Kenny Payne opens up on challenge to keep players positive amid opponent's runs

Kenny Payne was disappointed with the performance of his Louisville squad against Notre Dame earlier this week.

The Cardinals now sit dead last in the ACC Standings, following dropping Wednesday’s game against the Fighting Irish by a score of 72-50. At the moment, Louisville has won only eight games on the season, and sit at 3-13 in conference play.

One of the main reasons for their disappointing pace is Louisville’s inability to stop a run by their opponents on offense. Speaking with the media following the game, Payne spoke to that, and elaborated on what he tells his team in those situations.

“I can just tell you that myself and all the coaches were just telling them, ‘Guys, we’ve got nine minutes to go. We’ve got eight minutes to go. Stay fighting. It can turn, it can turn.’ But fragile minds and young people sometimes, they’re so concerned with, ‘I haven’t made a three. I haven’t made a jump shot.’ The guy made a tough shot,” Payne said.

“For example, the players say it, ‘I was there. I contested the shot.’ That’s not what winning players say. ‘I contested the shot and he made it anyway.’ Winning players, tough players, championship players, the greatest players, are going to will a guy to miss the shot. They’re going to will the ball, and get it in the rebound. Not, ‘He hit me first,’ but, ‘I’m going to hit them first.’ So we’re trying to teach them all these things about what they say they want to be, what they want to be and how do they get there, and for young players it’s hard.

“What I’m trying to do it tell them it’s not basketball, it’s life. You don’t get that rebound, somebody pays for it. You don’t get that stop, your team dies. That’s the mentality you’ve got to have. That’s what separates the good from the great. Hard lesson, but it is what it is.”

Alas, that’s a deep metaphor from Payne, but it doesn’t ease the sting of Louisville’s current predicament. Some have theorized he could be on his way out of a job, but Payne isn’t fretting about that at the moment.

“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.”

Time will tell if Kenny Payne can get things turned around for Louisville, but it’s evident the Cardinals aren’t in the best spot at the moment, and need to find the small victories in their performance over the rest of the season.

On3’s Barkley Truax contributed to this article.