Washington, D.C. The Louisville men’s basketball team was anything but competitive going up to Wake Forest after putting on a relatively competitive performance against North Carolina, losing 90-65 due to terrible perimeter defence.
Following the defeat, head coach Kenny Payne said the following:
Kenny Payne, head coach (opening statement)
Let me start by praising Wake Forest. The manner in which they performed, 18-3, speaks volumes. They forced us to move quickly. We did not adequately defend ourselves or communicate –
I believe that there was no need to tag anywhere in this game when we opted to switch. You will already have a new player when you switch. They toss it to the guy they tagged after we made the decision to tag. Alternatively, they bait us into a penetration, or they pretend to be in control, but in reality, they just throw us off, and then the guy steps into a rhythm three. They shot the ball well, but we talked about forcing them to make hard twos.
(On why, in contrast to other games, this one lacked competitiveness.)
No justifications exist. We have to go out and perform at the end of the day. We were allowed to play fighting outside. We truly need to go forward and defend. The obvious problem is that you can’t win if we let a team shoot the ball that way. You can see what happens—you’re going to lose by 20 points or more if they make 18 three-pointers. The last time a team made 18 threes in a game is beyond my memory. That is truly fantastic.
(Regarding his decision to launch Zan Payne.)
I knew we had to put up a fight. Like with Hercy (Miller), DLo (Danilo Jovanovich), and anybody else I put in the lineup, I believed that Zan could enter the game and provide me with reliable defensive play. I felt he did a respectable job. I always say, “I’m not afraid to put you in there and let you play,” especially if you have a jersey on your back. Once more, I don’t require guys to do exceptionally well. I need all of you to play strong defence, shoot well, speak, interact, and respond to the action on the court. It’s not that difficult to achieve that.
(On how dissatisfied he felt that his team lacked a spirit of competition.)
Without a doubt,. I believe that young people occasionally believe they are exempt from having to perform tasks early in the morning. That is not a justification. You have to compete, in my opinion, when you cross those limits. You must put up a fight. You must be aware of your opponent. You have to understand that you are fighting against a really strong squad in a war. He was enhanced by the addition of another player. Unlike most teams, we don’t have much leeway. We have to exit the only means available to us in order to even be in the running. In order to play a game, we must battle.
(On what it will take for Kaleb Glenn or Curtis Williams to get into the starting lineup.)
They are becoming better players, in my opinion. Again, I have faith in everyone. Curtis has demonstrated strong play. Curtis established a rhythm as a substitute player, and although I want him to start, I also want him to feel at ease on the basketball court. It is what it is, and Kaleb is picking it up. Because Brandon (Huntley-Hatfield) and I have to play him at the age of five, he is essentially learning, getting on the court, and fighting. I’m not in the slightest disappointed in those men. I need them to keep growing and learning since I won’t be able to call them freshman for long.
(On how to stop this outcome from getting worse.)
I believe that we should simply carry on doing what we’re doing, except working harder, better, and more systematically. We put in a lot of energy during our intense practice a few days ago, but we still need to show up for games and understand what other teams are attempting to do. It isn’t becoming any simpler. It’s a tremendous conference, and up next is Duke. It is imperative that we perform well on the field, fight at home, and work to overtake them.
(About his plans to support the defensive operations.)
The mindset that you need to have, in my opinion, is that you cannot allow yourself to believe that “you score, I score.” Both they and we have high shooting percentages. The team with the superior offensive line will prevail at the end of a game.”To win games, we need to get stops. We’ve performed admirably on defence when you consider our best games, the games we won, and the games where we really had a chance to win. We simply need to keep doing it and stop opponents from shooting against us in the upper 40s, 50s, or 60s percent. That presents a challenge.
Leave a Reply