That ought to do it. That should vaporize any lingering doubt. If Kenny Payne can survive a 72-50 home loss to a sub-standard Notre Dame team — his 47th loss in 59 games as a head coach — it could only mean results and revenue no longer matter at the University of Louisville.
Surely, that is not the case. Surely, as indifference has overtaken a fan base whose passion fueled a program that was long the most profitable in college basketball, Payne’s fate is a fait accompli. All that can conceivably be at issue at this point is the timing of his termination.
Right?
With the possible exception of a Kaleb Glenn dunk, the loudest cheer Wednesday night at the KFC Yum Center was prompted by putting U of L football coach Jeff Brohm’s face on the arena video board. The Cardinals never led at any point in the game and they would limp to the final buzzer while sinking just two field goals after Glenn’s loud, lone basket with 8:42 remaining.
"They put us on our heels with their energy, their effort, their focus, their attention to detail, their toughness,” Payne said of the Fighting Irish. “All those things were superior to ours."
Ouch
Payne described his team’s play as “lethargic,” which on first blush seems as much an indictment of its coach as his players. He continued to cite his team’s youth by way of explaining its difficulties after it had been “blasted,” as U of L forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield put it, by an opponent that started three freshmen and two sophomores.
Payne expressed confidence he may yet turn things around, saying “for me, yes, it’s a no-brainer that it’s going to get done,” before adding, “but it doesn’t matter what I believe. I need my players to believe.”
It’s worth remembering that Mike Krzyzewski, the winningest men’s coach in college basketball history, lost 17 games in consecutive seasons before he transformed Duke into the game’s ranking dynasty. Dean Smith, the eminent North Carolina coach, was hanged in effigy early in his tenure on the Chapel Hill campus. Still, even if Kenny Payne were capable of a comparable reverse of his trend line, it’s all but unthinkable he would be allowed that opportunity.
Too much has been lost. Too many fans have checked out. Too many downtown businesses are feeling the ruinous ripples of U of L’s nosedive from college basketball’s elite. Though Wednesday’s attendance was announced as 11,342, this was largely a reflection of unused season tickets and close to twice the size of the actual turnout. At tipoff time, an entire row of midcourt lower-bowl seats in Section 106 sat empty.
Apathy has replaced anger as the prevailing sentiment among Cardinal fans, and is the much more worrisome emotion. While waiting on a car repair Monday morning, I watched a dealer offer his tickets to a secretary without even stopping to gauge her interest, resigned that his supply far exceeded demand. Formerly the hottest ticket in town, U of L men’s basketball risks becoming a recurring expense rather than a profit center.
Since Payne would be due an $8 million buyout if he is fired before April 1 (and $6 million afterward), that risk is acute. With Chris Mack still drawing $133,333.33 per month in severance payments through January, 2025, Louisville figures to be paying three men’s’ basketball head coaches in little more than a month.
The next one cannot be a first-timer. Despite the program’s dramatic decline, Louisville is not an entry-level job. That Payne was hired without previous head coaching experience is attributable to his reputation as a recruiter and his success molding big men at Kentucky, to his personal charm and lack of pretense, to the pressure applied by former U of L players to hire “one of our own,” and, not incidentally, to hopes of healing the city’s racial divide following the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor.
It was, in many ways, a noble experiment. Payne is so likable, so unassuming, and so popular with his players that your natural instinct is to root for him. His default setting is warmth where Mack could be moody and distant.
But it simply hasn’t worked. U of L’s next loss will give Payne consecutive 20-loss seasons, a distinction virtually impossible to survive at a place as proud of its tradition as is Louisville. That ought to do it.
