Kenny Payne is out as the head coach of the Louisville men’s basketball team.

The school announced Wednesday it was parting ways with Payne, who leaves his alma mater with a 12-52 overall record across two seasons.

His 2023-24 team finished 8-24 and exited the conference tournament Tuesday with a first-round loss to N.C. State.

‘Kenny has given a great deal to this university over a span of nearly 40 years, and he will always be a valued member of our Louisville family,’ Louisville athletic director Josh Heird said in a statement. ‘When we brought Kenny home in 2022, no one had a stronger belief than me in his potential success, but it’s become clear that a change is needed to help this program achieve what is expected and attainable. While it is always difficult to make a coaching transition, this is the right one for our program.’

In his first year, Payne and the Cardinals lost a school-record 28 games and finished with a .125 winning percentage. It went down as the worst campaign in modern program history and marked its fewest win total since 1941-42, when it went 7-10 under coach John Heldman.

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Louisville, one of college basketball’s top 15 winningest teams, had never posted back-to-back seasons with 20 or more losses in its 110 years of existence until Payne’s arrival.

The 57-year-old Mississippi native is owed $8 million as part of a buyout agreement with the university that started at $10 million and was set to decrease by $2 million each year of his tenure.

Payne, who was a freshman on Hall of Fame coach Denny Crum’s 1986 national championship team, graduated from Louisville in 1989 and was selected by the Philadelphia 76ers with the 19th overall pick in the NBA draft. He played in the league through the 1992-93 season, then pursued opportunities abroad.

On March 18, 2022, he was introduced as the successor to Chris Mack, and the first Black head coach in program history, after stints as an assistant with the New York Knicks (2020-22), on John Calipari’s staff at Kentucky (2010-20) and under Ernie Kent at Oregon (2004-09).

Heird, who was operating in an interim role at the time, and former interim President Lori Gonzalez hired a North Carolina-based company, Collegiate Sports Associates, to assist in the search process.

Payne had been on his alma mater’s radar for a while. Multiple reports surfaced during the search that led to Mack’s hiring in March 2018 that the university sought permission from Kentucky to speak with him about the vacancy.

Four years later, Heird said during Payne’s introductory news conference the search party was looking for someone who could ‘connect generations of players, connect younger fans to older fans, connect Black fans to white fans, connect a university to a city. Because when this city is connected, it’s one of the greatest places on earth.’

Payne said then he took the job to ‘bring people together.’

‘I must be an example for this community, to be all inclusive and to help heal this community,’ he added. ‘That is a lot. I need you. I cannot do this by myself. I am not a politician or a reverend. I am a man — a man that believes in doing right by people, and I need help.’

Payne was handed the keys to his alma mater in the wake of back-to-back 13-win seasons, the last campaign saw the university and Mack mutually agree to cut ties after 20 games.

The program was also awaiting an Independent Accountability Resolution Process (IARP) ruling from a long-running NCAA investigation into alleged violations under the watch of Mack and another former head coach, Hall of Famer Rick Pitino.

‘I inherited something that was broken,’ Payne said during a July 28 news conference, ‘or I wouldn’t have never got the job — right? We all understand that, right? Hopefully.’

With his track record of recruiting success under Calipari in Lexington, Payne’s arrival brought hope that Louisville could make waves on that front sooner rather than later, especially after he lured Nolan Smith away from Duke to be the first member of his staff.

But, with the looming threat of the IARP issuing a possible postseason ban that never came to be, his inaugural roster when the 2022-23 season tipped off featured six holdovers from the 2021-22 team, three freshmen, one transfer portal acquisition and four walk-ons — one of whom was elevated to a full scholarship.

The Cardinals stumbled out of the gate, with Division II program Lenoir Ryne snapping their streak of 39 consecutive exhibition wins, then fell flat on their face.

A one-point loss to Bellarmine in the season opener spiraled into a nine-game losing streak. Louisville didn’t win an ACC game until February, went without a road victory for the first time since 1939-40 and as the No. 15 seed got bounced from the conference tournament with a first-round loss to Boston College.

Louisville has ended a season with four or fewer victories only 14 other times dating back to 1911-12. Prior to Payne’s inaugural campaign, the last time that happened was 1940-41.

When asked after the 2022-23 season came to an end if he had any conversations with Heird about his future with the program, Payne said he wasn’t sure there was ‘a reason to have a conversation.’

‘I go to work every day. I love Josh. Josh says he loves me,’ he added. ‘There’s nothing to talk about. I’ve got a job to do.’

And, when asked how he planned to evaluate his staff’s performance during the 4-28 campaign, he turned the question around and asked, ‘What is there to evaluate?’

‘I have one of the best staffs in college basketball,’ he said. ‘I can tell you that they’re unique individuals that have had so much success in this game. I can’t believe you just asked that question, because you’re looking at guys who have accomplished more in their life as players — forget coaching. Their experience in life is why I hired them. They are great coaches; and they gave these kids love every day.’

Sure enough, Payne retained Smith, Danny Manning and Josh Jamieson as assistants. And, when the NCAA approved a modified personnel rule allowing men’s and women’s basketball teams to go from three to five on-court staffers, he chose to promote from within by elevating Gabe Snider, director of analytics and video technology, and Milt Wagner, director of player development and alumni relations.

This season had promise at the beginning, with Louisville bringing in an incoming collection of talent that ranked among the top 10 on 247Sports’ national leaderboard. But the vibes were thrown off when one of its crown jewels, 2024 reclass Trentyn Flowers, decided to leave the program in August to jump-start his professional career in Australia’s National Basketball League.

Payne pressed on and praised the early returns he saw from the team as it came together during the buildup to the 2023-24 season, saying the group has ‘the ingredients to be a winning basketball team’ and could be his ‘first step in many of rebuilding.’

He refused, however, to mark progress by a number of victories, instead choosing to focus on getting players to ‘understand the process of winning.’

But instead of turning a page this fall, history repeated itself when the ball was tipped.

The Cardinals on Oct. 18 beat Simmons College by 41 points to open exhibition play but committed 22 turnovers and gave up 30 points in the paint. Those numbers had Payne walking out of the KFC Yum! Center wondering, ‘Exactly how good are we?’

He found out Oct. 30, when another Division II opponent, Kentucky Wesleyan, handed Louisville its second exhibition loss in as many seasons.

Heird supported Payne throughout the 2022-23 season, saying last January, ‘He hasn’t done one thing that has shown me that he shouldn’t be our basketball coach.

‘Now, does that mean that any of us are satisfied with two wins? Absolutely not,’ he added. ‘Like I said, it is extremely frustrating. I can assure you, it’s frustrating. I know it’s frustrating to Kenny. It’s frustrating to staff; and it’s frustrating to our student-athletes.’

The athletics director doubled down on that statement Oct. 9 during the team’s annual Tipoff Luncheon at the Galt House Hotel.

‘Kenny has character; Kenny cares about this community; Kenny cares about young people,’ he said. ‘Most importantly, Kenny cares about this university. I have all the confidence in the world this basketball program will make this fan base proud. We have a tremendous leader; we have a tremendous staff; we have an excellent group of young men who understand what it means to represent this university.

‘Most of you in this room don’t get to experience the day-to-day interactions with the people in this program, so trust me when I say this program is headed in the direction we all want it to go.’

Heird concluded his remarks by telling the crowd, ‘Be patient. The wins will come.’

They didn’t — not fast enough, at least.

Former Las Vegas Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Jon Gruden is back in the game … but not in the NFL.

The Milano Seamen, five-time Italian Bowl champions in the European League of Football, announced Wednesday that Gruden will work with the team as an advisor to help improve all aspects of the organization.

It will be the first official football job for Gruden since he resigned from the Raiders five games into the 2021 season after emails he sent containing racist, misogynistic and homophobic language became public. 

Gruden, 60, coached 15 seasons in the NFL with the Raiders and Bucs, winning a Super Bowl after the 2002 season with Tampa Bay.

Gruden called the emailcontroversy ‘shameful,’ but has maintained that he still hopes he’ll get a second chance to return into coaching.

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In November 2021 shortly after submitting his resignation, Gruden filed a lawsuit against the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell, alleging that the league leaked the contents of the inflammatory emails in an effort to force him out as Raiders coach.

The suit is still ongoing with a panel of the Nevada Supreme Court hearing aurguments in January. The NFL wants Gruden’s suit thrown out, arguing that a clause in his contract required him to file his claim through league arbitration, rather than the courts.

Now that he’s back, C.J. Gardner-Johnson is saying sorry.

On the same day he reportedly signed a three-year contract with the Philadelphia Eagles worth up to $33 million, the cornerback posted a message on social media apologizing for previous comments he had made about the Philadelphia fan base, after he had played for the team.

‘I do owe the fans of Philly an apology,’ Gardner-Johnson wrote in a message that published Tuesday to his social media. ‘Regardless this is an amazing place and we had some memories together! Let’s go get us one #FlyEaglesFly.’

The Eagles traded for Gardner-Johnson in August 2022 after he had played the first three seasons of his career for the New Orleans Saints. Gardner-Johnson, then 25, enjoyed his most productive season, posting career highs in tackles (67) and interceptions (six), which tied Minkah Fitzpatrick, Justin Simmons and Riq Woolen for most in the NFL.

Gardner-Johnson helped the Eagles make it all the way to the Super Bowl, before they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs. He was on an expiring contract that year and he signed a one-year contract with the Detroit Lions the following offseason.

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That was when his controversial comments began. First, in March 2023, he said Detroit’s roster was ‘a little better’ than Philadelphia’s, despite its Super Bowl run.

Then, in July 2023, during a livestream in which he was playing video games, a fan asked Gardner-Johnson what his favorite and least favorite things were about Philadelphia.

‘All right, my least favorite thing is the people,’ Gardner-Johnson said during the livestream. ‘They’re (expletive) obnoxious. I (expletive) can’t stand the (expletives).’

Gardner-Johnson, who is from east central Florida, said his favorite thing was the weather, despite the cold.

In 2023, Gardner-Johnson appeared in three games before he suffered a torn pectoral muscle that prematurely ended his season. He recorded 17 tackles and one interception during his brief time in Detroit.

Although he was injured and away from the team, Gardner-Johnson was ultimately vindicated concerning his comments comparing the Lions and Eagles rosters. Detroit would go on to a historic run to the NFC championship game – ultimately losing to the San Francisco 49ers – while the Eagles collapsed, losing five of their last six regular-season games, before a wild-card round exit in a 23-point loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

New year, same sticky business when it comes to NFL running backs.

They are still prone to get the short end of the league’s gold-plated money stick.

Look at Aaron Jones. After making his mark as one of the best running backs in franchise history for the Green Bay Packers, he’s ticketed to be a Minnesota Viking now.

Yeah, those Vikings. The ones the Cheeseheads would call a dreaded division rival. At least Jones, who moves with a one-year, $7 million deal that becomes official when the NFL’s free agency market officially opens on Wednesday at 4 p.m. ET, will have a chance to extract revenge at least twice a year in the NFC North.

Never mind the praise for Jones as a first-class locker room guy or his nose for the end zone.

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He’s 29, with the mileage of 1,177 career carries and 272 receptions. And, well, he apparently wouldn’t take a big enough pay cut to stay in Green Bay.

Instead, the Packers brought in his replacement, Josh Jacobs, on a four-year, $48 million contract that averages $12 million – which is what Jones averaged on his last contract.

Jacobs, by the way, is three years younger than Jones.

Frozen tundra or not, it’s a cold business.

Jacobs, remember, was franchise-tagged by the Las Vegas Raiders last year ($10.091 million) after winning the NFL’s rushing crown in 2022. So, he’s landed the desired long-term deal. But did it really have to go down like that?

Saquon Barkley can ask something similar. Like Jones, Barkley has made an intra-division move to the Philadelphia Eagles after playing on the franchise tag last season. His new deal (three years, $37.75 million, per multiple reports) guarantees $26 million and averages $12.583 million.

And he gets the bonus of leaving the New York Giants for a team that, even with Jason Kelce’s retirement, provides a much more formidable wall of blockers.

Still, Barkley might have earned more if he had settled up with the Giants last year … while the Giants might have kept him if they had come with a bigger offer.

In any event, Barkley has grabbed a seat in what has resembled a game of musical chairs in what has been a rather bustling market, to some degree, for running backs.

D’Andre Swift, 25, got a nice bump from his rookie contract, which averaged about $2.135 million. In moving from the Eagles to the Chicago Bears on a three-year, $24 million deal, he’s averaging $8 million.

Right place. Right time. Right age.

‘In a general sense, I think it’s good that running backs are getting paid again,’ agent Peter Schaffer told USA TODAY Sports. ‘That’s a good thing.’

Schaffer represents running back Joe Mixon, which means he’s caught the drift on how the winds have been blowing.

When the NFL’s ‘legal tampering’ period opened on Monday, reports circulated that the Cincinnati Bengals would cut Mixon, who’s pushing 28.

By Tuesday, the plot twist emerged. The Bengals will trade Mixon to the Houston Texans.

Schaffer suspected that Mixon might hit the market; the Bengals subsequently struck a deal at $4 million per year for former Indianapolis Colts running back Zack Moss.

‘In the NFL, you always have to prepare for anything,’ Schaffer said.

Still, Mixon took a pay cut last year to stay with the Bengals. Now, rather than hitting the open market for a chance at going to the highest bidder, that option was nullified. At least he’s going to the Texans now. After years of stumbling, they stunned the NFL universe and won the AFC South title, later advancing to the AFC divisional playoffs behind rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud.

No, even though the musical chairs have filled up fast and the NFL’s salary cap is at a record $255.4 million, the running backs are not getting crazy money, relatively speaking.

The market was hardly reset. Christian McCaffrey’s $16 million average pay from the San Francisco 49ers still is the top mark at the position. And just like last year, only six running backs are slated to average more than the franchise tag number (increased to $11.951 million, lower than any tag except for kickers and punters), while several decidedly average wide receivers top that amount.

Derrick Henry? The Baltimore Ravens might have scored another coup in luring the bruising running back but didn’t have to break the bank. Henry, who averaged $12.5 million on his last contract with the Tennessee Titans, moves with an $8 million-per-year deal.

Meanwhile, Henry’s former team reached a deal with the younger Tony Pollard for that same average…which is a pay cut as Pollard played under the franchise tag ($10.091 million) last year for the Dallas Cowboys.

And for all of the negotiating twists that touchdown machine Austin Ekeler experienced with the Los Angeles Chargers in 2023 while averaging $6.125 million, he’s settled with the Washington Commanders on a two-year, $11.43 million contract averaging nearly $2 million less than his previous pact.

Ekeler is approaching 29, which apparently is not the best negotiating chip for a running back.

Sure, running backs are valuable. The movement as the market opens reflects the need. And teams will beg for that value during their playoff drives in January.

Yet putting a high price tag on that value remains a tough bargain for NFL running backs.

A year after Arizona State University announced a raise and contract extension for men’s basketball coach Bobby Hurley, keeping him with the Sun Devils through the 2025-26 season, the parties have not signed an enforceable contract, The Arizona Republic and USA TODAY Sports have learned.

ASU has nevertheless paid Hurley the increased salary based on a signed term sheet, which is non-binding, according to Lisa Loo, the university’s senior vice president and general counsel.

ASU refused to release the document, citing its “policies regarding the confidentiality of public records.” The terms of the unsigned contract extension were approved by the Arizona Board of Regents in April 2023 and included up to a $2 million buyout, should Hurley leave ASU early for a coaching job with another school.

But absent a signed extension, Hurley could leave ASU this summer and owe the university nothing.

His signed contract expires June 30.

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“We should have this thing done in the next couple of days,” Hurley’s agent, Matthew Kelly of Excel Sports Management, told The Republic on Tuesday, blaming the holdup on the university, which is still searching for an athletics director after Ray Anderson resigned in November. “I’d say that getting stuff done at Arizona State, and not just Ray but a lot of the folks there sometimes, it’s just a challenge, to say that in the nicest way.”

Hurley’s unsigned contract extension came to light when ASU failed to produce the document in response to an open records request by USA TODAY, which maintains a database of major NCAA college coaches’ salaries. The Republic is part of the USA TODAY Network.

ASU (14-17, 8-12) has lost five of its last six games, leading some Sun Devils fans to speculate about Hurley’s future with the program.

No. 11-seeded ASU will play No. 6 Utah at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday in the first round of the final Pac-12 Tournament at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Both schools move to the Big 12 Conference next year, along with Arizona and Colorado.

Hurley, one of the state’s highest-paid public employees, has led the Sun Devils to the NCAA Tournament in three of the last five years it was played, excluding the COVID-19 season, when the tournament was canceled because of the pandemic. ASU would have made the bracket that year, as well. The Sun Devils won a play-in game last year but have not advanced beyond the first round in Hurley’s tenure. He has a 155-130 record since joining Arizona State in 2015.

An unusual situation in Tempe

ASU also said it does not have a signed contract for men’s basketball assistant coach Yusuf Ali, who is in his first season with the program.

“It’s extraordinarily unusual,” said Martin Greenberg, the founder and former director of the National Sports Law Institute at Marquette University. “Most term sheets say, ‘good faith negotiation,’ they put a drop-dead date on it, which is important, and basically there is a contract that comes out of that. Even with some of the most recent hires in college football, with the jumping going on, there were term sheets and they were followed by contracts. Signed contracts. So this is unusual.”

The situation raises questions about the ASU athletics department’s business operations under Anderson, at a time when the university is still searching for his successor and its archrival, the University of Arizona, is under intense scrutiny because of financial mismanagement partially attributed to its athletics department.

The Arizona Board of Regents oversees both universities.

“The board approves terms, but universities are responsible for executing the contract,” wrote Megan Gilbertson, the Arizona Board of Regents’ associate vice president of communications, in an email to The Republic.

Gilbertson’s comment appears to contradict the first sentence of Hurley’s contract, which reads that it is executed by and between the Arizona Board of Regents for and on behalf of Arizona State University and its Department of Sun Devil Athletics, and Robert Hurley.

“I finally, about a week or two ago, got reconnected with their general counsel (at ASU),” Kelly, the coach’s agent, told The Republic, “but in the absence of Ray being there, there wasn’t really anyone to run down even these minor issues we had, so it kind of just sat. …

“I wouldn’t say it’s super alarming. But I think for obvious reasons there, and being as long as it is, I can see how it would raise a red flag.”

Hurley was paid $2.6 million in fiscal 2022, making him the state’s second-highest paid public employee, behind only former ASU football coach Herm Edwards, according to public records.

The most recent amendment to Hurley’s contract, signed in 2019, shows he was entitled to $2.7 million this season.

The unsigned contract extension announced in March 2023 added two years to Hurley’s deal, continuing his employment through June 30, 2026, and increased his annual compensation to $2.8 million on July 1, 2023.

Further opportunities for incentives

It also increases his annual compensation by another $100,000 each subsequent year and provides further opportunities to increase his salary by up to $425,000 each year based on the team’s performance.

Hurley also remains eligible for more than $2 million each year in one-time performance incentive bonuses.

The extension also would grant Hurley a $600,000 retention bonus on Jan. 1, 2026. He would still collect the full amount were he fired without cause after Jan. 1, 2025, and half were he fired without cause before then.

“Because the university expects that the contract will be finalized imminently,” a school spokesperson wrote in closing a public record request, “ASU is currently honoring the salary terms approved by the Board pending execution of the final form of the contract. However … none of the other amendment terms will take effect until the amendment is actually signed.”

Hurley, Anderson were ‘attached at the hip’

When ASU announced Hurley’s extension, the coach praised his close relationship with Anderson, who resigned eight months later amid an NCAA investigation for alleged recruiting violations by the football team and a self-imposed bowl ban.

“Ray Anderson hired me here and brought me in and we’ve been attached at the hip,” Hurley said, “and Ray showed additional commitment to me and he believes in what I’ve been able to do.”

In his original contract, Hurley’s buyout started at $3 million and was reduced each year thereafter, with the coach owing nothing if he terminated the agreement in the final year of the deal. It also stipulated that his buyout would be cut in half were Anderson no longer athletics director.

The unsigned extension sets Hurley’s buyout at $2 million if he terminates the agreement before June 30, 2024, and at $1.5 million for the following year.

“The name of the game is jumping. You see it all the time,” Greenberg said. “Twenty-five percent of coaches each year leave their jobs and go to another school. The recipient universities, through what we call ‘accountability plans,’ pay those fees. And all the contracts have them, so he’s never going to pay that.”

Buyouts for college coaches are considered tax-deductible business expenses by the IRS, he said, which means the tab ultimately falls on the public.

Jason Wolf is a sports enterprise and investigative reporter for The Arizona Republic. Contact him at jason.wolf@gannett.com and follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @JasonWolf. Arizona Republic sports reporter Michelle Gardner contributed to this report.