3 takeaways: Lenoir-Rhyne spoils start of Louisville men's basketball's Kenny Payne era

This climb will take some time.

If you needed a refresher on the Louisville men’s basketball team’s struggles last season, an illustration of the task in front of Kenny Payne in his first year as head coach, Lenoir-Rhyne provided a reminder Sunday at the KFC Yum! Center.

Coached by former Cardinal Everick Sullivan, the Bears — a Division II team coming off a 10-18 season and playing without the top two scorers from that squad — stunned Louisville 57-47 in front of a sparse crowd, a game in which the Cards showed only flashes of promise and plenty of potential pitfalls.

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Payne said his team "needed this whoopin'," and the Bears delivered, snapping Louisville's streak of 39 straight exhibition wins.

Lenoir-Rhyne outscored Louisville 31-19 in a second half that saw the Cardinals make 5 of 21 shots and commit seven turnovers.

Jae’Lyn Withers had 20 points for Louisville, but no other Cardinal scored in double figures. L.J. McCoy led the Bears with 16 points.  Withers called the game "an eye-opener" that Louisville "can learn from."

There's a lot to learn.

Lenoir-Rhyne was without its top two returning scorers, forward T.J. Nesmith and guard Jalen Johnson, who averaged a combined 26.7 points last season. The Bears didn't have a fluke shooting night. They made 35.7% of their shots and 7 of 28 3-pointers.

Sullivan called it an "awesome win," noting that it was the first time he's been in the Yum Center with the basketball court down. The former Cardinal has been back for a tour in the summer, but never a sporting event. He called it "surreal" to win the game, but also said he was processing "mixed emotions" for winning in Payne's debut.

The two played together at U of L, and Payne "took me under his wing" in those days, Sullivan said.

"But sometimes you got to go through adversity, you got to learn hard lessons, you got to figure out who's going to be the cornerstone of the program and figure out how to get that winnning feeling and competitive feeling back," Sullivan said. "And I think that's what they're going through."

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Three takeaways from the Louisville loss:

The offense needs work — and playmaking help

The Cards got off to a sharp start offensively, largely because El Ellis relished his playmaker role in the game’s opening minutes. He assisted on Louisville’s first three baskets, two of them 3-pointers, to help stake U of L to an 8-2 lead.

But Ellis picked up his second foul with 15:55 to play in the first half, and the offense stagnated without him. Turnovers were a bugaboo while he sat, and they continued to be an issue once he returned.

Louisville finished with 16 turnovers, four by Ellis. Lenoir-Rhyne had a 15-4 advantage in points off turnovers.

The miscues and missed shots mounted in the second half for Louisville, which had one scoreless drought of more than six minutes — reminiscent of similar dry spells from last season’s 13-19 team.

It’s clear Louisville needs a playmaker when Ellis is off the floor. Freshmen Hercy Miller and Fabio Basili saw time at backup point guard, but each finished with no assist and one turnover. Freshman wing Kamari Lands — the Cardinal outside of Ellis with the most playmaking potential — had two turnovers without an assist in 15 minutes Sunday.

One potential playmaking option came off the table Sunday, when Manhattan transfer Jose Perez told On3 Sports he's transferring to West Virginia. Louisville reportedly was among the schools to reach out to the 6-foot-5 wing, who averaged 18.9 points and 4.5 assists last season.

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Playing big is a mixed bag

Payne opted for a supersized starting five Sunday, going with three predictable options — Ellis, center Sydney Curry and wing Mike James — and a frontcourt wrinkle with both Jae’Lyn Withers and Brandon Huntley-Hatfield getting starting nods.

Though both Withers and Huntley-Hatfield are more prototypically power forwards in the modern game — bigs who can stretch the floor as jump-shooting threats — they looked mostly comfortable on the court together.

It helped that Withers, coming off an up-and-down sophomore season, played with extreme offensive confidence. But Huntley-Hatfield was quite, finishing with five points on 2-for-6 shooting,

But going big kept the Cards from having another perimeter creator on the court with Ellis. That was only part of the reason for the stale offense. It didn’t help that Louisville made 14 of 48 shots.

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The defense has some lingering issues

After a solid defensive start last season, Louisville steadily slipped on that side of the floor, in large part due to its inability to stop the ball on the perimeter.

Some of the personnel has changed, but that issue reappeared at times Sunday.

Payne called his team's on-ball defense "at best OK." More concerning were issues off the ball. Payne said Louisville's "communication was really bad."

"There were times when we could have easily switched, kept the ball in front," Payne said. "We decided not to switch it."

Lenoir-Rhyne’s second-half surge was highlighted by crisp ball movement that had the Cards scrambling.

On one possession, the ball whipped around the perimeter for a wide-open 3-pointer for guard Hamilton Campbell, the kind of look Payne wants a pass-happy offense to create for Louisville.

On another, Lenoir-Rhyne’s Salle Wilson slipped into open space right under the basket and took a pass from center Cooper Fowler at the top of the key for an uncontested layup that put the Bears in front 51-38 with 5:34 to play.

"They were doing the things that I want my team to do, that I want these guys to do," Payne said. "Ball moved, multiple sides of the court more than twice. At times — most of the game — it was three and four times."

Lenior-Rhyne often had to hoist up shots to beat the shot-clock buzzer, but those long possessions tested the Cards’ defensive discipline, a blueprint Bellarmine figures to follow in the regular-season opener.

The Cardinals have another exhibition to play before that — and a long way to go, as evidenced Sunday, before they’re regular-season ready.

Reach Louisville men’s basketball reporter Brett Dawson at mdawson@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter at @BDawsonWrites.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville basketball vs. Lenoir-Ryne: 3 takeaways from exhibition