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YouTube Gold: Louisville’s Loss To Lenoir-Rhyne

Okay, well not too golden. But still relevant.

By JD King
/ new
NCAA BASKETBALL: MAR 18 Div I Womens Championship - First Round - Albany at Louisville
 LOUISVILLE, KY - MARCH 18: New Louisville men’s head basketball coach Kenny Payne waves to the crowd during the first round of the NCAA Women’s National Championship Tournament college basketball game between the Albany Great Danes and the Louisville Cardinals on March 18, 2022 at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, KY.
Photo by James Black/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Louisville’s loss to Lenoir-Rhyne, not just a D-II team but a mediocre D-II team, was a bit of a shock.

The Cardinals are a historic program, one that has been good since at least the 1960’s. Louisville has moved through various conferences over the years - Missouri Valley to the Metro to C-USA to the Big East to the ACC - and they’ve always been good.

Payne played during the Denny Crum era and helped The Cardinals win the 1986 national title over Duke in Mike Krzyzewski’s first trip to the Final Four.

In short, it’s a basketball school to the core and losing to Gardner-Webb was awful.

You can’t really blame Payne. He inherited a mess and it won’t be cleaned up immediately. And to his credit, he said Louisville needed this loss to understand what needed to be done.

It’s not time for Louisville fans to bail certainly but there’s no doubt that the Cards need a lot of work.

Note: the embed is blocked for this video.

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