By Aidan Joly
On Wednesday, Louisville made official what we had all been expecting for the better part of a year: the program has parted ways with now-former coach Kenny Payne after just two seasons leading the program.
It was a disastrous two seasons. Year one was a 4-28 nightmare, and things didn’t get much better this year, going 8-24 for Payne’s final record with the Cardinals sitting at 12-52 and a 5-35 mark in ACC play.
Payne will go down as one of the worst power conference coaches to do it in the past couple decades. It seemingly got worse as the tenure went on, with head scratching decisions on the court and even more confusing press conferences.
Look at it this way: during Payne’s tenure, Louisville had more losses to Division II teams than it did road wins.
As for the job evaluation, it’s one of the top jobs in the country. Period. It’s Louisville. You have the resources, the support from administration, the NIL and the fan support. It should be relatively easy to win here.
That being said, here’s a look at who could be the next coach.
A quick note before we start, all of the names below are sitting head coaches. That seems to be what Louisville needs to do here, rather than someone who does not have head coaching experience.
Dusty May, Florida Atlantic
May is going to be a name at the top of the list for every high-major athletic director making a hire in this cycle. The 47-year-old was one of the most sought-after names last season after FAU’s run to the Final Four, but signed a big extension last spring.
He also has FAU poised to go dancing again this season, sitting at 24-7 and 14-4 in American Athletic play.
May is 125-67 since he took over the program in 2018 and also has assistant coaching stops at Florida, Louisiana Tech and UAB.
He’ll surely be a candidate at other jobs this cycle, most notably Ohio State, but the Louisville brass would be foolish to not take a big swing at him.
Scott Drew, Baylor
This is a “call him up and make him say no” name.
Drew has been at the helm at Baylor since 2003, turning the program around from near-death penalty from a scandal under his predecessor Dave Bliss, to a national champion in 2021 and one of the most consistently good programs in the country.
Reports have indicated that Drew would listen if Louisville wanted to talk to him. He’s a well-liked figure in the college hoops world and always gets the most out of his talent and plays a modern style that would fire up the fans.
It’s tough to see Drew coaching anywhere but Baylor, but we will see. He has a 444-241 record in Waco, with a pair of Big 12 titles and of course, the national title in 2021.
Pat Kelsey, Charleston
Kelsey, 48, is one of the big up-and-coming names in coaching circles. It’s something of a surprise he hasn’t made the jump to the big boys yet.
He has been at Charleston since 2021 after nearly a decade at Winthrop. He has five conference tournament titles to his name, all of them since 2017. He just won his fifth this week and will be coaching in the NCAA tournament with the Cougars next week. He’s won 261 games as a college head coach.
He is boisterous and brash, which sometimes rubs people the wrong way, but he’s also one of the best young and energetic coaches in the country. That energy would play well at Louisville.
Nate Oats, Alabama
This is a name that keeps coming up in a lot of different coaching searches, despite the fact that it is believed that he has one of the highest buyouts in the country, rumored to be somewhere in the ballpark of $12 million. That is something that could steer athletic directors in the other direction, including Louisville AD Josh Heird.
Nonetheless, Oats is 113-52 since he took over the Alabama program in 2019 after a successful four seasons at Buffalo. Overall, he has won over 200 games as a college head coach.
Oats also plays as modern a style as any coach in the country, a system that emphasizes three-pointers and layups. It has the number-two offense on KenPom in the country. This season, Alabama narrowly missed what would have been a third SEC title in five years.
The buyout makes it tough to see this really happening, but if Louisville is serious, they will consider it.
Eric Musselman, Arkansas
It’s worth noting that Arkansas has underperformed this season and will surely miss the NCAA tournament after three straight appearances, but it is tough to ignore Musselman’s body of work.
As a college head coach he has a winning percentage of over .700 and is one of the most active coaches in the country in the transfer portal. He has also been to the second weekend of the tournament four times, including back-to-back Elite Eight appearances at Arkansas in 2021 and 2022.
According to The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Musselman’s buyout is only $1 million, so it wouldn’t cost much to bring the Ohio native in.
Might he be interested in taking a program further up on the all-time win list?
Jerome Tang, Kansas State
Tang is a name that has been floated around for the Louisville job for a long time now.
Kansas State has dipped in performance this season, but the 57-year-old Scott Drew disciple orchestrated one of the best rebuild jobs in the country last season, taking over a program that finished second-to-last in the Big 12 in 2021-22 to winning 26 games last season and being a break or two away from reaching the Final Four.
He has a 44-23 record overall at Kansas State. He is also charismatic and wins the press conference.
It’s a name that has been rumored for a while. Will he make the jump over to the ACC?
Mick Cronin, UCLA
Similar to Oats, Cronin has a large buyout that might make things prohibitive for Heird to make Mick the pick.
Still, Cronin is worth a call. Throughout this season he has expressed frustration with UCLA’s lack of NIL money, and the team is having its worst season since he took over in Los Angeles in 2019.
Despite that, he is still considered one of the toughest and best coaches in the country who won 58 games in the previous two seasons before this year after reaching the Final Four in 2021.
Cronin is a big-time winner, and has won everywhere he has gone. A native of Cincinnati, being closer to home might be a pull for him as well.
Josh Schertz, Indiana State
Schertz has made Indiana State the darling of the country this season, winning 26 games with the Sycamores. However, Indiana State lost in the Missouri Valley final and are currently holding out hope for an at-large bid.
He has done a good job in rebuilding the program, winning 11 games in 2021-22 in his first year, 23 last season and now 26 (so far) this season.
He does not have high-major experience even as an assistant, but ran Lincoln Memorial as a Division II powerhouse for more than a decade, reaching the Division II Final Four in 2016, 2017 and 2021.
Another guy who runs an up-tempo offense than emphasizes threes, his style is wonderful to watch.
He might make more sense for a smaller job (Saint Louis?), but Heird should at least take a look at him.
Prediction: This is a tough one to call. A handful of names make sense here. Heird could shoot for the moon here and get Drew or Cronin with the idea of a fresh start, or takes a shot on Schertz.
AJ Hoops 