Louisville chose to stand behind head basketball coach Kenny Payne after a disastrous 4-28 season last year, and it really isn’t too hard to see why. Payne is an alumni, he won a championship as a player with the program back in 1986, he is well liked on campus and in the community, and, after all, it was his first season. It couldn’t get worse, right?
Well, here we stand 10 games into the 2023-24 season and it is clear as day that Payne and Louisville need to part ways, and they need to do it now. Not after Sunday’s game against Pepperdine, or their next game against in-state rival Kentucky on December 21, and certainly not after another embarrassing romp through the ACC. Now.
This week alone Payne’s program fell on the road to a struggling DePaul program and then came back home and lost on Wednesday by 12 to Arkansas State. The Red Wolves are out of the Sun Belt and already suffered losses to Jackson State, Little Rock, San Diego, and Bowling Green this season, yet they sent Payne and Louisville home with their sixth loss of the year.
The Cardinals remain without a single victory over a team ranked inside the top 230 at KenPom, and three of their six losses are to teams outside the top 175.
A ten game sample size, however bad it is, is not typically enough to initiate a dismissal – but when combined with last year’s disaster campaign and multiple off the floor incidents, it it clear Payne is just not equipped to run a program of Louisville’s caliber.
Payne indicated after a loss to Indiana that coach Mike Woodson “tricked him by playing zone” which was likely said in jest but certainly doesn’t look good for a coach who has clearly demonstrated he is in over his head.
And then there is the Koron Davis fiasco. Davis joined the team as a JUCO transfer from Los Angeles Southwest College, and he indicated Louisville was the only Division 1 school making him an offer.
Rumors of an altercation between Davis and Payne spread during the second week of the season, and while that has been denied by both Payne and Davis – the 6’7 guard was not on the team’s bench the following week and he did not make the team’s road trip to New York.
Payne was repeatedly asked to address this situation and would only indicate Davis was “not in any trouble” and that he is “still part of the team” despite Davis being seen in the crowd watching Louisville’s game against Bellarmine.
“I have nothing to say about Koron Davis,” Payne reiterated after that game. “Koron Davis is not in trouble. I didn’t know he was at the game, but, if he was, that’s fine with me. He’s a part of this team right now.”
Then, on the same day the team lost to Arkansas State, the school announced Davis had informed the program he intends to transfer.
Except, apparently, that wasn’t the case. Davis disputed this on Twitter, after which the school clarified he had actually been dismissed from the program – ending his tenure with the Cardinals before he was ever able to play a game.
I didn’t express to anyone at U of Louisville that I wanted to transfer. I never asked to transfer. I enjoy being a Cardinal. The fact an official statement was released giving false information is disheartening and sad.
— Koron Davis (@KoronDavis) December 13, 2023
An updated statement from Louisville regarding Koron Davis:
“Prior to the program issuing a statement this afternoon, Louisville junior guard Koron Davis was informed that he had been dismissed from the men’s basketball team. Davis has expressed that he intends to continue his…
— Matt McGavic (@Matt_McGavic) December 13, 2023
Letting Payne go would show the fans, the players, and the college basketball community at large that Louisville is committed to getting back to their winning ways, and while it certainly isn’t ideal for Payne – neither is forcing him up on the podium night after night, loss after loss, and firing him after the season.
It is time to let Danny Manning take over as interim head coach and put this ill-fated experiment in the rearview mirror so this program can get back to their winning ways.