What Kenny Payne, Louisville Players Said After 73-72 Loss vs. Wright State

Read what the head coach of the Cardinals, guard El Ellis and forward Jae'Lyn Withers said after their loss to the Raiders:

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Despite a career night from El Ellis, the Louisville men's basketball program falls to 0-2 to start the first year of the Kenny Payne era, thanks to a game-winning shot from Wright State.

Here's what head coach Kenny Payne, guard El Ellis and forward Jae'Lyn Withers had to say following the loss:

Head Coach Kenny Payne

(Opening statement)

“I know I am sounding like a broken record but when you see young people’s emotions go high and low and they are supposed to be the leaders, it is hard. I have told this team from the day I walked in here is all I really care about is that you look confident, that you play with energy and you learn to play with each other. That is all I care about. I don’t care if you miss every shot. I know you are going to make mistakes. Do it with confidence. Don’t let your opponent feel like they belong. You are Louisville. You understand what that means. Well, what is happening is that I have guys who don’t know what that means. They don’t understand and can’t get out of themselves. The game is a roller coaster emotionally for a lot of the guys. You can’t win that way. You can’t win. They scored 42 points in the paint. We have to be a defensive team to win. We did enough offensively to win that game. We should have won it by 15. They are a good team. They are a good offensive team. Forty-two points in the paint, 19 turnovers? We ain’t beating nobody. We can’t win a game like that.”

(About turnovers and Ellis’ eight and how long it will it take to rein him in)

“I know he doesn’t want to make mistakes. Emotionally, I keep saying that you are our leader and that you are one of our best players. How do you lead when they see you with your head down? How do you lead when you are too emotional? How do you lead us like that? You can’t. You can’t lead us like that. You have to lead us with steady. You will see me doing this (Hand high, hand low) Why are you so high, why are you so low? All I ask you to do is be confident and steady. I know you are going to make mistakes. It is okay to make a turnover, just get fundamentally sound turnovers. Don’t try to go behind your back. It is not going to work. Against the press, I don’t know what exactly happened but I know he dribbled the ball. I know that is the number one thing versus the trap that you don’t do. You get it and you pivot and Jae’Lyn (Withers) still seeing it and you make the pass and we have nothing to talk about. It is not just that. You go through this game and lose this game by one again. How many mistakes were made from the beginning to the end that led to the loss. That should have been 18. Get it to 18 and you can get it to 24. They are learning or trying to learn what winning is. That is hard for young kids, really hard.

(About playing defense on WSU’s Trey Calvin)

“I thought overall we did okay against him. I thought our length and athleticism bothered him some. There was a play when he got a three and we switched and our hands were down. I must have showed eight clips before where he came off the switch and the bigger players hands were down and all he could see is the basket. If your hands are up, he can’t see the basket and you are in a stance. Now he is going to drive it and we are going to collapse. But if your hands are down, you are giving him a shot at a free basket. Then the last one, we switched again and got to a spot and made a tough shot. I wish we would have collapsed and make him make another pass or something, I don’t know. He made a hell of a shot.

(On Louisville’s last possession)

I wanted him (Ellis) to catch. I wanted him to pivot. I told him he could go left or come around and circle around. What happened was he caught and dribbled right away. When you dribble right away against a zone, a pressing zone, you are asking for trouble. Catch it and pivot and see what you have and let people come to you so you can make a pass. If we do that, maybe we stay in the game.”

(With eight seconds left was there any discussion about fouling with fouls to give before they got the shot off)

“No, no. I want us to be a team that should be able to get a stop. Think about the play. What was it? Was it the tip in? Was it the backdoor cut? If we have to foul to prevent those two things, what are we saying? A tip in, that’s a rebound. We know we have to box out. A backdoor cut, we talked about it for three days. They’re going to backdoor cut us. Stay below your man. No matter what the driver dribbles at you, backdoor cut, dunk. What was the rotation, why where we above our man? We’re learning as we go. Jerry (Eaves) asked a great question: when do I think El (Ellis) will get it? Well I’ll say, when do I think we’ll all get it? When do we become one unit, one heartbeat, fighting to get a W (win). That’s the question.”

(About El’s (Ellis) decision-making. Do you think the pressure and the weight on him as the primary ball handler without a true backup or relief plays into some of that decision-making)

“Listen, as I say that about El (Ellis), I am in no way blaming El. El is a major piece to what we are doing. He’s probably our most dangerous player. You take El Ellis away from this team and we’re in big trouble. But, with that comes a responsibility. Your emotions have to stay steady. You can’t go high and low on us, no matter what happens on that court. Some of those turnovers were emotional turnovers. They scored on us so I’ve got to make a play. No, run the offense. Keep us solid. I’m not in any way blaming El. He had 29 points. I would like for those eight turnovers to be assists, but overall, I think he played hard. He just made emotional mistakes.”

(About developing confidence in it post players and them seeming like they are still tentative)

“We work on it every day. I talk about as a player, I would love to have a coach that just said, ‘I don’t care about your mistakes, just be confident.’ I’m going to sub you based off your confidence. If you look confident or you look tentative, if you look afraid. I don’t know what else do you say to a kid to make him get over his hurdles. Believe that you’re going to do well. Believe that you’re going to have the energy to fight through whatever you’re facing and go do it. I would like for these bigs to be more aggressive. Brandon (Huntley-Hatfield) is trying, Syd (Curry) is struggling a bit. I’m trying to go to him in the post. They just have to figure it out. It’s real simple.”

(What do you need to do to get Kamari (Lands) to be more aggressive? It seems like he is really hesitant to attack)

“You can tell there’s a lot of doubt there, there’s a lot of uncertainty there. I’m trying to free him (Kamari Lands) up, just play. Play and learn about yourself and learn how to play through adversity. He texted me after the last game and said, ‘thank you Coach for hanging in there with me’. I’m going to hang in there with you. I need you to play well. I don’t need you to be the most productive, I just need you to be aggressive, confident, and energetic. Those three things, that’s all I’m asking. Now, I’m also asking you to share the ball and know that you’ve got four other players on the court with you, but that’s all I’m really asking for.”

(About getting points in the paint there were plays in the first half where they threw a simple entry pass, turned and there was no one between him and the rim. What’s going on with those types of plays)

“We’re so concerned with our man. If the ball is on the opposite wing, you’re guarding the opposite corner, you’re on the split line. We worked on it. You know it. The ball dictates your position, not your man. Your man can run to the concession stands but you stay at that split line. We’re learning. I can’t explain everything except that I know they don’t want to make mistakes. Sometimes it’s just, I don’t want my man to score. This isn’t about your man, this is about defensive concepts. Winning basketball.”

(About being 0-2 and could easily be 2-0. What is said to the players to keep them staying positive)

“We have to change. There are things within the team that need to change. Things about our personalities we need to change. Things about our culture we need to change. Things about our work ethic we need to change. This is bigger than just them. I tried to explain that to them, I am not giving up on them, I love them. I do see growth. But, I say this again, if winning was easy, everybody would be winning. This is hard. This is hard. Sometimes kids come from programs where they never really understood winning. If you don’t understand winning, you don’t understand the sacrifice that comes with winning. To be able to give yourself not to anything other than your teammates. You know that setting a hard screen will have an impact on winning. Hitting your man and getting a rebound will have an impact on winning. Making a pass to a guy in the shooting pocket will have an impact on winning. Just being solid. Hercy (Miller), be solid. You don’t have to be great, be solid. It will have an impact on winning. Brandon (Huntley-Hatfield) you get it in the post, you make a good move. We work on it every day, just be solid. Make the move with confidence. It has an impact on winning. How you talk to your teammates, it has an impact on winning. How you all deal with each other. I look at the chemistry. You can take one guy and put the other four on the side of the court. Take El (Ellis) and look at the other four. Take Sydney (Curry) and look at the other four. Take Jae’Lyn (Withers) and look at the other four. What is the chemistry there? There’s a part of this game that not many people talk about. You have to be in sync with one another. For winning. For winning. It’s hard, but you have to.”

Guard El Ellis and Forward Jae'Lyn Withers

(On if the team is becoming more comfortable with the offense)

Ellis: “For sure, I feel like we are getting more comfortable. Each game, we’re getting better. It’s going to take time. We’re a young team, but we do have our pieces that we need to be good. I don’t have any doubt in anybody in our locker room. I feel like we’re going to be fine.”

(On the locker room vibe after the last two games)

Withers: “I’d say right now, we’re working on having a whole 40 minutes of confidence, and not letting it waver through adversity. I would say there were stretches today where it kind of wavered, but I would say towards the end of the game, that wasn’t really the case. It was more so just a tough shot that was made.”

(On how the team can work to communicate to get into the right places defensively)

Ellis: “We all have to communicate better. Like I said, we’ve got a young team. We’ve got guys that have never played college basketball before, we’ve got guys that are in new roles, so it’s still a lot of learning. But we’ll be fine.”

(On El scoring the last 13 points for Louisville and finishing the game with 29 points)

Ellis: “Yeah, I just felt really confident throughout the whole game. I was getting to my spots. I had eight turnovers, so even though I had 29 points, it doesn’t matter. I’m the point guard, I’m the leader of this team, so it doesn’t matter if I feel like I’m getting fouled. I can’t have eight turnovers. So, scoring 29 points doesn’t matter.”

(On the team’s conversations with Coach Payne during the game to steady themselves and remain confident down the stretch)

Ellis: “I would say it’s common to be frustrated, but one turnover leads to another if you’re just wavering emotionally. That’s happened to me before, this definitely isn’t the first time. And that’s something I’m working on and getting better at. I’m still learning just like every guy in the locker room.

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

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