The Kenny Payne experiment seems like it has been over since late December for him and the Cardinals, but Payne has been kept around and is likely to finish the season out until the season ends on March 17th.
After showing some improvement and winning a couple games in February, Louisville has dropped back to back to back double digit losses. Were these losses to Duke, UNC, or Virginia? No, they were losses to Boston College, Pitt, and Notre Dame.
Now none of those teams are historic "ACC powerhouses" and the fact that they lost by 12 to BC, 27 to Pitt, and a devastating 22 point loss at home to 9-win Notre Dame is simply embarrassing.
Louisville was only one win below Notre Dame before last Wednesday's contest, and the fact that they were able to rout Louisville so easily is not a good look on Payne at all.
Payne's (small group of) supporters have said things like "the team is young and the offense is playing great, young teams never play good defense." While that does have some truth to it, Louisville just proved them wrong by only scoring 50 points against a very down Notre Dame team. They also gave up 7 three pointers to one player, which is just a terrible read assignment by the team, which is ultimately Payne's fault.
Louisville was not running a real offense against Notre Dame and it showed, as the Cardinals shot just 33% from the floor, and just 23% from the perimeter.
The missed assignments and lack of coaching adjustments is what is more troubling. Shrewsberry made three 3-pointers in the first 6 minutes against Louisville, so what does Kenny Payne do? Seemingly nothing, as Shrewsberry continued to cook Louisville throughout the game as he went 7-11 from the floor from downtown.
The Cardinals looked lost defensively (again), had no semblance of offense besides the talent on the court making tough shots, and the lack of coaching adjustment are just embaressing for Louisville standards.
If one good thing came of this loss it was that the fanbase has been united in the common view of Kenny Payne:
"The University of Louisville deserves better, and a year three cannot be on the table for 2024-25"