NCAA Basketball: Ranking the 10 best head coaching hires of 2022 offseason
By Joey Loose
3. Kenny Payne (Louisville)
Five years ago, Louisville was in a messy situation, with Rick Pitino fired and the messy fallout from that entire debacle only just starting to come to light. Chris Mack stepped to the plate, but his four-year tenure wasn’t exactly what the Cardinals were looking for. The Cardinals weren’t exactly contending for ACC titles, which is certainly the goal for this program. Now, things might be looking up with a new former son back on campus.
Payne starred at Louisville back in the late 80s before a brief NBA career with the Philadelphia 76ers. Eventually, Payne got into coaching, beginning with a six-year stint under Ernie Kent at Oregon. Payne then had a successful dead on the Kentucky staff under John Calipari. Since 2020, he’d been an assistant with the New York Knicks, but now he’s back at Louisville for his first head coaching job.
Payne served as a key recruiter for the Wildcats across that decade and his absence was certainly missed by the Wildcats recently. Some revered him as a potential successor to Calipari at Kentucky, meaning Louisville’s hire is important in more ways than one. While he has no head coaching experience, he should be able to build a successful lineup that can contend for ACC titles again.