ESPN's Seth Greenberg, Tom Crean react to Louisville firing of Kenny Payne: 'It's disappointing'

Following the news that Louisville had parted ways with coach Kenny Payne after just two years, analysts across the sport chimed in with their thoughts on both the new job opening and the firing.

For ESPN analyst Seth Greenberg, the decision to fire Payne came as a bit of a bummer.

“I’m disappointed. Kenny Payne is one of the really good people in college basketball,” Greenberg said at halftime of the Florida State vs. Virginia Tech game on ESPN.

Payne spent only two seasons at Louisville, where he put together a 12-52 overall in those two years, with a 5-35 mark in conference play. That simply wasn’t good enough for the Cardinals brass.

But for Greenberg, Payne’s impact extended beyond just the wins and losses.

“He’s impacted so many lives through the course of his journey as an assistant coach, whether it was with John Calipari, whether it was at Oregon. So it’s disappointing,” Greenberg said. “Having said that, this is a business that with NIL and the transfer portal the timeline for a coach to show progress and flip a program is a little bit different now. It impacts not only Louisville, it impacts your community. Disappointed for Kenny because I know that was his dream job.”

Fellow ESPN analyst and former coach Tom Crean had a less sanguine take on the Kenny Payne tenure at Louisville.

“Big picture for me they never got the defensive identity established inside of this team,” Crean said. “But more importantly when you take over a program and you don’t have shooting and you don’t have consistent, coach-on-the-floor leadership in your point guard play, you’re going to be behind the 8-ball the whole way. And that’s exactly what happened.

“Skyy Clark, he can get 30 any night he wants. He’s got to be a better leader. El Ellis tried at times last year but there was not enough leadership coming from that position. I feel for him in that but he did develop. Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, he is a completely different player than what he was earlier in his career.”

Ultimately, even though Louisville showed improvement from four wins in Year 1 to eight wins in Year 2, it just wasn’t enough. It certainly wasn’t quick enough improvement.

“I just feel bad for Kenny Payne,” Greenberg said. “Kenny Payne is a good person who it just didn’t work out. It’s disappointing.”