As Kenny Payne’s underwhelming first season as head coach of the Louisville men’s basketball team nears its end, it may be as good a time as any to put things in perspective.
With just two games remaining on the Cardinals’ regular season schedule, UofL currently has a 4-25 overall record and a 2-16 record in conference play. Barring a miraculous run to finish out the regular season and ACC Tournament, this will mark the program’s first time with a single-digit win total since the 1941-1942 season.
Louisville is currently the lowest-ranked Power 6 (ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-12, and SEC) team in both the NCAA’s Net Rankings and the KenPom Rankings. They are also on track to finish with the lowest overall winning percentage from an ACC team since the 1960-1961 season.
As a result, it seems fair to say that Kenny Payne’s first season with Louisville has been historically bad and extremely disappointing, to say the least.
However, the University of Louisville men’s basketball program was already in pretty rough shape before Kenny Payne even stepped foot on campus. The program has failed to make the NCAA Tournament since 2019 and had failed to earn a victory in the NCAA Tournament since Rick Pitino was fired in 2017.
In addition, the 2021-2022 Louisville men’s basketball team finished at just 13-19 overall with a 6-14 record in the ACC. Head Coach Chris Mack was fired in January 2022, and the team ended up losing 12 of their last 14 games to finish out the season.
To make matters worse, the basketball program was facing the possibility of major sanctions from the IARP after the NCAA accused the program of committing a Level I violation and several Level II violations under former head coaches Rick Pitino and Chris Mack.
Therefore, it is also fair to say that Kenny Payne was put into an incredibly difficult situation and given somewhat unrealistic expectations given the circumstances. As a result, it may be beneficial to take a look at how other first-year head coaches fared in their inaugural seasons.
Including Payne, there were 14 new men’s college basketball head coaches among Power 6 programs to begin the 2022-2023 season, meaning that 14 individuals were entering their first season as head coaches of their respective programs.
Throughout this article, we will take a look at some of the other first-year head coaches in college basketball and consider how their circumstances and team success during the 2022-2023 season compare with that of Kenny Payne and the University of Louisville.