Following Louisville’s 94-85 loss to North Carolina State in the first round of the ACC Tournament on Tuesday, Kenny Payne’s status as the Cardinals head coach appeared to be a fait accompli.
But with Payne’s firing not yet official, he still took the podium for his postgame press conference, which he used to defend his two-year tenure as Louisville’s head coach.
“For me, I go back to day one. It’s unfortunate that we’re talking about this right now. When I walked into the program as the new head coach, I talked about I needed everybody on the same page. We sort of forgot that,” Payne responded when asked why he believes he deserves a third year in charge of the Cardinals program.
“I talked about how I’m not going to let you blame me. I’m not standing up here by myself. I need all of Louisville with me. We sort of forgot that. I talked about it’s going to take time, and I’m going to watch and see who jumped on and off the Titanic. We sort of forgot that. We talked about I gave a specific time. I said three or four years. And I’m good with it. That’s what I believed at that time, and that’s what I still believe it takes to fix this program.
“I love Louisville. I played here. I won a national championship here,” he continued. “This is not a job for me. Contrary to those who criticize, I don’t sleep at night thinking about my brothers, the former players that played here who had no access to the program.
“I should not be talking about this right now, but I have to say this: these young men, to play in a program where there’s so much scrutiny is unfair to them. They deserve to play in a program where people are uplifting them to be better, not fighting and tearing them down to make them question how good they are. Then you make my job impossible.”
Here's Kenny Payne from his post game presser on his future as the Cards head coach after Louisville's season comes to an end at the ACC Tournament. @WHAS11 pic.twitter.com/zm4OtX4Irc
— Kent Spencer (@WHAS11Kent) March 12, 2024
If you noticed a trend in Payne’s answer, you weren’t alone. Seemingly, in his view, the status of a program that has amassed an astonishing 12-52 record over the course of the last two seasons is everybody’s fault, except his own.
It would be curious to know whether he was referring to criticism from the media, fans, alumni or any combination of the three. But despite his references to his introductory press conference, the reality is that the results speak for themselves and he has failed to clear even the low bar he seemingly set for himself at his alma mater.
Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long for reports to begin pouring in on Tuesday night that Payne had been relieved of his duties.
Over the weekend, we saw what can happen when a fired head coach takes the podium for a postgame press conference. Now we know what can happen when a head coach who hasn’t been fired yet, but is inevitably going to be let go, does the same.
