Louisville basketball: Who is the new coach David Padgett?

With new reports coming out signaling that the “Coach 2” who helped funnel over $100,000 to a recruit was Rick Pitino, his departure is pretty much official. While the school will be dealing with his contract, they needed to find a new coach immediately.

With a high-profile spot open, a number of coaches were available to take the job with the Louisville Cardinals like Tom Cream, Thad Matta, and some up and coming coaches at smaller schools. Ultimately though, the school decided to stay internal, offering assistant coach David Padgett a six-month interim deal.

Some of you may slight remember that name because not too long ago he was suiting up for his former boss on the court.

Originally from Reno, Nevada, Padgett was a blue-chip prospect, ranked No. 15 by ESPN. In 2003, he chose to play for Roy Williams and the Kansas Jayhawks. But after Williams left for North Carolina, Padgett decided to transfer to Louisville, where he watched the team go to the Final Four while he sat out.

During his playing career, he was an integral piece for the Cardinals, averaging ten points and five rebounds. After graduating he played on some NBA Summer League teams and ventured in Spain for a little while before returning back to Louisville as an assistant coach.

After a year he left for a full-time position at IUPUI but ultimately returned to Pitino after the coach was fired. Since coming back, he has steadily climbed the latter to a top assistant coach in 2015.

After Pitino was relieved of his duties, Padgett was chosen to be the interim coach with the blessing of the current players. Some may wonder, “why pick from what seems to be a tainted bunch instead of going with something new?”

But an argument can be made that retaining the current players on what still should be a good team was the most important issue at hand. There could’ve been a mass exodus with an unknown figure to the players arriving, especially with looming sanctions possible.

Now one of the youngest head coaches in basketball at just 32 years old, Padgett seemed to carry himself in the introductory news conference. Media pundits approved of his handling of the difficult questions and the new coach empathizes the need to “normalize” things as much as possible.

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Padgett has a great opportunity on his hands regardless of what might happen next. Being a former Cardinal himself, he has the support from the local fans and media and the expectations for him will be much lower than Pitino’s would’ve been. If he does well, the interim tag may be coming off in favor of a permanent one.