Kenny Payne adding Duke's Nolan Smith to Louisville coaching staff

Kenny Payne is expected to take one of Coach K’s young prodigies from Duke’s coaching staff as Payne’s first piece on his Louisville staff. Nolan Smith, a former Duke guard and assistant coach, reportedly told the Blue Devils he will not return to the team next season to begin the next era of the Brotherhood.

Multiple reports say Smith will instead join Kenny Payne at Louisville as Payne’s associate head coach. The connection is strong there because Payne was very close to Smith’s father, the late Derek Smith who was a Louisville Cardinal a few years before Payne arrived on Louisville’s campus. Smith won a national championship with the Cards in 1980 and mentored Payne early in his playing career.

Nolan Smith did not follow his father’s path to U of L as a player but he was born in Louisville and will return home to coach at his father’s alma mater for his father’s close friend. If the reported associate head coaching tag is true, Smith will go from his first full-time assistant job to an associate head coaching job in the span of only one year. Smith’s first five seasons at Duke were in operations.

Expect this announcement soon, then expect Kenny Payne to find someone with some head coaching experience.