According to an excellent article by Eric Crawford of WDRB, one issue that led to Kenny Payne’s demise at Louisville was a poor coaching staff.
According to the article, associate head coach Danny Manning wasn’t able to offer much support in recruiting or x-and-o instruction.
Assistant Nolan Smith, a former Duke player, was sensitive to criticism and even reportedly threw Payne under the bus to some members of the national media.
Here is an excerpt:
It’s largely an indictment of his coaching staff. In Manning, Payne needed more of a game coach, an x-and-o instructor who could help him adjust to the college game and to making critical decisions at game speed. In six seasons at Wake Forest, Manning had won just 41 percent of his games and had just one winning season, but he knew the league and had game management experience. It’s not to say that Manning didn’t help, but Payne made basic errors in coaching. He failed to foul in key situations late in games. He could not adjust on the fly. His substitutions were erratic. He allowed long opponent runs early in his career without calling timeouts. And he made those mistakes, apparently, without anyone telling him to do things differently.
In Nolan Smith, Payne signed the son of close friend and fellow U of L alum, Derek Smith, a program hero who played for the 1980 national championship team and died in 1996. Nolan Smith came from Duke, where he was an All-American point guard and starter for the 2010 NCAA Championship team before working on Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski’s staff, where he spent six years before joining Payne at Louisville.
But Smith was sensitive to criticism, had some contentious social media interactions with fans, and before the 2023-24 season interviewed with a G-League team, the Capital City GoGo. When athletics leadership concluded that Smith had been the source of a leak that resulted in national media reports saying Payne would be fired in December and Smith elevated to the head coaching job, Payne was advised to take the matter up with Smith.
Smith remained on the staff, and what measures Payne may have taken were not known. Similarly, after his first season, Payne declined to shake up his staff after finishing 4-28, even when advised to by Hierd.
