Most of my time spent on this website is showing you all the different ways you can lose money on sports betting. What most of you don’t know is that my actual job is that of a Pastor.
When you write a sermon, you try to find the balance of how a text so old can speak into a text that is still being written. This website is not a church, and this keyboard is not a pulpit, but as we sit here on the eve of the Kentucky game, I have a sermon that I just can’t get out of my head.
In the earliest scriptures, we follow the stories told by the Hebrew people. A theme that runs constant throughout their story is the theme of exile. For those new to the word, exile is when you are forced out of your home, your land, your familiar spaces and are forced to go somewhere else. You are forced to live in another land that is not yours as you watch people who are not you live in the place you used to call home.
It wasn’t that long ago that the rivalry game happening on Thursday was an event that wouldn’t take a backseat to the holiday happening a few days later. It was an event that we would schedule around, pause everything for, and live and die for. It was an event that had the ability to ruin or make holiday dinners with family. It was an event that would hold friendships captive and put relationships on pause.
This year, the day will come and the day will go without most of us even caring about the outcome.
This is what exile feels like.
Pictures will surface on Thursday evening of the Yum Center, our home, filled with a color blue that once was forbidden. Different faces with different names and different lives will fill seats that were once ours. Our parking spots that should be lined with cars flying red flags will now hold trucks with BBN on the license plates.
Even though nothing about the building will have changed, it won’t feel like home.
This is what exile feels like.
Today should have been spent watching videos, building excitement, and breaking down matchups. You should be talking trash to your coworker and sending that text to your buddy to raise the stakes of the game. You should be convincing yourself that DJ Wagner is not actually that good and convincing yourself that this is the game in which Mike James becomes a Louisville legend.
Instead, we are working, traveling, and moving forward as we do every day with no excitement and no hope for tomorrow.
This is what exile feels like.
Today during Kenny Payne’s press conference after yet another PR blunder I couldn’t help but notice how he does not seem to feel like he is in exile. He does not seem to be agonizing with how today feels compared to how it is supposed to feel.
In fact, it’s the opposite. While we struggle to find comfort, he seems to feel like he is right at home. He laughs, smiles, and talks about how he only wants to beat Kentucky by one point because of how much he cares for them. Tomorrow night, in a crowd of 80% Kentucky fans, when he is introduced, he will receive the largest applause that he has received since he took control of the program.
Kenny Payne isn’t in exile; he is at home. It is time for all of us to admit that Kenny Payne the kid was a Cardinal but Kenny Payne the adult is a Wildcat.
This is the point in a sermon where the tone would change. You would interject a big BUT and then share all the reasons for hope that the rivalry game might bring.
I don’t have any of that hope to offer.
I, like you, am still in exile wondering if I will ever get to go home. I am still in exile wondering if I will ever feel the way I once did. I am still in exile hoping that one day I can walk back into our arena, and it feel familiar. I am still in exile searching for a coach who is as upset and angry as I am.
My only hope is that once the buzzer sounds, once Kenny Payne hugs and laughs with coach Cal at midcourt, and once he makes one final embarrassing comment in the press conference. My only hope is that we wake up Friday, we shake hands, and we ask the man who used to be one of us to please let us have our home back.
No more excuses, no more PR blunders, no more give him time, no more it’s not all his fault, and no more blaming the kids for a leaders failures.
The issue with exile is that you never know how long it will last. I don’t know how many more days or challenges lie ahead, but on the eve of the day that I use to care about so much, I need it to be over soon.
We just want to go home.
Wow. So spot on!
The embarrassment came long before Kenny got there Chris Mack started it all
Well said, Corey. I feel your hurt. Onward and toward better days once again …
Kenny Payne is a BBN blueblood. There is no Cardinal spirit in him. He speaks with reverence for UK. That’s fine that he does that, but not as the coach of the University of Louisville Cardinals. He was a poor choice to begin with and AD Josh Heird needs to fire him before Christmas.
Yes. He does. We need Cardinal blood coaching are player’s!!
AMEN
Oh my goodness. What kind of pastor might you be in comparing a sporting event to people living in exile. I hope your deacon board is huddling today to find a replacement for you. It’s a game, life is real and full of challenges. You’re supposed to be Christ-like. Christ isn’t seated by the Father wringing his hands over the state of Louisville, Ky, Duke, NC, etc basketball programs. Stop this frivolous comparison with scripture, or find another job. Your neither pastor or writer. Go to GE and work.
Corey-
I share your sentiments, even though I’m not currently living in Louisville. As an alumnus, who proudly sat in the student section of Freedom Hall during the Denny Crum era. This particular time in Louisville Basketball is hard and I had such hope and anticipation when Kenny Payne “came home.” You said it, the man who spent time at UK is not the boy, kid student player from Louisville.
Also, I remember when you were a kid, well a young person and part of the youth group at SMBC. I did know you were a minister or a preacher as you referred to yourself. Glad to know you are still Louisville Fan.
The Cards played for UL and Kenny for about 4 minutes at start. After that they simply were not coachable. No point guard. No cohesion, trust, leadership, fight, pride, Yada yada. Full court press, zone press, matchup zone, sets were communicated and attempted without success. This UL team has no point guard. Danny Manning’s influence on post play and out of bounds plays was evident but UL players do not appear to like each other and quickly became “shoot first, pass later” bag packing selfish travelers. Interesting tattoos though. I wish Kenny the best. A new coach will immediately clean house. Watch the portal. Go CATS.
Leave him alone! Rome wasn’t built over night! There is nothing wrong with given any school a comment! It doesn’t mean that he’s not for U of L🤔if you can do a better job than he is, then go and apply! He took over a team that had a bad reputation, with a black cloud over it! They have to work thru it. Even if you put a hard core coach in place, they still have to work thru it, to get back their respect and momentum… period!!!
Amen who thinks that Kenny Payne is not the answer haven’t given him a chance you cannot build a college program overnight if you get rid of him you starting all over again I’m willing to bet those of you who have negative comments never played college basketball rebuilding building take time those guys he got in the transfer portal wouldn’t have played at the institution they were at but he got the best that he could be fan and let the man coach
It’s his second year!!! Instead of criticism how about some backing. This is very offensive to a true Cardinal fan but you are right on as a only fan when winning. I hope KP gets the chance to prove you and many other so called Louisville Fans WRONG!!! He can’t play the game for the players. UK has and will continue to be a one and gone team or a Jr NBA. That should really be looked into but let’s just get behind our NEW coach and see how this works out.
Shame on you and every U of L fan for treating him so cruel !!!!
Stop it with the bull if you don’t have the talent give him the 3 year’s like everyone else before yaw start bashing him
How ungrateful are Louisville fans? How forgetful are Louisville fans? Technically this is the first team for Kenny,last year’s team was a Chris mack holdover,give the man a chance to build and develop his team before you go calling for his job,
Wow! Everything wrong at UL Bball falls on Coach Payne? Sex on a restaurant table? Dorm scandal? Recruits receiving cash? Players apologizing on TV for missing curfew(adults don’t have to apologize for any indiscretion)? Banner taken down? Rush to BAD hires with a PACK LINE DEFENSE? Falling attendance since Coach Mack? No NBA team(Thanks Pitino/Jurich)? Give Coach Payne the same amount of time as you do with other(White) Coaches! Oh, wait, is that the double standard everyone says doesn’t exist 🤔?!?!
How ungrateful are Louisville fans? How forgetful are Louisville fans? Technically this is the first team for Kenny,last year’s team was a Chris mack holdover,give the man a chance to build and develop his team before you go calling for his job, your the one that let go of the rope not to basketball program get out and support them while they struggle just as you would if they were in the top 10.
The author of this hit piece is a moron. KP didn’t get your program to the dregs it is now; he’s been the one tasked with digging you out of a tailspin that began after your 2013 title was ripped from you for hosting stripper parties in Minardi Hall. Card fans are proving to be delusional in their quest to pin their programs downfall on the guy trying to resurrect it. You people are pathetic
Kenny Payne is and always will be a Louisville Cardinal. He is a gentleman who has carried himself well throughout his basketball career. People who are the first to cast a stone, will have to be the first to pick up their “heavy” stone and apologize to Coach Payne. I still think Coach Payne, given time, will return Louisville Basketball back to the prominence it has always had maintained. Be patient Louisville fans!!!
Coach Cal of Kentucky knows Kenny Payne. He said leave the man alone and let him coach — give him time.
Louisville lost their minds when they fired coach Pitino.
He was proven to be falsely accuse. Where would we be if he stayed?
Agree. My fear is that Payne will win just enough, say 14 wins, and the AD will say, see, he won 350% more games than last year. He has the team going back to the top again. We need to EXTEND his contract!!
I don’t think I would put the blame on Kenny Payne. If you look back at recent history they haven’t had a coach since Rick Pitino pulled his shenanigans that started all of this Kenny Payne needs time to rebuild what they’ve destroyed
Very well said Sir. We don’t ever need anyone ever associated with UK to ever be part of the UofL program in any sport ever again! We shall rise again. Once we have a new head coach that understands the pulse of UofL fans and understands how to coach winning basketball!
Amen and it is now time that Coach KP needs to step down gracefully. We have given Coach KP everything he needed to succeed. Only to fall from a top 10 program to a laughing program that is far from top 50! In year two where we thought with his ability to recruit that we would be successful again. But Coach KP admitted in the press conference that he cannot recruit the top players! After watching the players tired in the first half, and all through games. In another press conference he recently acknowledged that his players seemed tired! Obviously Coach KP didn’t think having a Strength and Conditioning coach or PR coach was important! In games, when his players need a lift by a timeout there is no timeout called, or a timeout is called, but no set play for a shot is called. This experiment with Coach KP needs to end. He may be a good assistant coach, but with no head coach experience, he cannot lead Louisville in men’s basketball!