Kenny Payne and John Calipari (Twitter Photo)
New Louisville basketball coach Kenny Payne was on John Calipari’s staff at Kentucky for 10 years and certainly said how the Wildcats took the upper hand in the UK-Louisville rivalry.
“I think when we talk about the rivalry, the one thing that we have to remember — it’s not on this man (Calipari) to bring the rivalry,” Payne said. “It’s on us. It’s on the University of Louisville.”
Calipari and Payne were the keynote speakers at the Kentucky Chamber dinner last week in Louisville. Payne wants to see Louisville, where he played on a national championship team, become a top program again.
“This state is going to only be as good as we both are. And that’s one of the reasons I took this job. We need this rivalry to be intense, respectful, but also very competitive,” Payne said.
“If Kentucky is way on top and Louisville is way on the bottom, it’s not where it needs to be. I can’t begin to tell you how many people called me: ‘Kenny, you’ve gotta take the job so that we can have both of these schools on top.’”
Payne had left Calipari’s staff to become an assistant coach with the New York Knicks before returning to his alma mater.
“We have to build a culture to where it’s a real rivalry again,” Payne said.
