What Kenny Payne, Louisville Players Said After 67-66 Loss vs. Bellarmine

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

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The start of the Kenny Payne era for the Louisville men's basketball program got off on the wrong foot, as the Cardinals dug themselves into a first half hole against Bellarmine, and their comeback attempt fell just short.

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

Head Coach Kenny Payne

(Opening Statement):

“First of all there was some growth. It wasn’t all bad. We lost that game by one. If you go back through from the beginning to the end, there were 20 possessions that were wasted. There were defensive lapses that we just gave up on. I am saying this to the guys in the locker room, ‘possession by possession defensively, make it as hard as you can’. Let me say that again, ‘possession by possession defensively, make it as hard as you can’ for the opponent, especially on defense. The reason being when you give a team like their team, a very good passing team, not super athletic but really good at what they do, and you allow them to get wide open back cuts, offensive rebounds, wide open threes, they are just dissecting you apart. In order to sustain that, and get over that, you have to be really solid and disciplined. You have to know what they are doing. We weren’t real solid, we weren’t real disciplined, although we were disciplined in spurts. They deserved to win. They are a well-coached team that outcoached us, the players out-played us, they were the aggressors who put us on our heels. They get a ten-point lead, a team like that, that makes 12 to 15 passes, you better understand how hard you have to defend -- or you lose by one point. Again, I am going to say this, they are a very good team. Scottie Davenport does a great job. He is a very good coach. But it really wasn’t about Bellarmine as much as it was about us and I am giving them all the credit in the world. They are a hell of a team. This is about our discipline that he exploited.”

(About more three point attempts than two-pointers, was the team settling?)

“No question about it, I think in the first half, I think we had 16 threes and 10 twos, that is not who we are. That is not they way we practice, it is not the way we play. Since the day I got here, I have been talking about multiple lane touches. There were 10 possessions where we did not have a lane touch. That is not what we teach. That is not what we do. As I say that, understand, this is a hard game. If it was easy, everyone would be winning. So I am asking them to change and do things that are uncomfortable for them right now. That is why I say, ‘we win or we learn’. Today is a hard lesson to learn, it is that simple.”

(About Sydney Curry not getting a shot, how much was that defense or UofL not getting him the ball)

“It was a little bit of both, they were really good, they sagged the paint. We wanted to establish him in transition. We wanted to establish him in the post. We ran a couple of plays for him but the timing of the play was off. We were panicked or rushed offensively and didn’t get him the ball or we went too soon. But it is a learning lesson. Here is a kid that can force teams to double-team him and score in the paint and who is really strong around the basket and can offensively rebound. He has to find a way to impose his will, that is why he is a captain, because he has been there before. We need him to lead us. I am not blaming him in any way, shape, or form though.

(About getting what Coach wanted in the last 10 seconds of the game)

“The last two or maybe three possessions, there were wide open shots. The three that we made, we just put that in today and we executed it and got a wide-open shot and we had two other players wide open. The play that Kamari (Lands) came off wide open, I can’t ask for a better shot. My lesson to them is confidence is something that a lot of people don’t like to talk about as coaches. It comes from doing something so hard, for so long, and I hate to say it, but a little bit of fear of failure. When you live by that fear of failure, it makes you train a certain way. It makes you alert to everything -- knowing that I am going to shoot this shot thousands and thousands of times from a fatigued state like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and LeBron James -- thousands and thousands of times. If this is the life that you choose, you have to know your confidence is not like a light switch, you can’t turn it on and off. I am saying that as a team and not one individual. Confidence has to come from your work. We have to work borderline insanely in order to be good.”

(About point guard going to the free-throw line to try and hit a big shot, after playing so many minutes possibly being fatigued And what do you say to him when he misses)

“First of all, I think for El (Ellis), he has to understand the power of having the ball that much in his hands. That means sort of that you can't be emotional highs and lows, you have to be steady. You have to be so in tune with your teammates that you are controlling the game and you are finding that. For example, talk about Sydney Curry, find him. Brandon may need a post-up, find him. Then you have to know that you have to pick your spots offensively to take over a game and that when we lose by one, you can never be the guy when you're Sydney (Curry), El (Ellis), Jae’Lyn (Withers) to give up or break down on plays. One possession, that's what this team needs. One possession you break down it costs us the game. You have to be so in tune to being on point on everything that we're doing. It's the only way we can win we have no wiggle room. Leaders have to be leaders and they have to lead by example. They can't take a play off. They can't miss something. In order for us to win, they have to be really good.”

(You had five fast break points, is there a certain amount of fast break points that you want to have? What is going to take to get those?)

“That was a stretch and I don't know what they ended up shooting for the game. But there was a point in the game we were sitting on the bench in the huddle saying they’re shooting 65 percent they’re shooting 70 percent. You’re not getting fast break points when a team is shooting that high of a percentage. You have to get stops. All transition is, is a mistake by the offense, a missed shot by the offense and we get out and fly. If we don't get stops we can't run. So we have to be a better defensive team to force misses and to get out and run.”

(About the importance was getting the energy of the home crowd)

“Right before tip-off as I looked in the crowd, and I thought the crowd was great, I said to the guys understand what you're playing for, who you’re playing for. They are here to support you, give them your heart, give them your heart, they deserve it. I just hope that people stick with us. Eventually, we going to get it figured out. I don't know what that means, but I know we're going to get better. We have gotten better, but we have a long way to go and we started out behind to be honest with you. We have players that are struggling with confidence, struggling with who they are, and what they are, and we're trying to help them through it. That's what coaching is it's not X's and O's and drawing up plays, it’s inspiring young people to be great, inspiring young people to believe more than they've ever believed in their life. Getting a guy to think differently, that's our challenge, that's what we're trying to do every single day. Some of it is with love some of it, to be honest with you, is putting our foot in their butt, that's what it is.”

(The growth you saw from Mike (James) tonight? You mentioned confidence, he really had confidence down the stretch making those shots)

“I want him (Mike James) to play, and I told him this in the locker room, work really, really hard, and then trust your spirit, trust your heart. There aren’t many players that have a spirit like his, trust it but work hard so that when you go into the game, all you have to think about is your ticker and your brain. I'm not worried about conditioning. I'm not worried about confidence. I know what I'm doing. I'm competent. I'm confident, and I'm ready to just play and trust myself. That's what I need from him and in spurts, he was really good. I'm happy with Mike James, really am.”

Forwards Mike James and Brandon Huntley-Hatfield

(About Bellarmine making it so difficult for UofL to get the ball inside)

Huntley-Hatfield: “I can say for myself and for our other bigs, we just have to hold our post position because they’re fighting. They’re not just laying on our backs. And once they do throw it in, they’re sending another guy. So, we just have to hold our post position and play stronger, that’s really it.”

(About the difference down the stretch and over the course of second half? Did they feel like they got more comfortable against their offense? What changed defensively for you?)

Huntley-Hatfield: “It’s staying more locked in. They moved the ball around a lot. Early in the shot clock or late in the shot clock, we would just give up because we were running around so much. And we weren’t really staying locked in, we were trying to get a shutout. Getting back-doored, getting driven by, which is not what we work on at all. I take pride in our defense, but they run their stuff really well. They’re well-coached. Which we tip our hats off to them, but we just got to stay more locked in for the whole 30 seconds, the whole shot clock. We got to finish the rebound.”

James: “I think the difference was down the stretch, we became more desperate. We knew we had to make a run and we were down 10 we knew we had to make a run at all costs. We just couldn’t let them get an easy look so we just became more desperate. That’s what Coach Payne was telling us. We have to pitch a shutout. We have to become more desperate and play like our lives depend on it. I think if we play like that from the tip all the way through, we'll be a very good defensive team. I think we'll see different outcomes. Give them credit. They hit some tough shots. They ran their offense. They stuck to what they know. But I think if we just carry that over to the next game, how we played like those last five to eight minutes, it will be fine.”

(How do you put this behind you and move forward?)

James: “When things like this happen, you just have to come together even more and regroup. Our leaders, our captains have to step up and lead our group. Everybody is going to be held accountable. We just have to grow together. We're a young team so we have to learn from stuff like this. We just have to come together, grow together, become even tighter. We have a game in three days. So there’s no time to sulk and be sad. We have practice tomorrow. Fix the stuff that we messed up on and look forward to the next game.”

Huntley-Hatfield: “It's just one game. But it was the start of the season. We don't really care about that and we want to win every game. We want to make a statement every night. We are going to look at the film, correct the mistakes. We have to take more pride in our defense and have more pride in our discipline. Fix these mistakes. Watch the film. Go back to the drawing board. Have good days at practice for the next few days. And then we're going to come out on Saturday and show it.”

(For Mike, knowing how good Sydney Curry can be and how good he is around the rim. But he didn’t get a shot tonight. What can he do differently or what can you guys do differently to change that?)

James: “We can definitely get him more involved. We all know who Sydney Curry is. He’s one of the best bigs in the ACC so of course we got to give him looks. As you can see in the game, when we would get to the posts, they would come and trap and double so he was forced to kick it out. We need him to be more aggressive because he was one of our best players last year. We need him to crash the glass. We will definitely look forward to getting him more involved. You’ll see Sydney Curry soon. You’ll see Sydney Curry soon.”

(About taking 28 of 52 shots from the three point. Is that what the plan was going in or do you think that you were taking too many threes?)

James: “Well, Bellarmine plays heavy in the gaps so then you try to keep the ball out of the paint. Or you drive to somebody in the gap which leaves the next dude open for a three. We didn’t want to come into the game shooting that many threes. But the way they play if you keep driving and kicking and keep driving and kicking, you’ll get in rhythm to catch and shoot threes. I guess that was a result of that. That’s why you saw the stat line like that.”

(Mike (James), Kenny (Payne) was talking about confidence. What has that process been like for you all trying to develop that confidence in terms of shooting or maybe other parts of the game and trying to come together right now?)

James: “Confidence just comes from your work. And that’s what he (Kenny Payne) tells us all the time. We work so hard every day in practice. We have individual workouts, reps after reps after reps after reps. So that’s what builds your confidence. You’ve worked so hard by yourself when the lights are off and nobody’s watching. When you’re in the gym with your teammates, you work so hard that you become confident in yourself. You become confident in your teammates and that’s what he preaches to us every day and he makes us do that. So that’s where he gets the confidence thing from.”

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

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