LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Kenny Payne's two-year run as University of Louisville men's basketball coach has come to an end.

Louisville athletic director Josh Heird gave the 57-year-old coach the news Wednesday morning after the Cardinals' 94-85 loss to North Carolina State in the team's ACC Tournament opener in Washington on Tuesday afternoon. The university announced Payne's departure in a news release shortly after the team returned to Louisville.

"Kenny has given a great deal to this university over a span of nearly 40 years, and he will always be a valued member of our Louisville family," Louisville athletic director Josh Heird said in a news release Wednesday. "When we brought Kenny home in 2022, no one had a stronger belief than me in his potential success, but it's become clear that a change is needed to help this program achieve what is expected and attainable. While it is always difficult to make a coaching transition, this is the right one for our program. On behalf of myself and everyone involved with our men's basketball program, I want to thank Kenny for his dedication to UofL. I wish him and his family the very best in their future."

The move comes after a regular-season that saw Louisville win only eight games, and only three in ACC play. The Cardinals finished the season on an eight-game losing streak. 

For Payne, it was a second season that failed to meet even modest expectations for improvement, culminating in an 8-22 finish. The season featured the program's first loss at home to an opponent with a losing record since 1963, then, later in the season, the program's most lopsided home loss to a team with a losing record since 1944.

Payne posted a record of 12-52 over two seasons. A national search will commence for his successor. Among those expected to be the most hotly pursued by Louisville are Baylor coach Scott Drew, Florida Atlantic's Dusty May and UCLA coach and former Louisville assistant Mick Cronin, and perhaps Indiana State's Josh Schertz, among others.

Josh Heird

Louisville athletics director Josh Heird speaks at a news conference to announce the firing of men’s basketball coach Kenny Payne on March 13, 2024. (WDRB Photo)

The announcement of Payne's dismissal comes 726 days after an emotional acceptance of his first head coaching position and his return to his alma mater. A day earlier, he was greeted on the tarmac of the airport at Bowman Field by Louisville Hall of Fame coach Denny Crum and other university dignitaries. Crum's embrace of him at the airport was an iconic image.

His acceptance speech on March 18, 2022, was attended by dozens of former U of L men's basketball players who felt their place in the program had been restored, in some ways. As the university's first Black head basketball coach, Payne also represented a role model to an important community in the city and at the university.

Crum, former players like Darrell Griffith, Jerry Eaves and others, and university administrators hailed his hiring as a new chapter for the university and its storied basketball program.

But once the games began, cracks began to show.

The recruiting wins that most expected with Payne as coach — given his success as an assistant at the University of Kentucky — did not materialize. D.J. Wagner, a prized recruit and the grandson of former Cardinal great (and U of L basketball staffer) Milt Wagner chose instead to go to Kentucky, as did his AAU teammate Aaron Bradshaw, as well as several top recruits from an AAU program headed up by former Cardinal great Pervis Ellison.

Too often in Payne's tenure, the Cardinals were outmanned. And even when they weren't, in many games, they were outplayed.

Payne struggled to connect in his first season with many on the roster who were recruited by his predecessor, Chris Mack. Still, after his first season, Payne promised that through recruiting better days were ahead.

Payne added a recruiting class that was ranked No. 6 in the nation by 247Sports, and some improvement was expected in the 2023-2024 season. But Payne suffered a blow before a game was ever played when the highest-ranked member of the class — guard Trentyn Flowers — left before the season started to play professionally in Australia. It was an unprecedented move that drew national attention after Flowers had already accepted NIL money to play for Louisville.

Still, the remainder of the class was solid. Point guard Ty-Laur Johnson, who joined late after de-committing from Memphis, was the best of the group, along with Kaleb Glenn and Curtis Williams. Another five-star signing, seven-footer Dennis Evans, was ruled out medically in December.

After opening his second season with an exhibition win over Simmons College, Payne saw his Cardinals lose an exhibition game to NCAA Division II Kentucky Wesleyan.

The team showed some promise in the Empire Classic in New York, losing to a nationally ranked Texas team at the buzzer and having Indiana on the ropes before being slowed by a surprise 2-3 zone defense by the Hoosiers.

After that game, Payne joked that Indiana coach Mike Woodson "tricked me" because he had never used a zone defense at Indiana. But when your career record is 6-31, as Payne's was after that loss, such quips become a target for derision.

IMAGES | From first day to last: Kenny Payne's Louisville tenure in photos

And that one was. After a pair of wins at home against New Mexico State (in overtime) and an undermanned Bellarmine team that had just lost its best player, things escalated quickly.

The Cardinals lost on the road to a 1-7 DePaul team, then fell behind by 20 at home before losing by double digits to an Arkansas State team that was 3-7 coming into the game.

As the losses mounted, attendance suffered, and fan frustration grew. A crisis point came in December after a home loss to Kentucky.

But after discussions with Payne, some players and others, Heird decided to retain the head coach. The team did show improvement, but injuries hampered their efforts. J.J. Traynor, a top forward out of Bardstown, was lost for the season with a shoulder injury. Tre White and Skyy Clark, transfer starters, also missed time with injuries.

In addition to losses on the court, there were communication gaffes off the court.

There was the case of junior college transfer Koron Davis, who never saw the court for the Cardinals and was not on the bench for games. When asked about his absence, Payne would only say that he was "not in trouble," and that his absence was his decision. Before the Arkansas State game, the program released a statement that Davis had expressed his intention to transfer. Davis then disputed that via a social media post, prompting the school to have to issue a second release, saying Davis had been dismissed from the team. Even after the second statement, Payne declined to talk about the situation in any detail.

He did, however, acknowledge publicly that Johnson said he wasn't sure he wanted to play before the game against Bellarmine because he didn't have the right compression tights. (The freshman had strained his groin the day before, and regularly was stretched out by trainers on a training table just before games and, at home games, in the tunnel just before going out for the second half of games.)

When asked after his first season, which ended with a 4-28 record, if he would evaluate his staff, Payne said he didn't understand the question, and defended his staff as "the best of the best." The comments didn't sit well with many fans. And in fact, behind the scenes, sources close to the program say that Payne was asked to consider staff changes both before and during the current season, but refused to do so.

Louisville basketball now faces a more difficult challenge, in some ways, than it had two years ago when it hired Payne and just less than six years ago when it hired Mack.

Moreover, the program has become the butt of jokes in national commentary. And its parting with Payne risks a deeper rift with key constituencies, who had lobbied for Payne and hoped for the best, though many in those had to admit by the end of Payne's tenure that the time had come for some kind of action.

Asked, after the Arkansas State loss, if he was concerned about his future at the school, Payne said, "No, I'm not. I live my life by faith." He again said he was unconcerned about his future after a home loss to Notre Dame in mid-February.

In the end, the university's leadership had to live not by faith, but by sight. And what they saw was dwindling attendance, a city's downtown business health affected by their basketball program's downturn, and little hope or plan for a significant improvement under the current basketball staff until late in his second season, when a pair of five-star high school recruits showed interest, but only if they were assured Payne would remain as coach.

The loss of basketball revenues has left the department in a weaker position financially, and the $8 million buyout of Payne will leave it weaker still. But the cost of inaction may have been even higher. More time, it turns out, was the one thing the university could not afford to give Payne.

What began as a hoped-for revival for the Louisville basketball program under one of its own ends as another painful chapter for Louisville's embattled flagship athletic team. Instead of taking off under Payne, the program has crashed again. And the resulting wreckage of this one is likely to leave some scars.

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