Louisville basketball’s Kenny Payne on upcoming Kentucky game: ‘Well, we’ve got a chance.’

For the second straight year, the annual rivalry matchup between Kentucky men’s basketball and Louisville is expected to be a thoroughly one-sided affair.

Last year’s meeting between the Wildcats and Cardinals was exactly that: An 86-63 UK win in Lexington that became a footnote to U of L’s disastrous 4-28 season, which marked the most losses in one season in program history.

That season was also the debut campaign for Louisville head coach Kenny Payne, a longtime Kentucky assistant who found himself coaching against John Calipari, his co-worker for nearly a decade.

Thursday night marks the next installment of the Kentucky-Louisville rivalry, and once again the Wildcats are clear favorites.

UK (8-2) has vaulted up to No. 9 in the national rankings in the latest AP Top 25 poll after a showcase CBS Sports Classic win last weekend over North Carolina. Louisville (5-6) is entering the game with some momentum after a 22-point win over Pepperdine, the largest margin of victory in the Payne era.

“I need them to go out there and play free, play hard, play together, knowing that it’s OK if you make mistakes,” Payne said of his players Wednesday morning when previewing the UK game.

That big home win over the Waves — which came with a five-star recruit in the building on an official visit — followed a dreadful home loss to Arkansas State, one of several embarrassing home defeats that have occurred under Payne’s watch.

Now, Payne will get another shot at Calipari and the Cats, this time at home in the KFC Yum Center in Louisville, although the majority of Thursday night’s crowd is expected to be wearing blue and white.

“I know from the outside looking in, it looks like we don’t have a chance,” Payne said, in response to a question about the likely pro-UK crowd that will descend on the Derby City.

“Well, we’ve got a chance. And we’re going to go out and fight to get that and prove people wrong. ... If we believe, it doesn’t matter what anybody else does.”

When discussing the challenges posed on the floor by the top-10 Wildcats, Payne touched on UK’s variety of scoring options, the threat the Wildcats pose from behind the 3-point line and UK’s ability to get to the foul line.

Six Kentucky players — Antonio Reeves (17.1 points per game), Rob Dillingham (14.4), Reed Sheppard (12.8), D.J. Wagner (12.8), Tre Mitchell (12.7) and Aaron Bradshaw (10.7) — are averaging double-digit scoring per contest.

Of the 669 shots that UK has attempted though 10 games this season, 255 have been 3-pointers. That’s more than 38%. Kentucky is making 40.8% of those shots from distance, the fifth-best mark in the nation as of Wednesday morning.

UK is also averaging more than one free throw more than its opponents (13.6 to 12.4) per game.

“They’re very, very good basketball players, they’re complete,” Payne said of trying to defend Kentucky. “... We have to get back in transition. We’ve got to play very good one-on-one defense and be ready to help each other. And then we have to rebound the ball. ... If we do what we’re supposed to do, I think we’ve got a fighting chance.”

Payne didn’t offer a concrete answer Wednesday about the status of freshman center Dennis Evans and senior forward JJ Traynor for the Cardinals ahead of Thursday’s game.

Each player has a shoulder injury. Evans, a borderline five-star recruit who was formerly signed to play at Minnesota, has only appeared in limited minutes across seven games this season.

Evans has been out for the last four games.

Traynor, who went to Bardstown High School just 40 miles away from the KFC Yum Center, is averaging more than 10 points per game for the Cards this season.

Traynor hasn’t played in Louisville’s last three games.

Payne discusses his distinct UK-U of L rivalry dynamics

Payne occupies a distinct place in the Kentucky-Louisville men’s basketball rivalry. He scored 1,083 points as a player for the Cardinals from 1985-89, and was a member of Louisville’s 1986 national championship team.

But a long chunk of Payne’s time as a basketball coach featured a strong connection to the Cats: He spent a decade on Calipari’s Kentucky staff, a period that included UK’s most recent national title in 2012.

“Going against Cal is ... we probably both don’t want to be in this situation because we have so many years together,” Payne said. “But at the end of the day, I know he wants to beat me down and I want to win the game by one, and I’m happy, so.”

On Wednesday, Payne was also asked what the UK-U of L rivalry means to him.

“It means a lot. I know what it means to this community, I know what it means to this state,” Payne said. “I’ve participated in it. I’ve coached against it. I’ve coached for it. Been on all sides of it. (I’m) trying to get these guys to understand just, how much is invested into this game emotionally, and help them understand really this requires you to be really 1,000% focused on the task at hand.”

“At the end of the day, the stats won’t matter,” Payne continued. “What we shoot, how we play — meaning up until this point — the only thing that matters is that you go out there and fight. And at the end of it, if you fight (for) 40 minutes harder than they fight, you got a chance to win this game.”

Repeatedly during his Wednesday morning press conference, Payne cited the need for his Louisville team to compete and play with the necessary intensity to pull off what would be a mammoth college basketball upset.

“The only way for us to win is to go out and be the aggressor,” Payne said. “To go out and fight for what you want. To go out and understand you’re protecting your home. We don’t want Kentucky to come in here and feel like everybody’s with them and nobody’s with us.”

Thursday

No. 9 Kentucky at Louisville

When: 6 p.m.

TV: ESPN

Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1

Records: Kentucky 8-2, Louisville 5-6

Series: Kentucky leads 38-17

Last meeting: Kentucky won 86-63 on Dec. 31, 2022, in Lexington

This story was originally published December 20, 2023 at 11:56 AM.

Cameron Drummond

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-242-5257

Cameron Drummond works as a sports reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader with a focus on Kentucky men’s basketball recruiting and the UK men’s basketball team, horse racing, soccer and other sports in Central Kentucky. Drummond is a second-generation American who was born and raised in Texas, before graduating from Indiana University. He is a fluent Spanish speaker who previously worked as a community news reporter in Austin, Texas. Support my work with a digital subscription