Louisville expected to hire Kenny Payne as men's basketball coach

Kenny Payne is coming back to the Bluegrass State. 

Louisville is expected to announce Payne as the school's next men's basketball coach, marking an end to the Cardinals' ongoing search following Chris Mack's departure. The school has called an athletics board meeting to approve the decision and has announced a press conference for Friday morning. 

The former first-round draft pick played at Louisville from 1985-89. He won a national championship with the Cardinals in 1986 and went on to average nearly 15 points per game in his senior season. After being selected 19th overall by the Philadelphia 76ers, Payne played four seasons in the NBA and began his coaching journey in 2004. 

Payne started his coaching career as an assistant coach at Oregon before serving as a long-time assistant under John Calipari at Kentucky. His most recent coaching stint was with the New York Knicks. 

Louisville also reportedly considered a number of high-profile candidates for the position, including UCLA's Mick Cronin and Baylor's Scott Drew, before betting on Payne. 

On Wednesday, Calipari lauded Louisville's decision to bring Payne back to the state of Kentucky.

"They could not hire anybody that will do a better job than Kenny Payne. … They get him, they got the best of the best."

Payne has built a reputation as one of the nation's best recruiters, luring in Skai Labissiere, De'Aaron Fox, Bam Adebayo and many other highly touted recruits during ten seasons at Kentucky. 

His immediate priority will be leading Louisville back from a 13-19 finish this past season. He will have to deal with possible NCAA penalties resulting from a 2017 federal corruption investigation of college basketball. Louisville awaits an outcome from The Independent Accountability Resolution Process (IARP) over NCAA allegations against the program following the federal corruption investigation of college basketball.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.