Tag: kenny payne

Kenny Payne praises UNC but wishes he inherited what Hubert Davis did

Louisville basketball coach Kenny Payne compared his situation to what Hubert Davis inherited with the UNC basketball program.

Going into Wednesday’s matchup between North Carolina and Louisville, it was thought that the Tar Heels would have no problems with the Cardinals.

After a disastrous year for both teams last season, the Tar Heels are on the way back up while the Cardinals are still trying to figure it out. Kenny Payne’s team did give UNC a little bit of a run but in the end, the better team won.

But after the game, Payne was asked about Louisville’s struggles as they are 1-5 in ACC play compared to the Tar Heels. He offered up an interesting answer.

“Well, I didn’t inherit the same thing he inherited. That’s first. What I inherited was broken,” Payne said after the game via Inside Carolina. “My job is to clean it up. Inheriting what I inherited, this is really year one for me. This is the first time I get to bring my players in and start the process of rebuilding a program. That’s just to me. Other people may see that differently. I don’t know. But that’s how I feel about it. I wish I inherited something similar to what Hubert inherited. He started out slow, but as the year went on, he had a great year.”

Payne does have a point but that’s not Davis’ fault. The head coach did inherit a really bad situation with Louisville including the roster and a program that was ‘broken’ when he stepped in.

Meanwhile, Davis did inherit a talented roster although it took some time for UNC to get going. When they did, they reached the national championship game.

And that’s where Payne can see UNC going this year as well.

“They are a team that could easily win a championship this year,” Payne said. We knew that coming in. We knew we had to play lights out to come in here and get a win.”

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Kenny Payne to remain Louisville’s head basketball coach into 2024

Louisville Cardinals athletic director Josh Heird indicated basketball coach Kenny Payne will keep his job into 2024 despite continued struggles.

The Louisville Cardinals lost by 19 points at home against the Kentucky Wildcats on Thursday evening, dropping to 5-7 on the year.

The team now has a 13 day gap before they take on Virginia January 3, a gap many felt would give Louisville athletic director Josh Heird an opportunity to fire Payne and find an interim coach to finish out the season before conducting a nationwide search to get this program back on the right track.

However, Heird chose to address rumors that Payne’s time is coming to a close on Friday morning, standing behind his coach for the time being.

“Kenny and I have had a number of conversations throughout the last week, and Kenny is going to serve as our head coach as we move into the new year,” Heird said, per WDRB’s Eric Crawford. “And I’m going to do what I do with every one of our programs, which is evaluate what’s happening throughout the season.”

Payne’s record since taking over as the Cardinals head coach now sits at 9-35, and losses this season to DePaul and Arkansas State as well as the mishandling of Koron Davis’ dismissal from the program have caused a tidal wave of criticism from the very proud Louisville fanbase.

Louisville is still paying former head coach Chris Mack $133,333 per month until January 2025 as part of his payout after getting let go in January of 2022, and buying out Payne would be a big financial commitment for this program. Of course, continuing to lose basketball games and alienate fans and donors isn’t going to help the program’s financial situation either, making this a very delicate and difficult situation for Heird.

While Payne’s job appears safe through the new year, Heird did make it clear evaluation will happen on a constant basis, and indeed a dismissal agreement could happen before the end of the basketball season depending how things go in conference play.

Louisville expected to fire Kenny Payne ‘sooner rather than later’

Louisville is expected to fire head basketball coach Kenny Payne sooner rather than later, likely before the season is over.

The Kenny Payne era at Louisville appears to be nearing an end.

A report from CBS’ Matt Norlander indicated the university does not intend to drag this out over the course of the entire season and is expected to move on from Payne – although a final decision has not been made as of Friday.

“My indications and speaking to sources in recent hours here is that Payne is unlikely to be fired before Louisville’s game on Sunday,” Norlander said on CBS Sports HQ. “The expectation is that will happen sooner rather than later, and that they will not drag this out over the course of the entire season. But a final decision, as of Friday afternoon, has not been made.”

The Cardinals play Pepperdine on Sunday and then host in-state rival Kentucky on Thursday, and then have a very long break before they play Virginia on the road January 3.

Payne went 4-28 in his first full season as Louisville’s head coach in 2022-23 and has not shown much improvement in year two, falling to both DePaul and Arkansas State last week while coming under fire for how the team handled the dismissal of guard Koron Davis.

Many feel an interim tag for either Danny Manning or Nolan Smith could get the program into the offseason, where they could devote resources to finding a high profile coach to come in and help bring this program, which has been to 10 Final Fours and won three championships, back to the national prominence they are used to.

It’s time for Louisville basketball to let go of head coach Kenny Payne

Louisville basketball is a proud institution, and it is past time they let head coach Kenny Payne go and look toward the future.

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.

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.

Everything we know about Louisville’s bizarre dismissal of Koron Davis after his refuted transfer report

Louisville said then Davis was transferring. He denied the report, then chaos ensued.

The Louisville men’s basketball program is in the middle of one of the strangest sagas in college sports.

After one of the most disappointing seasons in program history last season, second-year head coach Kenny Payne was given another chance to revamp its roster during the offseason.

One of the scholarships available was given to 6-foot-7 junior college transfer Koron Davis.

The former Los Angeles Southwest Community College guard never actually played a game for Louisville, however, and his entire time with the program was shrouded in mystery.

While there is still plenty unraveling about this story, here is what we know so far:

Tre White bails Louisville, coach Kenny Payne out of home loss to New Mexico State

Tre White had 22 points including a game-tying three to help lead the Louisville Cardinals to a narrow win over the New Mexico State Aggies.

If it weren’t for some late-game heroics by forward Tre White, the Louisville Cardinals would have suffered a home loss to a sub-250 ranked team at KenPom in New Mexico State, and you can bet the calls for coach Kenny Payne’s job would have reached a fever pitch.

However, White helped lead the Cardinals on an 8-0 run in the closing minute of regulation, including drilling a wide-open three-pointer to tie the game with less than 30 seconds to go, which forced overtime where Louisville was able to outscore the Aggies and take home a 90-84 win.

The Cardinals are now 3-3 on the season, with a home loss to Chattanooga and a pair of neutral site losses to No. 19 Texas (by just one point) and Indiana in the Empire Classic.

Louisville fans no doubt hoped the strong performances over Feast Week, even though they were both losses, would carry over to this buy-in game against the Aggies – but instead the Cardinals shot only 44.6% from the field and 20% (4-20) from beyond the arc, only managing to find any offense at the free throw line – where they ended up a whopping 49(!) times and converted 36.

New Mexico State played the final 20 seconds of overtime with only four players after six different Aggies fouled out of the contest, and their own inability to convert from deep (27.8%) or the charity stripe (52.9%) ultimately prevented them from picking up a very nice road win in Jason Hooten’s first season at the helm for the rebuilding Aggies – who have an entirely new team after last year’s season was suspended due to serious hazing allegations.

White’s 22 points were second on the team behind a monster performance from Skyy Clark, who had 29 total points on 6-8 shooting thanks to a 15-16 performance at the stripe.

Louisville will host Bellarmine (2-4) on Wednesday, ranked No. 229 at KenPom, before going on the road to take on Virginia Tech on December 3 in the first conference game of the year for Payne’s squad.

Every player in Philadelphia 76ers history who has worn No. 21

Here is a list of all 14 players who have worn the No. 21 for the Philadelphia 76ers in their history.

It’s summertime in the NBA, so it’s time to learn some history. The Philadelphia 76ers are one of the older franchises in the NBA. Their history dates to the 1949-50 season.

With that longevity, the team has had hundreds of players come through the City of Brotherly Love. Sixers Wire looks at the No. 21 which has been worn by 14 of those players in the history of the franchise.

This running series will go through all of the uniform numbers worn in franchise history. The previous edition of this series was a list compiling the 16 players who have worn the No. 22.

Here is the list of the 14 who have worn No. 21 in Sixers history:

Knicks to hire Rick Brunson, father of free-agent target Jalen Brunson, as assistant coach

The Knicks are finalizing a contract with Rick Brunson, the father of Jalen Brunson, to become an assistant coach on Tom Thibodeau’s staff, SNY has learned . Brunson, a nine-year NBA veteran, has been an assistant coach under Thibodeau in Chicago …

The Knicks are finalizing a contract with Rick Brunson, the father of Jalen Brunson, to become an assistant coach on Tom Thibodeau’s staff, SNY has learned. Brunson, a nine-year NBA veteran, has been an assistant coach under Thibodeau in Chicago and Minnesota. The deal is expected to be finalized in the coming days, per people familiar with the matter. The 49-year-old fills a spot on the Knicks bench created when former assistant Kenny Payne left to become head coach at the University of Louisville.

Source: SportsNet New York

What’s the buzz on Twitter?

Ian Begley @IanBegley
The Knicks are finalizing a contract with Rick Brunson to become an assistant coach on Tom Thibodeau’s staff, SNY has learned: sny.tv/articles/knick… – 3:12 PM
Jake Fischer @JakeLFischer
The word surrounding OG Anunoby’s trade candidacy, featuring Portland and Utah; New York’s options at point guard if they do strike out on Jalen Brunson, latest coaching intel from Charlotte, and more @BR_NBA: bleacherreport.com/articles/10037… – 8:59 AM

More on this storyline

Current NBA fans may know Brunson as the father of Dallas Mavericks guard Jalen Brunson, whom the Knicks had been interested in prior to the trade deadline. Brunson is an unrestricted free agent. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and general manager Nico Harrison have said that the team wants to re-sign Brunson. -via SportsNet New York / June 2, 2022
Jalen Brunson isn’t thinking about his upcoming free-agency decision just yet. He said his agent, Drew Morrison of CAA, called him Thursday night after the team’s season ended, and Morrison told him to take time off before they began seriously contemplating his future. I’ve been told there’s mutual interest on both sides to re-sign him, and Mark Cuban told Bally Sports the Mavericks can offer him more money than anyone else. It’s a statement that indicates intent. Kidd, for his part, feels the team’s pitch to stay here had been made not just by the Western Conference finals run but the totality of the season. -via The Athletic / June 1, 2022

Knicks to hire Rick Brunson, father of free-agent target Jalen Brunson, as assistant coach

The Knicks are finalizing a contract with Rick Brunson, the father of Jalen Brunson, to become an assistant coach on Tom Thibodeau’s staff, SNY has learned. Brunson, a nine-year NBA veteran, has been an assistant coach under Thibodeau in Chicago and Minnesota. The deal is expected to be finalized in the coming days, per people familiar with the matter. The 49-year-old fills a spot on the Knicks bench created when former assistant Kenny Payne left to become head coach at the University of Louisville.