LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Now that Kenny Payne's two-year tenure has drawn to a close, a look back at some of the numbers that illustrate his brief stay at the helm:
1: Victory away from the KFC Yum! Center for Louisville under Payne, against 28 losses.
2: Exhibition losses to NCAA Division II opponents by Payne's teams. The school had not lost an exhibition game to a college team prior to those.
5: Conference wins in two seasons under Payne (against 35 losses), the most futile two-year conference run in the history of Louisville basketball. (The previous low for a two-year run against full conference schedules was an 11-16 stretch in the Metro Conference in 1991 and '92. A top scorer on those teams, Everick Sullivan, was the Lenoir-Rhyne coach who beat Kenny Payne in his first exhibition game).
12: Wins for Louisville in two years under Payne, the lowest two-year total since before World War II (nine combined wins in the 1941 and '42 seasons with depleted rosters).
13: First-half points scored by the Cardinals on two occasions under Payne, in a 70-38 loss to Texas Tech on Nov. 22, 2022, and in a 69-52 loss to Virginia on Jan. 27, 2024.
14: Losses by 20 points or more in Payne's two seasons.
18: Three-pointers made by Wake Forest against Louisville in a 90-65 win on Jan. 20, 2024, matching a record number of threes made against the Cardinals by West Virginia in the 2005 Elite Eight, a 93-85 overtime win by Louisville.
22: Margin of defeat against Notre Dame on Feb. 22, 2024, in the KFC Yum! Center, the largest margin of defeat at home to a team with a losing record since a 62-37 loss to Berea on Dec. 20, 1943, in Male High School's gym.
24: Home losses under Payne. The Cardinals won 11 home games in his tenure.
28: Points Louisville trailed Virginia (41-13) at halftime in the KFC Yum! Center on Jan. 27, 2024, the program's largest halftime deficit since trailing Bradley 44-12 at the half on Dec. 10, 1938. It was the third-largest halftime deficit in program history.
28: Losses in Payne's first season as Louisville coach, the most in a season in school history, breaking the previous high of 20 losses in 1997-98.
34: Double-digit losses the past two seasons.
36: Seasons Louisville went without losing a game when it scored 90 points, until a 94-92 loss at Syracuse on Feb. 7, 2024. Louisville went 49-0 in such games prior to that.
47.3: Field-goal percentage for Louisville's opponents in Payne's second season, the highest allowed in program history in seasons for which records are available. The Cardinals have allowed opponents to shoot better than 47 percent only twice. The first time was in Payne's first season.
52: Losses for Louisville in Payne's two-year tenure, by far the most on-court losses in any two-year period in Louisville basketball history. The previous high for the program was 33 losses in the 1939 (1-15) and 1940 (1-18) seasons.
63.9: Points per game for the Cardinals in Payne's first season, the program's lowest scoring average since 1947-48 (63.1).
79.1: Points per game allowed by Louisville in Payne's second season, the highest scoring average ever allowed by a Louisville team (previous high, 78 points per game in 1973-74. Only six teams in Louisville history allowed more than 75 points per game, two of them coming the past two seasons.
275: Three-pointers made by Louisville opponents in Payne's second season. Only 10 teams in NCAA Division I gave up more.
727: Number of days Kenny Payne spent as Louisville coach, the shortest tenure of any permanent (basketball-only) Louisville coach since before World War II.
3,274: Days since Louisville's last on-court victory in the NCAA Tournament, a 75-65 win over N.C. State in the Sweet Sixteen (later vacated by NCAA sanctions).
6,178: Per-game attendance the KFC Yum! Center for men's basketball in the 2023-24 season, according to a report from Brooks Holton of The Courier-Journal. Announced average attendance for those games (reflecting actual ticket sales) was 11,504.
$1.225 million: Projected amount Payne will have made per victory if Louisville pays his full buyout.
$2 million: Projected ticket revenue shortfall in the 2023-24 men's basketball season, in an already conservatively projected budget.
$8 million: Amount of the buyout U of L must pay to terminate Kenny Payne's contract.
Louisville Basketball Coverage:
- Kenny Payne fired at Louisville after just 12 wins in 2 tumultuous seasons
- BOZICH | It did not work, but Kenny Payne earned his chance at Louisville
- WHO'S NEXT? Louisville basketball coaching search Big Board, 1.0
- CRAWFORD | What went wrong? For Payne at Louisville, many factors led to failure
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