Kenny Payne Lauds New Louisville Assistant Josh Jamieson's Hoops Knowledge

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - As far as making a splash goes, Kenny Payne's first two hires to his coaching staff at Louisville were pretty big ones.

Nolan Smith is a rising star in the coaching ranks, and has family ties to the Cardinals. Danny Manning has head coaching experience in the ACC, and is one one of the greatest college basketball players of all time.

That's not to say that new Louisville assistant Josh Jamieson isn't a good hire, who was brought on this past Wednesday, it's just hard to follow up the first two hires made by Payne. In fact, his hiring wasn't even known to the public in any capacity until his announcement by the University just five minutes before he was introduced to the media.

But, if you ask Payne, Jamieson will have just as big of an impact on the Cardinals as Smith and Manning will.

"He is one of the brightest young basketball minds in the business," Payne said. "He has done everything it takes to run a program from A to Z. From scheduling, to whatever it is to run a basketball program, this man has done, and he is a hell of a basketball coach. This opportunity is a benefit to us more than I can tell you, and I'm happy that he's here with me."

Jamieson had spent the last 15 years with the University of Oregon, and his entire professional career up in the Pacific Northwest. During his first 14 years with the Ducks, he was their director of operations, while spending the 2021-22 season as their executive director .

The Medford, Ore. native held a myriad of responsibilities during his decade and a half in Eugene. Some of those included scheduling, coordinating Oregon's travel, budgeting, academic support and equipment oversight. He was also in charge of their alumni The Basketball Tournament alumni team "Always Us".

"He could easily be sitting in a general manager spot on an NBA team. That's how smart he is," Payne said.

But Jamieson's experience and basketball knowledge isn't restricted to the logistics and operations side of things. During his time working with current Ducks head coach Dana Altman and former head coach Ernie Kent, he had a heavy hand in game preparation as well. In fact, he described himself as Oregon's Chief Operations Officer, with Altman and Kent playing the role of Chief Executive officer.

"We went, definitely, up to what was allowable in my role to have an impact with basketball, which means that I could do a lot of the behind the scenes work, but not the work on the court," Jamieson said. "Coach and I and our staff worked together a lot there. It's a long list to go through just the different job responsibilities there. But probably the easiest would say, if you can imagine something other than basketball, I had a hand in it on a day to day basis with both our staff and our players."

Essentially, Jamieson was allowed to be a part of the planning and discussion when it came to preparing the team. He was just limited when it came to actually presenting it to them. He played a heavy behind the scenes role of the Ducks' success over the last several years, including five Sweet 16's, two Elite Eight's and a Final Four appearance in 2017.

"He's a very, very, very strong basketball mind. All of the success that the University of Oregon has had over the years - and I don't know how much you guys keep up with the West Coast - he was right there," Payne said. "He's coming from a culture of winning on a big scale. His basketball knowledge is second to none, and he's gonna be a great asset for us."

Not only is Payne confident in Jamieson's coaching ability, he's not worried about his recruiting prowess either. Even though he has not been out on the recruiting trail since he was an assistant at the University of Portland from 2003 to 2005, both Payne and Jamieson believe that he will get the job done.

"Thankfully, through my relationship with Kenny he had no doubt about (recruiting). I have no doubts either," Jamieson said. "What it will be is just getting back out, building the relationships, continuing to build on ones that are already there."

(Photo of Josh Jamieson: Alton Strupp - Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK)

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