If it wasn’t clear before Kenny Payne hired rising star Nolan Smith away from Duke, it should be now: the man is not messing around about rebuilding Louisville basketball.
In a clever and pretty funny move, really, he didn’t hire DJ Wagner’s dad as a coach, a la Larry Brown and Danny Manning.
He hired the grandad. And it makes perfect sense. Actually, it’s kind of hard to argue about it.
Milt Wagner starred at Louisville in 1986 when the Cards beat Duke for the NCAA championship.
He had a long career. He’s been around players like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy and Magic Johnson.