Kenny Payne And The Ty-Laur Johnson Tights Situation

Kenny Payne had an interesting story regarding Ty-Laur Johnson’s uniform in the postgame presser in last nights win over Bellarmine

Louisville and Kenny Payne came up with a win over Bellarmine last night in a 73-68 win, and the second half offense was a big part of that. The Cardinals scored 51 points in the 2nd half, and guard Ty-Laur Johnson was a big part of that. Johnson has been a very bright spot for the Cardinals all season, and has been a good spark off the bench, especially when paired up with Skyy Clark.

Johnson only played 3 minutes in the first half, which was puzzling considering he has played so well for the previous 5 games of the season. He then played nearly all of the 2nd half as he totaled 19 minutes for the game. Johnson helped the Cards get the win with 8 points, 2 rebounds,  and 5 assists off the bench.

Johnson helped Louisville get big plays on offense in the 2nd half, and move the ball a lot better than they did in the first half.

The baffling part came when Kenny Payne came out to do his post game presser.

A reporter asked Payne about why Johnson played fewer minutes than ususal, and Payne responded with this:

"“Are you ready for this? I probably shouldn’t tell you this. We didn’t have the tights that Johnson wanted, so he didn’t know if he wanted to play. Oh yeah, you heard it, we didn’t have the tights that he wanted to play in. That’s what young people do. But he figured it out in the second half and he accepted the fact that we didn’t have the tights that we have never had for him, and he played, and he played well”"

Payne also had this to say in the post game presser:

"“This is a new day and age, a new generation of young people. They are learning what it means to be a part of a team. They are learning what it means to be kids of character. They’re learning. They’re learning. All of them are learning. We want them to think like in your mind, you’re looking like I can’t believe he just said that. That’s what it is coaching young people. That’s what it is. There’s a generation of these young kids now that think, you know, I don’t feel good today. I can just shut it down. Well, that affects a whole lot of lives. Ty-Laur Johnson is a great kid. He is learning for the first time in his life what it is to be held accountable, to be on time, to be a part of a team and have his responsibility to the team. I’m proud of him for fighting through. But I also know that I cannot ever take my foot off his neck. I know that.”"

While the first quote seems absolutely ridiculous, the second quote that Payne said does make it seem a lot more rationale. Payne definitely shouldn’t have said anything about that situation because it just makes him look bad as a coach. The players shouldn’t not want to play because of tights, and if they don’t Payne should make them play. But I get where he is coming from when talking about them being young and teaching them lessons as they become better basketball players.

Overall Payne probably needs a PR guy, or at the very least somebody who can get him better at handling these post game pressers. Because a lot of the quotes in the past few weeks have not been good for him.

Louisville got the win and that is all that matters, but hopefully next time every player has an extra set of all parts of their uniform.

I don’t want Dennis Evans not playing because he forgot his shoes at home this Sunday.