Kentucky beat Louisville 95-76 on Thursday to remain No. 11 in Friday morning's updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings. The 19-point beatdown dropped Cardinals coach Kenny Payne to 0-2 against John Calipari, his close friend and in-state rival, with the losses coming by an average of 21.0 points.
Will Payne get a third shot at UK next season?
That seems doubtful.
But it was interesting to hear Louisville athletic director Josh Heird announce Friday morning that Payne will continue as the Cardinals' coach as they "move into the new year." That suggests Payne will at least be on the sideline when Louisville visits Virginia in 12 days.
Respectfully, I think it's a mistake.
But what would be the point of removing Payne now?
I've heard some ask that question in recent days, which feels like a silly question, if only because the answer seems obvious. The point of moving on from Payne now would be so that people like me would stop writing and talking about it, so that fans would stop wondering about it, so that the focus could be on the future instead of the dreadful present. Every single time Louisville loses, Kenny Payne is trending on X, formerly known as Twitter. Every. Single. Time.
We led Friday morning's episode of the Eye On College Basketball podcast with Kentucky-Louisville, and the cover of the YouTube page was a big picture of Payne. Neither of those things would've happened if Louisville were operating with an interim coach because nothing that happens with an interim coach is ever worthy of national headlines unless it's something surprisingly good.
Louisville would be wise to recognize as much.
Every day Payne remains at Louisville is a day somebody will be compelled to point out that he's 9-35 as his alma mater's coach -- 8-14 against sub-100 teams at KenPom.com, just 1-21 against top-100 teams at KenPom.com.
It's unbelievably bad.
The idea that a top-10 program of all-time could sink to this level -- Louisville finished 290th at KenPom last season and is 185th right now -- was truly unimaginable before Payne sank it to this level. And the best way to get people all over the country to stop focusing on that would be for Louisville to agree to pay Payne every penny it owes him, generously remove him from this tour of humiliation, name an interim coach and let all of the attention turn away from this disastrous two-season experiment and instead toward what has to happen next for this once-proud program to return to its usual elite place in the sport.
For now, Louisville remains hesitant to do that.
Respectfully, I think it's a mistake.
www.cbssports.com
Will Payne get a third shot at UK next season?
That seems doubtful.
But it was interesting to hear Louisville athletic director Josh Heird announce Friday morning that Payne will continue as the Cardinals' coach as they "move into the new year." That suggests Payne will at least be on the sideline when Louisville visits Virginia in 12 days.
Respectfully, I think it's a mistake.
But what would be the point of removing Payne now?
I've heard some ask that question in recent days, which feels like a silly question, if only because the answer seems obvious. The point of moving on from Payne now would be so that people like me would stop writing and talking about it, so that fans would stop wondering about it, so that the focus could be on the future instead of the dreadful present. Every single time Louisville loses, Kenny Payne is trending on X, formerly known as Twitter. Every. Single. Time.
We led Friday morning's episode of the Eye On College Basketball podcast with Kentucky-Louisville, and the cover of the YouTube page was a big picture of Payne. Neither of those things would've happened if Louisville were operating with an interim coach because nothing that happens with an interim coach is ever worthy of national headlines unless it's something surprisingly good.
Louisville would be wise to recognize as much.
Every day Payne remains at Louisville is a day somebody will be compelled to point out that he's 9-35 as his alma mater's coach -- 8-14 against sub-100 teams at KenPom.com, just 1-21 against top-100 teams at KenPom.com.
It's unbelievably bad.
The idea that a top-10 program of all-time could sink to this level -- Louisville finished 290th at KenPom last season and is 185th right now -- was truly unimaginable before Payne sank it to this level. And the best way to get people all over the country to stop focusing on that would be for Louisville to agree to pay Payne every penny it owes him, generously remove him from this tour of humiliation, name an interim coach and let all of the attention turn away from this disastrous two-season experiment and instead toward what has to happen next for this once-proud program to return to its usual elite place in the sport.
For now, Louisville remains hesitant to do that.
Respectfully, I think it's a mistake.
College basketball rankings: Louisville appears hesitant to fire Kenny Payne, but it would be the right move
Kentucky, ranked No. 9 in the Top 25 And 1, won easily over the Cardinals, who are 5-7 this season under Payne
www.cbssports.com
