Former Louisville head basketball coach Kenny Payne fully believes that he had his former program moving in the right direction before getting fired. The 57-year-old continues to double triple quadruple down!
Of course, the results and his subsequent ouster would contradict Payne’s opinion.
Although Louisville is not considered to be a “blue blood” in the college basketball space, the Cardinals are one of the most relevant teams in the sport from a historic standpoint. They won national titles in 1980, 1986 and 2013. They have reached the Final Four 10 times since 1959 and 28 Sweet Sixteens since 1950.
All of this goes to say that Louisville expects to be in the NCAA Tournament every single year and will not settle for anything less. The Cardinals expect to win. Period.
Louisville did not win.
Chris Mack was fired halfway through the 2021/22 season and left behind a dumpster fire. In fact, Payne referenced his predecessor’s disastrous legacy while trying to save his job at the end of last season.
It ultimately didn’t matter.
Louisville went 4-28 in Payne’s first year, which was the school’s worst record since the 1940s. His second year was much improved! The Cardinals actually doubled their win total… to just eight.
Payne got the boot shortly after year’s end.
While it would be easy to excuse bad results for a bad team, Louisville’s roster was actually full of talent. Payne had a top-25 recruiting class, including five-star transfer Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, for 2022. He landed the No. 5-ranked recruiting class for 2023, including a pair of four-star transfers.
On paper, the Cardinals were — at the very least — a .500 team. In reality, they were a .187 team in each of the last two seasons. Gross.
Kenny Payne stands by his brief tenure.
The manner in which Payne left Louisville was rather strange. There was no press conference, farewell statement, one-on-one interview… nothing.
Now, to be fair, the circumstances of his departure did not warrant any kind of emotional goodbye.
However, the way in which Payne continues to speak of his time with the Cardinals is rather strange. He fully believes that the program was trending upward under his guidance.
Payne, who recently joined John Calipari’s staff at Arkansas as an assistant, recently spoke about his tenure during an interview with Hogs+. It started off with an admission of self-reflection.
I will say this to be quite honest with you guys. I’m at Louisville. That was my alma mater. We decided to part ways — they decided to part ways — so you question yourself as a coach.
— Kenny Payne
He proceeded to go off the rails. Payne refuses to take ownership of how things went on his watch.
And then when it’s over… the conversations that happen around the country, numerous NBA teams, numerous college teams and programs say, “Kenny we want you to be a part of what we do. We know exactly what happened.”
And then you realize, you know, you really were on the right page.
— Kenny Payne
We know for a fact that multiple NBA teams reached out to Payne with opportunities to serve as an assistant. They likely realized that he is a valuable asset in a non-head coaching role.
Payne saw it differently and truly believes that he had an awful Louisville team on the right track.
Of course, the results would say otherwise.
The Cardinals had back-to-back last-place finishes in the ACC. Their arena was empty. A team that had a real chance to turn things around with a weaker schedule at the end lost nine of its last 10 games. Hm…
To say that other people looked at Louisville and “knew what happened” implies that Payne did not get an equal chance at success. That is entirely untrue. NIL money was there. The facilities were there. The fanbase was there. It’s also not like the UL brand just ceased to exist.
Payne lost an exhibition game to a Division II school. He lost to Bellarmine. He lost to Arkansas State. The Cardinals won 12 games in two years.
If that is the “right page,” then there is a much bigger conversation to be had. Perhaps it is time for Kenny Payne to accept reality. The whole head coaching thing didn’t work out!