BOZICH | For Louisville, Payne, showing desperation is Cards' first step | Sports

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Desperate has taken the lead as the word of the day for the University of Louisville men’s basketball team.

Desperate for a victory, considering the Cardinals have started this season with seven consecutive defeats.

Desperation must define Louisville’s effort Sunday when the Cards host Miami (Florida) at 1 p.m. in the KFC Yum! Center in their first Atlantic Coast Conference game.

Desperate to show improvement, considering that since the Cards lost their first three games by a single point, they have lost the next four by 26, 32, 19 and 25.

The analytics sites run by Ken Pomeroy, Bart Torvik and Eric Haslam show the Hurricanes favored by 8 (Pomeroy), 9 (Torvik) and 12 (Haslam). Kenny Payne’s team should be desperate to show they are finished with getting blown out.

Desperate to crank up the defense. Arkansas, Texas Tech and Maryland all made at least 50% of their field goal attempts against the Cards. Victories will remain elusive if this team does not commit to making defending Job One.

Payne and two U of L players, freshman Kamari Lands and guard Mike James, paused before practice Saturday morning to preview the game against Miami. The Hurricanes have won seven games while losing only to Maryland (88-70). In guards Nijel Pack and Isaiah Wong, Miami might have the ACC’s best backcourt.

The trio of Cards were asked to define how this struggling team can demonstrate the desperation it has yet to consistently deliver.

“I'm really saying that the desperate defensive teams, you're fighting for inches,” Payne said.

“The desperate defensive teams, the offensive players’ eyes are always occupied with the hands and the body of a defender.

“Every pass is hard. Every dribble is hard. Every catch is hard. There are no gaps.

“So when the offensive player catches the ball, he’s being pressured. It doesn't necessarily mean you're up in him. But he's also looking at a court where it's clogged up as opposed to seeing the court with a space where he says I can drive this ball into this gap.

“We have to be desperate. We have to be vocal. We have to communicate to each other to where the offensive players are seeing a defense that is in tune to what they're trying to do. And taking (opportunities) away from them.”

In other words, Defense 101.

The Cards must begin with the basics. Ball pressure. Contesting entry passes. Hands up on shooters. Blocking out. The more complicated stuff will take time. Louisville fans know what good defense and desperation look like. They know they have not seen it.

“Sometimes we’ll be out there and it looks like we don’t care,” Lands said.

“When we go on stretches where we might be struggling or teams go on a run, we don’t have that will to just fight back sometimes.

“I feel like that’s what we’ve got to have. We can’t just give up on games just because a team goes on a run or we might be in a little slump.”

“I think the desperate thing, (coach Payne) is showing (video) of those loose balls those hustle plays,” James said. “Start making those plays. Those desperate plays. Treating every possession like it’s your last possession.

“Trying your all. Fighting your all to win each possession. I think that’s what desperate means, doing everything you can, whatever it is, like diving on the floor for a ball.”

No coincidence that the conversation turned to diving on the floor for a ball. There was a moment, maybe more than one, in the Maryland game when several Louisville players failed to do precisely that.

Can’t happen. Not with a team dealing with issues that are more difficult to correct than that. That’s non-negotiable.

Payne knows that. The players need to understand that, too, because a lack of desperation will undermine the patience Louisville fans need to navigate this process to fix the program.

Not every player can make a contested three-point shot or beat his defender off the dribble. Diving for a loose ball does not require time in the practice lab. You just do it. Every time.

“There was a play in the (Maryland) game where specifically the ball rolled on the floor,” Payne said.

“Jae’Lyn (Withers) took a step for it, didn’t attack, didn’t dive on the floor.

“You can see in the stands that everybody raised their hand like, ‘Oh my gosh, what are you doing?’

“What does that look like? Does it look like you’re nervous? Does it look like you're scared? Does it look like you're intense. Doesn't look like you're desperate?

“Well, we know it looks like you're not desperate, that you're not in tune to what's going on and how hard you got to fight. That play. says more about all of us than it does about you particularly.”

The automatic follow-up question was this: How did the players respond after Payne showed the players the clip?

“They understand,” Payne said.

Starting Sunday against Miami, they need to show more than understanding. They need to act.