Kenny Payne is ready to push his son at UK

Big Blue Nation celebrated with Brad Calipari announced his decision to play for Kentucky. To most, that was a good indicator that John Calipari would be sticking around for a bit.

Now Kenny Payne’s son, Alexander, has committed to UK and KSR was able to sit down with Coach Payne to discuss what this means for his family.

“He will earn everything he gets,” Payne said of the opportunity Alexander will have playing at Kentucky. “I will push him beyond where he thinks he will go.”

Alexander is a 6’5” forward that had a strong career at Lexington Catholic before going down with a knee injury in December of his senior year. While that injury may have prevented him from receiving more scholarship offers, the Payne family seems just fine with Alexander staying in Lexington.

“His mother always wanted him to be a part of Kentucky so she could keep her hands on him,” Payne told T.J. Walker of KSR. “I could have gone either way with it.”

While he may say it would have been fine had Alexander gone elsewhere, it is obvious how stoked Kenny is to coach his son.

“I watch (Calipari) before every pregame speech, when he finishes he kisses his son. It shows a side of what we do and that it has another side,” Coach Payne said. “Now I get to be a part of it as well, probably a little meaner, but it’s a blessing for me to watch him.”

That’s all well and good, but what Kentucky fans really want to know is if Alexander playing in Lexington will keep his father around for a while.

“I think that me being at UK I have a dream job. I work for a great man who’s really, really good to me.”

That is not exactly a commitment to staying, it is obvious that Payne loves being on Calipari’s staff at Kentucky. I feel like 4-6 more years of Kenny Payne is a time frame that Kentucky fans will get behind, and that leads me to believe that Alexander will be a factor in Kenny staying for a few more years.

Thank you, Alexander Payne.