What Kenny Payne, Louisville Players Said After 61-58 Loss vs. Virginia

(Opening statement)

“Credit to Virginia, you can see why they are a top 10 team. They’re experienced, they are veterans, they know how to play, they play great together. The moment you break down, they burn you. The moment you relax, they burn you. The moment that you’re not in tune, they burn you. They’re not doing it with an abundance of talent, they’re just doing it by being solid. They’re doing it by executing. They’re doing it by playing together. And I thought that’s a top 10 team in the country and the way we fought, I’m proud of the guys. I wish on that last play… we work on it every single day where the ball doesn’t just stick on the perimeter. Somebody drives the ball, maybe it’s a quick two, who knows? We work on it every single morning. I understand the emotions of the game, ‘we’ve got to get a three. We have to get a three…’ That’s not what we really needed. We could have taken a quick two. But I just that they understood why we do the things that we do. And it’s one thing to understand it when it doesn’t mean anything and it’s another thing to understand it in the heat of the battle. And we’ve got to do a better job and I’ve got to do a better job of explaining why the ball doesn’t stay on the perimeter in the crux of the game. And everybody’s thinking you need a three, oh no you don’t, you get a quick two. Now you’re only down one, you foul, you give yourself another chance. But, I’m happy with the guys, they fought hard. Again, a top 10 team in the country, we knew they’d be hard to beat them, I thought we did a lot of things well.”

(One word you’ve used all season to talk about how you want the defense to play is desperate, did you think they showed that tonight?)

“I thought the first half we showed it and with maybe six or seven minutes to go in the half, I said ‘do you understand when you’re locked in how good you are, your length will cause people problems. If you stay locked in and you stay disciplined, you can be a great defensive team, they’ll struggle with your length. But then something happened – they relaxed. And when they relaxed, it went from being nine or 10 to down two or three – just by relaxing. That’s how fragile winning and losing is.”

(After playing two top-15 opponents pretty hard, how do you balance not going the moral victory route while still being pleased with the progress in games like this?)

“In the locker room just now, I told the guys, ‘Look, you work hard. I push you hard. And I keep using the words win or learn to you. I’m just hoping that you’re learning how fragile winning is, and I want you to learn that even in losses there are lessons, but you deserve to come out with a win. And what a great message it will send to you, this fan base, this university, this team, this program, if you can find a way to shock the world. Find a way to shock the world. And you do that with, again, desperate defensively, sharing the ball, passing the ball to each other efficiently, running great offense, locked-in… how many times did they just get layups at the basket and our whole defense is predicated on a tight shell, protecting the lane, the ball doesn’t get to the rim. Learn and the let your lessons that you learn from it translate to a win, no matter who you’re playing.”

(On having positive contributions from more than two people offensively and what can you take away from guys who didn’t score a lot tonight, but were still active defensively?)

“When Kamari (Lands) was locked in, I thought he gave us positive minutes defensively. I did. I thought he was active, he tried to keep the ball in front for the most part. Mike James the same, and then as Mike got tired, slippage. And when he slipped, they burned us. The same with El [Ellis]. El made a great shot on the kid and when he comes down, he relaxed, backdoor cut. Jae’lyn [Withers] they drive the ball, they back cut Jae’lyn – layup. When we’re locked in and we’re alert and our head is on a swivel, and we’re seeing man and ball and whatever they do to us, we’re ready for it and we anticipate it, we’re pretty good. We’ve just got to be able to be that way for more minutes.”

(On the role of fatigue and stamina)

“At a certain point, I believe with great teams, great players, it’s not about how you feel physically, it’s where you are mentally. So, physically you may be worn out, but mentally, are you strong enough to continue to fight. So, we tap out physically, that’s why we run every single day, that’s why we do conditioning every single day. That’s why we do conditioning into defensive slides and defensive rotations every single day. That’s why we run and do shooting after we run, I want you to play basketball from a fatigued state, so that ‘alright, your body feels like I can’t go anymore, but your will to win and your mental is so strong that you can. That’s what I’m trying to get to. I’m encouraged, because I see us against really good teams, and I see us clicking. We’ve just got to do it a little bit better.”

(Brandon (Huntley-Hatfield) played tonight for the first time in a while, what led you to feel comfortable getting him back in there for the minutes he played tonight?)

“He’s ready. He texted me this morning and said ‘Coach, should I start?’ And I was like, ‘I make that decision, probably not. He’s ready to get his feet wet. I need him to be his best version, I need him comfortable. This is just alright, let’s see where you are. Can you focus? Can you play tired? Can you execute the offense? If I play you at the four, can you not drift toward the basket and keep the floor spread? All those things. And then, from here on out, what I really want to do, to be honest with you, is I want to see him and Emmanuel (Okorafor) together. And I want us to be a great screening team, a great rebounding team, a physical team. I think they can do that, but they’re going to have to focus on it.”

(Emmanuel Okorafor didn’t actually play tonight, is any reason for that, just based off the matchup or just other things you saw this week leading up to the game?)

“I just thought this is a tough team. I thought this is a tough team to have Emmanuel out there, trying to figure out all the things they do. At times they’re five-out motion, they set screens. The five-man will shoot a three every now and then, he burned us on a couple of those. It was a tough game for that. But that’s no sleight on him, obviously I love the kid, and he’s going to get more minutes.”

(What did you think of your defense tonight?)

“I thought the first half was good. I thought the second half was, as I look here, 57 percent from the field, 50 percent from three, 50 percent from the free throw line. I would like to have that 35 percent they shot in the first half to be that in the second half, to be honest with you. I don’t want them to shoot basically 60 percent and try to inch out a win. What if that number is 40? What if the threes are one instead of whatever it is? We’re talking about a different ball game.”

(They forced 22 turnovers against Duke. You guys were pretty good with ball security for most of the night. What did you see in that regard?)

“We’re spending a lot of time on passing and being strong with the ball. At times, I’m looking at it and I’m saying, ‘We’re making progress.’ Other times, I’m seeing us playing too casual, too ‘I’m afraid I’m going to make a mistake.’ We ran a great play, out of bounds play, to get Mike James the ball in the post. Defenders behind him, he’s dead under the basket, and we’re hesitating to throw it. And I absolutely lost my mind. But I want us to be a great passing team. Again, I’ll say this, great offense isn’t the shooting. It’s the passing. And in order for us to be a good passing team, as the indicator is, the turnovers. We’ve got to do better at that.”

Guard El Ellis and forward J.J. Traynor

[Does it give you encouragement for the rest of the season having two top-20 games down to the wire?]

El Ellis: “It just shows that we can compete with anybody. Those teams are supposed to be some of the best teams in the country and we went down to the wire with them both games. So, I just feel like guys should feel very good about that. We got to keep our confidence and just look forward to the next game.”

JJ Traynor: “Yeah, I have to agree. Playing close with Miami definitely gave us confidence for this game. Just knowing that we were right there with these teams. If we clean up a little stuff, we can beat them. Just knowing that before the game gives us confidence.”

[What did you use to get out to a strong start in today’s game?]

El Ellis: “I just feel like guys came out and were aggressive. I feel like when we do that, we're a really good team. We just have to continue to have that aggressiveness down the stretch, even when another team is going on their run. Because we went on the run and then they went on their run. We fought back but we just got to continue to be confident.”

JJ Traynor: “Yeah, I have to agree. I think at the start, we came out aggressive on defense trying to disrupt what they were trying to do. And just having that mindset kept the game close.”

[Coach Payne mentioned that the Pittsburgh loss hit you guys differently and was embarrassing. Did that cause you guys to up the effort in these past two games?]

El Ellis: “I was very embarrassed after that Pittsburgh game. We came out. We didn’t fight at all. They hit us in the mouth and they just kept hitting us. We just kept taking punches, so I feel that I really motivated guys to come out and hit first in these past two games.”

JJ Traynor: “The Pitt loss was definitely an embarrassing loss. After that, we practiced really hard and changed our mindset going in Miami and we’ve been playing well since.”

[What do you think you’re doing to stop these big runs?]

El Ellis: “I feel like on the defensive end, we're fighting. Earlier in the season, we weren't fighting for an opportunity to go on those runs. I feel like lately we've been fighting. And honestly, we're just a better team than we were before, a lot better team. We came a long way from beginning of the season to now.”

[What went wrong after being scoreless for five minutes and how did you pick it back up?]

El Ellis: “I mean, that happens when you're playing Virginia. They guard very well. Throughout the whole shot clock, they really help each other, they're really in gaps and they play. They're very physical. They do that to a lot of teams. A lot of teams when they play Virginia, they go on a spurt, and they don't score for a while, but you just got to stay aggressive. When we got them in foul trouble and were able to shoot some free throws every time, we continue to be aggressive and try to get in the lane.”

[Why haven’t you all quit? What’s keeping you up?]

JJ Traynor: “I would say just being grateful for the position we’re in. Even though we've been losing and it's not the year we want, we’re still having fun playing the game we love. We love our coaches and we love KP. We don’t want to quit on KP or ourselves or our teammates. So just knowing that I feel like keeps us fighting through.”

El Ellis: “Everybody in that locker room – we really love the game of basketball. A lot of us don't know what we'd be doing if we didn't have it. So, I feel like every time you step on the floor, no matter your circumstances, you got to go out there and fight. And it's not just about basketball, they're teaching us about life. Because it's going to be hard when the ball stops bouncing, it's going to be tough times when we're finished. So, I just feel like this just shows part of our character. All of us, coaches included, that we're going to continue to fight no matter what.”