What Louisville HC Kenny Payne Said After 84-59 Loss at Duke

Read what the head coach of the Cardinals said after their loss to the Blue Devils.

DURHAM, N.C. - Taking on Duke in their final true road game of the season, the Louisville's men's basketball program once again came up short in spectacular fashion, falling 84-59 to secure back-to-back 20-loss seasons.

Here's what head coach Kenny Payne had to say following the loss:

Head Coach Kenny Payne

(Opening statement)

Coming in here playing, in this arena, in this stadium, I think you know you have to walk in here with a toughness, with a fight, with a resilience to to know who you're playing against. To know how hard it is to come in here and get wins. Very rarely happens. Top-10 team. So when you walk into this building, and you're ready to play a team like this, there's a fight that's required. That fight means, for 40 minutes, you don't have to be perfect, but you better be disciplined. You better be tough, you better be resilient in how you handle things, and you better be precise and how you want to play offense.

With that said, we came in here and we talked about the big key to the game: rebound. They beat us 24 to 43. You can't beat this team if you're not going to rebound. We came in this game, based off our first game how we moved the ball and we caused them problems, moving the ball and attacking the lane. It took them a half to sort of figure that out. We talked about defensively being solid, creating and making them miss shots, because they got good shooters and they score in bunches. They got a bunch of guys that can really score the ball, and they are a very good passing team. Well, they had 23 assists to our 11 assists. A good offensive team, that's what they do. Everybody passes the ball and you create havoc, and that's what they did to us today.

(On how tough it was to get them on the same page offensively and defensively)

I thought that it wasn't the communication, I thought it was the fight. I thought it was the toughness to hit first, and hit hard. To send a message to them that you're not going to just dominate us on the boards, and we're gonna start out being the aggressor. Then go up there, and after you hit them hard, you go snatch the ball with two hands above the rim. Well, they hit us first, and they had 13 offensive rebounds. That's not what we talked about. That was not the game plan. We talked about getting after them defensively, and being a solid in how we handle ball screens actions, and making sure that we play to get deflections. They're a very good passing team. Well, we didn't do that. We talked about also moving the ball. By moving the ball, we are a driving team. We're not a jump shot shooting team. Well the first half, somebody told them they was a jump shot shooting team, and so they shot jump shots, and we were 1-for-11 in the first half in threes.

(On forcing 14 Duke turnovers)

I thought, at first, we did some good things, but not nearly enough to where we caused them problems. I thought in the first half, we played poorly, and it was a 13 point game. I thought the second half we played better offensively in moving the ball and attacking lanes, but then we gave up second shots. So whatever we did good, we compounded it by doing something bad. You can't beat a team like this if you're gonna do that. This is a team that could easily win the national title. This is a top-10 team, and they may be better than that. They got every attribute that it takes to win, and win on a big scale. We don't have that wiggle room, and we have to know that the only way we can contend with them and fight with them, is to fight. That's it

(On what frustrated him the most in the game)

I thought offensively, we came out and thought we're just gonna shoot jump shots and play casual. That's not how we play. That's not what we talk about. When we're playing good basketball, we're playing good basketball by attacking you. By getting stops, running out in transition, or in the half-court throwing it into the post and they double team, or spreading the floor with great spacing and we attack the lanes multiple times.

(On Tre White and his offensive impact)

I thought when Tre got hurt and he missed some time, I thought he got a chance to see for himself without us saying it. He got to see it. Since he came back, he's played different. He's played trying to get north-south, he's played trying to get to spots, he's not over dribbling, he's not second guessing. He's built on that, and he has gotten better. He's had games where he's had - and I'll be honest, I'll just tell you what I told him in the locker room - "You are a very good basketball player. You have to will us to win." The scouting report is you're going to fill up a stat sheet. So I need to instead of three rebounds, I need to get 13/14 rebounds. You are capable. If Brandon (Huntley-Hatfield) won't do it, if KG [Kaleb Glenn] won't do it, if Manny [Emmanuel Okorafor] won't do it, you're capable of getting us 12, 13, 14 rebounds. Go do it. That's what your ability is. You have to will us to win

(Photo of Kenny Payne: Charles LeClaire - USA TODAY Sports)

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