John Calipari defends Louisville's Kenny Payne: 'I feel for him'
The Kentucky Wildcats went into the KFC Yum! Center last week and took down the Louisville Cardinals, 95-76, moving to 9-2 on the year with one more non-conference battle before SEC play begins in 2024.
For Louisville it sent them to a 5-7 record on the season and into a long gap between games, a gap many felt would give the program time to let go of second-year head coach Kenny Payne and find an interim to finish out the year.
Payne, a longtime Kentucky assistant who went 4-28 in his first year as a head coach for Louisville in 2022-23, is certainly sitting on the hottest seat in all of college basketball, but his former boss John Calipari was quick to defend him to the media after the game.
"You lose a couple games, 'Oh we should have won those,'" Calipari said. "Well we lost one we should have won too. That's all part of this. He's got a really young team. And you gotta go let him do what he does. The players love him because they play for him. They never let go of the rope."
Indeed Payne has been spoken of highly by his own players in the media, but certainly it is hard to ignore the team's abysmal record since last season, which includes losses to Arkansas State and DePaul and only two conference wins in 2022-23.
Calipari went on to lament how people treat coaches who are struggling and what advice he gave Payne after the game.
"I feel for him," Calipari continued. "But shoot, we went through it a couple years ago. The people get mean and nasty. They do. And that's what you have to deal with in this profession. Anytime I text him, 'Coach your team.' That's what I tell him. 'Coach your team.' All the other stuff doesn't matter."
Calipari and the Wildcats will take on Illinois State on December 29 before beginning conference play a week later on the road at Florida on January 6.
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