The Floyd Street Tribune: A historic moment for Louisville men's basketball

Inside: An evaluation of the hiring of Kenny Payne, a funny story about the search and what's next. Plus, my terrible bracket for you to make fun of.

Thanks for reading The Floyd Street Tribune! I hope you enjoyed my coaching search coverage. Now we try to learn what the Kenny Payne regime will look like.

The University of Louisville this week made the landmark decision to hire the first black men’s basketball coach in the program’s storied history, a proud moment for a school that integrated its basketball team in the early 1960s. As if that isn’t powerful enough, what a story this is: A member of the 1986 national championship squad, the team that cemented Louisville’s status as a college basketball powerhouse, returns to help the program find its way back to prominence. And it obviously wouldn’t be Louisville without the Kentucky rivalry connection, either.

We wake up Thursday morning knowing this: Kenny Payne is coming back to his alma mater. Expect a marketing rollout that includes old photos and videos of Payne as a player and a lot of messaging about reconnecting to the program’s rich hoops history.

Expect tomorrow to go like this: The University of Louisville Athletic Association will approve the hiring of Payne at a Friday meeting scheduled for 9 a.m. A press conference will follow at 10 a.m. Do not be surprised if the school also announces enhancements to women’s basketball coach Jeff Walz’s contract, a source told me. (There’d been some interest from Texas A&M, per multiple sources.) All of this would serve as a lead-in to Friday night’s start to the NCAA Tournament for Walz’s program, which hosts the first two rounds at the KFC Yum Center.

Ultimately Louisville’s coaching search focused on Payne, who had always been the favorite to land the job. Interim athletics director Josh Heird kicked the tires on other candidates and sounded out contacts in the basketball world, but Payne’s hiring just made too much sense. He recently “blew away” one of U of L’s top boosters in a dinner meeting, and a Wednesday meeting with Heird finalized their agreement.