What Kenny Payne, Louisville Players Said After 80-64 Loss vs. Virginia Tech

Read what the head coach of the Cardinals, forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield and guard/forward Mike James said after their loss to the Hokies.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - For the sixth time in a row, the Louisville men's basketball program found themselves on losing end of the win/loss column, this time falling 80-64 in a rematch with Virginia Tech

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

Head Coach Kenny Payne

(Opening Statement)

“First of all, hats off to Virginia Tech. I thought they played hard. They came out and hit us in the mouth first. They were the aggressors and ran their offense really hard with great pace. They put us on our heels and before we knew it, we were down 10- 2. I thought we did a good job of trying to fight back, getting the game within ten. We took an ill-advised shot and got it to ten. How did we get it to ten? We had two post-up plays and then we came down and took a shot. At the end of the day, young players are going to make mistakes and we are going to learn from it and grow from it. Those mistakes were costly in the heat of a battle like this where you work so hard to get it back within range so you can make a run and then you make those kind of mistakes. I thought Brandon (Huntley-Hatfield) fought hard and played hard. He did some good things out there. But we needed more and that is not all on him. It is on all of us, coaches, players in the light of we had a bunch of guys who didn’t play well knowing what this game meant for us.”

(About the second half run with Zan Payne and Danilo Jovanovich and three starters on the bench as a way of shaking up the starters)

“Danilo (Jovanovich) really deserves to play. If a guy is on the court and he is not playing with energy and his spirit is off, I have to put him in. I have to apologize to him for not putting him in before because I want him to play. He comes to work everyday and tries hard. He doesn’t have to be perfect for me but if you try hard and your spirit is in the right place you deserve to play. I would have like to have put Aidan (McCool) in the game as well. I don’t care about anything except who is going to fight to try to win the game. Talent level means nothing. I need send that message to guys that you can decide if you are going to be gifted minutes or that is not the reality. If you don’t play hard, or don’t play for your teammates then you have to come out.”

(About getting the offense going in the first half and why the starters struggled early and was that disappointing)

“Of course, in the locker room, Coach (Danny) Manning talked about it. I am consistently talking about it. We are third in the ACC in getting to the free throw line. We are a paint-touch team. We have great spacing. We attack you in multiple drives, in ball movement and get the ball and we cause teams havoc. When we get away from that and we just leave the ball on the perimeter and then shoot jump shots, we are not the same team. That means we are shooting contested shots that are not in the flow. It is hard for them to digest that. I have been harping on it all year. We are going to continue to harp on it.” 

Forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield and Guard/Forward Mike James

(On how the team has lost momentum down the stretch of the season)

Huntley-Hatfield: “That's a very good question. I just think we’re just trying to figure it out. Try to keep trusting each other, trust in our game plan, and like I said, recognizing who we are and focus in on exactly that coming into each game, but also making sure that once we do try to attack the paint, we're also making the right reads and trusting each other out there on the floor and we’re shooting everything with confidence. Just keep doing that.”

James: “Yeah, man, it's hard, but I just say we have to keep trying to attack every day trying to get better. You know, just not wasting any opportunities because you never know when it will be the last time playing in front of this crowd or in front of anybody, like your parents watching at home. So, I just say like, we just got to keep the mindset of just attacking each day, trying to get the most out of each day, each practice, each game. It’s hard, but I just try to keep guy’s morale up and try to finish this season out hard.”

(On if you saw soul searching in this team over the last couple days in practice)

Huntley-Hatfield: “Yeah, I did. We had a very, very thorough scout over the past couple days, and I feel like after that last game we all just banded together a little bit more to try and come out and put a better effort out there today.”

(On thoughts going into the final home game of the season)

Huntley-Hatfield: “Our only focus is finishing the season out strong, going to D.C. and shocking the world.”

(On Brandon’s knee injury from the first half and visible shoulder injury)

Huntley-Hatfield: “I just tried to get a rebound, and then my knees landed on the ground first. My shoulder is fine as well, just a little bit sprained.”

(On slow start on offense tonight and not getting anything going early)

Huntley-Hatfield: “In the game, one of our coaches had said something to us about being the top five in the ACC in drawing fouls. So that's just about us recognizing who we are. That's why we get into a shooting match with these guys. I mean, we kind of recognize who we are at this point now. We just have to stick to what we know instead of getting out of what makes us who we are.”

(On run to start in 2nd half; what prevents the guys from putting their foot on the gas and continuing the runs and grooves they get into)

James: “I think it is just getting stops. You have to continue to get stops and those runs. As we are coming down and scoring, the biggest kid is going back down at the end and stopping them from scoring so we can continue our run. So, the biggest thing for us is just to be conscious of giving our full effort coming down on defense, every position during those rounds. We need to get stops the whole game.”

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

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