Jay Williams urges Louisville fans to be patient with Kenny Payne amid struggles

It’s safe to say the first year of the Kenny Payne era at Louisville isn’t going how fans expected. The Cardinals entered Saturday’s game against Florida State with a 3-19 overall record and just a 1-10 mark in ACC play, and frustration is growing.

However, ESPN analyst and former Duke star Jay Williams issued a call to action to the Louisville fan base. He called for patience.

“I’m going to say this to people at home that may ruffle some feathers for Louisville fans,” Williams said on the ESPN2 broadcast. “We just need to stop the conversation about Kenny Payne not being here after one year. … This world that we live in in which you feel like you need results yesterday. Considering what this program has been through — not to throw anybody under the bus — but there are a lot of kids on this team that I’m not sure they felt like there was a real connection before Kenny Payne took over. So right now, he’s trying to do the right thing with this team, trying to re-establish the culture and, frankly, this team is trying to buy in.

“But they need to play with a sense of urgency. Kenny Payne has it. It just needs to trickle down to the rest of their team. Guys like Ellis, guys that are trying to bring it. We understand it’s not the standard of excellence that represents Louisville basketball. It takes more than a year to rebuild Rome. We need some patience for a guy like Kenny Payne, who’s going to bring the right kids in here eventually to get this program back to the top.”

Payne took over after Chris Mack’s tenure, which saw him get suspended for the first six games of the 2021-22 season and the relationship between Mack and the university deteriorated. Louisville parted ways with Mack last January before eventually hiring Payne to replace him.

Although the season hasn’t gone as planned, Payne credited the fans who were in attendance for the Cardinals’ first ACC win under his leadership this week — a 68-58 win over Georgia Tech at the KFC Yum! Center. The arena was at about 50% capacity, but those 11,400 fans saw Payne finally get the monkey off his back.

He gave a shoutout to the fans for sticking with their team.

“I never look at social media, I never look at newspapers, radio shows, any of that. I never listen to anything,” Payne said. “When I go to games, and I listen to what [the fans] do for us, I’m inspired.”