BOZICH | Things to like -- and worry about -- after Louisville's first basketball scrimmage | Sports

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- If you worried that the growing emotional investment in the University of Louisville men’s basketball program would subside after several dozen former Cardinals celebrated Louisville Live at Slugger Field Friday night, find another reason to fret — like about beating Bellarmine in the season opener Nov. 9.

Pervis Ellison returned to New Jersey after appearing Friday night. But Ellison was replaced by another star from the 1986 NCAA title team. Billy Thompson flew in from South Florida Saturday so he could speak to Kenny Payne’s players and attend the Red/White scrimmage at the KFC Yum! Center Sunday afternoon.

That’s correct. Another starter from the 1986 champs was determined to be in town to support his brother.

“My message was about opportunity,” said Thompson, a long-time minister in the Fort Lauderdale area.

“I told the players they have an opportunity of a lifetime to play in a program like Louisville and play for a coach who cares about them like Kenny. And in life you should try to take advantage of every opportunity you are presented.”

Payne’s first U of L team will require the unflinching support of Thompson, Ellison and the 9,000 or so fans who attended Louisville Live and Sunday’s scrimmage.

This is an uneven team that will be scrambling for every victory, especially in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Reasonable people have not pushed back against the assessment that the Cardinals will finish 12th in the 15-team league by media members who cover the ACC.

It’s always risky to deliver firm assessments from more than an hour of scrimmaging arranged in six 5-minute periods — especially when guard Mike James and forward Jae’Lyn Withers, two of Louisville’s six best players, were held out for precautionary health reasons. (A team source told me they were likely to be cleared for full practice intensity on Tuesday and then play in the Cards’ first exhibition game next Sunday against Lenoir-Rhyne.)

But I’ll take the risk and make a few points:

*Payne’s first push will be to build a defensive culture. He was not impressed by intensity of his team’s effort in that area Sunday.

“A couple of things were glaring to me,” Payne said. “Lack of defense was glaring.

“Work on it every day. Work on shell every day. Getting in a stance. But that’s going to happen. This is their first time getting in front of people with the lights on. There’s a little bit of nervousness …

“… definitely help defense (needed improvement). I think if you look at how we scored, it was a lot of stuff in the lane. I want us to be able to control the ball and be able to scramble and help each other, five guys working together to get stops.

“I have this thing that in order to win you have to be desperate defensively. Desperate.

“If you don’t get this stop, we die.

“Now that’s not going to come right now. I understand that. Hopefully it comes later in the year. But I’m not giving up.”

*There were more than a dozen former Cardinal players in the arena. I asked several for one factor the Cards needed to improve.

Several said the same thing: Less dribbling. More passing.

Payne agreed.

“For me, the most important thing happened in the last two 5-minute periods,” Payne said. “The ball was passed five or six times.

“All I said was pass the ball to each other five times. Get the ball in the lane and then don’t shoot it, pass it to somebody else.

"Then that person tries to put the defense in rotations and we’ll get any shot … those are the concepts that I’m trying to teach. The frustrating thing was it took 25 minutes before we got to it.”

*I cannot file an entire column on a scrimmage without statistics.

The Red team defeated the White team, 68-51. The Red squad was led by El Ellis and Kamari Lands. Each scored 16 while JJ Traynor had 14. The White was carried by Sydney Curry, who had 18 and freshman Fabio Basili, who had 11 (with five turnovers).

As a group, the Cards shot 6 for 21 from distance. Lands was the only Louisville player to make more than one 3, hitting 2 of 4. “A lot of flat shots,” one former player said.

Ellis had seven assists. Basili had four. Traynor had two. Nobody else had more than one.

Ellis has the mentality and skills to be a force, a top 10 guard in the ACC.

Curry has proven he can handle himself around the basket. “He’s a load,” one former Cardinal player said.

Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, the transfer from Tennessee, looked comfortable way from the basket but also worked inside.

And Lands played like the most confident and poised newcomer, drawing multiple cheers from Thompson, who sat in the front row while enjoying the game.

“I’ll be back,” Thompson said. “Kenny’s just getting started and we’re going to be right here with him.”

“I can say this about Louisville Live,” Payne said. “There was a moment on that stage when there were guys with tears in their eyes. That’s emotional. And that just about made me cry. Because I know what this program means to them.

“And to be part of bringing them back, I’m just a vessel in this. It’s bigger than me. It’s God. I just thank God that I’m here.”