Louisville Basketball is coming off a 4-28 season with Kenny Payne and nearly everything was a disaster in 2022. From lazy offensive sets to not having a good defensive transition, the Cardinals had one of the Worst teams in their history in 2022. The Cardinals are a national basketball powerhouse and Payne needs to get back on track in 2023 to restore Cardinal basketball to what it once was.
The Cardinals lost several players to the transfer portal this past offseason, those players including El Ellis, Sydney Curry, Jay’len Withers, Fabio Basili, Devin Ree, Kamari Lands, and Roosevelt Wheeler. While landing a top ten recruiting class that brings in 4-star talents Dennis Evans, Trentyn Flowers, Kaleb Glenn, Curtis Williams jr, and transfers Tre White, Sky Clark, and Danilo Jovanovich.
Although that may seem like some significant losses, the Cardinals weren’t winning games with these players, so surely bringing in new and different talent can’t make the team any worse. The Cardinals also retain some talent from last season including J.J Traynor, Mike James, Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, and Emmanuel Okorafor.
Kenny Payne will need nearly everything to go right if he even wants to be coaching Louisville in 2024. Not only does Payne need to coach well in games better but he needs to have his team prepared better before every game. He has some of the talent he needs to succeed, he just needs to get this team ready to play at the ACC caliber so the Cardinals can at least be competitive enough to be considered for the NCAA tournament next March. Here are the 3 major keys for how Louisville can be successful in the 2023-24 college basketball season.
No. 1 – Running TEAM Offense and Defense
The Louisville Cardinals nearly ran an isolation or a pick-and-roll on nearly every offensive possession last season. On occasion, they would run actual half-court sets or plays that would get some motion and movement between the players. When they ran plays the offense did not look as bad as the stats would tell you, however, most of the time the Cardinals ran a four-out motion that would result in either a missed 3-pointer or a highly contested shot in the paint.
Half of the made points in their games were contested threes that went in because there is actual talent on this team. Payne needs to get his players to run more sets/plays for players and get more movement around the ball. Hopefully, now that Louisville has more than one ball handler they will be able to run a more effective offense. Louisville has the talent, it’s just a matter of getting the right sets practiced and putting them into effect in game.
The same logic goes for the Louisville defense. The defense looked decent at times in the 2022 season, however, it seemed like there was a lack of effort on the court. Louisville was constantly getting beat on fast breaks, getting beat off the dribble, and plainly just leaving players wide open from the 3-point line. Payne needs to get his team motivated to play and if the team is simply just playing hard it will eventually show on the court. Louisville has the talent to succeed, it’s just a matter of putting it all together as a team for the 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.
No. 3 – Make the NCAA Tournament
The Louisville Cardinals need to make the NCAA Tournament next March and If they don’t it will be considered by Louisville fans a disappointing season. Louisville has always been known since the Denny Crum era as a national basketball powerhouse. If Kenny Payne can’t get Louisville back to national prominence then in the fans eyes, he isn’t worth being kept around.
Making the tourney is the first step in the right direction, if Louisville makes the tourney then it proves that Payne can keep improving his team year after year. All Louisville fans are looking for is enough stable improvement that shows eventually they will get to the final four and national championship runs they used to from the Pitino and Crum eras.
It doesn’t matter if a team goes 4-28 or 19-12, if they both don’t make the tournament then its counted as a failed season in the fans’ eyes. Payne has the player talent and coaching talent to lead the Cardinals to be a successful team, it’s all just a matter of willpower and getting the players to execute the game plan as well as they can.
Louisville can succeed in the 2023-24 under Payne and this new talent. The NCAA Tournament is the No. 1 goal for this team this season, and if Payne can’t reach it’ll be hard to call it a successful season for the Louisville Cardinals in 2024.