What Kenny Payne, Louisville Players Said After 95-76 Loss vs. Kentucky

Read what the head coach of the Cardinals, guard Skyy Clark and forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield said after their loss to the Wildcats.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Taking on Kentucky in the annual Battle of the Bluegrass, the Louisville men's basketball program once again found themselves getting blown out by their arch rival, suffering a 95-76 loss on their home floor.

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

Head Coach Kenny Payne

(Opening statement)

“First of all, we played a team that is ranked No. 9 but I think they are a lot better than No. 9. The reason they are a lot better than nine is they share the ball, they defend, they have players who pass the ball and can really shoot the ball – probably the best passing team that we have played. They are a machine that keeps coming at you and at you and at you. I thought for the first ten minutes we did a really good job. We affected them some. But as it wore on, we didn’t quite keep it going. We stopped defending the way we should, and we didn’t share the ball like we should have and that led to them making runs. They are great in transition and great rebounding, and they are a really good team.”

(About handling the speculation about his future and how to handle that)

“For me it is more about how do I get this team better. I feel like we are getting better. Keeping them close together has been the focus. I am just living on that.”

(About what could be done to make the team more competitive)

“I would say obviously there are things I could have done better. There are some games that we lost that we could have won, should have one – where on paper it said we were the better team. I am not sitting here saying that I am not at fault. I am not happy with where we are, but I also know we still can get better and there is a lot of room for growth. It is not all on the kids, I have to do a better job getting these guys prepared to play really good teams.”

(About outscoring UK in the second half)

“I talked to the guys about the first ten minutes of the game and what it felt like. How we had them on their heels a little bit. Then I talked about the next ten minutes of the game and how we stopped sharing the ball and didn’t have assists. We didn’t get back on transition. We weren’t locked in defensively and a guy goes off with 22 points. We won the second half by one point, so in a 10–11-minute spurt, it was a 20 point game.

(About playing a team with so many offensive weapons and what was the game plan)

“The game plan was knowing this is an excellent transition team. We had to sprint back and match up. At times that is hard because at times, it is not just one guy or two guys but five guys that all have the ability to drive pasts and shoot it. The other part of the game plan was to make sure that we played good offense and take good shots and play sort of like we played against Pepperdine. They are going to collapse on drives, and we can’t go in and try to make layups on 6-11, 7-1 shot-blocking athletes. We get them to suck in and we spray the ball out and jump stop and go to the free throw line. I thought we did that a little bit in the beginning of the first half and as the half went on we tried to make the play and try to make the shot but they would block the shot.”

(About the first half after starting strong, what changed the momentum)

“I thought we have to do a better job explaining to them ‘listen it is slipping away, you have to get back to how we got the lead, how we got even with them’. How did we do that and have them talk through it. ‘Coach, we got even with them by moving the ball, by driving and taking the ball downhill.’ Don’t play with the ball, go downhill, make them collapse and spray the ball and get good shots. Brandon (Huntley-Hatfield) did a good job, initially, of putting pressure on them. But as the game progressed, we sort of went away from Brandon. We still have to have find Brandon.”

(About Ty-Laur Johnson getting frustrated and getting him back into his game)

“When you are an emotional young man and are a young man and a really good basketball player. He is playing against really good basketball players, right? So, in the heat of the battle, you can’t give your spirit to anything other than the task at hand. If you give your spirit to a bad call and that knocks you out of whack then you are affecting our team, you are affecting your play. If you give your spirit to someone talking trash to you and you want to talk trash back and you play out of character, then you are giving your spirit to something negative that is going to affect us. You are a good basketball player, trust and be secure in who you are. We need you. Sorely, badly, we need him to play the right way. Most of the assists we get, he is probably going to be the man in getting those assists. You can’t let it get to where you think, I gotta score, I gotta score, I gotta score. Or you have to see the game and not give it to the referees who you feel like didn’t give you the right call -- that doesn’t matter. Keep playing. Keep playing.”

(About keeping the starters in who were doing well early in the first half)

“So if you look at their team, how many guys played 12 minutes or more – so they have a bunch of guys. When you play these guys or play a top-five team that has a bunch of players, our guys are going to get tired and need a blow. We are hoping we can give guys blows and they come back fresh. So that is the first thing. In the second half, the game is teetering, and we need to keep this game competitive. The guys have to keep fighting and keep fighting through. We want to win four-minute segments and that is what we talked about doing.”

(About where he feels Louisville is getting better)

“So the first thing is that when we are playing well, you see we are getting assists. Again, 14 assists tonight, that should have been 20. We played that way for the first ten minutes and when we play that way, we are pretty good. When we don’t play that way, we look like individuals.”

(About Calipari saying the program is a year away from having this program where you want it. How close do you feel like you are if using Kentucky and their roster as a measuring stick?)

“If I’m using Kentucky as a measuring stick, did you see all of those All-Americans? I don’t know what the game was last year. I see segments where the gap is closing. I don’t know if the fans or you all, the media people, see it, but the gap is closing. I feel like we’re heading in the right direction. We still have a lot of work to do. I have a lot of work to do. I have to be better. I’m not saying I have all the answers. When you look at my team, how many really good high school players can walk in here and demand starting time? Not many. I now have to go to the transfer portal and get a guy that’s been in college three or four years to add to our team. That is where we are. I think that’s a big jump from where we started. Where high school kids can’t walk in here and outplay Ty-Laur [Johnson], Skyy [Clark}, or Tre [White] who have played a year or two. We have good players who are very young and they’re only going to get better. The next step is bringing in transfers that can take our team over the hump.”

(About the weeks until conference play begins and what those next two weeks look like? Do you like the fact that you have some time between the next game)

“I love the fact that we have some time because we need to get better and more consistent. I have to look at these first 12 games and assess what we could have done better. We have time to work on things we want to do to make this team better. We’re getting into conference play soon. The teams are good in conference play but we’ve shown that we are capable of being competitive. If you fall asleep on us, we may burn some people.”

(About last summer when Coach expressed that he didn’t want to value age and just wanted to find a good fit in the transfer portal.)

“We won four games last year. When talking to high-level kids, they want to know “Are you going to win more than four games? How can I come to Louisville and win four games?” There’s apprehension there. On top of that, the top schools are going after the top transfers, so I have to battle that. I also have to make sure that no one finds out who the transfers we’re going after are because the top schools will go get them. It’s the nature of the beast. I believe we’re headed in a direction where we’re about to take the next jump. I’m happy with that, but I also know there’s a lot of work to do to get these guys better.”

Guard Skyy Clark and Forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield

(On strong start, factors that led to Kentucky taking over)

Clark: “It was too many defensive breakdowns. We let (Antonio) Reeves get too hot, and he started hitting some threes that hurt us. Our biggest thing is to continue to try to put 40 minutes together. We’ll have 30 minutes of great game but then ten minutes will hurt us. Once we can do that, we’ll start fixing things.”

(On messaging at halftime, team’s response in second half)

Clark: “Nobody has quit on anybody. This team is the closest team I’ve ever been on, and I’ll keep repeating that. They want to do big things and they want to win games. We were saying stay together no matter what happens, just stay together, and that was the main message.”

(On keeping head up after tough losses throughout the season)

Huntley-Hatfield: “Mainly it’s about staying together and not focusing on the outside noise because we feel it as well. We don’t want to feel this way, but it’s about staying together and staying within ourselves and trying to find ways to win games. We’re trying to figure each other out. We have to stay close and lean on our brothers and let each other know that we’re there for each other.”

(On crowd today and Kentucky chants throughout game)

Huntley-Hatfield: “Coming into this game, I expected that. There’s nothing we can do about that except win. I believe that if we had started better in the beginning of the season and didn’t drop those games that we did, we would be above .500 right now and the conversation would be different. Some things we put on ourselves, and we have to find a way to win and a way to change that. I think this break will be good for us and that coming back we’ll be better.”

(On full crowd, how it sparked the team)

Huntley-Hatfield: “It helped us recognize what kind of game it was. I think it allows us to feel the energy that it’s a very big game, a rivalry game and one of the most well-known rivalries in the sport of basketball and college sports. Whenever we feel like our fans aren’t with us, we have to be together and create our own energy. Knowing what type of game it was, we felt that, so we already had that energy within ourselves. When they showed our hype video before starting lineups, it just brought it on more. That’s why you saw what happened in the first eight minutes of the game when we were right there with them.”

(On messaging from Kenny Payne after the game)

Clark: “The message is stay together. This break will be good for us, like Brandon said. We get a mental break from everything. Everyone gets to get away and be with their families. I think it will be really good for us. The team hasn’t given up on anything or anybody. Games like this just motivate us. We know that we’re right there with some of the top teams, despite the score. The last ten minutes of the first half hurt us, but we won the second half by one point. We just have to put 40 minutes together and continue to go out there and play our hearts out.”

(On security of Kenny Payne’s job)

Clark: “As the players, we’re still rocking with (Kenny Payne). We have no control over what decisions are being made. We don’t have time to worry about that or focus on it. We have games coming up. We’re going into conference play, so that’s what we’re focused on, and we have to control what we can control.”

(On Reaves scoring outburst, what team could have done differently defending him)

Clark: “It was a bit of both. The stats show he went 10 for 16. We know he’s a shooter, so he was making some really good plays. As a team, we have to know to always find him. He got some ones that transitioned and some ones coming off screen, so we have to be better with that.”

(On how much players enjoy playing for Kenny Payne)

Clark: “He’s a great person. I’ve said that since I committed here. The reason I committed to Louisville was because the first thing he said was ‘You’re going to know I love you before I coach you.’ To me, that’s huge. He doesn’t treat us like basketball players. He treats us like young men, and he’s a mentor to us. He teaches us more than just basketball. He teaches us about life, and he prepares us for more than our dreams, he prepares us for life. KP is a great person and I know I can go to him for anything.”

Huntley-Hatfield: “He’s like a second father to me. My connection with him is very deep. All I ever wanted when I left Tennessee was the opportunity to play. It doesn’t matter if I have a bad practice or a bad game, I want the opportunity to play and figure it out myself. He’s been there for me, and him putting in the work with me and being patient with my development has been huge. I thank him for that every day. Being around him a lot, in the gym with him countless times, has helped me grow a connection with him. The way he pours into me is something that I will always be grateful for and something that I need going forward in my development and my life.”

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

You can follow Louisville Report for future coverage by liking us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram:

Facebook - @LouisvilleReport
Twitter - @UofLReport
Instagram - @louisville_report

You can also follow Deputy Editor Matthew McGavic at @Matt_McGavic on Twitter