LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Can’t lose a home game to Chattanooga. Did by 10 points.

Certainly can’t lose to DePaul, even if you played them on the Moon. Did by 7 points.

Can’t lose a home game to Arkansas State, right? You know the answer to that question.

Did.

Badly.

The final score was Arkansas State 75, Louisville 63, but it was considerably worse than that. Louisville trailed by 20 with less than four minutes to play. The Cards failed to look like the team that nearly beat Texas and had Indiana on the ropes a little more than three weeks ago. It was the kind of loss that kicked up all the miserable memories from last season. And it should have.

Can't lose a home game to Arkansas State.

Did.

After the last two losses, to teams that do not rank among the Top 175 teams in the nation, it was time to ask U of L coach Kenny Payne if he had concerns about his future.

"No, not really," Payne said.

"If I lived my life and not be true to myself. I probably would.

"But I live my life in faith. I live my life knowing that, to be honest with you, 'Am I doing right by the young people?'

"And every single day I question that. What I mean by questioning that is when the day is over, did I cheat Skyy Clark? Nine out of 10 days, no. 

"Did I cheat Tre White? No. Did I cheat Brandon (Huntley-Hatfield)? I live my life that way. Not worrying about the outside.

"Hopefully, that answers the question."

It will for some, but it will not ease any of the howling around the program which has lost 34 of 42 games in the last 1 1/3 seasons.

A loss to Arkansas State shouts that this University of Louisville men’s basketball season is headed nowhere fun, nowhere encouraging, nowhere slightly acceptable to the most devout Cardinals’ fan. 

That path to .500 that I wrote about Tuesday. Gone.

There is no path to speaking optimistically about the situation. There is an angry fan base that deserves to know what the plan is to give them a program they can embrace again. There is a confused fan base that does not understand the unexplained arrival and departure of junior-college point guard Koron Davis.

Huntley-Hatfield is the player who has responded to Payne more than any other player. His rebounding, scoring and defense have all improved. He led the Cards with 20 points, 11 rebounds and the most rousing endorsement of Payne. 

"I still believe in him," he said while finishing his post-game media session. "We have a lot of dogs, who really want it ...

"... I know that once we all figure ourselves out and figure out who we are as a team and are hitting on all cylinders, I don't think there is much more than anyone would have to say about us.

Huntley-Hatfield and his teammates have work to do to sell those words. About 10 minutes before tipoff an arena official told me only 1,600 tickets had been scanned into the building.

The official announced crowd was 10,401. It would not be outrageous to say the turnout was less than half than that.

The faithful who did come downtown for a game that tipped off at 8 p.m. were engaged, eager to see the Cardinals win and improve their record to 5-5.

For a half that seemed possible. Louisville wasn't great. But it didn't have to be great against a 3-7 Arkansas State team that lost to Wisconsin by 29 and Alabama by 24.

But in the second half, Louisville was awful. Arkansas State drove the ball to the basket over and over and over and over. The Cards could not stay in front of the basketball. At all.

With about nine minutes to go in the second half, the Cards had coughed up their modest 2-point halftime lead. In fact, with 8:55 to play, after another Arkansas State layup, Louisville trailed by 14 points — and the race was on to the parking garage.

Those who stayed only stayed long enough to boo after the visitors stretched their lead to 67-51. Then a chunk of that group left, too.

This statistic says the only thing you need to know: Arkansas State made 25 of its 43 two-point field goal attempts. That's better than 58 percent. That's not a visiting team throwing in a bunch of fluke shots. That is a home team not playing with a sniff of any defensive pride.

If you wondered if the situation could become more deflating, stop. It can.

As the game slipped away from the Cards, Koron Davis continued his bizarre departure from the program.

Davis came to Louisville this season billed as jumbo sized point guard who put up big scoring numbers at junior colleges in Texas and Los Angeles. He wasn’t supposed to be a starter but he was expected to a valuable contributor off the bench.

He wasn’t.

Davis never scored a point. He never played a minute. For most of the season, Davis was not allowed on the bench. Payne declined to share the issue, saying that Davis was not in trouble.

On Wednesday afternoon, in trouble transformed into an announcement from Louisville that Davis decided to transfer.

Made sense.

Except to Davis, who went to social media to dispute that characterization. Davis wrote that he did not want to leave. That he enjoyed being a Cardinal.

Turns out that it was not his call. Davis was dismissed from the team Wednesday. Payne decided to use softer verbiage to help the player find another school. He declined to expand on his decision after the game.

Davis, who is still living in Denny Crum Hall, chose to make the farewell uglier by coming downtown to attend the U of L women’s and men’s games. By the end of the men’s game, he was sitting five rows behind the bench in Section 119.

Huntley-Hatfield is Davis' roommate. Clark shared the point guard position with him. They both said Davis was a good teammate and they wished him success in his basketball career. They insisted that Davis' situation was not a distraction to the team.

The circus never ends.

Related Stories:

Copyright 2023 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.