5 candidates to be next Louisville men’s basketball coach

Rick Pitino is obviously gone, and David Padgett will not be retained, so here are five candidates to be the next Louisville men’s basketball coach.

Under the circumstances surrounding Rick Pitino’s dismissal, Louisville interim head coach David Padgett did about as well as he could have this season. The Cardinals won 22 games, including two in the NIT, but the school announced on Wednesday Padgett will not be retained.

With the specter of a FBI investigation and NCAA penalties that have been levied, Louisville is a tarnished men’s basketball brand right now. But it’s still in a marquee conference with significant backing in the local community and from boosters, which creates the ability to rebuild back to great prominence fairly quickly.

Here are five candidates to take over the Louisville men’s basketball program going forward.

5. Tubby Smith

Through his last three jobs since leaving Kentucky, at Minnesota, Texas Tech and Memphis, Smith has seemed to be indifferently settled into some sort of retirement. His teams have only made the NCAA Tournament twice in the last eight seasons, with more than 20 wins just three times over that span.

But by all accounts Smith does things the right way, even with the “get off my lawn” sentiment as he lamented player transfers just prior to being let go at Memphis. That running of clean programs may be very important to Louisville, after Rick Pitino’s unbelievable pleas of ignorance to what was going on around him.

Smith followed Pitino at Kentucky, so he knows the drill with that and had a lot of success during most of his tenure there. At 67 years old by the time next season starts, Smith does not bring a lot more than name recognition to the table. But he might be just the kind of guy Louisville would like to have in place for a few years.