CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WDRB) -- New Louisville coach Kenny Payne's media style is not rapid-fire. He doesn't speak in sound bites. He's not looking to be retweeted. His first run-through the ACC Men's Basketball Media Day reflected the approach he has taken from the day he stepped off the plane to accept the rebuilding job in Louisville.
Speak from the heart and hope for the best.
Payne settled into a media session Wednesday by telling the story of his attempt to prepare for his opening news conference at Louisville.
"I tell this story about Kenny Klein," Payne said, nodding at the longtime Louisville sports information director who is spending part of his retirement as a special assistant to Payne during the season. "We're on the plane and we get to Louisville for the press conference. And Kenny Klein hands me all the questions that may come my way. And it's like 200 questions. I got through the first 10, and I'm like, 'I can't do this. I can't do this, Kenny. I really don't think I can do this.' So I go to the room in the hotel. I look at the next 10 of the 200 questions. And I tell my wife, Michelle, 'I've just got to talk from the heart.' I don't want to be prepared. If I try to come prepared, I'll mess it up. If I talk from my heart, maybe I've got a chance to get it right. And that's what I've done. Everything that I've done, every time that I talk, I don't want to be prepared. I want to be authentic. I want to be genuine. I want to be compassionate, that way I feel not pre-recorded, if that makes sense."
It's a change of pace, certainly, but Payne is nothing if not a changed pace when it comes to everything. Sydney Curry said strength training has been a change. Chris Mack wanted pure power. Payne wants quickness, flexibility, leaping ability. He wants players with an all-around game.
Louisville coach Kenny Payne takes the stage at ACC Media Day in Charlotte.
"I want a guy that can post-up, can shoot a three, can shoot a mid-range, can make lay-ups, can pass the ball, that can rebound the ball above the rim, can run the lane, can push the ball," Payne said. "I want complete versatile basketball players that have a unique ability to fight for what they want and that are dream chasers. ... I hope I have a bunch of 7-foot guys that can play the point, the 2, the 3, the 4, the 5."
If he finds that, they might change the Louisville team nickname to the Unicorns.
What he has, however, is a group pieced together from the remnants of the Chris Mack era, those who wanted to stay and those he wanted to keep. And recruits who came to Louisville despite the ever-present chatter about potential NCAA problems and other negativity that attends the school's basketball recruiting until its current lingering NCAA issues are resolved.
Nonetheless, Payne said he likes the way his players have dedicated themselves to work for the goals he has pledged to help them achieve.
He has spoken of this season as an exercise in establishing culture, and continues to warn that he won't measure that success solely by wins and losses, at least not this season.
He expects some may shake their heads at that notion, but he says he's not bluffing about his desire to rebuild the foundation.
"I want to win right away," he said. "But I can only do what's best for the team. And I can only pray that what we do and how we train and how we work and how I'm preaching being together will bring wins. I've been around a lot of winning. And it's not easy. If winning was so easy, everybody would be winning. Everybody talks about it. Everybody reads books about it. Everybody studies it. So why isn't everybody winning? You have to do something different. It's a process to win. Enjoy the process.
"I'm asking our fans — it may not be great right off the bat — enjoy the process. Enjoy Whitman, Coach Whitney. Love these guys with me. Support these guys with me. Now. I feel like at times, just judging by what the community says, 'Kenny there are going to be people that jump off the Titanic.' And I'm going to be looking and laughing because in a press conference, I said, 'I need you.' And I want to see who jumps off that Titanic. And then who tries to ask for the life vest when it's successful. And I'm okay with that. That's the nature of the business. That's the nature of life. People are going to jump on and off the bandwagon. I wish that they would all just stay with us and support us. That's not reality. There are true fans and then there's fair-weather fans. I just want these kids to have the version of Louisville that I experienced, where it was about love, it was about community, it was about supporting when it was down and enjoying the times when it's up."
On the court, questions remain. One, in particular, concerns the guard position, which is understaffed, in terms of numbers. El Ellis, the lone returning guard with significant experience in the ACC, however, said he's tired of those questions.
"I get really upset, like, every time I hear people say that we don't have guards because I've got a freshman, I have a sophomore, and I'll have 2 other freshmen that are going in each and every day making me better," Ellis said. "So I know that I have guys like that on my roster that's helping me. It's been good. ... We have everything we need on this roster to be successful. ... Most teams have two or three really good guards, and that's what we have."
Payne said it's just an opportunity for those playing guard on his team to show their ability. But he's also looking for a team that doesn't need a ball in the point guard's hands to get the ball up the court or the offense triggered.
"Some of this is the timing of when I took the job that put me behind the 8-ball," Payne said. "Some of it is I didn't have the opportunity to go out and recruit during a normal recruiting cycle in the spring. ... Would I have liked to have great guards? Yes. But I got the best that I could get. I'm happy with those kids. Fabio (Basili), for me, it's not a 3-star athlete. I don't care where they got him, right? He's not (3-stars) for me. When I evaluated him, when I talked to him, when I talked to the people that played against him and with him, that's not what they said, that's not what I'm I saw. So, I expect him to come up. I expect him to be a player that helps us win games. I really expect Hercey Miller to help me win games. I don't care what they say about walk-on, not walk-on. For me, you're a scholarship athlete, you have a scholarship. I don't have a walk-on on that team. Every player has a scholarship. That's for a reason. That means I believe in you. Go out and prove me right."
It has been a quiet period over the past several weeks, in which Payne has worked with his team. Media Day starts the beginning of more preseason scrutiny and speculation, but Payne showed in his first appearance before the ACC media that he won't be knocked off message, because for him, it's more than a message.
"One of the things that is vital for me to establish right away is my own personal culture, a culture that's built on success for young people," Payne said. "You know, it's easy to talk about wins and losses. That's not the real issue that these young people need to be hearing. I need a culture that's built on work ethic, that's built on character, that's built on guys that are overcoming barriers, development within themselves, both on the court and off the court. If I establish that, in my mind, I've succeeded."
Copyright 2022 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.
