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FIRE KENNY PAYNE!

I agree with you that the AA community has made major contributions to the Louisville program. They have a right to feel that way because it is true. However continuing to support a coach who can’t win ballgames just because he is an AA diminishes their contributions.
 
What could happen before the season is over that would force Heird to fire KP? How bad would something have to be to disregard everything zipp refers to.

Is there something that just could not be tolerated any longer?

And could it be so bad, KP would resign himself?

That performance against DePaul was the worst regular season performance I've ever seen at UofL. They made the Blue Demons look like the Blue Devils.
 
I’ve lived in this area most of my life. Rightly or not, I think the AA community here feels it has a special relationship—and privilege—with the men’s basketball program.

It’s not grounded in money. It’s what they believe they fostered and committed to dating back decades. They feel they had a big hand in building the program without any form of compensation. You notice many of the more outspoken players have longtime roots in Louisville and this area.

Again, you and I don’t have to agree with that, and I’m not making excuses for anyone at U of L responsible for this mess. I’m just pointing out what you’re up against when you expect quick action that involves getting rid of Payne without consequences…
I agree with all of that. That said, what sort of consequences do you think would follow? The only thing that I could think of would deal with NIL / 502 collective. Does anyone know if any of those wealthy supporters of hiring Payne give any / enough money to take into consideration?
 
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What could happen before the season is over that would force Heird to fire KP? How bad would something have to be to disregard everything zipp refers to.

Is there something that just could not be tolerated any longer?

And could it be so bad, KP would resign himself?

That performance against DePaul was the worst regular season performance I've ever seen at UofL. They made the Blue Demons look like the Blue Devils.
What was worse were the after game comments. I mean throwing the kids under the bus? Threatening to replace them with new players next year? If his stated goal of building a culture is not just blowing smoke then that's the wrong way of going about it. And as an institution of higher learning, the players are supposedly students first above all else. Can't build any type of culture by starting over every year and sure won't have any success retaining players if his ability to coach doesn't markedly improve. And I haven't seen any bottles with a genie in it lately. I fear we haven't seen even a little of how bad this is going to get.
 
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I’ve lived in this area most of my life. Rightly or not, I think the AA community here feels it has a special relationship—and privilege—with the men’s basketball program.

It’s not grounded in money. It’s what they believe they fostered and committed to dating back decades. They feel they had a big hand in building the program without any form of compensation. You notice many of the more outspoken players have longtime roots in Louisville and this area.

Again, you and I don’t have to agree with that, and I’m not making excuses for anyone at U of L responsible for this mess. I’m just pointing out what you’re up against when you expect quick action that involves getting rid of Payne without consequences…
If Heird is worried about hurting a group of people’s feelings, he can **** all the way off. This is business. Big business. The only thing I see holding JH back is Junior. He’s the money guy, and, obviously, a leader in the AA community, and a power broker bball alum who financed KP's contract.
 
What are they going to do if he's fired, stop going to games? I know we are going to have to let this play out but Heird cannot allow alumni or a segment of the fan base to blackmail him. Might as well drop mens basketball as it will be throwing good money after bad to keep this shit show going another year. To borrow from Zip, they should rent out the Yum to a clown show.
 
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I'm for letting him finish the season for several reasons : 1) we can save several million $ in coaches buyouts
2) our performance would not improve under his replacement (or replacements) 3) his backers would not
be able to play the "he would have started turning it around " game.
 
If Heird is worried about hurting a group of people’s feelings, he can **** all the way off. This is business. Big business. The only thing I see holding JH back is Junior. He’s the money guy, and, obviously, a leader in the AA community, and a power broker bball alum who financed KP's contract.
As much as I think Heird is mostly an empty suit, he should be worried about the politics. We can sit here all day long and debate in a vacuum, but he has to live in the real world—a world that’s rife with politics and racial issues.

If he’s not plugged into issues that we casually disregard, he’s not doing his job or not doing important parts of it…
 
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It is a factor and that is why it has to play out. It is KP’s program. Any interference on any level can be twisted into the administration not supporting KP. The success or failure is 100 percent KP’s. He built both rosters. He is doing media his way. He is hiring who he wants. If they finish with less than 10 wins there is no real reason why other then leadership.

Coaching today is brutal and KP is learning that really quickly. If the season ends the way we think KP may realize this isn’t for him. The main thing is he isn’t really connecting with his players. They sure don’t play the way a team plays for their coach. He sure doesn’t mind throwing them under the bus which I don’t mind except he never takes ownership of his issues. I don’t get a sense likes any part of job. Bottom line if you are miserable and losing why stick around. There are multiple ways this could end and this is one of them.
 
I have to wonder if the players ever resent KP or take offense to him constantly blaming them and throwing them under the bus for losing?
 
I don't have a problem with a head coach calling out his players ineffectiveness. They are after all, the people that have to execute on the court.

What seems to be missing from Louisville's players is a determination to do anything for their coach. They appear to be going through the motions, especially against lesser opponents.

When facing Texas, a ranked team, they motivated themselves because of the competitive nature basketball brings to guys on a court. So despite the lack of good coaching, they played and executed far better than the other games.

This tells me if they had a coach like Pitino for example, who would challenge them both in a fun and demanding way, they would have that resolve in all the other games they play.

These players know how most fans want their coach fired and that hasn't appeared to motivate them to do whatever it takes to play better. Again, it looks like they're just going through the motions.

This is probably partly what KP is referring to in his public comments about his players. He cannot get to them so he's calling them out, hoping that will motivate them.

The problem is he's not an established, successful head coach. He has nothing to back up his means of motivating and improving his players, so it looks like he's blaming the players so to take the blame from him.

The players see this and I'm sure it doesn't go well with them. If any leave the team before the season is over, it will all come crashing down.

And for a huge section of the fanbase, that is what is needed to get rid of KP.
 
I thought the entire point pf recruiting his own players was that he would get high character guys that WOULD listen to his coaching.

And if they didn't he would and could bench them this year. Somehow neither of those things seems to be happening.
 
Waiting to fire KP saves us 2 million. It also opens up a pool of coaches that will have been recently fired for their tournament performance or lack thereof, any of which would be an improvement. We may not be able to afford the guys currently on our wish list. We can upgrade though with just about any hire.
 
Waiting to fire KP saves us 2 million. It also opens up a pool of coaches that will have been recently fired for their tournament performance or lack thereof, any of which would be an improvement. We may not be able to afford the guys currently on our wish list. We can upgrade though with just about any hire.
We don't just want an upgrade. The next hire for MBB maybe the single most critical hire at UofL in the past 50 years. We can't indure another train wreck..
 
I thought the entire point pf recruiting his own players was that he would get high character guys that WOULD listen to his coaching.

And if they didn't he would and could bench them this year. Somehow neither of those things seems to be happening.
They probably hear him, but that doesn't mean he is effective at communicating what he wants... Exhibit A is how he communicates (not well) with fans being the leader of this, once a flagship, program.

It's why you don't hire someone with NO experience at this level. He can make mistakes, hopefully fix them at a smaller school.....not sure he is doing much differently, certainly not enough, than last year. He'd get fired at EKU too.
 
They probably hear him, but that doesn't mean he is effective at communicating what he wants... Exhibit A is how he communicates (not well) with fans being the leader of this, once a flagship, program.

It's why you don't hire someone with NO experience at this level. He can make mistakes, hopefully fix them at a smaller school.....not sure he is doing much differently, certainly not enough, than last year. He'd get fired at EKU too.
And Payne doesn't seem to realize that if that is indeed the case. He alluded to bringing in new guys for next year that would listen. SMH
 
This is going to happen it is just when. I think it is going to be at the end of the year. We should know today.
 
I have lived in Louisville my entire life (74 years), at least until I moved to Shelby Co a few years ago. I can tell anyone listening (or reading) that Louisville and this University is the furthest thing from being racist.

I was proud to be a part of a Jefferson Co High School that was as integrated in the 1960s as any school in America, and I was a fan and supporter of UL, when those outside of Louisville referred to my Cards as “the black birds”.

Those in our community who use the race card are misguided and qualify as examples of defying everything MLK stood for. Instead of judging the content of character, they are the very ones who define racism, by applying skin color to everything and every situation.
 
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