First Scouting Report: UK will seek to spoil Kenny Payne’s Rupp Arena return
.JPG "Kenny Payne, a Kentucky assistant men’s basketball coach from 2010 through 2020, will return to Rupp Arena on Saturday as head coach of the Louisville Cardinals.")
READ MORE
Game day: Missouri 89, No. 19 Kentucky 75
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Wednesday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Missouri in Columbia, Mo.
Expand All
A look ahead to the Kentucky Wildcats’ next men’s basketball game:
The opponent
No. 19 Kentucky (8-4, 0-1 SEC) will face Louisville (2-11, 0-3 ACC) on Saturday, Dec. 31, at Rupp Arena (capacity 20,545) in downtown Lexington:
The game will tip off at noon (EST) and be telecast by CBS.
In their most recent outing, Coach Kenny Payne and the Cardinals fell 76-64 at North Carolina State on Dec. 22.
Series history
Kentucky leads the all-time series with Louisville 37-17 and has won 17 of the last 24 meetings.
Most recent meeting
Louisville guards Carlik Jones (20) and David Johnson (17) combined for 37 points and the Cardinals survived Kentucky 62-59 on Dec. 26, 2020, at the KFC Yum Center.
Power rankings
The NCAA NET Rankings have Kentucky No. 32, Louisville No. 344.
In the Pomeroy Ratings, Kentucky stands No. 10, Louisville No. 256.
The Sagarin Ratings have Kentucky No. 17, Louisville No. 227.
Know your foe
1. A Kentucky assistant under John Calipari from 2010 through 2020, Kenny Payne’s first season as head man at his college alma mater has not gotten off to a stellar start. Payne, a 1,083-points career scorer as a U of L forward from 1985-89, lost his first three games on the U of L bench by one point each to Bellarmine, Wright State and Appalachian State.
That, seemingly, set the tone for the U of L season to date. In six games vs. power-conference foes, the Cardinals are 0-6 and have fallen by an average margin of 24 points in those contests.
2. The poor start has Payne taking heat, but it should not be a great shock that Louisville is struggling. The Cardinals ended last season 3-15 in their final 18 games and then saw core players such as Noah Locke (team-high 9.6 points a game), Dre Davis (7.4 ppg) and Samuell Williamson (5.7 ppg) enter the transfer portal.
3. Senior guard El Ellis (17.1 ppg) is Louisville’s only double-figure scorer in 2022-23. A 6-foot-3, 175-pound product of Durham, N.C., Ellis has not been an efficient scorer. Ellis is taking an average of 14.5 shots a game but is making only 37.8 percent of his shots.
Former Tennessee Volunteers big man Brandon Huntley-Hatfield is averaging 8.1 ppg and 6.3 rebounds.
As a team, Louisville has struggled to put the ball in the basket. The Cards are making only 40.1 percent of their field-goal tries and 31.9 percent on three-point attempts.
This story was originally published December 28, 2022 at 9:24 PM.
