Louisville Head Coach Chris Mack Provides Team Update
(Photo of Chris Mack: Scott Utterback - Courier Journal via Imagn Content Services, LLC)
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Speaking for the first time since learning they would not be heading to the NCAA Tournament, Louisville men's basketball Chris Mack took some time to meet with the media. He provided a wide array of updates surrounding the program, including the recent hires of Kahil Fennell and Ross McMains as assistant coaches, promoting Taylor Barnette to director of basketball operations, the roster movement, recruiting, what his team will look like next year, and more.
Below is the transcript from the press conference, as well as the video:
(Opening Statement)
I'm excited to announce Taylor Barnette as our Director of Ops. Taylor's been with the program going on his fourth year. He was a GA when he first got here, and he's just a great asset to our program. A guy that really connects well to our players, he's on top of every detail. I think he'll really thrive in the role, and he's a future assistant coach at the Division I ranks. Then Kahil Fennell, who's been with us going on his fourth season. He was the previous Director of Ops, I think he'll be an amazing assistant coach for us. He was an assistant coach prior to coming here, so we had to take a few years off from the court. I know it's challenging anytime you make that adjustment from being an on court instructor, and being involved with scouting and coaching the players, to then taking a backseat role and doing administrative work. I'm sure that was challenging for Kahil, but I think he'll be an amazing recruiter, a guy that again, connects really well with our players, and knows our system. Extremely important. He knows knows our terminology, and how we like to do things. Then the two newest members to our basketball program: assistant coach Ross McMains. Ross has worn several different hats throughout his basketball life. Although he's only 32 years of age, he has an array of experiences that you can see in reading his bio. I'm really excited about bringing Ross onto our staff. I think he'll be an amazing asset for our players. He's worked with so many talented-some of the best players in the world the last 10 years or so, and then has international experience as well as NBA experience in the coaching ranks. I'm excited to add Ross today. Then Devante Frazier. First off I want to give Matt Summers kudos for really conducting the search for our new athletic trainer. We all know that Devante's gonna have big shoes to fill. Fred (Hina)'s beloved by not only our players, but his coworkers while he was here at Louisville. Devante is full of energy, he's extremely knowledgeable, and he's also very excited to be here at Louisville.
(On how McMains got on Mack's radar)
It was a process. It wasn't certainly one phone call, or two, or even 10. The radar, or the scope of our search was a very, very wide one. I didn't want to eliminate anybody early on. I talked to a lot of people around possible candidates. A month, month and a half, I first learned Ross' name, and it just progressed from there. We went to zoom calls, and eventually he came to campus, and sort of sealed the deal at least from my opinion and our staff's opinion. You felt like he's everything we were looking for, and excited to have him on board. It's funny, because a year ago all we did was zoom in the house. Whether it was a recruiting meeting or there was a staff meeting, all we did was zoom because of the pandemic. I would get together almost every Saturday with coaches from around the country, whether it was guys like Sean and Archie Miller, Brad Brownell, our ACC coaches, on Saturday's we would just talk X's and O's. I'll never forget on one of the calls, Jeff Van Gundy was talking, and talked about his World Games experiences: the qualifiers, he was coaching the USA team. He started talking offense, and he could not rave any more about New Zealand, and said that if you had the opportunity to watch New Zealand, you should do it. Get on your synergy account, watch as much offensive tape as you can of New Zealand, because he was convinced that was as good as offensive as he's seen, internationally, during his time. That got me intrigued. I got off the call, watched a bunch of tape of New Zealand. A lot of interesting concepts. The ball moves really quickly, obviously the European game, the overseas game is different from the American game. But it was fascinating to watch. When Ross's name came to the surface, came to the forefront, and I started doing my investigative skills on the internet, I found out he was largely responsible for everything that Jeff Van Gundy had seen a few years ago. That was something that was exciting. Among 1000 other things that Ross brings to the table, I think his experience on the offensive end as a tactician is really going to help our program.
(On if he expects the offense to be drastically different)
I don't know how you would define drastically. Basketball is basketball. I think it's been said in previous press conferences that part of the issue we had with pace, was David (Johnson) and Carlik (Jones) were playing 40 minutes a night. We were dealing with two COVID pauses where those guys had a tough time keeping their conditioning. Having said that, we've always wanted to play faster. I think our pace was not where we wanted it this past year. So drastic, I don't know, it depends on how you define that. There's going to be certain things that we keep that's been very good for us through my 12 years as a head coach, there's going to be some things that we add. I think, a small part, it's about our players too, and what their capabilities are, both to learn and execute some of the things that we put in. That's something that we have to be able to use this summer for quite honestly.
(On what he expects from promoting Kahil Fennell and Taylor Barnette)
I think as a manager of the program, as the leader of the program, and anything that I do, you want to have good people in your organization. That's where it starts with both Taylor and Kahil. They're great people. I can trust them in any situation. At the jobs they held within Louisville basketball, they did an outstanding job, otherwise they wouldn't have been promoted. Kahil had already been an assistant coach, so this isn't like reinventing the wheel for him. He's a great builder of relationships, both with the players on our team and fellow employees. You can't find anyone that has an ill thing to say about him. I really felt like he would do an amazing job, both on the court with our team in scouting, all the things that we do as coaches. Not to mention, I think in recruiting. He is a an extremely hard worker, he's very well connected, and he knows his stuff, and he knows Louisville and believes in Louisville. With Taylor, he had a host of administrative duties in his last role. Now he has even more to tackle. Compliance is going to be a big deal. There's a lot of red tape, and a lot of things that you have to follow, and things that you have to follow up on, and Taylor's really sharp, he's detail oriented. So I have no hesitation at all in moving him into that role. He'll do a bang up job for us.
(On his reasoning for having such a considerable changeover in staff heading into next season)
I mean it's never easy. That was the first time that I let anybody go in the 12 years I was a head coach. So this isn't anything that's taken lightly. They're two excellent coaches, Dino (Gaudio) and Luke (Murray). Excellent. The honest assessment, our program wasn't where I wanted it to be at the end of this past season. We could write down all the reasons as to why I think, or why you think we didn't qualify for the NCAA Tournament, but bottom line is we didn't. That's not to say that Dino and Luke are the fall guys, and it's all on them. There's been a long look in the mirror to see what I can do better. I think when you look at the hiring of Kahil, and then you look at the hiring of Ross and what he brings to the table, you have to have a lot of humility to say, 'hey, a lot of the offense is going to sort of be co-produced'. But nevertheless, I felt like the fresher perspective, I think that these changes reflected things that we really needed for our players were the most important people in our program. I think what Ross brings to the table in terms of player development is unmatched in this country. I couldn't be more excited about the staff that we've put together. Again, it was a hard decision to make, and it wasn't taken lightly. But in the end, I have to make tough decisions.
(On how he separates the personal from the professional with letting go of Gaudio and Murray, and what specifically he was looking to accomplish with hiring Fennell and McMains)
I don't know what else I can add to that, other than to say that it was a very difficult decision. Being being a head coach at this level for the last 12 years, I've met an awful lot of successful leaders - both in the business world and the sports world. I talked to a friend the other day, they talked about having to let go of 12 to 15 employees. He was sort of the 'axe man' if you will, even though he was second in charge. He just said what what a toll it took on him personally, just sort of following through. I didn't find any pleasure, it was a very, very difficult decision to make. But again, I felt like it was the right decision moving forward for our players. I wanted a fresher perspective. I wanted that player development piece to be even stronger. I wanted a new perspective on the offense. So yeah, it was a very, very difficult decision. I don't know how people do separate the personal from the professional. That saying of: 'it's not personal, it's business', for this business, at least for this person, it's both. Because you're around these people that you work with every single day. It's not just 9-5 and you check out on Friday and see them Monday morning. We're in hotels together, we're on trips together. So many things that we do are professionally and personally mixed at the same time. But at the end of the day, I felt like I had to make decisions that would make our basketball program better than the results of this past year, and that's how I went about it.
(On if expanding recruiting internationally was a priority with the hiring of McMains)
I wouldn't say it was a priority, I'd say it was more of a bonus. Obviously the game has become more global in the last 15-20 years. Ross has a Rolodex of people he knows all over the world. So if that helps us get some of the better players on the roster, I'm all for it. I'll coach you whether you're American, or from Australia, or wherever, as long as you love the game.
(On why some of the departures from the program make sense, and about the new additions up to this point)
Let's face it, 30 years ago when I played, the transfer rate was way down. I think there was more of a focus on improving over time, maybe not having the impact you wanted as a freshman, but sort of sitting behind that sophomore or junior learning. Then progressively, your time expanded, your role expanded, and that's what college basketball looked like. I think it looks different now. The transfer portal is a huge change. A huge change. Other sports may do it, but it hasn't affected their sport quite like it's affected basketball. I think you see that in the numbers. In years past when a kid hit the transfer portal, and you needed immediate help, you would sort of look at and say, 'Well is he graduating from his previous school?' Because that was the only way he was going to be eligible, unless you had confidence that you could get him a waiver. I never felt very confident those would would go through, so we focused on seniors. Well now that's not the case. A kid could leave as a freshman, in the case of (Miami transfer) Matt Cross, and have four years of eligibility. As far as the guys that left, I love them. They were huge parts to our program. They may not have had the on-court success that they envisioned for themselves. or fans wanted, but everybody's path and everybody's journey is different. I don't think if they looked into the future, that they felt like they were going to play the amount of minutes that they felt comfortable staying with, and I can't fault them for that. You sign up to come to Louisville, it's big boy basketball. If you have 13 guys on scholarships, it's sort of hard to find a program in this country that plays 13 guys. Natural selection sort of happens. Guys cannibalize themselves, guys find ways to get on the floor, or they don't. As we look forward, we're excited about our roster, we think we have more talent than we did a year ago. Again, I wish those guys, I hope they find places that make them truly happy in the sport. As far as the guys that are coming here, obviously we have three guys, two freshmen. We have El Ellis, who's a junior college player. We got Mike James and Roosevelt Wheeler. Those three guys have been committed to us for a long time now, and we're excited to add them. I've never met Mike James or El Ellis in person, and that's wild. That is absolutely wild. I have met Roosevelt. Roosevelt had the opportunity to visit officially, and then I've also seen him play when he was a junior. But those three guys are, obviously, totally different players. Roosevelt is coming off from an Achilles, he just got cleared by his doctor. We still have to get our hands on him and see where he's at, but he's a big body, he's got a high motor. He hasn't played in a year, so he's really itching to start doing some things. Mike James, from Orlando, Florida, is a versatile defensive player. He can guard, he loves to guard. Offensively, he's sort of worked his way throughout his high school career from being an inside guy, to more of an outside guys as time's going on. He's got a great attitude about the game, and I'm anxious to him here Memorial Day weekend. Then El Ellis, one of the better junior college players in the country. He's got an ability and a burst with the ball, his end-to-end speed's really good, he's got a lot of athleticism, he's excited to be a Cardinal. We have FaceTime conversations with those kids almost daily, and they're excited to get here. Again, few of them for the very first time to ever be in Louisville. Then we've got three Division I transfers. Jarrod West from Marshall, I think is the quintessential point guard. Guy shoots the ball at a high level, he's in the master's program in business here. He's like a Christen Cunningham type. He can run a team, he's already branched out and reached out to all his future teammates. He's so daggone excited to come to Louisville. He called me a couple weeks ago, his brother had an AAU practice in Lexington, and he said, "Coach, I'm gonna come over and sort of tour the campus and tour the city!" I said, "Well, we're not allowed to have anything to do with it during COVID, so you're gonna have to do it on your own". It was Derby weekend, and he navigated around the traffic, and he was excited to do it. So we're excited to get Jarrod here. Noah Locke, who's obviously performed at a high level for Florida for three years, has the ability to stretch defenses. High, high work ethic. We recruited Noah extremely hard out of high school to try to get him to come to Xavier, so I'm excited I have the chance to coach him for two years here at Louisville. Then Matt Cross who we got during our season this past year, wish I could have put them in uniform halfway through the year. Matt's ability shoot three, I mean you look at Jarrod, you look at Noah, and you look at Matt, and those guys can shoot the ball. That's something our team missed this past year, at least I know their coach missed it.
(On if he feels like he's going to have to deal with a bunch of turnover every year due to the nature of the transfer portal)
Well I hope not. I think Kahil sort of hit the nail on the head, and he talked about building meaningful relationships with the guys on your team. Outline expectations, outline those expectations, and delivering on player development. I think if a player feels himself getting better and improving throughout the year, and you've been honest with them from day one, that you shouldn't have to re-recruit your players again in April. Quite honestly, we didn't do that. We gave them an honest assessment of where they were at the end of this past year, where we felt like they could go and what they had to do to get there. It's exciting to have a lot of our guys returning, and adding the new guys as well. I think they have a belief in Louisville basketball, the tradition and the current coaching staff, and roster moving forward. I would like to think that we can keep players developing throughout their time here at Louisville, but that's the reality of it. It's going to be different, it just is. Not every kid's going to play. You have 13 scholarships, and I don't see many programs playing that many guys. It's gonna be a challenge for a lot of programs.
(On of they are planning on adding to their roster with two open scholarships, and if the offense will take a more analytical approach next season)
To answer your first part, we're never done recruiting. I tell our staff all the time that currently we have 12 scholarship players on 11 scholarships, because Malik Williams is a free one. If we had a full-used scholarship allotment, we would have 14 scholarship players on 13 scholarships, if that makes sense. We are never done recruiting. That doesn't mean that we will add, or we won't add, or that we're looking at a certain position. But we're never going to say no, sight unseen. We're going to take our time, we're going to evaluate and do what we can. Obviously we can't meet anybody in person until June 1, but if we can make our team stronger, we're always going to look to do that. The second question that you had about analytics, I think it certainly has a place in the game, but it's not everything. It's not everything. While I think Ross values that, I think he is a terrific builder of relationships. He knows, he's proficient in the subject matter, he knows what he's teaching. Yes there is a little bit of that, but he's not just a computer geek. He's a basketball guy, He said before, his whole life has been dedicated to basketball. Although he's only 32 years old, he's got a lot more years of experience in the game than that. But I wouldn't say it's an analytic hire by any means.
(On what are some things he will look to do differently now that the CDC has eased mask mandates)
We're excited. Just to have masks off here in the practice facility feels more normal again than it ever has. We've had everybody vaccinated in the program, or at least to the standard that was needed to open up the facility that way. But knowing that all of our guys were going to arrive May 31, we were going to begin workouts - not that first week, but the following week because guys have to go through orientation. They have to go through physicals to get everybody clear physically, so that when we start up that that following week, the June 7 week. That's exciting. I think back to when our guys got to campus last summer, guys like the Dre Davis and JJ (Traynor) and Gabe (Wiznitzer), they were in masks and nobody could oversee their lifting, and nobody could work with them on the court. It was sad, their development was hampered. Moving forward, I feel like we're in a great spot and we're excited about it.
(On the importance of the dead period lifting in June)
Not only is important, it's amazing to meet people face to face. We're excited. Kahil said it before, the facilities that we have, the resources, to show somebody the Yum! Center on a zoom call just isn't very fun. To now have the ability to jump in a car, follow us over, show them the locker room, walk around the court, see the enormity of the building. Just anywhere on campus, walking through campus, sitting down with a family, you name it. It's really important. We've heard the word relationships throughout this entire press conference, and it's really hard to build relationships if you never meet people, except virtually. That's what our staff, and I'm sure hundreds of other staffs around the country, are looking forward to June 1.
(On what the program needs to improve upon to be able to play faster)
Well it's got to be simple. I think Ross had a great way of talking through the implementation of what he did with New Zealand. We're gonna have to tailor some things, but some of the things I liked. You can measure how fast the ball is over half court, how fast the ball is below free throw line extended, how many times it reaches the paint within a matter of seconds into the shot clock. Some are measurable. I think anytime you can show anybody something measured, then that person knows what they're shooting for. There are a lot of little things like that, that in talking to Ross, he's extremely sharp and being able to articulate something extremely simple to follow, but something really effective. That's the excitement that we have as coaches. It's going to be different for a few of our players, and different's okay. Different's exciting. That'll start this summer. It's not going to be an overnight process, it's going to be ugly at first, especially when we're going five-on-five. But it's a process to get to that point. Unlike his experiences with the national team of New Zealand, they're practicing for a month, month and a half, and then they're in the competition. As I told him, here we're practicing and doing workouts in June and July, and the beginning of August, only to come back and start preseason in the fall. There's some time before we get to November 9 that they'll will have the ability to teach our guys and get our staff certainly on the same page. But some things I'm really excited about.
(On what kind of things have become more important in college basketball over the last two years that maybe weren't important back then)
100 years ago when I played, player development wasn't what it is now. Player development was a you played in an open gym and you hope you got better. You shot in your backyard, and hope your shot got better. But now, there's all types of personal trainers, and skills trainers, some really good and some really poor, and everybody in between. But I felt like it was important to really give our players somebody who I think is an expert in that area, and I think Ross certainly fills the bill. I think our players are going to be excited, challenged, and ultimately become better with the addition of Ross. I think that's one thing that has really changed: the amount of personalization, in terms of getting better as a player, and doing it on your own, or doing it in one-on-0 settings, as opposed to years ago when it was more just pick up, and playing with your buddies or playing with your teammates. That's probably the biggest difference though I would say. Recruiting has really, really changed because of the transfer portal. That has to be something that you always have in the forefront of your mind, and building those relationships with your current players so they're not hitting the transfer portal. You see some programs being decimated by starters, and whole starting lineups leaving. I think, again, if you're doing your job building relationships with your current players, that's not an issue. But yeah, a lot a lot of things have changed, certainly in college basketball.
(On how much recruiting will change moving forward, specifically when looking at transfer vs. high school)
That's a different question for every program to answer. I think, for our staff, one of the things that I've really emphasized here over the last few months as we go into June and July, and we have the opportunity to watch these kids playing the for the first time in over a year and a half, I think it's more important that the evaluation is the right one, versus, I think everybody focuses on the word 'recruiting', trying to get this kid to your team. Hey, he's highly ranked, got to get him. Hey, he's a four star, he's a five star, got to get him. With all these different services out there, everybody's giving you their opinion on these kids that are playing everywhere. I think you have to be very, very confident in your own evaluation skills of the kids that you're watching. That to me is more important. In years past, maybe you missed out on the first couple kids that you were recruiting after you evaluated, and they opted to go somewhere else. That's going to happen in recruiting, it always has. But knowing that the portal's there, maybe you don't go to that third or fourth option now as you might have been forced to in the past. I think there's a little bit of a balancing act that you're going to have to - you're gonna have to be really good at. But we certainly want to fill our program with high school talent, we have to make sure that the evaluation is spot on, and we know what we're getting.
(On JJ Traynor's potential next season)
We're excited about JJ's potential, but that's a scary word. That's a scary word when it comes to how does that look in terms of production. JJ has things that we can't teach. He has excellent timing, he's long, he's not just some inside player, some finisher around the basket. JJ can shoot the ball, but he has to get stronger. Whether he played the five in an emergency situation, preferably he plays the four like he did the majority of this year, he still has to get stronger for that position, and JJ knows that. That's that's a huge emphasis for JJ this offseason. He's got to be joined at the hip with Coach (Andy) Kettler, and he will be. JJ is a very very coachable kid. He was well coached in high school, the competition level, obviously, wasn't close to what he's seeing now. But there are so many things that he brings to the table, and we just need him to have a huge offseason. But it starts with his body. I've told this to JJ, as nice to the kids he is off the floor, he's got to be a dog between the lines. Nobody's going to be crazy productive if they're Mr. Nice Guy on the floor, and JJs got to get that part, If he does and you know, watch out.
(On the high school talent in the state of Kentucky)
There are a lot of good, young kids in our state. There are a lot of good young kids in our state. It's unfortunate that we haven't been able to be in their gyms, whether it's watching a workout, an open gym, a game. We haven't been able to get in their gym in so long, and it's been unfortunate. But we're holding a team camp this summer, so we'll have a lot of high school kids from the state of Kentucky at that team camp in the middle of June or end of June. We'll also have the opportunity to go these team camps. The state of Kentucky has one towards the end of June, and the NCAA lets us go out two weekends in June to watch high school team camps, and then obviously we have July AAU. I can't go back 30 years and start giving you all the names of the special players that have grown up here in Louisville, I mean you guys know. But not only do we have really, really good local kids, there's also kids in rural areas that have become really good players. Kids down in the Covington and Northern Kentucky area that are talented, so we're going to recruit close to local, and then branch out from there.
(On if they will make any tweaks defensively)
We would like to. You look back a year ago, we had Carlik and David, trying to have those guys pick up would be just putting more tread on their tires. But I do think that a guy like Jarrod West, that's what he does best. He's led Conference-USA in steals, he is a dog on the ball defender. So while we may not look like a team that's running and jumping and having a guy on the ball 94 feet, I'd like to think that we can pick up from time to time, and increase our pressure more than we have over the last couple seasons. One of the things that I have to keep in the back of my mind as we plan for the upcoming year, is that I don't want everything to be brand new to our players. Tony Dungy talks about regenerative leadership, which is something that I've always really tried to instill in a program that I coach. Where your juniors and seniors can pull freshmen off to the side during practice when coaches don't even notice it, and they're sort of saying, "hey, on that last one, coach wants you to you know go under the screen or on that when you should have done this". If everything's brand new, I'm going to look like and our players are going to look like we did year one, where you have 13 hands in the air asking questions at the same time. So we are going to add to some of the things that we do defensively. I'd like to think full court and being a little bit more aggressive would be two of thos., and then offensively there are going to be some changes that are going to be new to our guys. I'd like to think that the summer can help with that regenerative leadership approach, and then we also have some older guys that are a little bit quicker picker uppers if you will, when it comes to the game.
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