Kenny Payne loves passionate crowd, uses boos as motivation

As Louisville coach Kenny Payne continues to struggle in his inaugural season, he is thankful the fans have not lost their passion for the program. Cardinals faithful have continued to show out in support of the team despite a historically bad season in which they have won only three games.

With little to cheer for, fans have sometimes vocalized their frustrations by filling the KFC Yum! Center with boos, but Payne isn’t upset. Instead, he understands how they feel and believes it should send a message to the team about the responsibility that comes with playing for a program like Louisville.

“I think our fans have been great,” the coach said after a 81-78 loss to Florida State. “I love the energy in the gym and arena, especially when we’re playing well. I love the fact that when we don’t play well, we can hear way up high, ‘Aw, boo’ or whatever. I like that because it’s what I’m saying. You understand where you are.

“You’re around passionate fans that love this program. That pay a lot of money to be a part of this program. You have an obligation. I don’t know who told ’em this, but there’s a mentality that we’re trying to change. You’re not just playing basketball. You have to play winning basketball here. That’s what we need them to do.”

Things were beginning to look up for the Cardinals earlier this week, as they snapped a 10-game losing streak with their first ACC win against Georgia Tech on Wednesday. Although Louisville followed that up with the loss to Florida State, it still gave the crowd reason to cheer for a few moments at the end.

The Cardinals trailed by as many as 15 in the second half before clawing their way back to tie the game at 74 with 1:42 remaining. Unfortunately, they never got over the hump to take the lead as they dropped their 20th game.

Kenny Payne is starting to see progress from his players but knows Louisville fans still won’t be satisfied if the end result is the same. Still, he is encouraging them to keep showing up to games as the team finds its way.

“They’re getting better at it,” he said. “I love what our fans are doing. I want ’em to continue to come and support us. Fight for us. And if we’re not playing the right way, I want ’em to get on us. It’s tough because for the first time they’re seeing somebody’s telling them exactly what this program is. Think about that. Someone’s saying, ‘This is Louisville.’ This isn’t just, ‘I go play and we play hard and we lose and it’s over.’

“There’s a lot of pride that came from this program. A lot of love for this program. A community that lives and dies with this program. We have an obligation to make these people happy.”

Louisville was one of college basketball’s top programs for the past two decades, stringing together 18 straight seasons with 20 or more wins from 2003-20. However, with eight games remaining, they are already guaranteed their worst record since 1997-98 when the team finished 12-19.

Louisville is next set to face Pittsburgh at 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday on the road. The Cardinals’ next home game is against Virginia on Feb. 15.