College Hoops Today

Serving College Basketball 365 Days a Year

Louisville’s Kenny Payne on Skyy Clark: “By the end of this season, I expect him to be one of the best guards in the country”

Great seasons in college basketball aren’t possible without great guard play and no one knows that better than Kenny Payne.

As an assistant under John Calipari at Kentucky, Payne was regularly coaching many of the top perimeter players in the sport.

He now hopes that will again be the case during his second season at Louisville with Illinois transfer Skyy Clark.

“By the end of this season, I expect him to be one of the best guards in the country,” Payne said of Clark on this week’s edition of the College Hoops Today Podcast. “He’s got the keys to the program, the keys to the car. He’s very poised. He’s got a chip on his shoulder and he’s got a lot to prove.”

The 6-3 guard averaged seven points, 3.7 rebounds, and 2.1 assists last season at Illinois in 13 games before transferring.

Clark initially committed to Kentucky out of high school before starting his career with the Illini.

Louisville is coming off a 4-28 season in its first year under Payne and was ranked 11th among ACC teams in this week’s ACC Offseason Breakdown.

Leftovers