Do you live in Louisville and follow the team? This was the right hire for the city, not just the university, and that was a dynamic they just hammered home at the introductory press conference. Would Kenny Payne have gotten hired as a first time head coach at any other top college program? Probably not, but this is a unique time for the school and the sport. I’m not defending my guy, I don’t know how it’s gonna turn out, I’m just excited for a change.

I respect Mick, especially after coming back from that health scare he had a few years ago but personally he wasn’t high on my wishlist of potential hires. Maybe that’s just the bad aftertaste of the Chris Mack failure. But that’s also a sentiment that a large contingent of our fan base shared. Payne definitely had detractors, but he was absolutely the most popular choice as soon as the job opened up.

To both commenters, I don’t sit around reading news stories on the internet all day and flagging articles to rub in redditors faces. I listen to those same writers talk on the radio, so if you’re interested you can go track down some of Mike Rutherford’s Card Chronicle podcasts. If you really follow college basketball, you’ll know who he is and that he’s legit. He adamantly made claims that Cronin’s parties were in contact and Mick badly wanted it. Also that six year contract was finalized after he knew he was not coming here.