Kenny Payne may soon be fired as the college basketball coach at the University of Louisville. His job is very much in jeopardy after finishing a second-straight regular season with less than 10 wins.
The Cardinals have been historically bad during the alumnus’ tenure at his alma mater.
To put the struggles into perspective, the program last failed to eclipse the double-digit win mark in 1941/42 when it played only 17 games in total. It has had no less than 12 wins since 2000, which ultimately led to Denny Crum’s ouster and saw him replaced by Rick Pitino.
Payne won four games last season. Louisville doubled its win total to eight this year.
That is not acceptable for a historic powerhouse. Fans have made that abundantly clear with there lack of attendance and interest, as well as their outward calls for Payne’s job.
However, at least one man hopes that he will get another year!
He might be the only one, as demonstrated by his attempt at a “one more year” chant during Saturday’s final home game. No one else joined in on the rallying cry. Literally no one.
Rather, they booed him mercilessly.
If the administration is going to make a move to remove Kenny Payne from his post, it likely will not happen until the Cardinals lose in the ACC Tournament. They open against 10-seed N.C. State as the league-worst 15-seed on Tuesday afternoon. Should they somehow rattle off a pair of wins, they would face 7-seed Syracuse in the second round and Duke in the quarterfinals.
Payne might be able to save his job with a run to the semifinals. But that isn’t happening.
Regardless of what goes down in the next few days, Payne hopes that Louisville will give him a third season to prove what he is building. He threw Chris Mack under the bus for leaving the program broken during a desperate plea to save his job on Saturday night.
While his petition probably wasn’t enough to change any minds, stranger things have happened. That one guy who tried to start the chant would be very happy if Payne gets another year!