Breaking down Chris Mack’s Louisville tenure and why he and the school parted ways.
The struggling Louisville Cardinals basketball team is now officially without a head basketball coach.
No, no, I’m not referring to Jeff Walz, he’s doing a fantastic job on the women’s side as his Cards remain a top-5 team in the nation. Rather, this is a reference to the gloomy situation with the men’s program. Chris Mack and Louisville parted ways this week after the team’s double-digit loss to the Virginia Cavaliers on Monday night, which dropped the Cards to 11-9 on the season and 5-5 through 10 ACC games.
Chris Mack’s tenure lasted a lot shorter than it was supposed to. He left Xavier in 2018 to fill Louisville’s head coaching vacancy in what was mostly seen as a home run hire. Mack was going to help lead the Cardinals back to success. And, he did just that almost immediately.
The former Xavier head coach led Louisville to a 20-14 record and back into the NCAA Tournament during his debut season, which was followed by an even more impressive season the following year. His Cardinals held a 24-7 record and were just one loss away from a first-place in the ACC standings. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic emerged and prematurely ended the year, which marked the beginning of the turn in Chris Mack’s tenure.
The next season (2020-21) wasn’t good. Lousiville stumbled to 13-7 and didn’t participate in any postseason tournament. Players headed for the exits immediately after the season — three transferred out of the program while one parted for the NBA draft — leaving the roster in need of work.
And then months later, the university suspended Mack six games for failing to follow school policies, stemming from his handling of attempted extortion by a former assistant. The situation brought the exact light to the program that Louisville specifically was looking to move away from after the Rick Pitino era.
As if things couldn’t get worse, Mack’s reinsertion into the 2021-22 season was awkward from the jump. The team could never get on track and as the losses began to pile up, so did the concerning quotes.
“Until I can figure out what motivates our group, I don’t see a lot changing,” said Mack after Louisville’s January 15th loss to Pittsburgh, its third loss in a row.
Then the one from senior center Malik Williams less than a week later:
You can look to the pandemic for halting the momentum built from the 2018-19 NCAA Tourney appearance, and the 24-7 team the following season that was on the doorsteps of an ACC championship. Or perhaps it was the highly-touted recruiting classes that never lived up to expectations. Whichever way you slice it, “you’ve gotta win games,” as Mack said on Wednesday afternoon as his departure from Louisville was publicized.
Mike Pegues will serve as Louisville’s interim head coach until the team makes a decision on the full-time position.
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