Update March 13 12:28 p.m. Louisville has officially fired Kenny Payne.
We will be making a change in leadership for our program. #GoCards https://t.co/0O2jasWLsJ
— Louisville Men’s Basketball (@LouisvilleMBB) March 13, 2024
Louisville is expected to fire head men’s basketball coach Kenny Payne, per Field of 68’s Jeff Goodman. The move comes following the team’s 94-85 loss to NC State in the first round of the ACC Tournament on Tuesday. This brings an end to Payne’s disastrous short tenure with the program, where he posted a 12-52 record through his two seasons at the helm.
A member of Louisville’s 1986 national championship team, Payne took over at his alma mater in March of 2022 after assistant coaching stints with both Kentucky and the New York Knicks. He was tasked with picking up the pieces following the firing of former head coach Chris Mack, with many hoping he could lead the Cardinals back to national prominence. Instead, the exact opposite happened.
UL stumbled to an 0-9 start in his first season on the job, the program’s worst start since the 1940-41 season and the worst start for any program in ACC history. The Cardinals were routinely outclassed throughout the 2022-23 campaign and finished with an abysmal 4-28 record, the most losses in program history. There were immediate calls for his job based off this one disastrous season, but the Louisville brass elected to bring him back for another year.
The Cards didn’t fare much better to begin the 2023-24 campaign and that was immediate illustrated with a loss to DII Kentucky Wesleyan in a preseason exhibition game. Unimpressive wins over UMBC and New Mexico State were accompanied by embarrassing losses to the likes of Chattanooga, DePaul, Arkansas State, and arch rival Kentucky during their non-conference slate. UL was then once again a non-entity in ACC play, winning just three games against conference foes and dropping its final seven games of the regular season.
The only potential lifeline Payne has was landing five-star Overtime Elite prospect Karter Knox, but he ended up committing to Kentucky. With attendance at the KFC Yum! Center plummeting and fan apathy having already set in, the writing for Payne’s tenure was on the wall well before the ACC Tournament. And Tuesday’s loss brought an end to the worst coaching tenure in modern program history.
Louisville now enters the offseason in search for a new head coach that can lift the program out of the ditch and restore it back to national prominence.