Louisville trainer Kenny Payne referred to as his workforce’s 71-68 exhibition loss to Division II Kentucky Wesleyan on Monday “unacceptable” because the Cardinals flunked a preseason check forward of Payne’s moment common season main this system. The end result used to be in particular relating to at the heels of a 4-28 debut marketing campaign for Payne — a mythical former Louisville participant — final season.
“Hopefully, we learn from this,” he mentioned. “All of us, coaches, myself and players because it’s not acceptable to go out and the other team is more physical than you, plays harder than you, plays tougher than you, as if you don’t understand what this is.”
Kentucky Wesleyan outscored Louisville 18-2 in second-chance issues in the back of a 16-5 edge in offensive rebounds, prompting Payne’s ire forward of the workforce’s opener in opposition to UMBC on Monday.
“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?” Payne requested. “We can’t beat teams with talent, we’re never going to be the most talented team. But we can beat them with fight.”
Louisville used to be obviously probably the most proficient workforce within the exhibition loss, on the other hand. Kentucky Wesleyan completed 15-14 final season and used to be picked to end 8th of 13 groups within the Great Midwest Conference preseason coaches ballot launched final week.
Only seven of Louisville’s baskets within the loss got here on assists, and Payne used to be annoyed by means of a loss of paint touches for the Cardinals’ bigs as KWU bested Louisville 26-22 in paint issues. It used to be Louisville’s moment exhibition recreation after it beat Simmons College of the National Christian Collegiate Athletic Association 91-50 on Oct. 18.
“The disconnect is understanding fully how hard that you’ve got to practice, how hard you’ve got to play, how desperate you have to be defensively,” Payne mentioned. “The disconnect is other teams are good. I knew going into this game that it was going to be a tough game. We needed it to be a tough game, because we need to know exactly how hard we’ve got to play against good talent.”