How Chris Mack fell so hard, so fast at Louisville: He just didnt handle all of this very well

August 06, 2024

On Sept. 29, 2020, Chris Mack leaned into the camera on his phone and hit record. At the time, the Cardinals were embroiled in a scheduling snafu with rival Kentucky, the two struggling to find a date to play the game known as The Game in the Commonwealth. Introducing himself as “your fearless leader,” Mack hurled a host of accusations at Wildcats coach John Calipari, claiming that Kentucky not only refused to play the game on the scheduled date, but even went behind Louisville’s back to ask ESPN to reschedule an ACC contest. Responding to criticisms from the greater Lexington area that he was ducking the game, Mack smirked. “I want to do whatever is most convenient for John and his program,’’ Mack said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Hot off a 24-7 season that included two weeks at No. 1 and ended only because of a pandemic, Mack reached peak Louisville approval rating with that video, firmly endearing himself to a fan base that covets two things above all others — winning and poking the bear down Interstate 64.

Sixteen months later, it’s over. Amid his team tanking and his players shrugging off questions about his impact, the man nearly universally hailed as the right and smart hire less than four years ago is out. Mack and Louisville on Wednesday agreed to an amicable divorce, announcing a mutual parting of the ways.

Louisville paid Mack $4.8 million — $133,000 per month for the next three years — to, essentially, go away.

The speed of Mack’s collapse left even veteran college basketball people gobsmacked. Asked how surprising Mack’s crash-and-burn at Louisville was, on a scale of 1 to 10, a power conference athletic director familiar with the landscape there replied: “At least a nine.”

Mack’s hasty departure is just the latest in a string of sagas for the once-proud Cardinals. Nine years ago they lifted a national championship trophy. Since then, the program has been caught in a sex scandal, named in the FBI sting operation, and embroiled in a five-year NCAA investigation. Already on probation, the school imposed a postseason ban in 2016, but has yet to be formally sanctioned. More than a decade after Rick Pitino accused a woman of extorting him, Mack filed his own extortion charges, against his own assistant. Mack won the suit, got suspended, and was added by the NCAA to the ever-growing list of Louisville transgressors. One athletic director, Tom Jurich, was forced out; another, Vince Tyra, walked away. When Mike Pegues coaches Louisville in its next game, it will be his second interim stint this season, and he will be the fourth coach to stalk the Cards’ sidelines since 2017. As one loyal fan put it, “I’m completely numb to ESPN’s ticker.’’

Yet even amid the constant drumbeat of drama at Louisville, few foresaw this swoon. Fans eagerly welcomed Mack when he was hired, impressed with his bona fides – nine years and eight NCAA Tournament appearances at Xavier, including a No. 1 seed in his final season at the Big East school – and convinced that his local ties (his wife, Christi, is a native) meant he understood the place. He, they believed, was the person to lead them out of the morass left behind after Pitino’s messy departure, and turn the embarrassing headlines into positive ones. “Everyone thought he was the right person for the job,’’ one 40-year season ticket holder says. “Now it’s just relief that it’s over.’’

So what happened? How did it fall apart so quickly? The answer is both complicated and simple. Ultimately, insiders say the external issues combined with Mack’s combative personality combusted, creating so much turmoil that the Cards collapsed like a house of cards — except from within.

It is possible, it turns out, that Louisville did get the right coach for the job. Just not the right man. They are two very different things. Lots of folks can X and O. Not all of them can X and O amid the cacophony of particular college basketball stops. Billy Gillespie won big at Texas A&M, and wilted at Kentucky. Matt Doherty could not handle the spotlight of his alma mater, but Roy Williams managed North Carolina just fine.

It’s worth noting how vastly different a pool Mack plunged into, in terms of on-the-job scrutiny. He coached for nearly a decade at a private school in a pro sports town, without an abundance of local media laser-focused on his every move. Mack more or less could run Xavier as he saw fit without answering for it, one way or another. He could not have wandered into a dynamic any different than the one he experienced at Louisville.

Three years ago Forbes ranked Louisville as the most valuable college basketball program in the nation, the school collecting $30 million in profits even while the team unraveled amid the sex scandal. The KFC Yum! Center is a pro arena in a city without a pro franchise in the big four leagues, built to feed the endless appetite of a fan base that trips the turnstiles with gusto. With such success comes equal amounts of scrutiny and expectation. Pitino practically bathed in it, happy to serve as the grand marshal of the Cardinals’ parade. “This is a unique place,’’ one former Louisville basketball player says. “You’re more than just a basketball coach. This city revolves around the program. It’s bigger than being a coach. You’re one of maybe two of the most important people in the state. And the other is John Calipari.’’

But Mack is, by many people’s estimation, private, guarded even. While at Xavier, Mack was viewed as a hard-edged operator and, to put it delicately, something of an acquired taste for coaches and administrators around the Big East — if the taste was ever acquired at all for some. But that was also essentially considered the reason for why Xavier won — Mack imprinting that personality on his Musketeers teams — and it certainly was not viewed as prohibitive of success at Louisville. (If being universally beloved was the only way to win college basketball games, there would not be a lot of successful college basketball coaches.) Yet for all of his successes, he remains something of an enigma. “It’s weird,” one power conference coach said. “Not many people know him.” At the Big East meetings in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., where the men’s and women’s coaches and lead administrators gathered annually, Mack often kept to himself rather than socializing, not in a rude way but “beat to his own drum,’’ as one person described it.

“He’s a person in this league that didn’t make a lot of friends,” one Big East source said.

“Prickly,’’ is a word used by more than one person to describe the coach who could be combative and dismissive with the media, and appeared at times, uncomfortable if not downright overwhelmed with the level of attention and second-guessing he received. He bristled when things went poorly, and shrugged when pressed for explanations. “Well if I was an AD, at the top of the list of things I’d tell my coaches to never say is, ‘Well I don’t have an explanation for that,’’’ one person familiar with the program says. “And he said that a lot.’’

It’s also worth revisiting an interesting dynamic that played out at Xavier following Mack’s departure: He won 216 games there and directed teams to three Sweet 16s and one Elite Eight … and no one really talked about Mack much after he left. It wasn’t necessarily attributable to anger or relief or any particular emotion, really. Everyone just moved on. The coaches, the players, the athletic department — all of them. Chris Mack was at Louisville, and Xavier basketball had its own business to tend to. What that says or doesn’t say about the residue of Mack’s nine-year tenure is probably in the eye of the beholder.

It feels similar now at Louisville. There is little ill will directed at Mack. “No one hates him at all,’’ the season ticket holder says. And plenty of people — including the ones who matter most — like him. “I thought Coach Mack was a great guy personally, and hate to see anyone let go,’’ former Cardinals guard Peyton Siva wrote via email from Australia, where he plays for the New Zealand Breakers. “I know he will bounce back and go on to coach somewhere else and wish him nothing but luck.’’ Adds Luke Hancock, the most outstanding player from the 2013 championship team and now an ACC Network commentator: “I really like Chris Mack. I do. I think he’s a great coach and a really good guy. I wanted to see him succeed here. We all did.’’

But there is also a telling absence of teeth-gnashing over his departure. When Pitino was let go, even after all of his troubles, plenty of fans were angry at the administration for pushing him out the door. When Pitino appeared just last week via video to congratulate Russ Smith on his jersey retirement, the arena erupted in cheers. Yet a passionate fan base is surprisingly blasé about losing their coach in January. “I feel badly for his family. I really do,’’ the season ticket holder says. “But I think it’s probably best for everybody to just move on. He just didn’t handle all of this very well.’’

In Mack’s defense, there was a lot to handle. When he arrived at Louisville, the stench of the past scandals still lingered, and the NCAA investigation hovered. That’s why Mack’s contract not only stretched seven years, but included a clause that allowed it to be extended an additional season if Louisville were to be placed “on a postseason ban, or receive scholarship reduction penalty resulting in the availability of fewer than 11 scholarships,’’ according to The Courier Journal.

Still both Tyra and Mack believed the national governing body would dole out its penalties in due time and everyone would be able to at least move on. “We had big plans, with facilities and all sorts of things,’’ Tyra says. “Instead we’re in purgatory for five years now.’’ Others happily filled the void of a decision, rival coaches using Louisville’s unresolved status to lure away recruits. Last year alone, three Louisville recruits, including top-100 players Bryce Hopkins and Bobby Pettiford, decommitted from the Cards. Hopkins is now at Kentucky, and Pettiford at Kansas.

And then came COVID-19. “We may not be having this conversation if 2020 isn’t canceled,’’ one source says. That year, the Cardinals sat at 24-7 when they headed to Greensboro for the ACC Tournament, poised to get a top-four seed in the NCAA Tournament. Instead the pandemic shuttered the season, and the players from that roster scattered — Jordan Nwora to the NBA, Dwayne Sutton, Steven Enoch and Ryan McMahon to graduation. “Louisville is probably a Sweet 16 team (in 2020),” one athletic director familiar with the program said. “It was heading in the right direction. Today that’s all erased. It’s like it’s five years ago and not two years ago. It’s a tough deal.”

David Johnson, right, and Louisville were not able to build off a strong 2019-20 season into last year. (Scott Utterback / USA Today)

Mack still had plenty to work with, including Malik Williams, David Johnson, and Jae’Lyn Withers, but as college basketball fought to put on a season in 2020-21, the Cardinals twice went on lengthy COVID pauses — from December 1-19, and again February 1-20. All told they postponed or canceled 11 games, mustering a 13-7 record that left them as the last team out of the NCAA Tournament field. Johnson and Carlik Jones bolted for the NBA, and Josh Nickelberry (La Salle), Quinn Slazinski (Iona) and Aidan Igeihon (Grand Canyon) all entered the portal, leaving Mack with a roster in total disarray. “In some ways, he never got a fair shake,’’ one source says.

Certainly Mack did not get dealt an easy hand, but it is worth mentioning, too, that every team in the country dealt with COVID last year, and Louisville also is not the only team carrying the albatross of an NCAA investigation. Six other schools were named in that initial sting — Kansas, LSU, Oklahoma State, Arizona, Auburn, and N.C. State. Only three — Oklahoma State, Auburn and N.C. State — have received their penalties, and none before the last year. Despite the uncertainty of future sanctions, Kansas since 2017 has appeared each year in the NCAA Tournament, including a national semifinal appearance; LSU won its first SEC title in 10 years; Oklahoma State rose as high as No. 11 last year, earning its first NCAA Tournament bid in three seasons; and Auburn, now No. 1 in the country, made it to the Final Four. Arizona, the only other school to make a head-coaching change, is currently 16-2 under first-year coach Tommy Lloyd. “To be honest, I think that is all a very convenient excuse,’’ one person says of Mack’s NCAA troubles.

There were no excuses — or blaming anyone else — for what happened next.

On May 17th, Louisville confirmed that Mack was not renewing the contracts of two of his assistants, Dino Gaudio and Luke Murray. Gaudio had a longstanding relationship with Mack, dating back to the former’s playing days at Xavier, when Gaudio worked as an assistant. Murray spent six seasons — three apiece at Xavier and Louisville — alongside Mack. Gaudio was considered a loyal foot soldier as well as a veteran voice inside the program, while Murray is widely regarded as an up and comer in the profession, known for his recruiting savvy and his relationship with players.

“To me, that was the beginning of the end,’’ one source says. “It goes to him being over his head. The first year things go bad and you’re firing your assistants? Guys who have been loyal to you? It just makes you wonder. It’s like you panicked. It’s not a good look. And that was, in my opinion, the start of the fall. What’s the saying? Karma is undefeated.’’

A day later in a criminal complaint filed in federal court, Gaudio was charged with extortion, the charging documents alleging that in an in-person meeting, he threatened to tell the media about NCAA violations unless the university paid the remainder of his salary. It turned out Mack was not only the person Gaudio threatened, but he recorded Gaudio making the allegations. The tapes eventually were released. In them, Gaudio accuses Mack of using grad assistants in practice and creating in-house videos for recruits, both NCAA violations. “Just a bad look for everyone involved,’’ one former Louisville athletics staffer says. Gaudio ultimately was convicted, sentenced to one year of probation and hit with a $10,000 fine, but the blowback hit Mack just as hard.

The university suspended Mack for the first six games of the 2021-22 season, citing his failure to properly handle the matter. It’s more than fair to interpret the benching as proactive, and a necessary step to curry good favor with the NCAA. Though the accusations themselves are minor, when added to Louisville’s collection of alleged infractions, they add to the perception of a program indifferent to NCAA rules. Tellingly, in October, the NCAA sent the school an amended notice of allegations, adding the charges against Mack. The report concluded that punishment could include “head coach restrictions.’’

The whole sordid affair further sullied Louisville’s already tarnished reputation. As bad as the external damage was, the internal effect of a sparring coaching staff taking its troubles to court was even worse. “It created chaos,’’ one former athletic department staffer says. “If you don’t have leadership at the top, you’re not going to have leadership in the locker room. It’s just not going to work. Players look at that, they see the coaches fracturing, and it gets to them, too.’’

Of the 18 players on Louisville’s COVID-enhanced roster only two, Samuell Williamson and Malik Williams, have been in a Cards uniform for more than two seasons. Four are traditional transfers, and two are junior college additions. Just one — Williamson — is a former McDonald’s All-American, and only five others ranked in the top 100 of their class. Two of those — Noah Locke and Matt Cross — came to the Cards via transfer.

To many, the disjointed roster is emblematic of the problems that have plagued Mack for much of his tenure. It reads like a man trying to nail Jell-O to a tree, hoping for a quick fix rather than sustained success. No doubt the world has changed, and building with depth is difficult. Players transfer at the first blush of trouble, and Louisville has had more than enough of that to turn people away. But Mack grew his reputation on culture, on taking blue-collar players at Xavier and developing them into winners. He is demanding and exacting, the sort of coach who frequently necessitates a “good cop.” At Xavier, he set up a treadmill off the court and not only sent players who didn’t meet his standards to sprint; he tossed them from practice if they didn’t run hard enough.

The same question applies to Mack as it does to every coach who takes a similar step up, at least in terms of what kind of player you recruit to a place like Louisville: Can you coach that level of talent the same way? And if someone like Pitino demonstrated that you can be hard on guys, at the very same school, what was the difference in Mack’s delivery?

Some of it might be the players he’s working with. Feeling the pressure to win and voluntarily without Murray, his recruiting guru, Mack had to rebuild in a hurry last offseason, without the luxury of applying the same due diligence he might typically employ. The stats said they could shoot … but could they tolerate him? And more, could they come together for the common good versus their own individual needs? “You bring in a kid to Louisville, and naturally he thinks, ‘Well now I’m going to be a pro,’’ a former player says. “Well guess what? Everyone else is thinking that, too. You’re playing 12 guys and they all think this is their chance. Chris is a culture guy. That’s not going to work.’’

Put simply, Louisville this season simply lacks the cohesion and talent it takes to win, and the stats prove it.

Chris Mack, left, and Dino Gaudio added another sordid chapter to Louisville’s recent history when Mack chose to fire Gaudio. (Timothy D. Easle / AP)

In Pitino’s first year, in 2002, the Cards finished 61st in KenPom’s final rankings. Through the chaos and even David Padgett’s interim season, they never dipped below 46th. This year Louisville is 113th, as of Thursday morning. Their offense, meant to be repaired by the addition of assistant coach Ross McMains, who Mack tabbed as an offensive guru, is 185th in adjusted tempo. Last year it was 92nd. Even in a historically average ACC, Louisville cannot gain traction. The Cards are 11-9 overall and 5-5 in the conference.

This, really, is the crux of the problem. If the Cards were winning, none of this — not Mack’s personality, not the kerfuffle with Gaudio — would matter. There’s a reason people in the city still love Pitino, warts and all. He won them a title. But just like winning cures all evils, losing exacerbates all pockmarks.

Louisville has looked like a team that no longer cares for the better part of the month. Even their wins — against Wake Forest by four, Pittsburgh and Georgia Tech by three each — looked uninspired. As surprising as the depth of despair became, anyone reading the tea leaves could see the unraveling coming. Malik Williams only brought the picture into focus. After the lackluster loss to Notre Dame on Jan. 22, the senior was asked if the players were still listening to the coaching staff. He paused and then delivered the final nail to Mack’s coffin. “I don’t think I have a comment for that,’’ he said.

“That,’’ one athletic director says, “had to be the breaking point. You can’t come back from that.’’

Sure enough, four days later, Mack exited the practice facility in a gray Cincinnati Bengals cap and quarter zip, his career at Louisville over.

Unraveling what happened might actually be easier than figuring out what Louisville does next. The university currently has an interim president — Neeli Bendapudi left for Penn State last month — and the athletic department also has an interim boss, Josh Heird pressed into service after Tyra left on the same day. It begs the question — just who can hire the basketball coach? Some sources say that interim president Lori Gonzalez has the authority, but a coach opting to come to Louisville might have to take a leap on just who his bosses will be.

And the same problems that hung over Mack are not going away anytime soon. More than 1,500 days into the NCAA investigation, the university still hasn’t even had a hearing with the IARP. Kansas is currently seeking a way to mediate a decision in the hopes of expediting a decision, but it’s not even clear if the new independent group will accept such a compromise.

Yet the expectations are no less than they were before the FBI opened its “playbook,” in September 2017. If form holds, this will be the first time since the program transitioned from Denny Crum to Pitino that the Cards have gone two consecutive years without an NCAA bid. No one is terribly interested in a third.

For those appraising the job from the outside, there are tantalizing pluses and terrifying minuses to being the head men’s basketball coach at Louisville. Do the people with real juice believe that the competitive success the school enjoyed during the Tom Jurich/Rick Pitino/Bobby Petrino era is attainable, very easily, without much regard for the work that has to go into it under the circumstances? And does that create unmeetable expectations for a coach, who might feel he owes his employment to said power brokers? “There’s so many hands in the cookie jar,” one power conference administrator says. “It makes it less attractive. It feels like there’s no control.”

But then the same administrator considers the passion of the fan base, the abundant resources, the potential of any job at Louisville and understands the attraction. “They still have a hell of a head start,” the administrator says. “It’s a heck of a job. But there’s still work to be done.”

(Top photo: Andy Lyons / Getty Images)

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