By DYLAN LUTEY
Kenny Payne’s tenure as the head coach of the Louisville men’s basketball team hasn’t gone nearly as well as the last time he stepped foot on a college campus. For 10 years he worked as an associate head coach for Kentucky working closely with head coach John Calipari where he became nationally recognized for his recruiting and ability to develop NBA level players.
After two years with the Knicks, he took over the job with the Cardinals, but hasn’t been able to carry over his success as an assistant to a head coach. In his first season the team went 4-28 finishing with the most losses in program history. This year the Cardinals find themselves sitting at 5-7, coming off a 95-76 loss to Kentucky.
Despite all of this, Calipari came to his former colleague’s defense. With all the noise surrounding Payne about him being fired, Calipari urged people to be patient with him.
“My guess is he’ll have this program within a year where everybody wants it,” Calipari told reporters after the game. “It’s just the growing pains are miserable. We went through it. Went through it. And all of a sudden, if you don’t shoot 30 threes, what’s going on? The game’s past you by.
“I feel for him. He’s gonna be fine. And I’ll tell you that when they love you that much, and how they’re responding to them, it’s just a matter of time and again, I watched the games. I know they lost a couple of bad ones. We did too. We did too. Like I said, I’ve watched the tape, these guys are doing good stuff. I would just say stay with him and let him do what he does. Players love them. Kenny’s like my brother.”
He also believes Payne’s team hasn’t played as badly as people might think and they have shown a lot of positive signs.
“They lost to Texas by a point,” Calipari said. I watched all these games now. Easily could have won. They had Virginia Tech on the road; they had a chance to win in the last minute and a half. Indiana, like, could have easily won the game. You lose a couple of games. ‘Oh, we should have won those.’ Well, we lost one we should have won too. That’s all part of this.
“He’s got a really young team and you got to let him go do what he does. The players love him because they play for him. They never let go of the rope. And I’m watching and I feel for him, and you know, but, shoot, we went through it a couple years ago. The people get mean and nasty. They do, and that’s what you have to deal with in this profession. Anytime I text him, coach your team, that’s what I send him. Just coach your team. All the other stuff doesn’t matter.”
Louisville’s next game comes on the road against No. 22 Virginia on Jan. 3.
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