Louisville fired men's basketball coach Kenny Payne on Wednesday after two disappointing seasons. This outcome had been expected for months and, as CBS Sports.com reported Tuesday night, was planned to happen after the Cardinals returned to campus afer their season ended in the first round of the ACC Tournament against NC State with a 94-85 defeat. Louisville finished 8-24 this season — doubling its number of victories after going 4-28 in Payne's first season.
It adds up to a 12-52 two-year calamity. Heretofore, it was near-impossible to think Louisville could have been as bad as it's displayed the past two seasons.
Payne was hired in 2022, replacing Chris Mack, who cut ties with the university midway through his fourth season. At the time of his hiring, Payne was a lauded figure: a former national champion who played on Louisville's 1985-86 NCAA title-winning team and, just as notably, the first Black head coach in Louisville men's basketball history. He was hired away from his assistant's post with the New York Knicks. Prior to that, Payne was a longtime influential assistant to John Calipari at Kentucky, helping the Wildcats to a 2012 national title.
The belief was that Payne could bring recruiting coups and major victories to Louisville the way he helped sustain Kentucky's operation for so many years. But that's not at all how his time played out.
The Cardinals never found a semblance of positive momentum under Payne. It can be easily argued that his 23-month tenure leading Louisville was the nadir of a program that easily rates top-10 in the sport's history. Given his status and history with the program, he was given a second season to try and turn matters toward the better. This year was only slightly better than last, and now the program will move forward and try to restore glory in the Derby City.
Despite how bad things are now, the history and upside of Louisville basketball is so great, it will command an attractive pool of candidates, including sitting head coaches at other high-major programs. The school has NIL support and a financial package that will compete with any job on the market this cycle, according to sources. Potential targets could include Baylor's Scott Drew, FAU's Dusty May, USF's Amir Abdur-Rahim and Indiana State's Josh Schertz.
