Louisville fires men’s basketball coach Kenny Payne after two seasons

Kenny Payne is out as the head coach of the Louisville men’s basketball team.

The school announced Wednesday it was parting ways with Payne, who leaves his alma mater with a 12-52 overall record across two seasons.

His 2023-24 team finished 8-24 and exited the conference tournament Tuesday with a first-round loss to N.C. State.

‘Kenny has given a great deal to this university over a span of nearly 40 years, and he will always be a valued member of our Louisville family,’ Louisville athletic director Josh Heird said in a statement. ‘When we brought Kenny home in 2022, no one had a stronger belief than me in his potential success, but it’s become clear that a change is needed to help this program achieve what is expected and attainable. While it is always difficult to make a coaching transition, this is the right one for our program.’

In his first year, Payne and the Cardinals lost a school-record 28 games and finished with a .125 winning percentage. It went down as the worst campaign in modern program history and marked its fewest win total since 1941-42, when it went 7-10 under coach John Heldman.

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Louisville, one of college basketball’s top 15 winningest teams, had never posted back-to-back seasons with 20 or more losses in its 110 years of existence until Payne’s arrival.

The 57-year-old Mississippi native is owed $8 million as part of a buyout agreement with the university that started at $10 million and was set to decrease by $2 million each year of his tenure.

Payne, who was a freshman on Hall of Fame coach Denny Crum’s 1986 national championship team, graduated from Louisville in 1989 and was selected by the Philadelphia 76ers with the 19th overall pick in the NBA draft. He played in the league through the 1992-93 season, then pursued opportunities abroad.

On March 18, 2022, he was introduced as the successor to Chris Mack, and the first Black head coach in program history, after stints as an assistant with the New York Knicks (2020-22), on John Calipari’s staff at Kentucky (2010-20) and under Ernie Kent at Oregon (2004-09).

Heird, who was operating in an interim role at the time, and former interim President Lori Gonzalez hired a North Carolina-based company, Collegiate Sports Associates, to assist in the search process.

Payne had been on his alma mater’s radar for a while. Multiple reports surfaced during the search that led to Mack’s hiring in March 2018 that the university sought permission from Kentucky to speak with him about the vacancy.

Four years later, Heird said during Payne’s introductory news conference the search party was looking for someone who could ‘connect generations of players, connect younger fans to older fans, connect Black fans to white fans, connect a university to a city. Because when this city is connected, it’s one of the greatest places on earth.’

Payne said then he took the job to ‘bring people together.’

‘I must be an example for this community, to be all inclusive and to help heal this community,’ he added. ‘That is a lot. I need you. I cannot do this by myself. I am not a politician or a reverend. I am a man — a man that believes in doing right by people, and I need help.’

Payne was handed the keys to his alma mater in the wake of back-to-back 13-win seasons, the last campaign saw the university and Mack mutually agree to cut ties after 20 games.

The program was also awaiting an Independent Accountability Resolution Process (IARP) ruling from a long-running NCAA investigation into alleged violations under the watch of Mack and another former head coach, Hall of Famer Rick Pitino.

‘I inherited something that was broken,’ Payne said during a July 28 news conference, ‘or I wouldn’t have never got the job — right? We all understand that, right? Hopefully.’

With his track record of recruiting success under Calipari in Lexington, Payne’s arrival brought hope that Louisville could make waves on that front sooner rather than later, especially after he lured Nolan Smith away from Duke to be the first member of his staff.

But, with the looming threat of the IARP issuing a possible postseason ban that never came to be, his inaugural roster when the 2022-23 season tipped off featured six holdovers from the 2021-22 team, three freshmen, one transfer portal acquisition and four walk-ons — one of whom was elevated to a full scholarship.

The Cardinals stumbled out of the gate, with Division II program Lenoir Ryne snapping their streak of 39 consecutive exhibition wins, then fell flat on their face.

A one-point loss to Bellarmine in the season opener spiraled into a nine-game losing streak. Louisville didn’t win an ACC game until February, went without a road victory for the first time since 1939-40 and as the No. 15 seed got bounced from the conference tournament with a first-round loss to Boston College.

Louisville has ended a season with four or fewer victories only 14 other times dating back to 1911-12. Prior to Payne’s inaugural campaign, the last time that happened was 1940-41.

When asked after the 2022-23 season came to an end if he had any conversations with Heird about his future with the program, Payne said he wasn’t sure there was ‘a reason to have a conversation.’

‘I go to work every day. I love Josh. Josh says he loves me,’ he added. ‘There’s nothing to talk about. I’ve got a job to do.’

And, when asked how he planned to evaluate his staff’s performance during the 4-28 campaign, he turned the question around and asked, ‘What is there to evaluate?’

‘I have one of the best staffs in college basketball,’ he said. ‘I can tell you that they’re unique individuals that have had so much success in this game. I can’t believe you just asked that question, because you’re looking at guys who have accomplished more in their life as players — forget coaching. Their experience in life is why I hired them. They are great coaches; and they gave these kids love every day.’

Sure enough, Payne retained Smith, Danny Manning and Josh Jamieson as assistants. And, when the NCAA approved a modified personnel rule allowing men’s and women’s basketball teams to go from three to five on-court staffers, he chose to promote from within by elevating Gabe Snider, director of analytics and video technology, and Milt Wagner, director of player development and alumni relations.

This season had promise at the beginning, with Louisville bringing in an incoming collection of talent that ranked among the top 10 on 247Sports’ national leaderboard. But the vibes were thrown off when one of its crown jewels, 2024 reclass Trentyn Flowers, decided to leave the program in August to jump-start his professional career in Australia’s National Basketball League.

Payne pressed on and praised the early returns he saw from the team as it came together during the buildup to the 2023-24 season, saying the group has ‘the ingredients to be a winning basketball team’ and could be his ‘first step in many of rebuilding.’

He refused, however, to mark progress by a number of victories, instead choosing to focus on getting players to ‘understand the process of winning.’

But instead of turning a page this fall, history repeated itself when the ball was tipped.

The Cardinals on Oct. 18 beat Simmons College by 41 points to open exhibition play but committed 22 turnovers and gave up 30 points in the paint. Those numbers had Payne walking out of the KFC Yum! Center wondering, ‘Exactly how good are we?’

He found out Oct. 30, when another Division II opponent, Kentucky Wesleyan, handed Louisville its second exhibition loss in as many seasons.

Heird supported Payne throughout the 2022-23 season, saying last January, ‘He hasn’t done one thing that has shown me that he shouldn’t be our basketball coach.

‘Now, does that mean that any of us are satisfied with two wins? Absolutely not,’ he added. ‘Like I said, it is extremely frustrating. I can assure you, it’s frustrating. I know it’s frustrating to Kenny. It’s frustrating to staff; and it’s frustrating to our student-athletes.’

The athletics director doubled down on that statement Oct. 9 during the team’s annual Tipoff Luncheon at the Galt House Hotel.

‘Kenny has character; Kenny cares about this community; Kenny cares about young people,’ he said. ‘Most importantly, Kenny cares about this university. I have all the confidence in the world this basketball program will make this fan base proud. We have a tremendous leader; we have a tremendous staff; we have an excellent group of young men who understand what it means to represent this university.

‘Most of you in this room don’t get to experience the day-to-day interactions with the people in this program, so trust me when I say this program is headed in the direction we all want it to go.’

Heird concluded his remarks by telling the crowd, ‘Be patient. The wins will come.’

They didn’t — not fast enough, at least.