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Louisville parted ways with head basketball coach Kenny Payne after just two seasons with the program in full tailspin at the bottom of the ACC. Across those two years, the Cardinals went just 12-52 with a 5-35 mark in league play.
Payne, a U of L grad who was picked in the first round of the ’89 NBA Draft, was once considered a home run candidate with his hiring being met with much fanfare. Instead, his inexperience as a head coach showed through during his brief stint.
Part of that inexperience was evident in his on-staff hires, which were maybe the biggest downfall of his tenure.
WDRB journalist Eric Crawford pointed to Payne’s coaching staff in his reasoning of “What went wrong” for the Cardinals – exposing a bombshell of sabotage.
When talking of assistant coach Danny Manning, Crawford only said that his x-and-o approach was lacking, making it difficult for Payne’s group to make in-game adjustments.
Crawford had a much more damning critique of Nolan Smith.
Smith, who was an All-American under Coach K at Duke, is said to have been working as somewhat of a double agent, leaking false intel to damage his head coach’s reputation – potentially for his own benefit!
Smith was sensitive to criticism, had some contentious social media interactions with fans, and before the 2023-24 season interviewed with a G-League team, the Capital City GoGo. When athletics leadership concluded that Smith had been the source of a leak that resulted in national media reports saying Payne would be fired in December and Smith elevated to the head coaching job, Payne was advised to take the matter up with Smith.
Not only was he interviewing for outside positions, but he was tearing his own program’s leader down in the process. Despite the accusation, Smith remained on staff.
Smith claimed that he was never going to take that G-League job, which is a little harder to believe given his alleged backstabbing.
“I was never going to leave Louisville. I came here to do something special with coach Kenny Payne.”
Those words ring hollow now!
It’s safe to say things were a complete mess for Louisville basketball with Kenny Payne at the helm. He obviously wasn’t the man to turn the Cardinals around, but maybe the reports of sabotage will land him some grace with fans following his firing.