Louisville hosts Kentucky on Thursday, could it be coach Kenny Payne's final game?

With a long gap in games after Louisville hosts Kentucky, could that be the end of Kenny Payne's tenure?

John Calipari and the Kentucky Wildcats will head to the KFC Yum! center to take on the Louisville Cardinals on Thursday, December 21 in another matchup of this historic in-state rivalry.

However, the last two seasons have been nothing short of a complete disaster for the Cardinals, and it sounds like Thursday's game against Kentucky could be the final game of coach Kenny Payne's short lived tenure at Louisville.

Matt Norlander of CBS, after speaking to sources, indicated Payne is unlikely to be fired before the team's game on Sunday against Pepperdine, but that it is expected to happen before the end of the season. With a long gap between December 21 and Louisville's next game, January 3 at Virginia, Payne's dismissal could be coming soon.

Payne is a Louisville alumni who helped lead the team to the 1986 National Championship, but he was hired without any previous head coaching experience and it has showed. After going 4-28 in his first season at the helm in 2022-23, Payne has now suffered losses to DePaul and Arkansas State in the past week and is now drawing criticism for how the program handled the dismissal of guard Koron Davis.

Former Kansas star Danny Manning and former Duke star Nolan Smith are both on staff and could be brought in on an interim basis while the school prepares for a nationwide search in the offseason.

Kentucky leads the all-time series 37-17, and while you never want to assume a result especially on the road, this Louisville team hasn't looked capable of beating most Division 1 programs in the past two seasons.

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