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Louisville, Kentucky – Another day, Louisville’s men’s basketball program suffered a crushing defeat.

Midway through the ACC game, the Cardinals are still looking for their first league win, but they continue to make history of their futility. Following his 76-62 loss at Notre Dame on Saturday, Louisville equaled his 10-game losing streak in modern times, and his one loss was the longest since World War II. To do.

“We played without a lot of energy. It’s a shame,” head coach Kenny Payne said after the game. “We played with a lack of pride in what Louisville is. When you step in, it’s bigger than basketball.It’s not a YMCA league, a summer league, or anything like that.You’re playing and people are watching you.”

As if a 2-19 overall record wasn’t enough, these days the losses are even more immeasurable for a show as proud as Louisville. After seemingly making progress in the energy and effort department earlier this month, it’s now almost nowhere to be found, with Louisville suffering back-to-back losses against North Carolina and Pitt, where he suffered 20-point losses. They lost by 10 to the Boston University team, whose Ken Pom has the lowest-ranked team in the ACC not named Louisville. Most recently, against Ireland, they found that in his ACC he was 30 behind the team he won by one.

With just over a month left in the season and losses continuing to be highlighted more and more, it can be concluded that Louisville have thrown in the towel on an already long lost season. However, if you ask Pain, he believes otherwise, despite the apparent and sometimes blatant lack of overall in-game energy.

“I’m not the kind of person who keeps elephants in the room. For me, if I smell it, I think so. If I hear it, I take it out.” The team quit. “After the game, I asked, ‘Does it go too far? “

For Payne, it’s not that the players actually quit, it’s the perception that they quit based solely on body language. actions such as

“I said to them, ‘Then you are being misinformed about what your body is saying and what your words are saying’,” he said following the Notre Dame Games. “Sometimes when you look at a player, it looks like they’ve given up. But in their hearts, they don’t believe they look like that. Well, that’s the problem.” And we’re working on that issue. So I’m saying they gave up? No, I don’t think they gave up.

To Payne’s credit, there’s some evidence that Louisville hasn’t mailed it yet. seemed to come back from

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In part, it’s because Payne threw a few wrinkles into his line-up. Emmanuel Okorafor, who made his debut against Ireland less than two weeks after joining the team, played 15 minutes in the second half. Fabio Basili and Devin Lee, who haven’t seen the court much this season, played a combined 17 minutes. The only starters to play double-digit numbers in the second half were Mike James and Elle Ellis, making them Louisville’s only double-digit scorers.

This was no coincidence. Payne has come to want to give most of the Louisville minutes to the players he believes give him the most energy on the court. And for a while it worked.

“We needed people on the floor to bring the energy,” he said. “I can’t leave you alone. You have no energy, no pop, or no talking….I need to let them know they’re in a fight. We need them to know that nothing is easy.”

Even if the players quit, it’s not an option for Payne, and his training methods are non-negotiable. Fight and get the most out of them.

“I think for some of these guys, this is new,” he said. There are many things, and some players still struggle to understand them.

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