The tea is spilling.
Matt Stone/Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK
There’s been a sense for a while that once Kenny Payne was finally let go at Louisville, the behind-the-scenes stories of just how dysfunctional things were would begin to fly.
They are flying.
Perhaps most notably was Wednesday’s “What Went Wrong?” story on Payne by WDRB’s Eric Crawford.
Crawford details Payne’s failings when it comes to assembling a staff, building a roster, utilizing U of L’s NIL pool, etc. It’s absolutely worth a read.
But the section that has generated the most buzz is the one dedicated to Cardinal assistant Nolan Smith, the son of late Louisville legend Derek Smith who came to U of L after a year as an assistant on Mike Krzyzewski’s final staff at Duke.
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 Heird.
There was buzz of a rift between Payne and Smith dating all the way back to the summer. The story was that the head coach blamed his youngest assistant for top recruit Trentyn Flowers’ abrupt exit to the NBL, as well as the ineligibility (at the time) of freshman point guard Ty-Laur Johnson.
There was, apparently, a “blowup” in August, and the communication between the two never recovered.
Some close to Smith have gone on the offensive over the last 24 hours, vehemently denying the story in Crawford’s report. Whatever the truth is, it’s an extremely safe bet that you’ll never see Payne and Smith together on a staff again.
