CRAWFORD | Heird says Louisville hoops 'isn't into moral victories,' must get better | Sports

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – The University of Louisville basketball team is playing better, athletics director Josh Heird acknowledges that. But at some point, you have to win.

Heird, speaking publicly for the first time since telling WDRB that Kenny Payne would continue as the program’s coach into the new year, hasn’t changed his stance on keeping Payne in place and supporting him as the season moves forward.

But on Friday, after a U of L Athletics Association board meeting that discussed, among other things, an expected $2 million shortfall in men’s basketball ticket sales, Heird also acknowledged that everyone associated with the program expects more.

He said he’s in frequent communication with Payne.

"I'm just continuing to try to communicate and say, 'Hey, what can we all do individually or collectively to get this program where we all expect it to be?'" Heird said. "I'm well aware that this program, this fan base, isn't into moral victories. And so, after every game, I feel like every day, it's consuming, what I'm doing right now. And I know it's consuming Kenny and his staff, as far as how do we get better? How does this basketball program get back to where we all expect it to be? And that expectation is a high bar, but nobody's going to run from that. And we're going to do everything we can to get this program back where we all want and expect it to be."

The shortfall in basketball ticket revenue, while bad news, is made up for by football ticket sales that exceeded even optimistic expectations for the first season under new coach Jeff Brohm. A budget update provided to the board yesterday showed that department-wide, ticket revenue has reached 99% of the budgeted amount.

Seat licenses are down ($1.2 million), and gifts are down slightly, as are suite sales. On the expense side, inflation has meant more travel expenses -- $1.8 million over budget -– and other challenges.

"I think the department is healthy," Heird said. "You know, obviously, from a budgeting standpoint, we were pretty aggressive on the football side of things. We thought we would see an uptick in sales there, and we did. On the basketball side, we knew that this was going to be another rebuilding year, so we were pretty conservative on our budgeting there, but we're not going to meet the expectations that we had there. Obviously, as I say, a budget is a guess. So we try to guess the best we can. But we've got some opportunity in both of those sports to increase revenue in years to come. So, that's what we're going try to do."

As for basketball, Heird continues to stay the course, even after DePaul, a team that beat Louisville, made an in-season move to fire coach Tony Stubblefield.

Asked if he’s concerned that players might feel additional pressure given all the speculation over Payne’s future that is in the air, Heird said he hoped they don’t.

"I think we as administrators, as coaches, as fans, we tend to overestimate how much they think about things," Heird said. "And I'm not trying to minimize everything around them. But they're college students. At the end of the day, they're students, they go to class, they play basketball, they have a personal life, all those things. So as much as we possibly can, we try to make sure that none of this gets put on their plate. And for the most part, it's not on their plate. I mean, they're here to play basketball for the University of Louisville. They're trying to do everything that they can for this program to be successful. Is it there? Absolutely. It's there. But do they feel this weight of, 'Hey, if I don't win this game or that game?' I don't think they feel that any more than they would any other any other season, quite honestly."

Louisville men’s basketball returns to action at noon Saturday against Virginia.