Sweet mercy has arrived for Louisville men’s basketball fans, and the search for a new coach has begun. The abbreviated Kenny Payne era — one that simply could not have gone worse, for all sorts of reasons — is over.
As much as Payne’s firing on Wednesday comes as a relief … let’s remember that many, many, many people wanted him to be the head coach. One of their own, hailed as a program savior, in some corners. The one guy who could unite Louisville and bring past glory to bear after years of controversy dragged the whole operation down.
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Instead, everything got worse. Much worse. Payne’s 64 games in charge — which resulted in only 12 total wins — will go down as one of the most inferior coaching jobs in recent college basketball memory, especially relative to the resources at his disposal. It’s a mess. But here’s guessing that’s a plus for anyone considering the job.
Nowhere to go but up, and a lot of money and motivation to get there.
Job evaluation
Among the best in men’s college basketball, when things are going good — and if the coach has thick enough skin to endure the blowback of vitriol when things occasionally don’t go as well.
If Louisville isn’t a blue-blood program, it’s no lower than the next tier down. It is the biggest deal in the city. The arena is fantastic and the practice facilities are top-notch. The fan support is (historically) rabid. The school reported spending north of $21 million on men’s basketball in 2021-22, according to U.S. Department of Education data. For context: Defending national champion UConn spent $24 million.
Louisville wants to be a juggernaut and acts accordingly.
About the only drawback is membership in the ACC, which will create some not-insignificant revenue gaps, but here’s guessing there are enough passionate, deep-pocketed Louisville fans to keep the NIL money flowing like wine. The next Cardinals coach won’t face any barriers in player acquisition or winning.
Call List
(in alphabetical order)
Dana Altman, Oregon head coach. The recent dip in results — consecutive 15-loss seasons going into this one — might create a fair amount of hesitation in the fan base. But Altman still has 700-plus career wins, his system suits Louisville stylistically and, in his mid-60s, maybe he’s looking for one more fresh start with championship potential … that doesn’t require as many cross-country trips as the Big Ten will. Altman certainly has the temperament to deal with the slings and arrows that come with the job.
Mick Cronin, UCLA head coach. These are the facts of the case: Cronin — a former Louisville assistant and Cincinnati native — absolutely loves living in Los Angeles, and his buyout is enormous. Like $20 million before March 31. Even after that date it only drops to $16 million for the next year. How impossible that is to overcome depends on who you talk to. There’s plenty of reason to think the move to the Big Ten isn’t Cronin’s favorite idea ever, but Louisville better have some supremely rich and desperate donors if this is even going to be a possibility.
Scott Davenport, Bellarmine head coach. He’s won 72 percent of his games just down the street and the transition from Division II to Division I has gone fairly well. “Fairly well” might not be appetizing, at all, to Louisville fans. But is a pure ball coach and native son in his mid-60s perhaps an ideal bridge for the time being?
Billy Donovan, Chicago Bulls head coach. “Alexa, play ‘Wildest Dreams’ by Taylor Swift.”
Scott Drew, Baylor: There’s a sense that Louisville athletic director Josh Heird wants his next coach to have a squeaky clean image, given some of the scandals in the program’s recent past. Drew would fit that bill. But would a coach who won a national championship three years ago at his current school, which also just opened a sparkling new arena, want to take on this massive rebuild? The cultural fit is also … questionable.
Dusty May, Florida Atlantic head coach. He’s on the wish list for any power-conference school with a men’s basketball opening, including Ohio State and West Virginia. May, who grew up in nearby southern Indiana, appears to prefer those jobs instead of dealing with the level of scrutiny that comes with Louisville.
Eric Musselman, Arkansas head coach. You’d have to hope Musselman would be responsive to a pitch that gets him out of the super-conference thunderdome and into a very winnable league, at a job with all the resources he’d need. But staying in the SEC also might be the play when he considers the near-term future of college athletics. Either way, his buyout is somewhere between $1 million and $2 million, depending on the exact timing of a switch, so it’s not prohibitive.
Josh Schertz, Indiana State: Why not roll with one of the hottest up-and-coming coaches, who plays a reliably entertaining brand of offensive basketball? Schertz has transformed Indiana State, located a mere 185 or so miles from Louisville, guiding the Sycamores to 28 wins and the Missouri Valley regular-season title this season. The risk: He has no high-major experience, and Indiana State might not make the NCAA Tournament, which would mean he’s never coached in March Madness — at the Division I level, at least.
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Jerome Tang, Kansas State head coach. Winning both Big 12 Coach of the Year and Naismith Coach of the Year in your first season ever running a Division I program is pretty solid work. This year hasn’t gone quite as swimmingly for the Wildcats, who likely won’t make the NCAA Tournament after going to the Elite Eight in 2023. But being Baylor-like certainly isn’t a bad or philosophically divergent idea for Louisville hoops. It’s still a bet on a head coach with only two seasons’ experience leading a program, any way it’s sliced.
Brad Underwood, Illinois head coach. Underwood won’t hesitate to say he thinks he has one of the best jobs in all of college basketball, and there have been infrastructure improvements to boost Illini basketball even more. But Louisville has a higher ceiling. It’s not a cheap idea; Underwood already makes north of $4 million a year and, after signing an extension in spring of 2022, the school said his buyout increased but didn’t give a specific number. And, at that time, it would’ve been “increasing” from a starting point of about $9 million.
And the hire is …
Here’s guessing athletic director Josh Heird does due diligence on shoot-the-moon candidates such as Drew and Donovan. If that works, cool. If not? Louisville winds up coaxing a different power-conference coach uncomfortable with his current situation, one way or another, with the idea of a fresh start and a championship ceiling. Or take a shot on Schertz.
(Photo of Josh Schertz: Vasha Hunt / AP)
