Kenny Payne’s inaugural season by the numbers

The 2022-2023 basketball season has been an interesting one for newly installed Head Coach Kenny Payne. Payne, a former alumni and known for his recruiting prowess, has received a significant amount of negative publicity this season and the same people who were vying for his hire are the same ones who are crucifying him for not being able to coach.

However, the reality of the situation is that the expectations on this team with the talent on this current roster and the inability to recruit graduate transfers due to the lingering IARP ruling created an atmosphere that would have been difficult for any coach to succeed right out of the gate, especially with a coach who had never held a head coaching position before.

Head Coach Kenny Payne is an incredible person first and has a very clear passion to unite the city of Louisville and reignite the passion in for the Cardinals basketball program. One way to do that is to look at the statistics of what works and what doesn’t work.

Evan Miyakawa, a college basketball analyst, has been featured on ESPN, CBS Sports, as well as The Athletic and he put together a statistical summary of how this Louisville basketball team has fared so far this season.

The most obvious trends are as follows:

• Use JJ Traynor less
• Use Brandon Huntley-Hatfield more
• Pair Huntley-Hatfield and Hercy Miller on the court more often

When Huntley-Hatfield is on the court, Louisville’s production is at a +23.7 points per 100 possessions. As a point of reference, whenever JJ Traynor is on the floor, Louisville’s production is at a -25.6 points per 100 possessions. That is a drastic difference in production and one that is certainly noteworthy.

It seems as if Brandon Huntley-Hatfield may be the most efficient player for the Cardinals because whenever he is on the court, statistically, good things happen. Especially when he is on the floor with Hercy Miller.

"Miyakawa says “they are by far the most effective teammate duo for Louisville, outscoring opponents by 18.6 points per 100 possessions. There are only a few duos even above zero.”"

Not only just Miller, but the Tennessee transfer, statistically, makes all of his teammates better whenever he is on the court. Whenever he is on the court with Sydney Curry, Jae’Lyn Withers, El Ellis, Kamari Lands, Mike James, and even JJ Traynor, he makes them all better with an Above/Below Average of 5.1 or better for each teammate.

The Above/Below Average is a measure of how much better the teammate played when he was on the court with the player compared to the teammate’s average play. These statistics point to the importance of having Huntley-Hatfield on the court and just how important he is to the productivity of the team’s offense.

Moral of the story is that he should never be removed from the starting lineup and continue to be highlighted while he is on the court.