If there is one thing Kenny Payne has learned after decades in this business, it’s how to lower the temperature in a room. But his latest comments ahead of the Kentucky-Arkansas showdown might be his most ambitious attempt at damage control yet.
With the entire college basketball world focusing on the soap opera in Fayetteville tonight, Payne took the podium and tried to convince us that for the Arkansas coaching staff, John Calipari included, this is just another game.
In typical Cal fashion, Kenny Payne took the press conference duties heading into a game and spoke with the media.
“It’s not a personal thing,” Payne said. “It’s not our win versus their win as far as coaches... It’s us continuing to grow and get better as a team.”
I have a lot of respect for KP, but I have to stop him right there. Of course, it’s personal. You cannot spend over a decade building a dynasty in Lexington, leave for Arkansas, and then pretend that facing your old school is just about "growth."
This is Calipari vs. Kentucky. This is the Ex-Girlfriend Bowl. To suggest that the coaching staff doesn't want this win a little bit more than the others is simply ignoring human nature.
The white out bluff
Payne even went as far as to claim he didn't know about the planned "White Out" at Bud Walton Arena tonight.
“I didn’t know about the White Out,” Payne claimed.
Really? The entire campus is buzzing, social media is on fire, and the associate head coach didn't get the memo? I don’t buy it. I think the Arkansas staff knows exactly what the energy is going to be like.
Payne did pivot quickly, adding a warning that sounded a lot more like the truth: “If they don’t know the energy it’s going to take to win this game... then they’re a little bit delusional.”
The scouting report
To his credit, Payne was complimentary of Kentucky's resilience, even while acknowledging the disaster in Nashville earlier this week. He called the Vanderbilt loss a "burn the tape game" for Kentucky, refusing to take the bait that Mark Pope's team is falling apart.
“Those five games where they had to fight in the second half to come back and win... that says a lot about the character, the toughness of the team,” Payne noted.
He is right. Kentucky has shown character this season. But they haven't always shown it, and that crept up again against Vanderbilt.
Payne is saying all the right things. He is talking about "new places" and "new times." He is downplaying the D.J. Wagner and Billy Richmond narratives.
But when the ball goes up tonight, and Bud Walton Arena turns into a sea of white, all the polite "coach speak" is going to go out the window. This isn't just about "getting better." It's about beating the guys who replaced you. And deep down, Kenny Payne knows that just as well as we do.