Payne: It's Up to Louisville to Rebuild Rivalry with Kentucky

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - It's not exactly a secret that when it comes to the rivalry between the Louisville and Kentucky men's basketball programs, the latter has dominated the series in recent years. While the Cardinals did win the most recent showdown in 2020 after COVID forced the 2021 iteration to be cancelled, the Wildcats have won 11 of the last 14 matchups in the series.

Few people understand the Battle of the Bluegrass more so than Louisville head coach Kenny Payne, who was hired earlier this year. Not only was he a national champion and 1,000-point scorer as a player for the Cardinals, but served as an assistant coach under Wildcats head coach John Calipari for a decade.

Kentucky went 10-2 against Louisville with Payne on staff, so the first-year head coach of the Cardinals knows first-hand how one-sided the rivalry currently is. Sure, historically the Wildcats lead the all-time series 37-17, but rivalry hasn't been nearly as competitive as it was in the late 1990's and 2000's.

If the series between the two is to become competitive again, Payne says the onus is on Louisville to make it so.

"It’s on Louisville to make it a rivalry. It’s not on Kentucky. Kentucky has been dominant, there’s been a lot of success," he said at the 2022 ACC Tipoff via ESPN's Jeff Borzello. "We have to bring it. We have to up it. We have to meet them on a level playing field that makes them worry about us.”

It might take a year or two before the rivalry does get back to a competitive state. Kentucky is generally viewed as a preseason top-10 squad, whereas many view Louisville as a bottom-five team in the ACC. But with the recruiting strides that Payne has made just in the past few months, it seems like only a matter of time before the Cardinals are regular staple of the AP Top 25.

Not only did Payne say that it's up to Louisville to make the rivalry with Kentucky more competitive, he also had some additional, slightly peculiar, comments regarding the mindsets of the opposing fanbases,

While it doesn't get the national attention that Duke-North Carolina does, the Louisville-Kentucky rivalry is arguably the most vitriolic rivalry in college basketball, and perhaps in all of collegiate sports. By now, everyone has heard the legendary story of the fight at a dialysis clinic over the two teams.

Payne is hoping that, moving forward, fans on both sides can dial back the hate a bit.

"I don't want it to be a hatred," he said in a radio interview with 93.9 The Ville. "Kentucky has been great to me. Is it a rivalry? Of course. It's one of the best rivalries, if it isn't the best rivalry in all of college basketball. That's going to be there.

"I would like for it to be respectful, but I would like for both programs to know that we both can cheer for each other, or respect each other, and both have success. It benefits the whole state of Kentucky. That's that's what I'm really more about."

Part of Payne's line of thinking that you don't have to hate your arch-rival, is that, according to him, Kentucky head coach John Calipari doesn't hate Louisville. He believes that not harboring an intense hatred has actually been part of the reason that he has been so successful against the Cardinals.

"I was to give you a cheat sheet into John Calipari, he doesn't hate Louisville," Payne said. "In his mind, he's had success against Louisville because of that. That's an example of the things that I want to do."

It's not the first time that Payne or Calipari have expressed these sentiments. At the Kentucky Chamber of Commerse's 76th Annual meeting back in September, both coaches said that the schools almost play a symbiotic role, and that success on both sides are good for the Commonwealth.

“UofL’s program is vital for our state,” Calipari said last month. “That program, in our biggest city, has to do things and you have the perfect person to bring people together. I will hate playing and coaching against (Payne), but I’m happy to see him in this role. It’s good for this state. With that said, I still want to win.”

Of course, as good of friends that he is with Calipari, Payne still wants to win at the end of the day.

“Obviously, we know that we have jobs that make us go at each other," he said last month. "At the end of the day, we compete against each other. He wants to beat my head in, as he’s said already, I want to win the game by one.”

(Photo of Kenny Payne: Nell Redmond - theACC.com)

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