forget the drive, we will just move it and shoot it. They won’t contest the shots hard. It is not winning basketball. We thought we had an advantage to a degree at the five spot, going at Sydney (Curry). Tried to go at Syd to no avail. I feel bad for those guys because I am doing everything I can to explain to them just how hard winning is and how hard you have to play to win. What it requires and, for whatever reason, we get into spurts that they realize how hard it is and let go of the rope. That is not acceptable. But again, a lot of the credit goes to Pittsburgh because they have a mentality and have the experienced players. They have fighters. One kid made a shot and started talking trash to me. I like that. I like to see a guy play with confidence. Fans or critics may say I want them quiet and act like you’ve been there before. There is a battle going on and they are the aggressor. They are the predators, and we are the prey.”
(About changing defenses between zone and press)
“I feel like I am looking to try anybody. I would like Devin Ree to come in and have some success. When I look at Kamari (Lands) and Jae’Lyn (Withers) when they are not really playing well, who can I put in to give me solid play. Devin did alright. Zan (Payne) did alright. But I need my better players, the players who are playing 20 plus minutes to play better. I go through this (stat sheet) and see one for eight, two for eight, oh for five, two for six and they are starters. I mean, take pride in the fact that in order for this team to win, in order for us to play well is sort of on you. “
(About a lack of assists, can you explain the lack of assists)
“A number of things happen, we are not attacking. We are catching the ball and then seeing what we have. Great players see the play before it happens. So, I drive the ball, the pass comes from the left side, and hits JJ (Traynor) in the hands. JJ, there is one place you can’t drive. Where is that … back to the left? You can see the play before the ball hits your hands. I know I can drive it right or pass it right. It is two on one on the right side; the defender comes up and I hit the corner and I get an assist if he makes the shot. If I drive it left, it is a charge. Those types of plays are happening a lot. We work on it. We talk about it. We show film on it. They are just not digesting it or are comfortable enough to see the play before it comes to them. They are just staring at the ball and when they catch it, they dribble it, then the defense collapses.”
(Are the fans and players accustomed to getting behind, accustomed to not fighting through that)
“I can’t really say that. There have been games that have good starts and we look we have got it. Even tonight, I felt like if you look at the way we played, we were pretty good. We made some mistakes and were pretty good. It was at 16-10, I see us being aggressive. The question is how do we sustain it? How do we get focused enough, disciplined enough to not make constant and continuous mistakes? Break down three, break down drive well. We talk religiously about how we are not going for one shot fake. We shot fake, we jump, he takes one dribble, he is the only one in the air and nobody within five feet of him and he knocks down three shots like that. Those kind of mistakes can’t happen. We have to be disciplined.”
(About the Pittsburgh player who talked to Coach Payne)
“What happened was the ball moved around, I could see the play coming, one of our players was sort of in the gap, but not really. I am yelling to him, ‘you have to get here, you have to get here’. He is looking around, boom, the ball hits his hands, the guy shoots the ball in rhythm. He turns around to me and says to me, ‘he’s not there, Coach, he’s too late’. I like that but I want my guys to be the aggressors.”
(About what he has faith in with this team)
“The one thing that gives me faith is that the kids keep trying. You know, we have tough practices. Before the game I told them, ‘Look, I got 25 text messages saying we’re going to win this game. How do you feel? I feel like we’re winning this game. It does not matter what they think, what I think, it’s you in this room. Are you willing to fight to get a win? If you are, we’ll walk out of here with a win. If you don’t think that we can, if we have one guy that lets down, we’re not winning.’ We’re not a team that has the components to where two guys can make up for eight. Every single person that has a jersey has a job, and that job is to produce when you’re on the court.”
(About what to focus on during week break, fundamentals, rest?)
“Great question. My gut, my heart tells me keep pushing. Make it hard. Don’t lighten up. There’s a standard that, I tell the players this all the time, this is how I know that I’m doing things that are the right things. When I hear you guys complain about ‘Man, practice is hard, I’m dreading going to practice.’ That’s when I notice the right things. I need them to dread coming to practice. I need them uncomfortable. I need them understanding that every single day they walk in that gym, their bodies have to be prepared to perform at a high level. We’re not just going to have a practice where we just walk through some plays and walk through defensive assignments and get out of there. Not happening. Not on my watch. I need them to understand that every single day, we are going to get better, and we’ll worry about tomorrow when tomorrow gets here.”
(About having a sense with the players that when it starts to go downhill, it’s like “Oh no, here we go again”)
“I believe that. I believe that they are. They see it, they recognize it, and they don’t really say the words, but their body language says it for them. You’ll see a guy hold his head down, you’ll see a guy look disappointed. You may see El (Ellis) yell at a guy, you may see guys bickering amongst each other. I need them to be connected on hard times. And, to really get into what I’m really trying to say to you, I try to create that in practice, to where I may put one team up 12, three minutes to go. Fight your way out. You see it at times, like when it gets to 15, and they’re like scattered. Stay connected, guys. Stay connected. I got to simulate whatever I got to simulate to resemble the adversity that’s happening in the game.”
(About Brandon Huntley-Hatfield)
“I don’t know a little bit more. I think he’s still day-to-day. I’m hoping tomorrow I get a definitive answer about where he is. It’s obvious we need him, but we’ll see. Hopefully tomorrow I have good news.”
(About he tells the kids to draw from for confidence when the results keep piling up like this, where do they draw that from)
“Well, we talk about people of faith. We watch movies, we watch successful people. Everybody that’s ever been successful in this game, or in life, or in corporate America, even you guys. You all went through something to get to where you got to. You had some self-doubt somewhere, but you wanted to be successful, but you overcame. I try to help these guys with that kind of message. Whether it’s Michael Jordan, something he said. LeBron James. Whoever the successful people are, it doesn’t matter the sport. We do a lot of stuff with Coach (Nick) Saban, and talking about, think about what he’s done, to go seasons without losses. How do you get that kind of program, that kind of culture? And did he have lulls, and when he did, how did he completely pivot and change it? I want these guys to understand, nobody’s just going to win without a sacrifice. We have to sacrifice, we have to understand that winning is really, really hard, and if you don’t respect it, you’ll never grasp it.”
Forward Jae'Lyn Withers and forward J.J. Traynor
(You got off to a pretty solid start and there was that stretch where they made five straight threes. After that, you guys never made a big push back. What changed in that stretch there?)
JJ Traynor: “We just locked in on defense during that time. We have to sustain that throughout the whole game. Tonight, we were playing good defense and then at the last second, we would give up the three. We have to close out harder and know where the shooters are.”
(You have a week before you have another game. What will each of you do to get better?)
Jae’Lyn Withers: “With us having that much time in between this and the next game, I think we’re going to be competing and getting up and down in practice. Getting up a lot of shots and taking advantage of the extra time that we do have to get up more reps. We shot 33 percent from the field and 25 percent from the three. We have to get in the gym and get up more reps”
(Last game, you guys had six assists, El (Ellis) had four of them. Today, it’s six assists again El had five of them. Is that just a result of him having the ball in his hands so much or are other guys trying to do too much one-on-one?)
Jae’Lyn Withers: “I wouldn’t say that he (El Ellis) has the ball in his hands too much. I would say it just happens to seem that way on paper. We have dudes that are driving and making plays as well, outside of El. Whenever it comes down to dudes making those shots off of those plays, its either a missed shot or a passed-up shot. We need to take advantage of those as well so we can have more assists.”
(We talked about that run with Pittsburgh, mentally, is there a feeling of, ‘here we go again’? Where do you think you are at mentally when something like that is happening?)
Jae’Lyn Withers: “Pitt’s a good team. We were guarding them, and they were hitting a lot of shots. Each play, I felt like we were fighting, and they hit another three. That can definitely hurt the team confidence. We kept our heads up and kept trying to defend.”
(What gives you confidence that you can turn this thing around?)
JJ Traynor: “The fact that knowing we can compete with these teams. If we just put more things together, we can come up with some wins. Knowing that and last week, Clemson is No. 1 in the ACC and we’re right there with them. Knowing that, brings us confidence. We might not have won but we are still confident going into games we can win.”
(Coach Capel was in here and said that he felt like last year when you played them in Pittsburgh, the team had quit. This year, he didn’t think you guys had quit. Do you agree with that assessment?)
JJ Traynor: “Last year, we had a lot of things going on. We did give up that game. This year, we kept pressing throughout the second half no matter the score. We kept trying to win.”
(Photo of Kenny Payne: Jamie Rhodes - USA TODAY Sports)
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