The Louisville Cardinals basketball team has had many highs and lows in the past few years. With the new hiring of former New York Knicks and University of Kentucky assistant coach Kenny Payne, can they ride the high horse to March Madness? Louisville used to be a dominant program, winning an NCAA championship in 2013 with head coach Rick Pitino and they even produced NBA stars like Donovan Mitchell and Terry Rozier. Now they have been on a fall off recently finishing last season with only 4 wins and 28 losses. So what exactly happened to the Louisville Cardinals basketball program?
Starting with hiring legendary coach Rick Pitino in 2001 who was head coach of the Boston Celtics and the University of Kentucky Wildcats. Pitino guided the Cardinals to 12 NCAA tournaments in 15 seasons. He led them to the Elite 8 six times and the Final Four three times in 2005, 2012, and 2013. In 2013 the Cardinals won their 3 national championship in school history Pitino was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame shortly after. Things seemed to be going smoothly for the Cards, until 2013 when the NCAA started investigating them. On June 15, 2017, the NCAA charged Rick Pitino for failure to monitor his basketball program, and was suspended for 5 games. Then, on September 26, 2017, federal prosecutors in New York announced that the school was under investigation for an alleged “pay for play” scheme involving recruits at Louisville. The allegations state that an Adidas executive conspired to pay $100,000 to the family of a top-ranked national recruit to play at Louisville and to represent Adidas when he turned pro. On September 27, 2017, Pitino and athletic director Tom Jurich were placed on administrative leave. In late October of 2017, the university announced the firing of Rick Pitino. On February 20, 2018, the NCAA ruled that Louisville must vacate its records from 2011 to 2015. This included 123 wins, the 2013 NCAA title, and a 2012 Final Four appearance. And just like that the Pitino era in Louisville was over and all their wins including their National Championship meant nothing.
The next hire for the Cardinals head coaching position was Xavier University head coach Chris Mack. Mack had a notable start at Louisville, recruiting a top-5 2019 class that included a 5-star player, four 4-star players, and a three-star player. The Cards were picked to finish 11th in the 2018 preseason ACC poll and Mack led the Cardinals to a 20–14 season peaking at #15 in the AP polls and finishing in seventh place in the ACC standings with significant wins over top-ranked teams. Mack made one NCAA tournament appearance in his time coaching at Louisville. On January 26, 2022, Louisville and Chris Mack mutually agreed to part ways. Next came a hiring some fans never even thought of.
Before the 2022-23 season, Louisville was searching for a new coach. Nobody fit that opportunity other than former Louisville basketball player, New York Knicks assistant coach, and University of Kentucky assistant coach Kenny Payne. Fans were confused about the hiring as Payne was a former assistant at Kentucky because the two schools are major rivals. Cardinals fans thought this was the opportunity needed to return to high finishes in the NCAA tournament. But that would quickly change when October 30th of the 2022 season rolled around. Louisville would match up against Division 2 school Lenoir-Rhyne who many fans thought Louisville would win by a large margin. This would quickly change as it was a close game throughout. With Lenoir-Rhyne taking the win 57-47 that let Cardinals fans second-guess their previous beliefs about Payne and the team. The Cards would come back the next game and get a win in their second exhibition game against Chaminade. Next up was their first regular season game, against in-town rival, the Bellarmine Knights. The game was back and forth all night with Bellarmine winning in a scrappy one 67-66. Louisville was favored to win the game but Bellarmine pulled off the upset. In Kenny Payne’s first regular season game, the Cards lost, starting them off with a record of 0-1. Next on the Card’s schedule was Wright State, which they lost to 73-72. Then they played Appalachian State and lost 61-60. In Kenny Payne’s first three games as the head coach of Louisville, he had started off 0-3 and lost by 1 point in each one. The Cardinals would then travel to Maui, Hawaii to play #9 Arkansas, #20 Texas Tech, and Cincinnati. Nobody was expecting a win as the teams were some of the best in the country. They would leave Maui after playing those games, losing all 3 by large margins. They would now be 0-6, with some fans losing hope Payne knew he had to turn things around. They would play #22 Maryland, Miami, and Florida State losing all three. The Cardinals were now 0-9, one of the worst starts in school history. Next up on the schedule was Western Kentucky and Florida A&M. The Cards would get their first wins of the season beating Western Kentucky 94-83 and Florida A&M 61-55. They were now 2-9 on the season and fans thought things might start turning up. They would go on to lose 10 straight to ACC teams and in-state rival Kentucky. They would come back to beat Georgia Tech 68-58 and then lose 4 in a row before beating the Clemson Tigers. They would go on to not win another game that season finishing a record-low 4-28. This was the worst record in modern times for any Louisville team. Payne would receive large amounts of backlash from college basketball fans all over the country.
Fans were extremely let down by Payne and the Cardinals in the 2022-23 season. Payne would spend the offseason recruiting players from other schools and high schools. With a better team for the 2023-24 season fans are expecting to have a better record than the 4-28 from the previous season. It will be interesting to see how the Cardinals and Payne respond this season.