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This is probably not what Payne signed up for...

I believe the writing was on the wall losing to chumps. But now it's crystal clear where this is. The dog has not fight in it, so need to get worked up for these guys really.

Just going to tune in when I can, and try to root 'em on like they are my sons.

But I do wonder what the future holds when the clock strikes midnight.

This is one bizarre situation right now.

I paid hard earned money for season tickets and got sold a bunch of bullshit. I’d like to be a passive observer to this train wreck but feel like I’ve gotten screwed.
 
I hated this hire right from the beginning and I knew we were forced into hiring him now we're getting what we deserve and I'm a huge fan going back to the 80s staying up late for delayed games watching every game. this year have not watched one of their games not going to go to any of the games until there's some improvement or change
Damn I forgot about those days, lol. Watching games at 1130!!
 
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He can quit right now and I would be fine with it.
Then cancel the entire season.
I would rather have no season then to put fans through this abomination.

Unforgiveable.
 
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I'll never boo my team. these are college kids and don't deserve it.

have to figure out how to turn this around. should use NIL to get better tlane and make an easier non conference schedule next year imo
An easier non conference schedule?? You’ve got to be kidding me
 
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Hard to imagine Payne lasting too long here.

What we're witnessing is just indescribable. Not going to try to describe it.

I am sure he envisioned picking up some guns in the portal and steering this another direction.

No way he expected this to go this badly. No way he expected the cold shoulder from the high end recruits.

This is just a disaster. And I can't imagine him wanting to keep this job at this rate.

Thoughts?

I love Kenny Payne and want him to succeed so badly. The early returns are not good.
 
Unprecedented time for UL basketball. Clearly there are issues that go beyond just insufficient roster or talent; this is an opportunity for KP and his staff to build some character.
 
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It's not exactly unprecedented in major college hoops. Not that long ago IU won just 5 or 6 games the first year after a scandal where most all the players left.

It's definitely not happened at Louisville but we all knew this was likely to happen once Chris Mack left and the program was in limbo awaiting the results of the investigation. It wasn't going to be a good year regardless of how many games we actually won.

So we have to endure and hopefully improve enough so that the entire program doesn't collapse. It's really KP's second season that he should truly be judged. If he cannot recruit enough good players or he does yet the team struggles anyway, his tenure then may be over after just two seasons.

But this season is what it is. It's times like these when you know who you want to be in the foxhole with.
 
By the end of this season or sooner there will be no fans in the Yum. We are losing to bad teams and getting blown out by good teams and yet KP supporters find a way to put a positive spin on it. I would love to see things turn around and KP be our coach until his retirement. I just don’t see that happening this is truly a train wreck.
 
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Unprecedented time for UL basketball. Clearly there are issues that go beyond just insufficient roster or talent
I 💯agree with the issues beyond the roster and talent. Anyone can watch them play and can see that there’s no offensive defensive plan, no coaching adjustments, no ball discipline with the ball or working for it, aside from 3-4 players there’s no additional hustle, and there has been little to no player progression actual regression in several players. Not to mention the lack of recruiting gains. These are all HC and coaching staff duties that have been failures
 
Payne isn’t walking away from a long term contract that has barely started paying him. Maybe Junior and some in the AA community can come up with a graceful exit for Payne that includes some serious walking-away money. Otherwise, he’s here for awhile.

And I hear nothing in his statements indicating he’s discouraged and in over his head. To the contrary, he talks ambiguously about big picture, long term plans and goals. He’s nowhere close, at least publicly, to the mindset some in this thread are trying to superimpose on him.

It’s a disaster so far, but that doesn’t mean it’s about to change. At least not with the people we now have running the show…
 
The only hope is basketball can be rebuilt quickly. This year was a 10-12 win kind of year even if he they all bought in. They haven’t and it be a 5-7 win team.

2023 the roster has to be improved. If he can’t do that then be won’t make it out of 2023. The only thing that could save him is 2024 being loaded with elite kids.

Probably the most alarming thing to happen is all his “relationships” have abandoned him.
 
The only hope is basketball can be rebuilt quickly. This year was a 10-12 win kind of year even if he they all bought in. They haven’t and it be a 5-7 win team.

2023 the roster has to be improved. If he can’t do that then be won’t make it out of 2023. The only thing that could save him is 2024 being loaded with elite kids.

Probably the most alarming thing to happen is all his “relationships” have abandoned him.
His relationships were all based on Nike money.
 
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Payne isn’t walking away from a long term contract that has barely started paying him. Maybe Junior and some in the AA community can come up with a graceful exit for Payne that includes some serious walking-away money. Otherwise, he’s here for awhile.

And I hear nothing in his statements indicating he’s discouraged and in over his head. To the contrary, he talks ambiguously about big picture, long term plans and goals. He’s nowhere close, at least publicly, to the mindset some in this thread are trying to superimpose on him.

It’s a disaster so far, but that doesn’t mean it’s about to change. At least not with the people we now have running the show…
Agree
 
I keep going back to last year a big part of this team was part of a team their coach quit on. Mack said it multiple times he couldn’t motivate them. At the time we blamed the coach well maybe it was the players.

Payne comes he has no idea who the problem is on the roster. It looks like he kept the wrong guys. They lost 70% of their scoring and replace it with really nothing. This year was going to be a mess.

The reason it is a disaster boils down to Payne/staff not understanding their roster and not knowing the transfer portal. Payne coming for Pro’s and Smith never had to build a roster from the portal. This proved to be a massive mistake.

At this point give the most minutes to Fabio, Lands, Hatfield, Ellis, James, and Ree, and Wheeler. Get them experience.
 
Everybody says Mack quit on the team it was the other way around. The players quit on Mack and he couldn’t get them back. There was a division between the players after the shake up with the coaches. I think the problem now is the coaches are in over their heads and they don’t know how to solve it.

Instead of KP trying to implement his system because obviously it is not working he should coach to the talent he has. I think the hole we are in might be so deep we can’t get out so we are screwed for a long time to come. I know longer have any faith in the decision making at Louisville as a matter of fact fire the whole BOT and start over with them.
 
Mack was a good coach a veteran coach. Really think about him not being able to motivate them. Now the same thing is happening. We have a veteran coach and a young coach neither can push the right buttons. I can’t say it enough he/staff completely misevaluated the players.

I like how hard Ellis plays but he couldn’t guard me. He can score on anyone but can’t stop anyone. What are the opponents PG averaging? Whatever Ellis gets on offense he gives right back on defense.

Withers-is a 5 skill wise. He is awful as a 4. We have 2 years of data at the 4. It is official he isn’t a 4. Can’t guard anyone either Scott schooled him last night.

Curry-can’t guard anyone and completely out of shape. Couldn’t even elevate last night to dunk it then blows the layup.

Three leaders none of them play defense.

The only way this year gets better is the players buy in and play team defense. I just don’t see it happening. I think the younger guys play with far more energy.
 
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I think we've seen enough the last five years to know how to apportion some of the blame. We may not have known it at the time, but we should be able to learn as we go.

I wasn't a huge proponent of the Mack hire, and I sure wasn't as far as Payne. But at least we knew Mack had been a reasonably successful head coach and should probably do no worse at U of L. We were wrong about that big time.

Satterfield was a hot coach in waiting at Appy State. He's one game over .500 in four years and--absent the money issue--probably saved his job the last couple months.

U of L supposedly had a good stable of coaches five years ago. More than half of them are gone, many under adverse conditions.

And Payne begins here an unmitigated disaster, with no reasonable expectations of improvement.

That's a lot of coincidences that are all supposedly coaching issues. I'm not a person to casually believe one, much less a half dozen or more. If you want to insert my conclusion here, it's cultural. This place is a toxic dump as far as coaching hires, and it's even affected coaches that carried over from the old regime. Only the best of the best--Walz, McDonnell, Busboom-Kelly, etc.--have survived the toxicity.

Memorable slip-of-the-tongues like "deemphasize athletics" and "University of Kentucky" are likely more than coincidental as well. It's time to do a better job figuring out cause and effect cleaning up the mess we have now...
 
What was the deal with Williams last year? Did he split the team? Unite it? Did he really punch the coach?
 
Ellis has probably been told to watch the fouls because he's the only real guard on the team. This has turned him into a observer on defense.
 
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