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Louisville Basketball Needs Wins in December, For Kenny Payne’s Sake

By Caleb Hall

Nov 10, 2023; Louisville, Kentucky, USA; Louisville Cardinals head coach Kenny Payne talks with guard Tre White (22) during the second half against the Chattanooga Mocs at KFC Yum! Center. Chattanooga defeated Louisville 81-71. Mandatory Credit: Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 10, 2023; Louisville, Kentucky, USA; Louisville Cardinals head coach Kenny Payne talks with guard Tre White (22) during the second half against the Chattanooga Mocs at KFC Yum! Center. Chattanooga defeated Louisville 81-71. Mandatory Credit: Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports /
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Louisville’s Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, left, and Mike James walk off the court as the Cards lose 70-69 at Tuesday night’s game at the Yum Center in downtown Louisville. “We gave it away,” said coach Kenny Payne. “My heart goes out to my team. They deserved to win.” January 3, 2023
Louisville’s Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, left, and Mike James walk off the court as the Cards lose 70-69 at Tuesday night’s game at the Yum Center in downtown Louisville. “We gave it away,” said coach Kenny Payne. “My heart goes out to my team. They deserved to win.” January 3, 2023 /

Kenny Payne & Louisville’s play in December will decide everything for the future

The Louisville Cardinals have not had a good start to the holiday season, and it all started with a loss to Virginia Tech, and now a pathetic loss to the now 2-7 DePaul Blue Demons. After beating Bellarmine things were possibly looking up for Kenny Payne. Now I am not saying beating a 2-5 Bellarmine team is very impressive at all, because it isn’t. I am saying that things were looking better than last year, however, that is not saying a lot.

Since that win at the Yum Center, the Cardinals lost a close one on the road to Virginia Tech, and a baffling loss to DePaul where they were consistently down 8-12 points the entire game. The loss to Virginia Tech showed some promise, as they kept it close the entire game and just couldn’t find a way to close the game. However, the loss to DePaul took any goodwill that came from that game.

For the rest of December Louisville’s schedule is as follows:

12/13: Louisville vs. Arkansas State at 8:00 PM on ACCN

12/17: Louisville vs. Pepperdine at 2:00 PM on ACCN

12/21: Louisville vs. #16 Kentucky at 6:00 PM on ESPN

While it is nice that Louisville is actually playing on real television for the next week instead of ESPN+ or ACCN extra, this could lead to some more national embarrassment for the Cardinals. They should beat Arkansas State and Pepperdine, but this is also a team that lost to Chattanooga by double digits, so nearly anything is possible. However, the biggest game in December or even all season will be against the Kentucky Wildcats.

If the Cardinals notch 2 wins against Arkansas State and Pepperdine and build on some serious momentum going into this game, then it will be interesting to watch. The only way Payne and the Cardinals can do that is by beating both teams by at least 10 points or more. That seems a lot easier said than done, and that is really the sad part of all this.

Louisville shouldn’t have to get 2 wins against these lower-level teams to generate excitement for what still is the greatest rivalry in college basketball. If the Cardinals lose to either of those teams (or god forbid both of them) then you could seriously be looking at a 75% blue crowd at the Yum Center on the 21st.

Payne has to get his team together and play the best basketball that Cardinal fans have seen since the 2019-2020 season. If Louisville wins out this month it certainly gives Kenny Payne a better shot at keeping his job, but if Payne loses 2 out of these 3, or even 1 out of the 3, it is looking like he may be looking at a dark Christmas season.

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