I’ve tepidly defended Kenny Payne early this season as Louisville seemed improved. Well, it was hard not to be better than last year’s nightmarish historically awful season, where the Cardinals were the worst ACC basketball team of the last quarter century.
So this year there were flashes of being a functional team. Against Texas, Louisville came within a last second basket of beating the top 15 Longhorns. The games were mostly more or less competitive, and the Cards sat 4-4 with a game against DePaul.
DePaul was considered maybe the worst team in the P6. They were 1-7 and on a five-game losing streak with the last 4 losses by double digits.
This would be a good test of where Louisville truly was.
Kenny Payne and his Louisville Cardinals failed miserably.
A final score of 75-68 was not indicative of how uncompetitive this game was. DePaul raced out to 38-22 halftime, and Louisville never got closer than 6 points, as the DePaul comfortably kept Louisville at arm’s length the entire game. DePaul shot 51% for the game
The metrics look horrible yet again for Louisville.
It’s early in the year, where those metrics are fluid, but still not insignificant.
For Louisville, they are 278 in NET, 305 in RPI, and 175 in the KenPom. Not only are these numbers bad for Kenny Payne, and Louisville, but they are majorly dragging down the ACC as well – and may the selection committee gods help you if you are on the bubble and lose to them.
Sadly those numbers are better than last season, but you get the idea.
Kenny Payne is an unbelievably bad overall 8-33 (.195) and in ACC 2-19 (.095) in nearly 1.5 seasons at Louisville. They even rank near the bottom in the ACC in recruiting for the 2024 season.
At this point, there should be no further decision for the power brokers at Louisville. The Cards aren’t just bad, they are awful. They are getting worse, and it’s time for Louisville to just cut ties admit a mistake, and move on.
It isn’t working and it’s not going to work it appears. Just get it over with.
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