The Cardinals have already totaled last year’s win total at four with a second half rally at home against Bellarmine, who defeated Louisville at the Yum! Center in Kenny Payne’s first seasons.

Louisville hasn’t been a great team by any means, but everyone asked for some type of improvement this year and very slowly, but surely the improvements have been flashed this season. Kenny Payne still needs a ton of more experience coaching games, especially at this level, however he’s prepared his team to play much better than a season ago and the evidence is there.

He hasn’t figured out how he can put it all together for an entire 40 minutes and that’s the next step for Payne, as he’s practically learning how to be a head coach at one of the most prestigious basketball programs of all time.

Louisville’s next task was a road matchup against Virginia Tech, which is never an easy game. After the Texas game, Tre White came out and said that this team could compete with anyone in country and playing with that confidence is where it begins. The Cardinals are trying to turn the corner this year and beating Virginia Tech on the road is a good place to start.

Everyone who’s seen this team knows that slow starts have plagued them, but they finally had a good one. The Cardinals jumped out to a 10-2 lead over the Hokies, who couldn’t get anything to fall at first. Louisville looked engaged on the defensive end, which has been their biggest weakness so far. They were getting out in transition and getting nice looks, which is why they started off so well. This squad has to continue playing smart basketball and they’ll be better off when it becomes second nature.

Virginia Tech didn’t take long to find their offensive rhythm, because the Cardinals put their opponents at the foul line so often, then they start getting easier looks, because Louisville doesn’t want to foul. It’s a double-edged sword for Kenny Payne’s team, but all they can do is continue to stay disciplined on that end. The Cardinals were in control for most of the first half, but the lead began to dwindle as time passed by. The defense was starting to slowly breakdown, as we’ve seen in each game this season, but they still led the Hokies 31-30 at the half.

Skyy Clark has became the best scorer on this team in the first seven games, as he’s settled in quite well after a slow start to the season. Clark was off to a nice start in this game as well, but he lost his rhythm late in the second half. These cold runs for Louisville have to start being minimized, because once they go down that hole, it’s hard for them to escape it. They’ve shown that when everything is clicking they can score the basketball at a high enough level, however they become stagnant after a while once their opponents make defensive adjustments.

In this chess match that is coaching, you need to have counters for their counters so you are prepared for whatever a team throws at you. Louisville hasn’t reached that level yet and it’s evident that it’s an all-around experience issue. The Hokies began to take control of the game by constantly getting to the line, which has been Louisville’s biggest strength so far, being one of the best in the country at the charity stripe.

This game was a pretty even one, neither team led significantly in any major category. The one stat that was flat out in Virginia Tech’s favor was free throws attempted and free throws made. The Hokies shot 22/27 from the line compared to 16/18 for the Cardinals. Louisville shot 89% from the free throw line, but they couldn’t keep pace with Virginia Tech who shot worse, but made more. The Cardinals simply didn’t make enough shots to win the game and Virginia Tech was able to rely on the line to finish the job at home. Kenny Payne must work on better rotations for his guys, because Ty-Laur Johnson has earned better than just 19 minutes and Kaleb Glenn has been solid on both ends in every game, but he got only 4 minutes of action.

Another game for Kenny Payne with some positives, and a whole lot of negatives, but this team is learning more and more when they play and if they take that next step, Louisville might actually have something, which is better than what was shown in the past few seasons. This should be the worst they’ll play as a unit and as long as they put in the work and effort, wins will eventually follow.

The Cardinals are back in action this Saturday against DePaul (1-6, four game losing streak) in Chicago at 2:00 P.M. (ET).