Duke Basketball Alum May Become Louisville's Interim Head Coach

Duke basketball national champ Nolan Smith could be in line for a difficult job.

Photo credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

When Duke basketball plays at Louisville on Jan. 23, there's a chance that second-year Blue Devil head coach Jon Scheyer's former teammate in Durham, Nolan Smith, will be the Cardinals' interim leader.

Kenny Payne, in his second year running the show but still shy of double-digit career wins (8-24 overall), remains Louisville's head coach. However, insiders have suggested his time at the helm is about to end in light of the Cardinals (4-6, 0-1 ACC) suffering their latest embarrassment: Wednesday night's 75-63 home loss to Arkansas State.

Louisville next hosts Pepperdine at 2 p.m. ET Sunday.

And on Friday afternoon, incognito national college basketball insider "Trilly Donovan" reported that Smith, now 35 years old, might be a willing candidate to temporarily assume the reins:

"Multiple sources told me Danny Manning has turned down the opportunity [to be interim head coach] and Nolan Smith is still considering it. External hires are also in play, with former Louisville assistant Mark Lieberman being the most talked about of those candidates."

As a Duke basketball junior guard in 2009-10, Nolan Smith emerged into a star alongside then-senior guard Jon Scheyer and junior forward Kyle Singler, leading the Blue Devils to the fourth of the program's now-five national championships.

After getting drafted No. 21 overall at the 2011 NBA Draft, Smith spent a couple of seasons as a backcourt reserve for the Portland Trail Blazers before wrapping up his playing career overseas and in what was then the NBA D-League in 2014-15.

He joined Mike Krzyzewski's Blue Devil staff as a special assistant in February 2016. Two years later, he became the program's director of basketball operations and player development. And in 2021, Coach K promoted him to a full-fledged assistant next to Scheyer.

But following Krzyzewski's retirement in 2022, Smith agreed to an assistant role under Payne at Louisville — where his father, Derek Smith, won a national title as a player in 1980 — rather than remain on the Duke basketball bench under Scheyer's command.

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