What Kenny Payne, Louisville Players Said After 69-52 Loss vs. Virginia

Read what the head coach of the Cardinals, forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield and forward/center Emmanuel Okorafor said after their loss to the Cavaliers.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A disastrous first half against Virginia proved to be too much to overcome for the Louisville men's basketball program, as they suffered a 69-52 loss to extend their losing streak to five.

Here's what head coach Kenny Payne, forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield and forward/center Emmanuel Okorafor had to say following the loss:

Head Coach Kenny Payne

(Opening Statement)

“Coming into the game, I knew we were playing a good Virginia team. Well coached, very disciplined in what they do. They don't change much in how they play. Offensively, they do a couple things and they do it over and over and over again with great pace, great energy, and great focus. Defensively, they play pack line defense. If you don't move the ball, if you don't run out, that's hard. There are things about the way they play defensively that will stymie you. I am disappointed that we went over this two, three, four days in a row and we came out and didn't play the way we needed to play to start this game. The way that we practiced, the way that we watched film, the way that we studied them, it didn't translate to the game, and they came out and pretty much handily whipped us all over the court.”

(On disconnect between pregame preparation and the team’s struggles to begin games)

“It hadn't been every game that we started off slow. I think there's been a few games, the Duke game, we played pretty good to start the game. But also, the disconnect is how vital this team has to play defensively. It’s vital they have to play together, it’s vital they have to fight. 20 points in the first half they got in the paint. You can't beat them when they play like that. We have to control the game better defensively, and then we got to share the ball. We can't hold the ball. We can't play with the ball before we attack the lane. When our offense is good, the ball is moving and we're getting downhill. When our offense is bad, we got guys trying to play one on one. It's really that simple.”

(On lack of attempted threes)

“I just think that for our team, for our team, our threes are going to come off penetration. If the ball stays on the perimeter and we shoot a three, that means we didn't break down the defense. We’re a better shooting team when the ball gets in the lane. Ball movement first, we move the defense. We get it, we attack it, a ball screen or something, we get down in the lane, the defense sucks and we make a pass. That gets us the three. When we're really good offensively, we do the same thing, that person gets to pass, he doesn't shoot it, he passes it, he passes it, and we get a second lane touch. The numbers show that we are a very efficient offensive team when we get one or more lane touches. Two or more lane touches, and we're really, really good.”

(On improvement game after game, dragging the team back after that first half)

“It's a great question. You know, we talk about it, we watch film, we see where our breakdowns are. Some of it is a mindset. We can't let this be a pain that keeps happening because you're right. We have made progress. It hadn't shown in the win-loss column, but we are a better team than we were a month ago, two months ago. But we have to make sure that whatever this is, I haven't given up on these guys. These guys haven't given up on themselves. We have to continue to fight. We have to be focused. We have to know that we have to fix this defense, and a lot of its effort, anticipation, and talking.”

(On lack of effort on defense, how the staff approaches the issues)

“It's more than just the effort. It's the ability to talk and communicate. If two guys go to one, one of them should have talked to the other one, so that we don't have this disconnect. So, when I say effort, I'm also including communication in that. It’s not the effort to want to or to do it, it’s ‘I'm overthinking, and I see something happens and for a second, this guy looks like he's open and I don't say switch, and then two people run to one.’ We have to communicate with each other. We have to be in a stance. We have to make sure that when guys go to the basket, we're there to help, not just opening up the basket. When we're there and the guy is coming at us and we jump, and then in the air we jump sideways, and we leave the basket open and they make a layup. Things like that.”

(On the season being an emotional toll)

“I know the guys want to do well. For me, we just keep plugging away, man. We're going to keep fighting. We're going to keep plugging away. We're going to keep pushing them. We're going to keep loving them. I love this team. I love these kids. I think they can figure it out. I think they'd gotten better. I'm in no way discouraged. I'm embarrassed because I don't want to lose. I don't want them to lose. I want them to succeed. I want them to overcome their barriers. I want them to overcome their fears. And a lot of this is they have to get through it. It's not going be easy. We've had a lot of quote unquote ‘bad luck’. We don't have Dennis Evans. We don't have JJ Traynor, averaging 10 and six. There's been a lot of things that have happened that, but that's not an excuse for us going out and trying to win games.”

(On players stepping up at halftime after the poor first half)

“I think Mike James was emotional in the locker room before the coaches came in. Look, we need more than Mike James. We need all the guys in motion. We need all the guys bought in we need all the guys challenging each other to be better. We don’t have one player that can't do this by themselves. We're not that type of team. We need guys to be maxed out or close to maxed out with the effort, energy and focus. You can't have a bunch of guys having bad games on the same day playing in the ACC, you just can't.”

(On what Kenny Payne does at halftime after a bad first half)

“No question, we are trying to make the adjustments. Okay, you're not understanding, maybe we go to a different type of offense where we move the ball first and then maybe we do something different. Defensively, we may have to go more zone. I'm throwing everything I can on the wall. I'm trying to challenge the guys to be better. For example, how can a Tre White play 28 minutes and with no rebounds? We can't win. You must have a better game for this team to win. You're out one of our better players, one of our best players. You can't have these types of games. You must make an impact on the winning and losing for our team. We need you to make the impact on winning.”

(On what ways is Virginia different for when you played them the first time)

“I think they're more athletic. I think they're stronger around the basket. They are more physical. Minor brings them - I think he had more offensive rebounds than defensive rebounds. He lays great screens. He gets him the gap and he can finish around the basket. They're just they're just in tune. Today, they were as good as I seen them play. They were sharp. They ran their offense just about to perfection. And the second that we broke down if they ran the offense for 25 seconds, and we broke down at the 12 second mark, it came and it showed up when they got to 20 seconds because we were constantly trying to make up for the mistakes.”

(On Emmanuel Okorafor returning)

“I thought he did a good job. I want Manny to be able to be comfortable on the court, to know what we're doing. I want him to watch a little bit and then make the adjustment. On the flip side of that, I need Brandon (Huntley-Hatfield) to be dominant. When Brandon is dominant, it gives us more time and gives us some wiggle room some rope to play with so that the other guys can see it and adjust.”

Forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield and Forward/Center Emmanuel Okorafor

(On the overall frustrations of the game, starting in the first half)

Huntley-Hatfield: The most frustrating part was we had two really good days of preparation. We feel like the practice leading up to the game, we felt like we started to figure out our defense a litle bit more. And then we come into the game, and then we're down to 10 to zero, were down 15 to zero. It just keeps snowballing and stuff. So that was the frustrating part, feeling like we had two good days of preparation and stuff within our defense, that we're finding some improvement, we're finding our footing on the defensive end, and then we're just not putting it together in the first half, or throughout the whole game.

(On the teams consistency this year)

Huntley-Hatfield: That’s a very good question, that’s a really good question. I just think it's all on us, to be honest. There was nothing none of our coaches can draw up on the board for us to go out there and execute. I don't know why we come out and it’s a certain game, like a certain matchup or it's a really good team, top five team, and we're really amped, but then Virginia is also a very good team as well. They're just not in the top 25. But I don't know why we do those things. It's just about a mental aspect of it, making sure we're all together as a team and as a unit, and understanding different teams give us different looks. So, it's just about figuring it out.

(On team what the conversations in the locker room during halftime)

Huntley-Hatfield: Really just talking about what we all what we all see out there. Figuring out what's there and what's not. Figuring out what we were doing that that was good, or that is good for us. Keep focusing on it and keep going back to that. We want to find ways to go on runs. We also have to find ways for us to stop them from going on runs as well. Really just focusing on what we're doing correctly and focus on what we're not doing and making sure we're not doing those things, making sure that we're put together very good possessions.

(On staying positive and continuing to work hard)

Huntley-Hatfield: I would say so, for guys that don't believe in each other or fight. We never like to get embarrassed like we did today. But we're keeping faith, I’m keeping faith, we’re all keeping the faith because we know what type of team that we have. We know that we are beter than last year, and we know we are beter than the games we’ve put out. It's just about having the mental capacity to figure it out together. To take from coaching well and to take criticism from our teammates and accountability from our teammates very well too. I feel like we’re right there. We’ve just got to figure out how to put it together.

(On what is not being executed on the court)

Huntley-Hatfield: The difficult part is just that we're talking about it, but we’ve got to be about it as well. We can't allow one of our brothers, one of our guys, to just go out by himself, guard a very good player by himself. If he goes to rotate, I have to help him and when I go rotate someone, whoever is on the floor with me has to go help me. We all have to help each other and we're just not doing that. We're not being in gaps to get out of gaps. I, myself, I’m not walling up every time a guard gets downhill. So, it's all a trickle effect. We all just have to help each other a lot more. We all feel like we are pretty good one-on-one defenders, but sometimes someone may get beat and it's just about being there for your brother and being desperate. We all have to be desperate on the defensive end.

(On what gives the team hope that they will win)

Huntley-Hatfield: What gives me hope is the games in New York. We’re playing with the best of teams, and we’re getting within five points, one possession games and we’re not figuring out how to get over the hump. But we’re getting top-five teams, teams who people believe are national championship contender teams, top five teams, top whatever teams, we’re getting them within one possession games. So we’ve shown we can do it. It's just about figuring out how to get over that hump and figure out how to take the lead of games and control games. I think that's what keeps giving us hope. We’re getting kills throughout games and stuff like that. We look really good on defense where teams are not scoring. They may go 0-for a certain stretch, it’s just about carrying that out throughout the whole game and putting it all together. It is all about putting together two great halves of defensive effort.

(On getting back to playing in games following his injury)

Okorafor: I was happy to be back out there. I didn't do anything different than what I do. I just wanted to help my team play defense. They needed me on the boards, so I went in there. They needed me on the screen. I went in there to do my job, and I feel like if I keep doing my job and everyone keeps doing their job, we're going to be good.

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

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