Kenny Payne breaks down play of Mike James

Mike James was a lone bright spot for Louisville head coach Kenny Payne in his team’s regular season finale loss to Virginia. James finished with a game-high 24 points on 7-for-10 shooting from the field and 8 of 8 from the charity stripe.

After the loss, Payne in his postgame press conference that James came to the game ready to fight and that he will always support someone with that mindset.

“I thought he was aggressive,” Payne said. “I thought he played strong. I thought he fought. Would have liked for him to be a little better defensively in certain spots. But, listen, if you’re fighting — win, lose or draw — I’m with you. But you have to come to the fight and participate in the fight to have success. He did that.”

El Ellis was the lone other Cardinal in double figures with 14 points.

James finishes the regular season second on the team in scoring at 10.1 points per game on 45.4% shooting.

“I thought he was one of the bright spots in the game,” Payne said. “He made a couple good passes, but the ball moved, it hit his hands, made good strong moves to the basket. If they collapse, he made a pass. If not, went strong toward the basket and finished.”

Kenny Payne breaks down mindset for Mike James, team heading into ACC Tournament

Louisville enters the ACC Tournament as the last seed following a 2-18 conference season. The Cardinals, who finished the regular season with a 4-27 overall record, will face Boston College in the first round on Wednesday.

Kenny Payne said his team needs to have a good mental performance to pull off at least one upset victory.

“At this point, it’s a new season,” Payne said. “Zero and zero. We have a lot of experience in what not to do. The things that we’ve done well, we better really be in tune to it. And then things that we haven’t done well, we better be ready to correct it. If not, it will be a one-game season for us, which is tournament play.”