Louisville basketball clinches second-worst year in modern program history with 21st loss

Kenny Payne usually spends the final minutes before tipoff scribbling on a whiteboard.

Nothing the second-year Louisville men's basketball head coach drew up Saturday night could prevent this.

The Cardinals' 2023-24 season went off the rails a while ago. But with their 21st loss, 82-76 to Syracuse at the KFC Yum! Center, it officially became the second worst in modern program history.

Payne now holds spots No. 1 and 2 on that list.

One of his players, junior Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, told reporters Saturday it's "soul-searching" time for some team members. "It's not our staff," he said. "It's on us."

But with U of L (8-21, 3-15 ACC) having lost five consecutive games by an average margin of 18.4 points to clinch another last-place finish in conference play, Payne openly questioned his ability to reach his squad.

"I look at this and I say, 'All right, am I giving the message the wrong way?'" he said during the opening statement of his postgame news conference. "'Am I asking you to sacrifice something that you're not able to? Am I saying something that's not translating?'"

The Cards trailed the Orange (20-10, 11-8 ACC) for all but 3 minutes, 54 seconds and by as many as 19 points.

That sentence makes this game seem like a far cry from the nail-biter the teams played Feb. 7 at the JMA Wireless Dome. It was and wasn't. Louisville had only glimmers of hope.

It cut a nine-point deficit to three heading into the final 4:43 of the first half but allowed Syracuse to close on a 10-2 run. When it crept within five, 52-47, at the 12:58 mark of the second half, the Orange went on a 14-3 tear to pull away again.

Those stretches doomed one final rally, which made it a two-possession game, 78-74, with 39 seconds remaining in regulation. They brought to mind something Payne said Wednesday after a 25-point loss at No. 10 Duke.

"Whatever we did good," he told reporters, "we compounded it by doing something bad."

That's a problem; because Payne said Saturday night he doesn't "have a lot of guys who I can go to when something goes south on us."

"Their words say, 'I'm confident; I can do this, I can do this,'" he later added. "Their body language says, 'This is really hard; and these are really good (opposing) players.'"

As was the case last month in New York, Syracuse's best player was sophomore forward Chris Bell. He didn't drop 30 points like he did back then but led all scorers with 23 on 6-for-9 shooting.

Fellow sophomore Judah Mintz added 21 points. No moment was more emblematic of the Cards' defensive struggles than when he went coast to coast untouched for a buzzer-beating dunk that gave the Orange a 39-28 halftime lead.

Payne attributed the miscue to freshman point guard Ty-Laur Johnson being at Mintz's side and not his back. A small detail that loomed large considering this was a four-point game down the stretch.

Syracuse had a 10-4 advantage in fast-break scoring after torching U of L, 33-6, in Game 1 of the season series. During this five-game losing streak, the Cards have been outscored 60-28 in transition.

The Orange also shot 57.8% from the field and made 5 of 8 3-point attempts. Had it not missed 14 free throws, this one would have gotten ugly.

As for surrendering a massive lead to a struggling team, first-year head coach Adrian Autry wasn't too bothered by it.

"That happens in college basketball," he said. "You've got to learn how to win."

Payne's team is still learning.

"I feel like we're out there giving good effort," Huntley-Hatfield said. "But it has to be better, obviously."

Huntley-Hatfield was one of several players stuck in a first-half slump. He recorded only four points and five rebounds during the opening 20 minutes but finished with his eighth double-double of the season: 17 and 11.

Fourteen of Mike James' team-high 18 points came during the second half. It was the most points from the redshirt sophomore in a month — since a Feb. 3 win over Florida State.

Freshman Kaleb Glenn tallied 15 points, but only three rebounds, before fouling out with 2:34 to play in the second half. Sophomore Tre White added 12 and accounted for two of the team's four made 3s.

Johnson and Skyy Clark, who also fouled out, combined for 14 points, nine assists, three steals and six turnovers.

Long-range shooting has fallen by the wayside for the Cards during this losing streak. They shot 21.1% from beyond the arc Saturday and are 17 for 80 dating back to a Feb. 13 loss at Boston College.

When Payne's 2022-23 team lost its 21st game, by 34 points at Pittsburgh, and passed Hall of Famer Denny Crum's 1997-98 squad for the most ever at U of L in a season, it felt like a definitive rock-bottom moment.

Seven more followed to set a new low-water mark: 4-28. And the hits keep coming.

Louisville will spend the final week of the regular season at the Yum! Center, starting with a 7 p.m. tipoff Tuesday against Virginia Tech.

No matter what happens then or during the March 9 finale against Boston College, it knows that, as the No. 15 seed in the ACC Tournament, it will face the No. 10 seed at 4:30 p.m. March 12 in Washington, D.C.

With his future at the helm uncertain, Payne was adamant Saturday about needing to "go through hard times in order to achieve greatness.

"It's just really that simple," he said.

Getting his players on the same page hasn't been.

Reach Louisville men's basketball reporter Brooks Holton at bholton@gannett.com and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville basketball: Kenny Payne's team clinches second-worst season