Who will Louisville turn focus towards in AD Josh Heird's botched coaching search?

Inexperienced AD Josh Heird is scrambling to find Kenny Payne's replacement after Scott Drew and Dusty May both turned his offers down

Louisville athletic director Josh Heird has turned the Cardinals’ basketball coaching search into an epic disaster after failing to land his top two targets to replace Kenny Payne.

After missing on Scott Drew, who spurned Louisville to remain at Baylor, and Dusty May, who shocked the inexperienced Heird by choosing Michigan at the 11th hour, Heird’s program now appears an embarrassing dumpster fire nationally. 

Louisville’s problem is simple: Weak, incompetent leadership. It’s been a botched search from the beginning. 

Heird, and everyone in Louisville, has known for months, and months and months that he’d be hiring Kenny Payne’s replacement at the conclusion of the 2023-24 campaign. A competent, worthy AD would have had his ducks in a row to quickly name a top coach who could begin work rebuilding Louisville’s substandard roster, which lost 24 games in Payne’s miserable final season. 

But Heird clearly didn’t have his ducks in a row. Now, after going 0 for 2, Heird is on his last strike. And his next options likely won't excite or inspire a fanbase desperate for winning basketball. 

Following May’s shocking decision, college basketball talking head Jeff Goodman threw out a few duds who simply won’t be palatable to the vast majority of the Louisville faithful. Shaheen Holloway, who has one N.C.A.A. Tournament bid in six seasons as a Division 1 coach and a career 54 percent winning percentage, simply isn’t qualified for the Louisville job. College of Charleston coach Pat Kelsey and South Florida coach Amir Abdul-Rahim, like Holloway, aren’t qualified either. 

If Heird and his bosses have any hopes of salvaging this botched search, they’ll drop the self-imposed, holier-than-thou limiting act and consider a wider group of candidates, including possibilities like Ole Miss coach Chris Beard and McNeese State coach Will Wade. 

I don’t expect that to happen. So who is the next best option after Drew and May?