Kenny Payne may or may not have coached his final regular season college basketball game as the head coach of Louisville on Saturday. Cardinals fans hope that his ouster will be announced ASAP.
The administrations might choose to give him one more year. We will see.
Either way, Payne is feeling the heat. His brief tenure with the program has been the worst— ever.
Louisville doubled its win total this season but it won just four games last season. The Cardinals had not won less than 10 games since 1941 when they went 7-10. Payne is responsible for the first 20+ loss seasons since 1997/98 and the first 21+ loss seasons in school history.
Considering that Chris Mack was fired after two-straight 13-win seasons, it seems likely that his successor will get the boot. However, Kenny Payne says fans do not realize just how bad things were upon his arrival.
He was asked if he has any regrets or things that he would change about his first two seasons after a season-ending loss to Notre Dame on Saturday. The 57-year-old said that the program was broken, which essentially required him to start from nothing.
Payne explained that his first year was not even about basketball. His second year was an opportunity to build on the foundation that he built in wake of such destructive leadership prior to his arrival. He strongly believes that Louisville is “one or two players away” from being a competitive team.
To Payne’s credit, his delivery was honest and patient.
Kenny Payne was asked if he had any regrets/things he’d change over the last two years: “What I inherited was broken, more than I could ever tell you” pic.twitter.com/mUZ2w5TTsE
— Alyssa Newton📸 (@AlyssaKNewton) March 10, 2024
Fans do not know how things looked behind-the-scenes after Mack’s ouster. Payne is only focused on controlling the things that he can control.
Unfortunately, his statement did not take any accountability. The question was about the things that he regrets. He did not answer the question!