What Kenny Payne, Louisville Players Said After 89-83 Loss vs. NC State.

Read what the head coach of the Cardinals, guard/forward Mike James and forward Curtis Williams said after their loss to the Wolfpack.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - In their first game after snapping their lengthy road losing streak, the Louisville men's basketball program's comeback effort against NC State fell short, suffering an 89-83 loss Saturday at the KFC Yum! Center.

Here's what head coach Kenny Payne, guard/forward Mike James and forward Curtis Williams had to say following the loss:

Head Coach Kenny Payne

(Opening statement)

“We played a team that, I knew it was going to be hard to win the game. They’re a good team, play hard, very good in press defense, got after us – 12-0 run to start the game. After that point when we settled down and we were the aggressors, I felt like… look we shot 47 percent from the field, 53 percent from 3, 76 percent from the free throw line, we forced them into 15 turnovers, why did we lose? You have to defend, they shoot 54 percent from the field, they shoot 50 from three and they shoot 88 from the free throw line. If you don’t defend, you’re not wining – it’s that simple.”

(When you say ‘settled down’ starting out facing the press, is that something you weren’t expecting to see or did throw off the rhythm?)

“We worked on it for three days, we knew the press was coming. We talked about not being tentative versus the press, but for the first five, six, seven minutes, we were tentative versus it and they felt it and created turnover and got their confidence going.”

(NC State’s DJ Horne made six 3s – why was he open as much as he was?)

“It all was predicated on [DJ] Burns. We knew that Burns would be a load for us, we knew that we had to protect Brandon [Huntley-Hatfield] and one of the ways that we wanted to protect Brandon was to trap the post, so we talked about an area on the floor where we could go and trap. There were times when he was nowhere in that area, we went in and trapped and we’re not in position, he makes a three. I blame myself for some of that, probably should have let Brandon go mano y mano and fight it out, but when he did go mano y mano, he scored four or five times in a row. He’s a load… the attention to detail to winning basketball is vital. The difference between a yard, two yards can be the difference in winning and losing. We’re supposed to go when he gets to the lane line. We go way before he gets anywhere near the lane line. They burn us, over and over and over again.”

(About the defensive lapses being more a lack of attention or attitude and effort problem)

“I am saying it is attention to detail. We worked on it. We talked about it. We went over it. We walked through it this morning. Again, when you are in the heat of a battle, sometimes you think you want to go and you go early. You only think about yourself and don’t talk and go to the trap. He’s going to burn you. His head is up, his eyes are open, he is looking for somebody to pass it to. You go early and, boom, they make a three.”

(About celebrating the improvements and what Coach has seen)

“The big thing that I have noticed is when the coaches call me or like Kevin (Keatts) before the game saying, ‘man, I am not looking forward to playing this game’. It is showing that we are earning respect but we have to finish it off. What would it feel like for those dudes in the locker room if we win this game. Do you understand the statement this would make. I know we are getting better. I feel we are getting better. I know we are doing the right things for these young people. We need to make sure they understand that Louisville means winning and winning and losing comes down to a bunch of little things.”

(About beginning to turn the corner on the season)

“I think at first that all the guys from Brandon (Huntley-Hatfield) having dominant moments, Curtis (Williams) hit some good shots within the flow of the offense and not forcing anything. Kaleb (Glenn) is rebounding the ball and is doing a good job of rebounding and bringing physicality to us. TyLaur (Johnson) brings us energy in spurts but it has to be more from each one of those guys. We can’t have a guy have a moment or two and then his moment or two happens and we are not as good. We don’t have the wiggle room to make mistake after mistake after mistake. We have to make sure we are in tune. We can’t afford to give that team a 12-0 run on us. We can’t afford it. That is a good team. That is a well-coached good team that feeds off that kind of play.”

(About the energy in the arena affecting a home court advantage)

“Major. Major impact. These kids need to see the fans in here like they were today. They need to cheer them on and help them fight harder. They need to get after them when we don’t fight harder. When we go to these other arenas and we watch these teams and compete against those teams, that is what their arenas feel like. We need to let our people know and other people that walk in here that is why you are important and vital to these kids and they need you.” 

Guard/Forward Mike James and Forward Curtis Williams

(On N.C. State’s disruptive early press defense)

Mike James - “They’re a good defensive team, that’s their identity, they press and get into guys. They kind of rattled us in the beginning, but once we got settled down, I thought we did better with that.”

(On turning the corner after the win in Miami and a late rally vs NC State, despite losing)

Mike James - “I feel like we’re taking strides as a team. We’re starting to play better offensively; sharing the ball, and knocking down shots. We’re just competing, so we took some stuff we did well from the Miami game but we just got to clean up some stuff on the defensive end from this game and just carry that over to UNC and Wake Forest next week.”

(On defense that led to open shots for N.C. State)

Mike James - “DJ Burns is a good post defender, so whenever he got the ball, we were trying to trap from there. But at times, myself included, he wasn’t in a scoring area. He’s a very good passer and we were sending traps too early, so he was reading us and passing out of the trap to open shooters, and they were just knocking down shots.”

(On his role and comfort level coming off the bench)

Curtis Williams - “We had a lot of players go down, so KP’s main thing was for us freshmen to step up. We’re getting our chance, so we just have to keep going, keep playing, doing what we’re doing. Just be ready to come out there and be confident mostly.”

(On energy level in the Yum! Center)

Mike James - “I appreciate the fans for coming out and rallying with us. I just want to tell them to stay with us, we’re going to keep fighting and keep getting better.”

(On weathering NC States’ scoring runs to keep the game tight)

Curtis Williams - “When he called that timeout early, he just told us that we got all the jitterbugs out, so now we’re ready to go out there and play. Once we went back out there, things started flowing for us. Getting in the lane, getting what we wanted, that’s mostly it.”

(On this week and taking momentum into the rest of the year)

Curtis Williams - “I’d say we can just keep building on it. Today we lost by six but we just came off a win from Miami. We just have to keep building on things to make us a better team on the defensive and offensive ends.”

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

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