Brown: Patience with Hubert Davis paying off. Will it work for Kenny Payne at Louisville?

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Watching coach Hubert Davis position No. 3 North Carolina atop the ACC standings and among the short list of teams that have legitimate national-title hopes belies the fact that for the better part of his first two seasons, there were rumblings questioning if he was even fit for the job.

Louisville coach Kenny Payne finds himself in a similar position two seasons into his tenure.

Payne and the Cardinals found themselves on the end of another loss after a feisty effort, falling 86-70 to the Tar Heels on Wednesday night at the Dean E. Smith Center.

Seeing that Davis has solidified his standing in Chapel Hill in his third season begs the question, how much time is enough for a new coach to prove worthy? Would a third season for Payne be any different than the first two?

For much of the early part of this season, there wasn’t much of a reason to think the answer was anything but no.

Now? I’m not so sure.

Payne hasn’t begun actively lobbying for another year. He added that he doesn’t know how much time is enough time for coaches to prove themselves. But he made reference to the problems of the program when he took over.

“In my world, inheriting what I inherited, this is really Year 1 for me because this is the first time I get to bring my players in and start the process of rebuilding a program,” Payne said.

Like Payne, Davis took over at his alma mater. But Davis had a very different kind of pressure taking over for Hall of Fame coach Roy Williams. Davis had served on staff and actually helped recruit the roster he inherited when he became head coach.

Not even five games into his first season, as Wes Miller, another former UNC player now in its coaching tree, led Cincinnati to an early upset of a top 15-ranked Illinois squad, the Heels stumbled with losses to a pair of ranked opponents in Purdue and Tennessee.

Davis’ embarrassments continued through a 29-point loss to Kentucky and a 20-point home loss to Duke. It wasn’t a 4-28 record, but it was unacceptable nonetheless.

Davis had to show something. He had to provide a reason to believe in him as a coach, and that happened by leading Carolina to the 2022 national title game in an improbable run as an eight seed.

It didn’t solve everything, especially when the Heels didn’t make the NCAA Tournament last season and were labeled by many as the most disappointing team. But the Final Four earned him enough patience to get to Year 3, where he has Carolina playing to its standard.

Payne is at that crossroad, too. He has got to show something and give U of L reason to believe a third year would be different.

If he’s able to pull that off, the turning point came at Miami.

Something happened with the Cards in their win against the Hurricanes. Of course, they can’t rest on that win the rest of the schedule. But there are no signs that they are.

Louisville trailed by 20 in the first half against Carolina and given how the Heels embarrassed Syracuse, 103-67, in their last home game, there was a chance it could have gotten way out of hand.

It didn’t.

U of L cut its deficit to 55-50 with 12:38 left in the second half. It was close enough to wake up the crowd in the Dean E. Smith Center that had largely been lulled into complacency based on Carolina's 22-point margin of victory in seven previous home games.

The Cards didn’t have the depth or the personnel to complete the comeback, but it looks as if Payne is starting to break through with this team.

“We feel like we’re very close,” said Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, who had 15 points and six rebounds. “… We keep grinding every day and keep fighting to figure out how to translate all this fighting into wins.”

With a schedule that was front-loaded with the teams projected at the top of the league and a February that is littered with more teams from the bottom half of the conference, U of L will have more than enough chances to stack wins.

That stretch, more than his previous season and a half, will be the time for Payne to show whether he’s earned a third season.

Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at clbrown1@gannett.com, follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville basketball: How patient should U of L be with Kenny Payne?