BOZICH | Louisville offense disappears in exhibition loss to Lenoir-Rhyne, 57-47 | Sports

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — The predictions for this University of Louisville men’s basketball season were not encouraging. The Cards have been picked to finish as low as 12th in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Louisville coach Kenny Payne said that this rebuild would require time. Patience. Development. Perseverance. Perspective. Patience. Plenty of patience. Said it from his introductory press conference.

But even the most alarming forecasts did not include this development:

A humbling 57-47 loss to Lenoir-Rhyne, a middling Division II program, Sunday afternoon at the KFC YUM! Center in Payne’s first exhibition game as the Cardinals’ head coach. How unsettling was it? The Cards canceled a post-game autograph session with fans.

"We needed this whipping," Payne said. "We needed this loss because there is something that happened to this program before I got here that hasn't been healed yet.

"And I'm trying to get them to get out of it. To fight through it. To get better. Not as a team but as individuals first. And then we can talk about being a good team.

"Until you overcome your own obstacles, you can't worry about a team. You can't worry about an opponent. It's the lesson of life.

"If I'm depressed, how am I going to worry about the guys in the battlefield with me? I'm depressed. If I'm hurting and I don't have confidence, how can I worry about anybody else other than me?

"That's what we're fighting through. And we learned a valuable lesson."

Valuable and jarring to the announced crowd of 12,510. After making their first three field-goal attempts and surging to a 13-4 lead, the Louisville offense stalled and then disappeared.

The Cards scored 13 points in the first four minutes and 46 seconds. That's good. They scored 34 points in the final 35 minutes and 14 seconds. That's alarmingly bad. That's 12th place or worse in the ACC bad.

"You could tell at the end of the game by the way they shot the ball, they were tight," said Everick Sullivan, the former U of L guard who coaches Lenoir-Rhyne. "I know it's a microwave world, but this is going to take time.'

Taller and physically superior, the Cards had another avenue to succeed, flexing their defensive will on Lenoir-Rhyne, which lost 18 of 28 games last season, including a 41-point exhibition loss to Tennessee. That did not happen either.

The visitors shot a higher field goal percentage than Louisville (35.7 to 29.2) and committed only eight turnovers, half the Louisville total.

Perhaps the Cards could use their superior quickness and speed to create easy baskets. Nope. Not Sunday. Louisville had zero fast break points. The Cards lack of backcourt talent as well as their lack of self-confidence after last season's 13-18 record showed in many ways.

The Cards led 28-26 at halftime but missed 14 of their first 16 shots in the second half, falling behind, 51-38. Louisville managed only 19 points in the second half.

Point guard El Ellis, expected to be Louisville’s top scorer, missed his first six shots. Ellis did not make a field goal until the final four minutes. There is a king-sized hole in the roster at point guard behind Ellis.

Jae’Lyn Withers led Louisville with 20 points. No other Card scored more than eight points. Louisville made 14 of 48 field goal attempts. They had three assists in the first two minutes and four the rest of the game.

The Cards got no field goals from their bench in the first half and little offense from anybody in the second half as they struggled with turnovers and attacking the rim.

Payne’s starting lineup featured guards Ellis and Mike James, with Sydney Curry, Brandon Huntley-Hatfield and Withers in the front court.

Louisville made its first three field goal attempts — all on assists by Ellis. The first basket came on three-pointer from the right corner by James. It was followed by a Huntley-Hatfield layup and a three by Withers.

In his first game after recovering from surgery for a torn Achilles' tendon, James made a pair of three-pointers in the first 13 minutes. But those were his only field-goal attempts in the first half. He went 1 for 3 in the second half.

"I think in a game like this we've really got to look at what we can get better at," James said.

The Cards play their final exhibition Thursday at 7 p.m. against Chaminade. They open the regular season with three consecutive home games, starting with Bellarmine University at 9 p.m. Nov. 9. That game now looks difficult. They all do.

"We needed this," Payne said. "We've got to get healed. We've got to not be delusional about who we are ... we're not the most talented team in the world. We're not. We just made that evident by losing to a Division II team.

"I wish it didn't happen, but I thought it needed to happen because at the end of the day, I'm going to say this, I'm trying to establish a culture and that culture is going to have some adversity in it. How can I handle it?

"Right out of the gate, we're going to see who we are. We're going to see. You just lost to a team that you should never have lost to. They are a good team. A very good team. But you should not have lost to them.

"How are you going to handle that adversity? That's what I'm really looking forward to."