Once key for Kentucky basketball, Louisville coach Kenny Payne now hopes to hand UK an 'L'
Kenny Payne had just wrapped his first radio show as the Louisville men’s basketball coach, and as he made his way to the long table at Rooster’s where family and friends awaited, he strolled past the bar near the front of the restaurant.
Two men gave him a warm greeting.
Of sorts.
“You got those Cats coming, KP,” one told him.
“I know,” Payne replied with his near-perpetual grin.
This was early November, days before Payne would coach his first regular-season game and nearly two months ahead of Saturday’s Louisville-Kentucky clash at Rupp Arena.
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Though it wasn’t clear if the guys bellied up were Big Blue supporters offering a warning or hopeful, red-blooded Louisville fans, the exchange was a reminder — as if Payne of all people needed one — of the way the Cardinals-vs.-Wildcats rivalry can pervade the state.
Some of the shine is off this edition, but that doesn’t take much weight off of Saturday. Payne knows that.
“I know what the rivalry is, I know how intense it can be for the fans,” Payne said in the offseason. “I know that the players really want to beat each other. The coaches really want to beat each other. And it should be fun. It should be an environment where it's competitive.”
And for Payne, this season’s game carries some personal significance.
It’s not only his first meeting as head coach at his alma mater. It’s Payne’s inaugural return to a place where he helped Kentucky coach John Calipari win 295 games and the 2012 NCAA championship in 10 seasons as an assistant coach.
After years of walking down the same hall, through the same entrance, to the same bench, Payne will enter at the other end of Rupp Arena. Payne said Friday that he's been focused on his players, that he hasn't thought much about what it'll be like walking into Rupp.
He had some ideas on exiting.
"Obviously it'll be emotional," Payne said. "Had a lot of great memories there. But I'm at home (at U of L). And I've said it before, I'll say it again: I just want to win the game by one, and I'll run out the arena and get out of there."
A triumphant departure would be significant for Payne, who could use a huge win in the worst way.
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His team is off to a 2-11 start, the worst at Louisville since the 1940-41 team went 2-14. And though no one win can put out all the Cardinals’ fires, this one at least would be a salve on the burns.
Still, Payne is returning to a place that embraced him. He’s spoken fondly of his time at Kentucky and of his relationship with Calipari, a friendship that he said has survived his move back to the opposite side of the statewide rivalry.
“I’m gonna hate playing and coaching against him,” Calipari said in September at the Kentucky Chamber’s Annual Dinner Meeting. “Believe me, I have enough people that I want to beat when I walk in. I don’t like playing friends.”
And though that might feel odd for both parties, Payne at least has experience swapping sides in the commonwealth’s basketball battle.
'It should be fun when we go back'
Payne was a player in Louisville’s 80s heyday but went 1-3 against Kentucky, including a loss his freshman year, when the Cardinals would go on to win the NCAA title. In his decade with Calipari, the Cats went 10-2 against the Cards, including NCAA Tournament wins in the 2012 Final Four and 2014 Sweet 16.
Now he’s out of the blue, at home in red. After a decade as a fixture on the bench in Lexington — and a two-year stint as an assistant with the New York Knicks — it figures to be an odd sort of homecoming.
“I think about it all the time,” guard Zan Payne said of returning to Kentucky — where he was a walk-on before transferring to Louisville — with his father. “But everybody at UK is family. I thought it was gonna be a little weird, but it shouldn't be. It's all family over there so it should be fun when we go back.”
“Fun” is the same word Nick Richards used.
The former Kentucky center credits Payne for much of the growth in Lexington that helped him become a rotation player with the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets. Like so many of the ex-Cats from Payne’s tenure now in the NBA, he’s still connected to the Cards’ new coach and he said this season he’ll “definitely” be tuned in to Payne’s return visit.
“I’m still rooting for Kentucky,” Richards said. “I root for Kentucky all the way. No mixed feelings. Only Kentucky.”
That’s a sentiment shared by other former Wildcats watching their ex-assistant coach take the reins at their rival. Julius Randle, who played at UK and with the Knicks when Payne was on the bench, told reporters this spring that “I still bleed blue, but I love that man to death.”
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And P.J. Washington, Richards’ teammate at UK and with the Hornets, said he tries “not to get into” his former head coach and favored assistant being on opposite sides of Cards vs. Cats.
“I still love KP, I still love Cal,” Washington said. “At the end of the day, when I was in school they were both on Kentucky’s staff. I’m still Big Blue.”
Payne was a beloved Kentucky assistant, credited for helping the Wildcats land 11 recruiting classes ranked in the top three nationally and for shepherding the development of some of UK’s brightest stars.
He spent hours in the gym with Anthony Davis perfecting his post game. He put Washington through late-night paces, helping push him into the NBA draft lottery following his sophomore season.
There might even be a warm reception waiting for him at Rupp Arena.
At least until the ball is tipped.
Payne remains a popular figure in Lexington, a coach many Kentucky fans are hoping to see rack up some wins.
But nobody there wants him to start Saturday.
“If it goes to overtime, I’m fine,” Calipari said. “As long as we win.”
Reach Louisville men’s basketball reporter Brett Dawson at mdawson@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter at @BDawsonWrites.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kenny Payne returns to Rupp Arena for UK vs Louisville basketball game
