LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- As much as the University of Louisville men’s basketball team needs victories, it needs more examples that things are improving.
More signs that coach Kenny Payne’s 3-hour practices are producing results. More evidence that guys are making plays they could not make in November or December.
Mike James is giving the Cardinals that.
James is showing that the coaching staff is getting through to more players as the Cardinals prepare to play at Clemson, the surprising Atlantic Coast Conference leader, Wednesday at 9 p.m.
The ACC recognized that on Monday when James was named the league’s Freshman of the Week.
It was the first time a Louisville men’s player was honored as either Freshman of the Week or Player of the Week since Jae’Lyn Withers shared the freshman honor with North Carolina’s Walker Kessler on March 1, 2021.
Here is what was even better than James winning the award: His reaction to winning the award.
“The award is cool and all, and I hope I get some more,” James said. “But I hope it comes with some more wins.”
If James keeps playing how he performed last week, better days should be coming for Payne’s 2-14 team.
James scored 47 total points in seven December games, never managing more than 10.
Against Syracuse James had a career high 19, which he topped four days later with 24 against Wake Forest, scoring 43 points in two games.
In Louisville’s first 14 games, James made 9 of 29 shots from distance. He went four straight games without making a three-point field goal.
Against Syracuse and Wake, James made 9 of 15 shots from distance.
He also showed more determination attacking the rim. James grabbed 8 rebounds, a career best, against Wake. He made better than 57% of his field goal attempts in those two games.
In his first full college season after overcoming a torn Achilles, Mike James played the way an ACC guard is supposed to play.
“He’s a perfect example of you can easily get defeated if you let yourself,” U of L assistant coach Josh Jamieson said.
“(This season) is not what anybody wants. It’s not what anybody writes up as the fairy tale to be sitting in the position we are.
“But Mike is one of those who approaches it with a smile every day and with a great work ethic every day and is willing to come and put the effort in.”
If there is one remaining conflict between James and Payne, it is humorous conflict.
When Payne and his assistant coaches talk about the progress James has made they remind everybody that James played power forward at Oak Ridge High School in Orlando, Florida two years ago.
“He’s had to make some changes,” Jamieson said.
“He was in essence a high school version of (Golden State all-star) Draymond Green, if you will, where he had to be the glue guy who kind of did some of everything but wasn’t being asked to do what you might categorize as some of the finesse work that you think of when you think of a point or a complimentary guard.
“Now he’s having to learn to do that on the fly because we need him to be an additional ball handler out there and that’s not natural to him.
“So he’s coming along nicely in that category. But when you talk about potential and upside, he still has a lot of ability to improve in that category.”
James and his backcourt mate El Ellis spoke to reporters at noon Tuesday before the Cardinals departed for Clemson. When I told James that Payne considers him a converted power forward, Ellis started laughing as if he had seen his teammate respond to this question a million times.
“In high school you play all over the floor,” James said, shaking his head and smiling. “He’s just …
“… you play all over the floor. I was playing everything. I was one of the tallest on my team so I was getting a lot of boards. I was posting up smaller players. I was out on the perimeter, too. I was doing everything.
“It’s been an adjustment because I never just completely played the two (shooting guard) in my life. Just that.
“It’s been an adjustment because I have to handle the ball more. I have to shoot the ball more. I have to make reads and try to not have turnovers. It’s been an adjustment for sure.
“But in high school, I played all over.”
So why does Payne keep calling James a converted four-man?
“Because he says that I’ve been acting like one,” James said, laughing again.
Last week Mike James was actually acting like one of the most improved players in the ACC. And if that continues, better days will be ahead for Louisville basketball.
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