Kenny Payne met with Vince Tyra about Louisville job, coach confirms

Jon Hale | Courier Journal

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PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas – Before Louisville hired Chris Mack as its men's basketball coach, athletics director Vince Tyra met with former University of Louisville star and current Kentucky assistant Kenny Payne about the job, Payne confirmed Thursday.

"We spoke," Payne said in an interview during Kentucky's preseason Bahamas exhibition tour. "Have a lot of respect for him, wish him well. He made a decision on the coach he wanted. I think that was pretty much done beforehand. No hard feelings at all. Louisville is a great university. It’s my university where I went to school, and I wish them well. The state needs Louisville to be good.”

The Courier Journal reported March Louisville had sought permission to speak to Payne about its coaching search, but two UK spokesmen said no such official request was made.

A member of Louisville's 1986 national title team, Payne has coached at Kentucky since 2010. After four seasons as an assistant coach he was promoted to associate head coach in 2015.

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Louisville is not the first head coaching job Payne has been linked to. In 2012, he reportedly met with Mississippi State about an opening but was not hired.

Payne was paid $750,000 by UK last season. That salary was more than at least seven NCAA Tournament coaches, according to a USA TODAY database. New contracts for the UK assistant coaches signed this summer have not been released by the university as they are being finalized.

While he may not have been hired at his alma mater, Payne still has his sights set on a future head coaching job.

"The first thing for me is just taking care of what’s in front of me and what’s in front of me is the University of Kentucky," Payne said. "Hopefully that’s on the athletic director and an administrator to look at me and do some homework and say, 'That’s the type of man I would want to lead my program. He loves kids, he wants to do it the right way, he teaches character, teaches work ethic, understands the importance of academics.' That’s more important to me.

"Worrying about that does me no good. I have a great job, I love what I do. I’m around some special kids every year, not just this year, every year. I get to identify character kids and go from there with it.”

Jon Hale: jahale@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @JonHale_CJ. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: www.courier-journal.com/jonh.