Report: Kenny Payne to Remain as Louisville's Head Coach Heading Into New Year

The Cardinals are 5-7 this season and 9-35 overall under Payne following their loss to Kentucky on Thursday.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - For fans of the Louisville men's basketball program wanting to see head coach Kenny Payne be shown the door, they won't be getting their Christmas wish. At least, not right now.

Athletic director Josh Heird told WDRB's Eric Crawford that, despite the Cardinals' recent struggles both on and off the court, Payne will remain the head coach heading into the next calendar year.

“Kenny, and I have had a number of conversations throughout the last week, and Kenny is going to serve as our head coach as we move into the new year,” Heird told Crawford. “And I'm going to do what I do with every one of our programs, which is evaluate what's happening throughout the season.”

Louisville is currently 5-7 in their second season under Payne after suffering a 95-76 loss to Kentucky on Thursday, and 9-35 overall after the Cardinals went 4-28 in his first year at the helm. While rumors and chatter regarding Payne's firing have been swirling for months, they escalated last Wednesday after the program was thoroughly embarrassed both on and off the court.

On Dec. 14, college basketball insider Jeff Goodman reported that athletic director Josh Heird "met with multiple Louisville players today to get their thoughts on Kenny Payne and entire situation with the program before making decision," and that Heird was leaning towards making a decision "fairly soon."

The next day, CBS Sports' Matt Norlander reported that Louisville was expected to move on from Payne "sooner rather than later" and that UofL "will not drag this out over the course of the entire season," but it would be unlikely before their game against Pepperdine.

Payne did indeed coach the game against the Waves, leading them to a 85-63 blowout win this past Sunday. With a 13-day span between the Cardinals game against Kentucky and their next game at Virginia, speculation arose that a move could be made during this time. 

While Payne will remain the head coach at Louisville for the foreseeable future, Heird did admit that the situation that the basketball program has been “extremely, extremely frustrating," and that the only way Payne will be able to cool down the hot seat that he is on will be to start winning more games.

“When it comes to trying to create some positive momentum every action, every word matters,” Heird told Crawford. “I always go back and say that in any public job -- I don't think it's necessarily sports, it could be politics -- everything you do is judged. There is no, ‘Eh, that was OK.’ And if you haven't made some deposits in the bank, people aren't going to give you the benefit of the doubt. You know, there might be something that was said that was -- I don't want to call it irrelevant, but just there wasn't there wasn't much there -- but if you haven't created that positive momentum and made some deposits with wins, people are going to say that's a negative. Results matter. They absolutely do. So, to answer your question of is there a way to turn the temperature down outside of winning basketball games? I think that's going to be hard to do to be honest with you.”

According to Crawford, while Payne's job status won't be something that has to be addressed after every single game, Heird also "went out of his way to say that evaluation will be 'constant.'"

“I feel confident that that Kenny knows where I am, relative to the evaluation of the program,” Heird told Crawford. “And that, I think, is one of the things that iss hard for anyone to understand. We can't all be involved in every conversation. But I think I've done a good job of being extremely honest with our head coaches. And that sure isn't going to change, as long as I'm in this position. So, Kenny and I continue to have dialogue, and he understands where he is relative to the head coaching position here.”

Louisville's next game, a road matchup at Virginia that will kick off ACC play, will tip-off on Wednesday, Jan. 3 at 7:00 p.m. EST.

(Photo of Kenny Payne: Jamie Rhodes - USA TODAY Sports)

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