LOUISVILLE, Ky. – There is a single moment when it all seems the same, when the Louisville Cardinals execute a defensive rotation that looks like a group of third-graders at their first ballet class, and the coach on the sideline punctuates the chaos with a raging stomp of his right foot. The illusion is shattered in a glance. The foot belongs to David Padgett, the interim U of L coach, who still has not worked his first real game.
Rick Pitino is who-knows-where.
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A couple hours earlier, when I asked Padgett how strange it all feels, he laughed for five seconds.
“There’s been certain moments that have been stranger than others,” he told Sporting News, sitting in the head coach’s corner office at the KFC Yum! Center. “The first time I was down here in this office, the first time I sat down at the desk in my office on campus, which obviously used to be Coach Pitino’s. Last week, the first time on the sidelines …
“All just because it’s stuff I’ve never done before. You’re here as a player. You’re here as an assistant. You’re so used to the way things are. And all of a sudden, it’s just 180 degrees different. But the more time goes on, the more accustomed to it I get.”
We sit together on the 40th day of Padgett’s tenure as Louisville’s interim head men’s basketball. He was named to the position the same week the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York issued criminal complaints against 10 men involved in basketball, documents that contained information about activities involving a “University 6” that, at the very least, broke NCAA regulations if proved true. University 6 was not named, but hardly was disguised. Already smarting from recent NCAA sanctions that resulted from the charges contained in the salacious book “Breaking Cardinal Rules,” Louisville decided the Pitino era had gone on long enough and put him on unpaid lead.
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Padgett’s time in this position is expected to last at least another three months, although U of L athletics isn’t writing many guarantees in ink these days. If things go really well – really, really well – then it’s not out of the question that the “interim” part of that label could be removed and the rest remain.
He tries not to think about that, which isn’t hard because there is so much else to consider. He had to build a staff immediately; he was fortunate that former Stanford coach Trent Johnson was willing to lend his expertise, and that Ohio State’s dismissal of Thad Matta meant Greg Paulus was available. They’re still getting acquainted and comfortable with each other.
Louisville doesn't have a permanent president or athletic director, so who knows if the next people to fill those positions will want stability or a shot at such talents as Mick Cronin at Cincinnati, Chris Mack at Xavier or Gregg Marshall at Wichita State? It is inescapable, though, Padgett is being given the opportunity to audition for not only this job but every single Division I head coaching position that will open in the spring. And there usually are a lot.
“More than anything, I think the biggest benefit for me – because my goal has always been to be a head coach – is the experience of doing so for a year,” Padgett said. “You always think, as an assistant, ‘If I become a head coach, what do I do? How do I do things?’ And now, all of a sudden, I get thrown into it and I’ve got to figure it out on the fly.
“However long the season is, I want our players to enjoy it more than anything. Because I remember being a college basketball player; you only get however many years: four, sometimes five. You need to enjoy your season. This one obviously got off to a bit of a rocky start, but I just want to be sure they enjoy it however they can.”
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Padgett remembers because it hasn’t been that long. He finished his career as an All-Big East center with the Cardinals in 2008, played two years in Spain, spent a year in a low-level staff position at U of L and then three seasons as an assistant at IUPUI. He became a Louisville assistant in 2014.
What he didn’t learn from Pitino while practicing for one season as a transfer and then playing for three more a decade ago, he got the chance to cover that during three years as an assistant. He must have done something right, because when the Cardinals recognized Pitino no longer would be their coach they requested a meeting with interim school president Greg Postel and requested Padgett be placed in charge.
“David Padgett has been with me since my freshman year. And even the freshman guys, he spent a couple months with us over the summer,” senior center Anas Mahmoud told SN. “We heard him every day in practice. He’d yell; he was always the loudest assistant coach on the staff. It’s not a new voice. And it’s not anybody who was outside of us. There’s always going to be a difference. You were recruited by a different coach; you can’t deny that.
“When we met, we didn’t want any changes to our system. David Padgett was the best man for the job.”
The Louisville players have had to process the fact they went from performing under a coach who has been in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame since 2013 to one whose official record will be 0-0 until the Cardinals open their season Sunday afternoon at the Yum against George Mason.
“It’s different,” said junior wing Deng Adel, a potential star who scored 21 points in Tuesday’s exhibition victory over Division II power Bellarmine. “Coach P is one of the greatest coaches ever. But DP has been under coach P a lot, so he’s learned from him. As we’re learning as a group, he’s also learning how to coach.”
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Sophomore forward V.J. King was less effusive when approached to discuss the coaching transition, but Padgett mentioned a text he received from King as being among the most poignant moments in that week of bedlam.
“We were all sitting as a staff wondering if we were going to have a job the next morning,” Padgett said. “V.J. sent me a text that said, ‘Please don’t let them bring somebody else in here. You’re the only coach I want to play for.’ I almost got tears in my eyes when I read that.’ ”
One reason this circumstance has such potential for Padgett can be assembled from that list of players: Mahmoud, Adel, King – along with point guard Quentin Snider and forward Ray Spalding. This is one of the most talented lineups in Division I. The players behind them are mostly freshman, but forward Jordan Nwora has shooting stroke that would make angels weep and Darius Perry should be able to handle the minutes necessary of a third guard.
If by some chance McDonald’s All-American Brian Bowen is cleared by the NCAA to compete – he was suspended by the school in response to allegations in the Justice Department documents his family was promised a six-figure payment in exchange for his commitment to U of L – the talent will be even more abundant.
Padgett could not be more pleased with how they’ve all dealt with the absurdity of their circumstance. Not every day of practice has been a masterpiece, but when he challenged them to improve upon one particularly miserable day he saw an immediate response.
“The way they’ve handled this whole thing has been unbelievable,” he said. “I have a special group here. They want to work. They want to be good. I always tell them: I’m not going to get on you guys unless you give me a reason to. I just coach them according to how they’re playing that day.
“I’m certainly not as sarcastic as the guy I learned from, Coach Pitino, but I have my moments. I remember being in my shoes, things that I thought were productive. I just try to take that, remember that, and use it as I see fit.”
Padgett last spoke to Pitino following the transition, then exchanged texts with him after the Cardinals had a “pro day” for NBA scouts a month ago. Pitino asked who had performed well, how the session went.
“He’s obviously got a lot going on,” Padgett said. “I think he knows that he’s got to take care of what he’s got to take care of, and our program has to take care of what we want to take care of. And he wants the players to listen to me. He wants us to move forward, the way we need to.”
