Brown: UK basketball shows just how wide talent gap is between Cats, Kenny Payne's Cards

Truth is, No. 9 Kentucky needed to be a little bit off shooting and Louisville had to be nearly perfect in its execution Thursday night at the KFC Yum! Center to be able to pull off an upset.

Neither thing happened.

The Wildcats’ 95-76 victory before a crowd that skewed blue showed just how wide the gap is between the talent the Cardinals hoped they’d assemble when Kenny Payne took over as coach and the reality of who’s on the roster.

It’s not that Louisville played poorly. The Cards got to the free throw line 31 times, were only outrebounded by two and had 14 assists on 25 baskets (56%), which was well above their season average of 42.6%.

UK just had more dudes and looked very much the part of a top-10 team that’s still on the rise.

“They got them ranked nine, but they’re a lot better than nine,” Payne said.

It’s an embarrassment of riches really, as Kentucky could add another potential NBA draft pick to the mix as soon as — or at this point, if — the NCAA finally clears 7-foot-2 Croatian center Zvonimir Ivisic.

Along with being out-talented, believe it or not, U of L was also at a disadvantage in experience. According to KenPom.com, the Cards rank 302nd nationally in Division I experience compared to UK at No. 157.

That immaturity showed a bit when U of L freshman guard Ty-Laur Johnson received a technical foul after he swatted the ball toward the UK bench when he was called for a personal foul down 55-33. It also showed when forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, who went 6-for-6 shooting in the first half, only got two more shots the rest of the game. The Cards should have been feeding him the ball.

UK coach John Calipari pointed to the Cards' youth as he made a statement in defense of Payne.

“My guess is he'll have this program within a year where everybody wants it, it's just the growing pains are miserable,” Calipari said. “We went through it.”

The Cats breezed to a win despite not getting much of a contribution from freshman guard D.J. Wagner, who was the central figure in the first big recruiting battle for Payne when he was hired in 2022.

As an assistant coach under Calipari, Payne won so many of those battles for high-profile recruits. Nike swooped in, signing a name, image and likeness deal with Wagner and UK won again. Payne certainly wasn’t helped by the cloud that still lingered over U of L with the Independent Accountability Resolution Process.

With his grandfather Milt Wagner looking on from the U of L bench, D.J. Wagner got two fouls and played just three minutes in the first half. He finished with just a bucket he didn’t score until 54 seconds remained in the game.

As scrappy as the Cards played, Payne had no real answers or counters for the lineups Calipari could put on the floor. When the Cats played with two bigs — mainly 7-2 center Aaron Bradshaw and 6-9 forward Tre Mitchell — they’d get a mismatch.

U of L often used 6-5 guard Mike James on Mitchell. It led to Mitchell having his first double-double thanks to a season-high 12 rebounds to go with his 18 points.

But when Payne compares this game to last season’s 86-63 loss to Kentucky, he sees progress.

“I see segments where the gap is closing,” Payne said. “The gap is closing and I don't know if fans see it, you guys see it as media people, but the gap is closing. I feel like we're headed in the right direction.”

The Cards played UK tight through the game’s first 10 minutes. And when the Cats went on their first run to extend the lead to 14, U of L had its own spurt to pull within 39-31 with 3:28 left in the first half.

That’s when Kentucky’s avalanche of talent overwhelmed U of L and took over the game. Guard Antonio Reeves, who scored 22 of his season-high 30 points in the first half, had a pair of 3 pointers and dunk as UK closed the half on a 14-2 run to take a 20-point lead into intermission.

Louisville didn't have the talent to match up, but Payne believes they're not too far off from being able to compete against top-ranked teams like UK.

“We have good players that are very young and they've only gonna get better,” Payne said. “So the next step is bringing in transfer guys that can take us over the hump.”

The question remains, after another home loss, will Payne be in place long enough to get to the next step?

Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at clbrown1@gannett.com, follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville basketball talent not on same level as Kentucky; Cards fall