Louisville Cardinals
2021-22 record: 13-19, 6-14 in the ACC
Head coach: Kenny Payne
Tenure at Louisville: First season
Career coaching record: 0-0
Home court: KFC Yum! Center
Starters: G El Ellis, F Kamari Lands, F Jae’Lyn Withers, F Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, F Sydney Curry
Bench: G Fabio Basili, G/F Mike James, F Devin Ree, F JJ Traynor, F/C Roosevelt Wheeler
Overview:
After suffering their first losing season in over two decades, the Cardinals, under the helm of first-year head coach, former Knicks assistant and Louisville alum Kenny Payne, are looking to recover the national spotlight and shake up the ACC. Last season, Louisville suffered from one key element—an inability to shoot. Louisville converted 67.4% of its free throws and shot just 30.9% from beyond the arc. Safe to say that the team plans to improve those numbers this coming season.
Payne’s first squad consists of just seven returning players from last season—El Ellis, Sydney Curry, Mike James, Roosevelt Wheeler, Jae’Lyn Withers, JJ Traynor and walk-on Ashton Myles-Devore—as well as two key transfers from the state of Tennessee in Brandon Huntley-Hatfield and Hercy Miller. Despite losing last season’s leading scorer, Noah Locke, to Providence, the Cards brought in two four-star recruits in No. 66 Kamari Lands and No. 81 Devin Ree, with three star Fabio Basili closing out the recruiting class.
Though the team has deep makings, this year marks Payne’s first as a head coach for any program, and, evidently, doubt will linger regarding the Cardinal coaching staff until the results speak for themselves. In what will likely shake out as a rebuilding year, Louisville hopes to revitalize its not-so-long-ago prestigious college basketball program.
Team ceiling: The Cardinals take away victories in the must-win pre-conference matchups against Bellarmine, Wright State and Appalachian State. Louisville carries the momentum to a strong performance against No. 10 Arkansas at the Maui Jim Maui Invitational. Gaining confidence early in the season, Payne’s rebuilt squad quickly turns into a mid-table team. Despite losing key conference matchups to more experienced and loaded conference rivals such as North Carolina, Duke and Virginia, the Cardinals compete with teams such as Syracuse and Virginia Tech to be in the top half of the ACC table. Upsetting Kentucky on New Year’s Eve, displaying an impressive show at the ACC tournament and building towards a return to the NCAA tournament would be a dream come true for Payne’s first year at the helm.
Team floor: Despite having been a part of successful coaching staffs, the former New York Knicks assistant coach struggles as the head coach of a basketball program. Payne’s freshmen fail to change the team’s old shooting problems. Aside from losing conference matchups against the top tier of the ACC, the Cardinals also fall to teams in the middle of the pack, like Syracuse, North Carolina State and Wake Forest, and stumble to the bottom of the conference. Louisville relives nightmares of the 2021-22 season as it enters another year losing season. The Cards will have to look to continue the rebuild next year.
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