HawgBeat - Arkansas' Kenny Payne: 'Our goal is to build a championship culture'
Arkansas basketball associate head coach Kenny Payne talks culture, goals for Razorbacks' program.
arkansas.rivals.com
From his time as a player under Louisville head coach Denny Crum to working for John Calipari at Kentucky, becoming an assistant for the New York Knicks and then failing to lead his alma mater Cardinals to the promised land, Arkansas associate head coach Kenny Payne has learned a thing or two about culture.
Now reunited with Calipari in Fayetteville, Payne hopes to learn from the highs and lows of his time in the world of basketball to engrain a championship-winning mindset in his Razorback players.
"When I look back over my career of just being in basketball…just being in the game, I think the foundation of what we do as basketball people is important," Payne said during his Hogs+ interview on Wednesday. "It’s important that you learn to be around great people, championship people, a culture that transcends time.
"Sort of like the Sidney Moncriefs, the Eddie Suttons, when you grow up in that time and you learn that foundation, it lasts forever. The basketball nuances of the game change, but the core of how you win, how you win championships, how you play together, how you teach togetherness, how you teach character, that stays the same."
RELATED: Arkansas Basketball 2024-25 Roster Tracker
Members of the fifth-ranked high school and highly-regarded transfer portal recruiting class have already begun reporting to campus for the Hoop Hogs, but that's only the first step in what will be a program-defining next few months for Payne and Arkansas.
"Over the last couple of days, a couple of guys have straggled in a little bit getting ready to start summer school," Payne said. "We're hoping by the end of this week, the beginning of next week, we have everybody here and we can start getting the guys acclimated medically, workouts, A to Z, so we can start the path of bringing a championship culture. That's the goal."
Headlined by transfers Johnell Davis and Jonas Aidoo and high school prospects Boogie Fland and Karter Knox (among others), Arkansas has an undeniable level of talent on its roster. The question, according to Payne, is if the group can become a cohesive unit aligned for 'one common goal.'
“I think we’ve got a good group of guys," Payne said. "Very talented. The goal with this group is not for them to think individually, but to think collectively. The best offensive teams are going to be the best passing teams, and they have to pass the ball to each other. The best defensive teams have to guard their man and one other, and they’ve all got to be on the same page and the chemistry has to be unbelievable to be a great defensive team.
"In order to do that, it’s not about the individual, it has to be about the group. It has to be one common goal: to possession by possession get stops, possession by possession run good offense, share the ball, take good shots. You do that, you give yourself a chance to win...our goal is to build a championship culture”
RELATED: Report - Arkansas to host Oakland for 2024-25 non-conference matchup
The transfer portal era of college athletics has introduced a "me-first" mentality around the country, a hurdle not so easily made by inexperienced coaches.
But Payne has been there, he's done that. No, not always in a successful fashion, but enough to earn the respect of his players. Enough to understand how to bring talented athletes with goals of their own together for one purpose: to win the final game of the season.
"Everybody in this society wants microwavable success," Payne said. "We need to nip that in the bud early. We need to say, ‘We’re building something, we’re not just trying to put it in the microwave and have it ready today.'"
"Every day Coach Cal was talking about that, and in order to build that culture, character matters. Truth-telling matters. It can’t just be about today, it’s about working today to master today so that in April, we’re playing in that last game."
