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Louisville

Kenny Payne on loss to Wake Forest: 'There are no excuses'

Alex Weberby:Alex Weber•01/21/24
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© Matt Stone/The Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

Ten days ago, Louisville scored its best win under Kenny Payne by beating a solid Miami team on the road. However, they’ve since lost three straight and Payne says there are “no excuses” for the defensive performances lately.

In the last three defeats, Louisville’s defense has really taken a step back, allowing 89 to NC State, then 86 to North Carolina before giving up 90 vs. Wake Forest to wrap up their run against Tobacco Road foes. Prior to this three-game stretch, UL had only given up more than 85 points in two other games, once vs. Kentucky and the other in a win over UMBC to start the year.

The Demon Deacons came out particularly hot against the Cardinals, knocking down 10 3-pointers in the first half to race out to a 15-point lead at the break despite Louisville shooting north of 50% of the field themselves. All told, Wake drained 18 triples and Payne admitted after the game that allowing such a strong shooting performance is pretty tough to overcome on the road.

“The elephant in the room is… if we allow a team to shoot the ball like that, you’re not winning,” he commented. “If they make 18 threes, you see what happens, you’re going to lose by 20 or more. I can’t remember last time a team made 18 threes on a game. That’s pretty special.”

The Deacons certainly caught fire from deep, but Payne isn’t ignoring the defensive mishaps that allowed so many good looks.

“There are no excuses. At the end of the day, we gotta go out and perform. We got to go out and play with a fight. Really, we got to go out and defend.”

Kenny Payne also commented that his guys didn’t come out fully awake on the court with the noon tip-time.

“I think that sometimes young people feel like ‘I don’t have to do things early in the morning.’ That’s no excuse,” said Payne. “I feel like when you step between those lines, you have to compete. You got to fight. You got to know who you’re playing against. You got to know that this is a war, and that the team that you’re playing against is pretty good.”

When a pretty good team like Wake Forest gets a ton of open looks and starts knocking the majority of them down, well, then you’re likely in for a long afternoon.