Louisville Basketball Will “Never Win With Talent” According To Kenny Payne

Kenny Payne said what about Louisville basketball’s talent level?

Kenny Payne has had a rough start to his 2nd year as head coach of the Louisville Cardinals as they lost to Kentucky Wesleyan last night 71-68. The Cardinals are 2-2 in exhibition games  since Payne has been at Louisville and things could get ugly for the Cardinals really fast.

The most bizzare part about last night was during Payne’s postgame presser after the loss.

Payne talked about how Kentucky Wesleyan is a good team, how he is trying to build a culture at Louisville, and how the team doesn’t play together or hard. Payne said this nearly all of last season, and it is starting to get tiring. Fans want to see results instead of Payne telling them things will get better.

The most baffling statement was when he was asked a question about team disconnect during the loss, and where the team will go from after this game.

Here is what Payne said in response to that:

"The disconnect is understanding fully how hard that you got to practice, how hard you got to play, how desperate you have to be defensively. The disconnect is other teams are good. I knew going into this game that this was going to be a tough game. We needed it to be a tough game, because we need to know exactly how hard we got to play against good talent. You know that team played well against Saint Louis, there’s a reason, they’re a pretty good team, and they’ve been together, and they play hard, and they understand what the coach is asking them to do. We are learning about ourselves, and we don’t have a ton of experience. The disconnect is again, are you really going to beat teams with your talent, or are you going to beat teams with the work ethic, with the toughness, with the fight? We can’t beat teams with talent. We’re never going to be the most talented team. Beat them with fight."

We can’t beat teams with talent? We will never be the most talented team? That is not a good quote from Payne.

Louisville basketball should be have a talented team, and they most definitely have beat teams with their talent before. Does Payne think Louisville is not able to get highly talented players? If he does then he should not be the Cardinals basketball coach. I think Payne may honestly just have misspoke because Louisville had the no. 6 recruiting class in the nation this offseason (per 247sports). He clearly got talent, but still thinks that team will never be the most talented team.

It is genuinely a confusing quote and one that should turn off most Louisville fans.

Louisville is a top ten job in all of college basketball, but Payne seems to think he is the head coach of Boston College. I want Kenny Payne to succeed in Louisville, but things are not looking up for the Cardinals at this point in time. The worst part about it is that he seems to think he has 4 years to rebuild this team. A good coach can turn around a college basketball team in a year with the transfer portal and recruiting. Louisville needs a coach that can do that, and while Payne can still prove he is that guy, it is not looking too plausible at the moment.

Louisville can and has beaten teams with their talent and fight. Payne should know that since he was apart of that “talent and fight” in 1986. But apparently that team wasn’t talented if you put this bizarre quote by Kenny Payne in perspective