Dick Weiss on College Basketball
PHILADELPHIA– Kenny Payne’s honeymoon at Louisville is over.
That was quick.
Here we are less than two months into his second season, and the Cardinal passionate fanbase are already calling for his head.
Payne was a freshman on Louisville’s 1986 national championship team and a two-year starter who was selected by the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of the 1989 NBA draft. After his playing career, he became a popular assistant on John Calipari’s staff at Kentucky and spent two years as an NBA assistant with the Knicks.
When Louisville went searching for a replacement for Chris Mack in 2022, he seemed like a natural choice for the coaching job. Payne had the support of the former players who had watched the school’s brand disappear in the post-Rick Pitino era and viewed Payne as a savior.
Little did they know Payne wasn’t ready for the job.
The Cardinals were a dismal 4-28 his first year and Payne looks like he is in over his head. They are 4-6 with no wins over teams ranked in the top 120 in KenPom.com following a loss to 1-7 DePaul last weekend and a Wednesday 75-65 loss to Arkansas State, a 3-7 Sun Belt team that had losses to Jackson State, Little Rock and San Diego, three teams ranked lower than 175.
It wasn’t just the loss; it was the way the Cardinals lost that disgusted the sparse crowd at the Yum! Center. No energy, no effort in the second half when the won their first game against a Power 5 team since 2014. Arkansas State scored 30 field goals; 22 were layups or dunks. No wonder there were boos cascading from the seats at the end of the game.
It was ugly and it didn’t take long for social media to notice.
Payne tried to put the best face possible on this embarrassment, saying he wasn’t concerned about his job security.
“No, not really,” he said. “If I lived my life not being true to myself I probably would. But I live my life in faith. I live my life knowing that, to be honest with you, am I doing right by these young people. And every single day I question that. And what I mean by question it is, when the day is over did I cheat Skyy Clark? Nine out of 10 days? No. Did I cheat Tre White? No. Did I cheat Brandon? No, I live my life that way. Not worrying about the outside. Hopefully that answers the question.”
But he hasn’t improved the program.
And he has to deal with another distraction after Koron Davis, a junior college transfer who came to the Ville out of nowhere. He didn’t appear on the ranking charts. On Wednesday, Louisville announced Davis had left
the team and was seeking a transfer. Davis offered a different view on social media, indicated he had done no such things.
U of L put out a statement later saying Davis had been dismissed from the team, wishing him well.
The best-case scenario was that Payne was trying to protect the player. But if you are doing that, you better make case both sides are on the same page.\
Davis posted a series of posts on social media saying he never told anyone he wanted to transfer and that he enjoyed being at the school.
Davis showed up at the women’s game Wednesday, then moved down close to the court for the men’s game, sitting by himself, behind the bench. He declined to elaborate on the circumstances of his departure. but the optics were bad.
Payne chose not to discuss the issue. further after the game, claiming he cared about the kid and wished him the best/
This was just the latest in a series of embarrassing episodes Earlier this year, Ty-Laur Johnson played just three minutes in the first half of a win over Bellarmine because Louisville did not have the tights he wanted to wear. He played in the second half after he accepted the fact the school didn’t have them. Johnson had worn a compression sleeve on his left leg all season. He also asked to come out with five minutes left
in a loss to Indiana two weeks ago because of a groin issue. Payne was not pleased.
No one is pleased with this dysfunctional program. The Cardinals used to be a blue blood, vying with Kentucky for control of the Commonwealth. They won three national championships on the court, the latest in 2013 But Louisville is hard to to recognize. these days. Firing Payne at this point isn’t feasible because there is no one on the staff to make his place/ But count on a change after this lost season/ . .
. . /
