Kenny Payne explains why Louisville can turn things around

With a 22-point loss to Notre Dame at home last night, Louisville fell to 8-19. Still, even with minimal optimism with four games to go and headed into the offseason, Kenny Payne maintains his belief that the Cardinals can get this right.

Payne shared his thoughts on a potential turnaround for his team following the 72-50 defeat to the Fighting Irish. That faith of his stems from the players that he has on his roster and his confidence in them to get it done.

“So, when you say you want me to tell you why do I think it can be turned around? Because these are young people and anything is possible,” said Payne in his postgame press conference.

Payne sees a roster full of kids that want to succeed for their program, their school, and their city. It’s just a question now of whether or not that they’re willing to give up whatever it takes to improve as players and, in turn, as a team.

“We work really hard, we believe in what we do. We’re not perfect but I think these kids care about being good basketball players,” said Payne. “I think they care about this city, I think they care about this university, the community. I think they want to make people proud.”

“With that comes something. The word is a sacrifice,” Payne said. “It has to consume you – to make the sacrifice to do the things that is needed to become a better player.”

Louisville is now 12-47 (0.203) to this point of Payne’s tenure the last two years. That includes a 5-31 mark in the Atlantic Coast Conference as the league’s last-placed team in that time.

Now, with that record and the season’s end almost upon us, the topic of Payne’s job security is sure to start coming up again.

However, with all that said, Payne still is convinced that his team and program can make something out of this. It’s just a matter of if those players are going to trust in that as much as he is.

“I have no doubt about it getting turned around but I’ve been doing this a long time. So, for me, it’s a no-brainer that it’s going to get done,” said Payne. “I need them to believe it. It doesn’t matter what I believe. I need my players to believe that they can turn this around.”

Payne on his job security: ‘I’m not really worried’

Louisville sits in dead last in the ACCafter dropping Wednesday’s game against Notre Dame.

The Cardinals have won just eight games this season and are now 3-13 in conference play.

Despite this, Kenny Payne isn’t worried about where his job stands at this point in the season.

“I’m not really worried about my job security. I’m worried about how do I get these guys to play better,” Payne said, via WDRB’s Eric Crawford. “My mentality is that I want to win every day. I want to win tomorrow in practice, I want to win tomorrow in the film session – I want to do the things to help these young players get to where they need to get to. I want them to become a better team.”