LOUISVILLE — Kenny Payne sounded like a man looking for hope in a hard reality. His Louisville basketball team came close, so painstakingly close, to finally doing it — winning one of those games upon which corners are turned. Instead, No. 19 Texas pulled away late, handing Payne his 30th loss in 36 games as coach of the Cardinals. This was four weeks ago, what, in hindsight, feels like four years ago.
Payne settled in for a postgame news conference at Madison Square Garden. There was a certain optimism to him that Sunday afternoon. He nodded and offered a knowing gaze. “It’s only going to get better,” he said. “It’s not going to get worse.”
It was difficult to imagine then how wrong he was.
The Cards lost to Indiana the next day. Then, uncomfortable home wins over New Mexico State and Bellarmine in a near-empty KFC Yum! Center. A loss at Virginia Tech. Another at DePaul, one of the few programs supposedly worse off than Louisville. Then, a home loss to Arkansas State. (Not Arkansas. Arkansas State.) Last weekend, a three-game skid was snapped with a win over Pepperdine.
It has been a long time since Louisville basketball has gotten much national attention, and as fans, the drought has lasted way too long.
The last time Louisville basketball really felt releveant was the 2019-2021 season where the Cardinals were helmed by then head coach Chris Mack. Mack had the Cardinals ranked #1 at one point in the season, and it all accumlated in a top 4 matchup against Michigan in the KFC Yum Center, where the Cardinals defeated #4 Michigan in a sold out white out crowd in Louisville.
Those are the type of moments that fans die for, and moments like that is what has been severely missing in the Kenny Payne era. Louisville hosted #12 Duke last Tuesday, and the fact that the attendance was somewhere south of 8,000 is downright embarrassing. Hosting Duke in your home arena should always be a big attendance night for any team, especially if you are Louisville.
But the conversation has now shifted from ” I can’t believe that there were only 20,000 fans there for the Duke game” to ” 8,000 is a high number for Louisville attendance this year.” It is honestly sad how bad things have gotten under Kenny Payne.
Even if thing somehow get better under Payne this season, I am not sure he will ever be able to regain the faith, trust, and excitement of the fanbase. Louisville needs a new coach that will excite the fanbase for the future instead of just asking for “patience” and “true Louisville fans”.
The community and people of Louisville cannot stand for more of this bad basketball, and that all starts with moving on from Kenny Payne.
