What Kenny Payne, Louisville Players Said After 80-53 Loss vs. Miami

Read what the head coach of the Cardinals, forward Mike James and forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield said after their loss to the Hurricanes:

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Hosting Miami for their first game in ACC play, the Louisville men's basketball program was blown out in their fifth-straight game, falling 80-53 to Miami to extend their winless start to the season. 

Here's what head coach Kenny Payne, forward Mike James and forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield had to say following the loss:

Head Coach Kenny Payne

(Opening statement)

“First of all, Miami did a great job. Good team, very good team. Took it to us, created turnovers. I think they had… 17 points off of our turnovers – problem. Once again, us turning the ball over has been a problem, a recurring problem game after game. We have to do a better job of that. In the locker room talking to the guys, I want all of you all to understand what I’m about to say… there’s not one player in that locker room that I don’t love. Love. With that, they have to get better. And because of that, I’m going to take the criticism, the blame, because I love them and I want them to figure it out and I want them to be successful. So, I’m blaming myself. I’m not going to blame them. And I hope they have enough pride and fight within themselves to understand what it is to be coached with love… what it is to represent a community like this that’s a basketball community. The fact that you’ve got that jersey on your back means something. The fact that this program has a history that’s really unparalleled to a lot of universities. No matter what you’ve been through in your past, you have to get over it and heal and go and fight, because it’s about yeah, this university, this community – but there’s another thing it’s about – the name on the back, your families, yourself. Who are you?

So, I’m going to take the blame for it. They haven’t been able to get what I’m trying to see. They don’t see themselves the way that I see them. And I’ll just be honest with you on that, the way that I see them. I don’t see us as the most talented team. For me there’s only one way for us to win and that’s for us to play with real desperation, real fight, real determination; inch-by-inch, yard-by-yard in every aspect of the game. On the offensive, I want it to look like it looks on the defensive end, a together group that when a player makes a mistake, which all players make, somebody has his back. We’re the fourth-tallest team in college basketball, so they say. I don’t see shot blocking. I don’t see contesting at the rim. That’s a problem for me. When things get bad, I don’t see us fighting through adversity. I see us splinter. That’s a problem for me.

We talk about it, work on it, fight through it, simulate it in practice. We talk about the responsibility for each other to lift each other up. We haven’t been able to do it in a game yet. It’s a problem that we’ve got to fix. In no way am I saying I’m not still encouraged, I am. I know that this is going to get fixed and I’m up for the challenge, I’m not giving up. No coach on this staff is giving up. We’re going to work harder if that’s even possible. We’re going to demand more if that’s even possible. I wish I could go to one player, two players, three players that’s on the bench and they give me what I’m looking for so that I can teach other lessons. I don’t have that, because I watched the guys that came into the game, they made the same mistakes as the guys that were in the game. That has to be corrected. I’m looking for guys that will sacrifice for this team, that trust their teammates. And that has to happen in order for us to win the game. There has to be some sacrifices made.”

(On the intangibles, the effort and togetherness, how much of the problem is that and how much of it is execution?)

“It’s a little bit of both. We talk about it, we work on it, we simulate it. We watch a bunch of film. They just haven’t figured it out yet. And if they have figured it out, they haven’t figured it out long enough yet.”

(Are the turnovers caused just by guys trying to do too much, guys being careless, not concentrating, what are you seeing?)

“I will tell you that some of the turnovers you can’t even draw up, and what I mean by that, we set a cross screen, a guy’s wide open, nobody’s near him, the screen was excellent, he’s open on the block, and some kind of way the ball ends up out of bounds. Impossible. We come off a dribble handoff, and for whatever reason, the dribble handoff gets lost, which I rarely see, they get a layup some kind of way. Those are the plays that, it may be focus, it may be concentration, it may be a casualness to it that we have to correct, because it’s happening over and over and over again. We talk about great ball movement, we talk about spacing, we talk about if the ball is on the right wing and you’re up top, and the pass comes to you, the one place you cannot drive it is where it came from. Well, we had four or five turnovers where the guy caught the ball, jabbed like he was going to drive it left, drove it right, right into a defender that was guarding the corner with a passer, turnover. When are you going to learn? I’m saying this, it may be my fault, I’m trying to get them to understand it, evidently I’m doing something that’s not clicking. That may make some people happy to hear me say that, I don’t know, but I’m not going to let the kids not understand what love is. I’m going to take the blame for their ailments, for their failures, because that’s what I’m paid to do, one, but more importantly than being paid to do it, that’s what true love is. I know what I work on every day, I know I’m going to turn this program around. I know where their hearts are, I know what they say they want, it’s on me to make sure I give them that.”

(Some people have asked the question, ‘How did they not get more help in the portal?’ The transfer portal is out there when you get here, how did you not upgrade some of the talent in the offseason, what do you say to that question?)

“Well, two days ago, or yesterday, a guy called me who has players that had no idea what the ruling of the NCAA was. He still thought, like most people, that we’re probably going to get the death penalty. So, again, there was a period where this program’s competitors, people were saying ‘Why would you ever go to Louisville, they’re not going to be able to play college basketball?’ That hurt. For whatever reason, we didn’t get the kids. The timing of it was bad. The ruling came at a time where it didn’t allow us to really get the kids, even though we targeted some kids, and they’re at other places having success. I can’t be upset with them because nobody knew was the ruling was going to be. Hopefully that answers your question.”

(What did you think about the effort as a whole and what did you see when you tried pressing a little bit when the game was out of hand. Is that something you might try earlier in games going forward?)

“I saw us on the floor more. There may have been three possessions where we dove on the floor, which is great. That means they’re capable of learning and getting it and doing it. We just have to emphasize it more. The pressing part - you have to be solid. In this game, when you’re playing a team that’s good offensively with good offensive players, you have to be solid. There may be times where I want to press but I don’t want to get lost and give up a three-pointer. Better yet, I want to play zone because I know they may not be as comfortable in zone and we get two stops in a row and the momentum is coming our way, and then they throw it to the middle and the guy cuts, and they get a dunk. I want to be solid, I want to be solid. I need them to understand that being fundamentally sound defensively and being solid defensively can help us. Don’t just give up plays where you’re not paying attention, where you’re not focused for a split second and someone gets something. Yes, I want to press more but our team determines how much I press.”

(On Coach Denny Crum’s health and what he means to Coach Payne)

“Two days ago, Milt (Wagner) and I called Susan ][Sweeney Crum], because we heard that his health may be an issue. She said ‘Kenny, he really hasn’t spoken. He’s just been lying in bed. Let me see if he will talk to you.’ He gets on the phone and I say ‘Coach, I love you.’ Milt yelled out that he loved him. And he said ‘I love you guys too.’ That meant the world to me, it meant the world to Milt. To have him have the courage and strength to just say hello and I love you. We told him to keep fighting and he was shaking his head. The man means the world to me. He is Louisville basketball. I wouldn’t be the player, the person, the human being I am today if it wasn’t for him. He gave me a great foundation and we all need to say our prayers to keep him uplifted and strong.

Forward Mike James and forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield

(What happens on those instances where a team makes a run and things kind of go sideways for you all?)

Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, Sophomore Forward: “We allow our mistakes to just pile up on each other and then we start to splinter off. Once we start making those mistakes, we have to come together as a group and talk about what's happening and so we don't keep making the same mistakes. I think we just have to take more pride on getting back in transition, running harder, playing harder, and not making the same mistakes more than once.”

Mike James, Redshirt Freshman Guard: “I think Brandon summed it up, just not letting our mistakes pile up on each other and just getting down on ourselves. If they go on a run, we got to break that run and try to go on a run of our own. When that happens, we just got to try and change it.”

(How do you deal with what you’ve gone through so far this season?)

James: “It’s hard. It’s definitely hard, but we just got to wake up every day to another challenge. Just try to attack every day, and just try to change it. If you just sulk like some of us have been doing, we’re going to keep getting the same result. We’ve just got to try to get up with a new mindset every day. We just got to change whatever we're doing, change the way we're doing it and eventually, something will go our way.”

Huntley-Hatfield: “I just think about taking it one day at a time. Not trying to live in the past and dwell on what’s happening. We need to focus on a new day and realize that it's not going to storm forever. We really need to just come together as a collective and just keep pushing through, keep working, and never give up. Honestly, it’s really just taking it one day at a time. It’s still early in the season, so we need to figure out what we can do to change.”

(What does that mean to you when your coach publicly says he’ll take all the blame and he loves you guys?)

James: “It's not all on him. He says that because he loves us and he's going to go to war for us. He’s told us that from day one, but it's not all on him. It's on us too, it's not all on the coaches. They can't go out there and play for us. I don’t really like when he says that, but that’s just the type of guy he is. It’s not all on him.”

Huntley-Hatfield: “He loves us, he loves all of us. He would do anything for us, but ultimately, the coaches can’t go out there and play for us, so we just have to listen to them. Listen to what they’re telling us and what they show us in film sessions, and then practice and apply it to the game. And then like I said, figure out a way to change.”

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