Chris Mack is out as Louisville’s men’s basketball coach after three-plus seasons. The sides were in the final stages of negotiations for a separation agreement, a source with direct knowledge told The Athletic on Tuesday, and Mack told reporters in Louisville on Wednesday he harbors “no bitterness” over his departure.
“It’s a hard place,” Mack said. “You’ve got to win games.”
A meeting of Louisville’s Board of Trustees and Athletics Board was called for Wednesday to consider approving the agreement and Tuesday’s edition of the Chris Mack Radio Show was canceled.
Mack was in his fourth season of a seven-year deal with Louisville, which has gone 11-9 (5-5 in ACC play) this year. All five of the Cardinals’ conference losses have come in their last six games. After the team’s loss to Notre Dame Saturday, center Malik Williams was asked if the players had tuned out the coaching staff, responding “I don’t have a comment for that.” The Cardinals’ next game is Saturday against No. 9 Duke.
In Mack’s first season (2018-19), the team earned a 20-14 record and a No. 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament. In the 2019-20 campaign, the Cardinals went 24-7 before the postseason was canceled due to COVID-19. In the 2020-21 pandemic-shortened season, Louisville went 13-7.
To start this season, Mack was suspended without pay for six games — from Nov. 6 through Nov. 27 — for failure “to follow university guidelines, policies, and procedures in handling” an extortion attempt by former assistant Dino Gaudio. Gaudio had said in court documents that he knew of NCAA violations being committed by the program a year before his firing in March 2021.
As a result of the dust-up between Mack and Gaudio, Louisville faces three more alleged NCAA violations. The program still faces a total of one Level I and six Level II violations, most stemming back to the FBI pay-to-play investigation into college basketball in 2013.
Mack was previously the head coach at Xavier for nine seasons; he was named National Coach of the Year in 2016. Mack’s teams have participated in the NCAA Tournament in nine of his 12 seasons as head coach.
(Photo: Ryan M. Kelly / Getty Images)
