Louisville basketball fans are ready for the Kenny Payne era to end. The Cardinals hit a new low on Thursday night and it only continues to get uglier with each passing day.
Kentucky traveled one hour east for the heated rivalry game against Louisville at the YUM! Center. John Calipari’s team rolled to a dominant 95-76 victory that was actually worse at halftime.
The Cardinals only lost by 18 after being down by 20 at the break!
With the win, the Wildcats have won 12 of the last 15 meetings dating back to 2010. Yikes.
On the flip side, Louisville fell to 5-7 on the year and 9-34 in less than two years under Payne. It is time to hit the panic button if it has not been smashed already.
While the losing record is ugly, the final score was actually not the low point for the Cardinals on Thursday. They allowed a total takeover of their home gym in more ways than one.
First and foremost, for some unknown reason, Louisville allowed Kentucky to wear its white uniforms. The Wildcats rarely, if ever, wear their whites on the road. And yet, Kentucky wore its home kit at its rival’s arena.
That’s embarrassing for the Cardinals. They never should have allowed that to happen.
To make matters even worse, there was a lot of blue in the stands. Kentucky fans started a booming “Blue! — White!” chant while at Louisville’s arena.
A rivalry game — on the road — was essentially a home game once the “home” crowd started to dip out shortly after halftime. That’s brutal.
The Cardinals are the laughing stock of college basketball at this point and they reached a new low on Thursday. It would be shocking if Kenny Payne kept his job past this season. A program with a deep-rooted history of winning continues to fall further and further toward irrelevance under his guidance.