Louisville Basketball: 3 keys to a successful 2023-24 season for Cardinals

No. 2 – Closing Out Single Digit Games

Louisville had many games in 2022 that were within reach of winning but bad play down the stretch led the Cardinals to lose games in 2022. Whether it was the 1-point loss to Syracuse or the comeback that fell short against Wake Forrest, the Cardinals couldn’t close out games well.

This falls on the players and coaching. Payne has to be better at drawing up plays in the last 2 minutes of the game, which goes along with the players executing his game plan better at the end of games.

Payne (I would hope) gets better at coaching in game situations as he continues to coach and I only expect his play-calling to get better. However, the players also need to execute the plays better. The amount of times a player would just step out of bounds or throw a bad pass was inexcusable last season.

Players like Mike James and J.J Traynor made some good plays down the stretch last season but there were also a handful of times where they simply made the outright wrong decision. If Louisville wants to win close games they have to tighten up their play down the stretch at the end of games, especially once they get into conference play in the ACC this season.