Willis (Texas) High five-star quarterback DJ Lagway – one of the jewels of a Florida recruiting class ranked No. 5 nationally – hosted head coach Billy Napier on Wednesday for an in-home visit.
“Everything was good,” Lagway’s father Derek said. “It went good. We just hung out and talked ball.
On Wednesday night, Louisville suffered another disheartening loss to Arkansas State. This 75-63 loss added to a long list of disappointing defeats for the Cardinals and it signaled the inevitable need for a change at the helm.
With the loss, Kenny Payne and the Cardinals dropped from 272 to 293 in the NCAA’s NET ranking and to 4-6 on the season. Ultimately, their NET ranking won’t matter as they have no shot of making the NCAA tournament this year. But it is indicative of a situation that began at the start of the season in bad shape and has only gotten worse.
Each time Louisville appears to have hit rock bottom, they seem to dig down and find a new low. At some point, something will need to be done to stop the fall.
After going just 4-28 – including just 2-18 in ACC play – during his inaugural season, it was widely accepted that the seat was starting to get warm for Payne and his staff. They needed to prove that the program was headed in a positive direction and they needed to do it quickly.
Although they’ve already equaled last season’s win total (three of their 4 wins coming courtesy of home comebacks against the likes of Bellarmine, UMBC and New Mexico State) this season’s version of the Cardinals doesn’t look that much better than the squad Payne trotted out last year. Now, all signs are pointing to an eventual breakup between Payne and the university that he helped win a national championship for as a player 1986.
Frankly, it’s time to ask the question of whether or not it’s fair to keep forcing Payne to take the sideline.
In-season firings suck. There’s no way around that. They suck even more when they involve a coach who is deeply connected to the program like Payne. There’s nothing easy about this. But do you know what else isn’t easy? Subjecting Payne and his team to even more ridicule from the media and frustrated fans.
