CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The Louisville men's basketball program was starting to generate a serious upset bid on the road at North Carolina, but those efforts fell apart down the stretch, resulting in an 86-70 defeat on Wednesday night.
Here's what head coach Kenny Payne had to say following the loss:
Head Coach Kenny Payne
(Opening Statement)
(North Carolina) is a team that could easily win a championship this year. We knew that coming in. We knew we had to play lights out to come in here and get a win. I thought we played hard, I thought we fought. But there are no good efforts and moral victories with this program. I want to win games, and I want those these guys in that jersey to know what it feels like to go into North Carolina and really win a game.
(On if he believed Louisville was operating at full speed/full effort)
I saw a lack of focus for the details. I saw a lack of fight at times. I saw a lack of attention to where you are on the court and who you're guarding, and they burned us. We did some things well, but overall, the first half they separated from us. That's what great teams do, they wait for you to make mistakes, and they burned us. Now the second half, I look at the numbers here, we shoot 64 percent from the field, 75 percent from three and 33 from the free throw line. We're playing a great team, and we're put up good numbers and running good offense when we share the ball. Why in the world would we have one assist in the first half? I don't know, but that's not acceptable. Everyday we talk about play together, share the ball. You have to do it for 40 minutes if you want to come in here and beat a team like this.
(On how long is enough time for a coach to kind of establish what you want to establish, compared to UNC's Hubert Davis)
I didn't inherit the same thing he inherited. That's first. What I inherited was a broken something, and my job is to clean it up. To answer your question, I don't really know exactly. But to me, in my in my world, inheriting what I inherited, this is really year one for me. Because this is the first time I get to bring my players in, and start the process of rebuilding a program. But that's just to me. Other people may see that differently, I don't know. But that's how I feel about it. I wish I inherited something similar to what Hubert (Davis) inherited, because I think he started out slow, but as the year went on, he had a great year.
(On if the team was hanging their head at halftime, or if they kept fighting)
I think that's obvious by we cut the lead to five, and we had them on our heels, and then we made mistakes. Obviously, we fought the second half. Obviously, we did a lot of things well. Obviously, we defended in spurts better. But let's not take anything away from who we were playing. That team is is a special team with unselfish guys, great shooting, and is a together team. Even Jae'Lyn (Withers), he hurt us tonight. I thought we did some stuff. We shoot 64 percent from the field, 75 from three (in the second half), obviously that's great offense. That's great stuff. Should have made free throws better. But at the end of the day, we got to defend better, and we got to rebound the ball.
(On what it'll take to not have slow starts to games)
I think we just got to focus. It's not just one player, it's a mindset of multiple guys. We got to play together, we got to trust each other, and we got to come out and fight. You can't start a game off and and let a team get a big jump on you.
(On why UNC got so many clean looks, especially in the first half)
I thought that it started with (Armando) Bacot. It started with them going inside to him, and we were trying to trap, and he burns us a couple of times because he gets such a great position in the low post. He's a load to deal with. Then from there, we are scrambling. They come back and they run stagger screens and flare screens for the two shooters, (R.J.) Davis and (Cormac) Ryan. They got players, man. They play well off each other. They got a point guard that just looked to distribute the ball. You just watch him play, Elliot Cadeau, and you just see his head is always looking to see who's open and right on the money. He makes a pass. I would love to play with a guy like that, who is going to make sure that the ball hits my hands, and all I got to do is find the rim. Again, they're a great team.
(On how close Emmanuel Okorafor is to returning)
I think he's close. He worked out a little bit earlier before the game. He wasn't really ready for the speed of this game, but he's getting better.
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