LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Yes, Kenny Payne knows that with four open scholarships on the University of Louisville basketball team, he needs to add at least two more players.
“I need another wing,” Payne said. “And I need some guards.
“Guard play is critical right now. If I get a couple of good guards, we’re going to have a pretty decent team. So we’ll see how that goes. I’m looking forward to it.”
Payne enjoys playing golf. He has not played a single round in the two months since he became the Cards’ new head coach.
His office remains in the opening minutes of re-decorating. A pair of his former No. 21 jerseys — one of them white and signed by Cardinal players from every era, the other red, which was presented to him at his opening news conference by interim athletic director Josh Heird — sit on a cabinet behind his office desk.
But as the world focuses on players Payne and his staff are recruiting, Payne’s first priority remains the six guys who chose to return to the Cardinals for another season.
Five players left through the NCAA transfer portal following the dismal 13-19 U of L season. Centers Sydney Curry and Roosevelt Wheeler, forwards JJ Traynor and Jae’Lyn Withers, and guards Mike James and El Ellis chose to stay.
With a break in the academic calendar, most of the guys returned home. The team will reassemble in early June.
During an interview Monday afternoon in Payne’s second-floor office at the Planet Fitness Kueber Center, I asked Payne what he needed to hear from the six guys who decided to return and what they wanted to know from their new coach. Fans might have questions about the offense and defense Payne will employ, but nobody should have any questions about how Payne will relate to the current generation of players.
“The first thing was, ‘How do you get over the pain that you went through — the hurt that you went through — (last season)?’” Payne said.
“Whether it’s right or wrong, it’s their pain. So their reality is what it is. It’s their reality.
“So from hearing their pains, asking each one of these kids, ‘Did you talk to your parents about it? Some of them — well, most of them — said to a certain degree, but not all of it.
“Well, I need you to heal. In order to trust what I’m doing, you have to heal. You have to be open.
“Sometimes, we take for granted that these young kids can just automatically flip a switch and they’re going to trust what we say. Those days are over.”
In other words, in the old days, player grievances were a footnote in the coach-player relationships. If players were upset about something, they were not encouraged to ask questions. They were encouraged to figure it out. Quietly.
Payne does not operate that way. While serving an apprenticeship of nearly two decades with Oregon, Kentucky and the New York Knicks, he worked at developing solid relationships with players.
Former UK players like Julius Randle, Karl-Anthony Towns, Devin Booker, Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro were always ready to go to bat for him. The man is friends with Kevin Durant, Kevin Love and a string of guys who never played for him. His ability to relate to people is what separates Payne from other coaches.
The Cards’ returning players had to navigate a mess they did not create last season. The fracture between Chris Mack and two assistants that he dismissed in the spring of 2021 started it. The nasty fallout between Mack and Dino Gaudio brought the FBI and extortion charges into the conversation.
A six-game suspension for Mack was a weird vibe to begin the season. The Cards learned to respond to assistant Mike Pegues during that period. Mack returned, discovered he couldn’t motivate many of his guys and then resigned in January. No wonder players on the team seemed to move in and out of the playing time doghouse.
Payne was not here for any of it. He was not the cause of any of the nonsense. But instead of asking his players to bury the past and move forward, Payne attempted to talk through the issues with every player as well as their parents.
“I wanted them to talk to their parents about what they felt,” Payne said. “What they liked and what they didn’t like.
“Then I followed that up with, ‘Tell me as a mother or father. What do you want for your kid? Did you know that he was feeling this way?
“For the most part, they said somewhat but not to that extent.
“Then, OK, I need you guys to continue to have conversations about what he’s experienced since he’s been in college, both good and bad.
“And then how do we heal? Because I’m asking you to do something that’s going to be pretty hard to do.
“To train every day. To love your teammates. To play together on both ends of the court. To have these big dreams but know that these dreams can only happen if we win, which is another skill.
“So you know just putting that together and getting them to feel comfortable with trusting me. That was first for me.”
Payne also made that first for his players. Together, that is the path the program will take moving forward.
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