Kenny Payne shares how Louisville keeps going amid three-game losing streak

Louisville lost their third straight and ninth of their last 11 on Saturday to fall to 1-6 in the ACC. Kenny Payne knows his team just has to get back to work, though, with plenty of conference play left to go.

Payne spoke about how the Cardinals must move forward in his postgame press conference following the 90-65 loss at Wake Forest . All he knows to do is to continue to push his players to be their best and better translate what they’re working on in practice to their opportunities in the games.

“I think we just keep doing what we’re going and do it harder, do it better, and do it with more discipline,” said Payne.

“We practiced hard a day or so ago and it was a very energetic practice. But we have to come out and compete in games and know what teams are trying to do.”

Louisville sat at 4-3 at the end of November to tie their win total from all of Payne’s first season as head coach. There was at least some positives as well, even with a loss to Chattanooga to their name, because of how close they played against Texas and Indiana in the Saatva Empire Classic.

However, since the start of December, the Cardinals have gone 2-9. Those nine defeats have come by an average of nearly 15 points per game.

They closed their nonconference schedule with losses to DePaul, Arkansas State, and Kentucky. They’ve since started their conference year with just one win and six losses. The Cardinals started 0-3 against Virginia Tech, Virginia, and Pittsburgh with a comeback win at Miami splitting up another three-game skid versus NC State, North Carolina, and, most recently, Wake Forest.

The Demon Deacons led from start to finish in Winston-Salem with the final, 25-point margin representing the worst loss of Louisville’s season. They led by as much as 26 after shooting better than 50% from the field and three, including 18 makes from deep compared to two for the Cardinals, while outrebounding them by 10 too.

Louisville sits in dead-last in the Atlantic Coast Conference by a game in the standings. It’s now on them to try and dig themselves out of that hole with no rest coming their way as the Blue Devils are up next for them this week.

“It’s not getting any easier. This is a great conference and we face Duke next,” said Payne. “We better play well, we better fight at home and try to put them on their heels.”

Payne on loss to Wake Forest: ‘There are no excuses’

Louisville has lost three straight after their latest defeat this weekend.

Kenny Payne says there are “no excuses” for the defensive performances lately. After the game, Payne admitted 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.”

“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.”