Louisville has always been a well funded basketball program. Whatever the difference between their 2023-24 NIL budget and this season's budget, it was dwarfed by the enormous gap in coaching ability between Payne and Kelsey. "NIL", and before that, "the bag", are convenient excuses for teams that don't win. There is a reason that UNC hoops, for example, is vastly underachieving despite enormous financial resources. Coaching matters more than NIL. The current myth/rationalization about why the SEC is suddenly the premier basketball league has also been reduced to a simplistic "they buy the best players" argument. The reality is that their coaching lineup is far superior to, for example, the ACC's.