The Floyd Street Tribune: Forget the forest -- the trees right in front of Louisville need attention
Inside: The long-term vision for Louisville basketball's offense just flat-out doesn't mesh with this roster, and the longer Kenny Payne tries to force it, the worse it'll get.
Miss the last newsletter? I wrote about a few things I’m thankful for, and I dived in on what is now the continued disaster of a start of the Kenny Payne era at Louisville For just $7 a month, paid subscribers receive each newsletter in full and have access to each newsletter via the main TFST page.
Alarm bells ring
There is always a conversation to be had when things aren’t going very well. You don’t want to change your approach just to change it and say you did. You certainly don’t want to change without conviction in the new plan. But when things are going as badly as they are for Louisville men’s basketball, you have to wonder if change for the sake of respectability is worth it in the face of sacrificing philosophical program goals, at least for the time being.
The long-term vision for Louisville men’s basketball, in the eyes of Kenny Payne, is a team built on passing — on moving the ball and moving off the ball, organic, sharp offense that generates good shots with the right shot-takers. Not really an offense built on specific plays and sets but rather a focus on free-flowing, natural basketball from a foundation of team understanding and game IQ. To execute that kind of offense (see: Duke), a team needs smart players who know their roles on the roster and are well-drilled in them by smart coaches. It never hurts in college basketball to also have a bunch of former blue-chip recruits on the roster.
Alas, Louisville is 0-7 while trying to play some version of that type of offense, with aimless passing to seemingly just rack up pass numbers on each possession. It ranks 247th in Ken Pomeroy’s offensive efficiency ratings. The Cards have a 1-to-2.26 assist-to-turnover ratio, giving the ball away on a quarter of their possessions. What’s worse, U of L ranks 343rd in D1 men’s hoops in non-steal turnovers, aka unforced errors. Beyond the numbers, when I sit inside the KFC Yum Center and watch Louisville play, I see a team completely devoid of an offensive plan or understanding of each other.
So, I have a radical theory.