During College GameDay in January, Greenberg called on Louisville to hire Kenny Payne as its next head coach. 1:06
The New York Knicks assistant coach will be the next men's basketball coach at the University of Louisville, according to sources.
Payne, who will be the program's first Black head coach, has been viewed as the favorite to replace Chris Mack since Louisville's search began in January.
The University of Louisville will hold a news conference on Friday at the KFC Yum! The arena is home to the center.
Payne was selected in the first round of the 1989 NBA draft after winning a national championship at Louisville.
He is one of the top college basketball recruiters.
Payne began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Oregon and later worked under John Calipari at Kentucky. Kentucky finished with the No. 1 recruiting class in 2010 and 2011. Payne helped improve a number of post players during his time in Kentucky.
He is a dear friend of mine and they could not hire anyone that would do a better job than Kenny Payne.
The past two seasons, Payne was an assistant with the Knicks.
According to sources, Payne was Louisville's top choice throughout the process, even though he was considered a number of other candidates.
Mack parted ways with Louisville in January. At the time of Mack's departure, the Cards were 11-9 and finished the season with a 13-19 record.
Mack took over again after he was suspended, but Mike Pegues served as interim coach for two periods, guiding the Cards to a 5-1 start.
The NCAA tournament was canceled in 2020 due to the coronaviruses, but Louisville went to the tournament in both 2020 and 2019.
The federal corruption investigation of college basketball could result in NCAA penalties. The Independent Accountability Resolution Process (IARP) is looking into the allegations against the Louisville basketball program.
The report was contributed to by the Associated Press.
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