Louisville finally brought an end to the disastrous two-year tenure of Kenny Payne on Wednesday, a day after the Cardinals lost in their conference tournament to NC State. Payne, a Louisville alum who was John Calipari’s right-hand man for many years with the Kentucky Wildcats, will go down as one of the worst scandal-free hires in college basketball history, taking one of the sport’s most storied programs and going an unfathomable 12–52 across two seasons on the job. That record doesn’t even count Division II exhibition losses to the Lenoir-Rhyne Bears and Kentucky Wesleyan Panthers that added further embarrassment.
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Despite that, Louisville will be the most coveted job to open this cycle. Its history, facilities and resources are top notch, and the ACC’s relative weakness at the moment makes it possible to turn this program around and win quickly.
