Source — Louisville informs Kenny Payne of resigning from coaching position

Louisville officials plan to inform Kenny Payne within the next 24 hours that he will not return as men's basketball coach, sources told ESPN on Tuesday.

Payne had yet to speak with athletic director Josh Haird by Tuesday night since the ACC Tournament loss earlier in the day. Louisville's season ended with a 94-85 loss to North Carolina State, and the Cardinals finished 8-24 overall and 3-17 in ACC play.

Louisville plans to pay Payne about $8 million, the remainder of the six-year contract he signed when he joined the team, sources told ESPN. He finished his career at Louisville with an overall record of 12-52, one win away from home.

After Tuesday's loss, Payne was asked about his performance as Louisville's coach and whether he deserves a third year.

“For me, it goes back to day one,” he said. “When I came into the program as a new head coach, I said we needed everyone to be on the same page. We forgot that. I said I don't want you to blame me. I did. I’m not.” I’m standing here alone. I need all of Louisville with me. we forgot that. As I said, it will take time. And we're going to see who jumped on the Titanic. In a sense, we said, “I forgot about that. I gave a specific time. I said three or four years. And that's fine, because that's what I believed at the time.'' , I still believe this is the way to fix this program.”

“When you have a player like this, you have a foundation. Brandon.” [Huntley-]Hatfield, Mike James, JJ Traynor, our young players, we have the foundation. Whether I'm a coach or not, I can look in the mirror and say I did everything I could to help this program. ”

Payne, who played at Louisville and won a national championship with the Cardinals in 1986 before being selected in the first round of the 1989 NBA Draft, was named coach of the program after the 2021-22 season. As one of college basketball's elite recruiters during his time as an assistant at Kentucky and Oregon State, Payne was expected to sign top-ranked recruits and bring excitement to Louisville's KFC Yum! . center.

But the Mississippi State native faced problems soon after taking office. Payne hired Milt Wagner, a former Louisville star and the grandfather of the No. 1 player at the time. 1 hired DJ Wagner as the program's director of player development and alumni relations, only to watch Wagner contribute to Kentucky. Wagner's high school grassroots teammate, Aaron Bradshaw, joined the Wildcats, and another grassroots teammate, Mackenzie Mugako, committed to Duke before restarting her recruitment and settling on Indiana University. Those three players were among Payne's top targets in the 2023 class.

The struggles continued on the court. Louisville started last season with a home exhibition loss to Lenoir-Rhyne and missed Payne's first nine games as head coach, its worst start in more than 80 years. The Cardinals ultimately finished 4-28 overall and 2-18 in ACC play.

There were also personnel issues. Five-star prospect Trentin Flowers left the program in August to play professionally in Australia. The Cardinals then waived junior guard Colon Davis in mid-December. Hours later, Davis announced that he was planning to transfer, saying he was “disappointed and sad” after Davis announced on social media that he did not want to transfer.

This season saw more similar problems, including another loss in an exhibition at home. This time, it was against Division 2 team Kentucky Wesleyan, which had 3 wins and 12 losses on the road last season and was ranked 8th in the league in the preseason.

Louisville certainly made progress, starting the season 4-3, but lost three straight, including a 7-1 loss at DePaul in December and a loss at home to Arkansas State, leading to Payne's loss. The fate was almost decided.

After a 95-76 loss to Kentucky on Dec. 22, amid speculation that a coaching change was imminent, Haird told Louisville television station WDRB that Payne would remain in the New Year. Ta.

The Cardinals won their first road game under Payne on January 10 against Miami, but finished the rest with a 2-15 record.