Louisville HC Kenny Payne Postgame Presser vs. Florida State (2/3/24)
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 First of all, I thought Florida State was one of the teams,
00:04 one of two or three teams in our conference that refuses to allow you to run plays.
00:12 What they do is they play passing lanes, they deny everything, and
00:15 they force you to play out of your comfort zone.
00:20 I thought when Ty Lord went in the game,
00:22 it totally changed the dynamics of the game.
00:25 We put them on their heels, and he got us in the lane, and
00:29 he created an offense for us.
00:32 Evident by the thing someone told me earlier,
00:36 the first player ever to get 27, 11, and 6.
00:39 Says a lot about his talent, who he is, what he's capable of being.
00:45 He makes all of our lives easier if he's that type of player.
00:49 We need more of that from him, both on and off the court.
00:55 But he's capable and he's a dynamic little player.
01:00 Also, I thought what Trey White did to finish the game,
01:04 even though the numbers don't say it.
01:06 The way he got those seven rebounds, and the way he defended down the stretch of
01:11 that game, we're not winning that game if you don't come up with big rebounds.
01:15 Brandon had another very good game, but he still got more he can give us.
01:22 But he played well, Mike James drew 19 fouls, went to the free throw line 19 times.
01:29 When we play like that, we're gonna put teams on their heels, and
01:32 we gotta continue to do that.
01:34 By no means am I satisfied because there were mistakes made in
01:40 the end of the game where we were, I don't wanna say rushed or panicked,
01:46 but we wasn't composed.
01:48 And we worked on the press for three or four days, and worked on the pressure for
01:53 three or four days to be able to be composed.
01:57 But we'll learn from it and we'll try to get better.
01:59 Questions?
02:01 >> Yeah, not that Tyler needed to start to have such a great game tonight, but
02:05 I'm just wondering if you could walk us through that decision to not start him
02:10 when you're down Sky and Hersey.
02:14 >> My decision, simple as that.
02:18 I like the way we played the last game, down the stretch of the game.
02:24 And we were big, strong, and we had Trey and Mike and
02:28 Curtis in there and they played well, so we'll try it again.
02:32 >> Do you think that him not getting the opportunity to start might have been some
02:35 inspiration for him coming out as hot as he did?
02:38 >> If we could figure out that young man, we'd all be geniuses.
02:41 >> [LAUGH] >> So I would hope that it inspired him,
02:45 but whatever he did, 27-11-6 speaks volumes.
02:51 But not just in numbers, his impact on the game said a lot.
02:55 [BLANK_AUDIO]
03:05 >> Kenny, how do you explain a week ago we were sitting in here after
03:08 the Virginia game where you were down 41-11.
03:11 That's one of the rougher games of the year.
03:14 This might be your best performance of the year.
03:15 How do you explain the jump in a week?
03:18 >> I would tell you, Red, that young people,
03:23 you can't predict when they're gonna do what they're gonna do.
03:27 You just gotta keep grinding, you gotta keep pushing on.
03:30 No matter how bad it gets, you can never give up on them.
03:34 You just gotta keep fighting, because the second you give up, they feel it.
03:39 And regardless of what anybody else says, I say this every game,
03:44 I believe we're gonna win.
03:45 I believe in my team.
03:46 But we have to get experience and we have to learn and continue to get better.
03:52 So it's the reason you don't give up on the guys.
03:55 We beat a very good team today, tonight.
03:57 [BLANK_AUDIO]
04:04 >> No more questions?
04:06 >> Come on, Russ.
04:07 >> Come on, Brady.
04:09 >> In addition to those two, Curtis and
04:15 Mike also had almost 20 each, talk about their contributions.
04:21 >> I thought Mike James played hard.
04:23 I thought that he was a force to deal with.
04:28 He drew fouls, he drove the ball hard to the basket.
04:31 His jump shot wasn't going.
04:33 He shot one with the floor spaced.
04:36 I said, Mike, why are you doing that?
04:37 We just made three in a row driving.
04:40 You're gonna have your success by driving that ball, putting pressure on the rim,
04:43 putting pressure on the lane, making their team collapse.
04:46 And if they're not there, finish the play.
04:48 Curtis, I thought Curtis was very good.
04:52 Gotta get better handling the pressure of the press.
04:56 But overall, the shots that he made, the defense that he played,
05:00 he's a winning basketball player and he has to grow from this game.
05:04 >> I don't have the stats just to check this, but I think you guys forced
05:10 on 18 turnovers that might be a season high, I feel like it's close to a season
05:14 high for ones you've gotten turned up with.
05:16 Just how do you kind of view this on defensive effort?
05:23 You guys give up close to 100 points, but like you said,
05:27 you've been praising guys for their effort down the stretch especially.
05:29 And just how do you look at this as a defensive effort?
05:34 >> Well, the first thing I will say is that they shot 51% for the game, but
05:39 we forced, like you said, 18 turnovers.
05:42 That may have been the difference in the game.
05:43 When I looked at it, I wanted us to get stops.
05:48 I would rather them shoot 35% opposed to 51.
05:52 But we also were hitting gaps and
05:55 we did some good things defensively that forced them into turnovers.
05:59 18 turnovers, that's usually what teams are doing to us.
06:02 And we were the aggressors today and we were in gaps.
06:05 We was helping each other and we created steals internally.
06:08 >> Yeah.
06:11 >> Tyler's not the biggest guy in the world yet he seems to be totally unafraid
06:15 to go and attack the big guys.
06:17 Does that come from playing in New York City or where does that come from?
06:22 >> I think when you look at Tyler's history, you figure out that he's not afraid.
06:28 He's one of those guys that believes he can attack anybody no matter how big,
06:33 how small.
06:33 There are times in practice when I'll say, how tall are you?
06:38 I'm six feet, no, you're four three.
06:41 >> [LAUGH] >> So at four three,
06:43 you go in there and challenge people, they're blocking your shot or
06:46 you can't get a pass, you have to make sure you get the spots on the floor.
06:49 And he comes back and say, coach, I'll show you.
06:52 And he'll block a shot, a Brandon shot.
06:55 He'll go up and try to dunk on somebody.
06:57 He's one of those kids that is fearless, but he wants to show you
07:01 that he can handle anything you throw at him or any height.
07:04 It does not matter to him.
07:05 >> Coach, over the last few games, you guys have been fighting back towards the end
07:13 and continue to fight toward the end, pushing the ball, trying to score.
07:17 Seems like the guys are trying to do that again late in this game,
07:20 going pretty fast.
07:21 How did you get them to slow down to control the game in order to win it,
07:25 instead of trying to come back?
07:26 >> Great question.
07:27 Couple things.
07:28 One, I talked about if you really wanna win,
07:31 do you really wanna win guys in the hole with six to seven minutes to go?
07:35 Then you'll play with more poise.
07:37 You won't look erratic.
07:39 You'll be more under control in what we're doing.
07:42 We get a fast break.
07:44 We just score three times in a row.
07:45 We got three stops in a row.
07:47 Let's take our time and get a good shot.
07:49 Let's not play too fast.
07:51 Let's not make mental mistakes.
07:53 If you wanna win, you give them one shot.
07:55 We get the rebound.
07:56 We go down.
07:56 We control the game.
07:58 That's how we try to finish the game.
08:00 Sometimes it was good.
08:02 Other times we were a little erratic.
08:04 But overall, we won the game.
08:07 It says volumes for what they've been through and
08:11 how they accomplished this game against a very good team.
08:14 >> Anything else for coach?
08:16 >> All right.