11/24/2024

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.

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