Louisville formally announces Kenny Payne will not return as men's basketball coach

The University of Louisville has officially announced that they will move in a new direction and are letting go of head men’s basketball coach Kenny Payne after two seasons at the helm of the program.

Here was the announcement via the Louisville athletics website:

“The University of Louisville has informed Kenny Payne he will not return next season as men’s basketball head coach, Director of Athletics Josh Heird announced Wednesday.”

The release noted that athletic director Josh Heird will speak with media Wednesday afternoon. However, he did provide a statement along with the news of the school’s decision to part with Payne. It read:

“”Kenny has given a great deal to this university over a span of nearly 40 years, and he will always be a valued member of our Louisville family. When we brought Kenny home in 2022, no one had a stronger belief than me in his potential success, but it’s become clear that a change is needed to help this program achieve what is expected and attainable.

“While it is always difficult to make a coaching transition, this is the right one for our program. On behalf of myself and everyone involved with our men’s basketball program, I want to thank Kenny for his dedication to UofL. I wish him and his family the very best in their future.”

Payne took over an odd situation, as previous head coach Chris Mack left the job midway through the 2021-22 season in what appeared to be a mutual parting of ways after a tumultuous season on and off the court for Mack as he also dealt with lingering issues from an extortion case he brought against his own assistant coach the season prior.

So Payne was starting off on a rough foot, but still monumentally failed expectations in year one, winning just four games. Many fans were ready to make a change after that first season, but Payne got his second year and ultimately didn’t improve very much. Sure, the team doubled its win total from 4-28 to 8-24, but the issue remained that Louisville finished significantly below .500, was out of the NCAA Tournament picture by December and was again one of the very worst performing teams among the Power 5 conferences.

A decision that had to be made and was. Now, it’s on to the coaching search for Louisville, who should still have quite the selection to choose from as a historic hoops power.