By Kenneth Cross
When the Louisville Cardinals terminated coach Chris Mack at the end of last January, they sat at 11-9 and 5-5 in the ACC as they finished with just two more wins.
Louisville hired a solid former Cardinal in Kenny Payne, who was a college basketball assistant for 15 years before joining the New York Knicks last season where they were 41-31 when he left to take the Louisville position.
“I have to thank the New York Knicks,” stated Payne. “I have to thank (Knicks owner) Jim Dolan personally because we had a conversation last night and hopefully you understand what I’m about to say. That organization was unbelievable to me and for me to walk away from it, and for him to give me his blessing, it was not easy.”
Payne will look to restructure his roster immediately to get the Cardinals off of what will be a brief and inconsequential fall in Mack’s last season as head coach. He will look for a bevy of unselfish players to bring the program back to the elite level that it has enjoyed.
The new Louisville coach illustrated his thought process as he quoted the Cardinals’ Hall of Fame and iconoclastic coach Denny Crum, who brought him to Louisville in the mid-1980s.
“(I remember) him saying to me then, Denny Crum, ‘Kenny, I need you to not try to get 30. I need you to get 12, six and six, Kenny.'” said Payne.
The illustration is like red and black paint on canvas as Payne will look for complete players who can consistently affect several components of each game. Payne quotes Crum when he talks about how he expects players to be about their teammates as he will build a team where the players are a reflection of each other.
Louisville lost eight players from last season, but the Cardinals return guard El Ellis (8.7 ppg, 1.9 rpg), forward Sidney Curry (7.1 ppg, 4.4 rpg) and forward Jae’Lyn Withers, F, 6-9, 220 (5.8 ppg, 4.6 rpg).
Building consistent offense is a given as no one averaged double figures and the club scored only 67.2 points per game, while shooting 42.2 percent from the field, 272nd in college basketball. Their 13-19 record produced only a 40.6 percent winning percentage which was the worst since 2000-01 when Louisville went 12-19.
Payne has added four new players in guard Fabio Baslii, freshman Kamari Lands, and Devin Rea. He also brings in the 6-10, 245-pound Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, a transfer from Tennessee who played in all 35 games last season and started 13 in averaging 3.9 points and 3.0 rebounds per outing.
Louisville was able to keep Roosevelt Wheeler, who played in 21 games and shot 63.2 percent from the floor in averaging 1.6 points per game.
The Cardinals should be able to reapproach the upper portals of the ACC rigorously as Payne has added former NBAer and Wake Forest head coach Danny Manning along with former Duke assistant Nolan Smith. He hired Josh Jamieson, who was an assistant at Oregon for 15 years as the last 13 seasons were with Ducks coach Dana Altman.
Former Cardinal alums Milt Wagner and Reece Gaines have been added to the staff as the Director of Player Personnel and Alumni Relations and Video Coordinator.