Report: Louisville Discussing Moving On From Chris Mack
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Chris Mack era at Louisville could soon be coming to an end.
His future as the head men's basketball coach of the Cardinals is "being discussed by school leadership and could result in a change," according to a report from Sports Illustrated's Pat Forde.
Soon afterwards, The Athletic's Seth Davis reported that Louisville and Mack were "finalizing a separation agreement pending Board approval tomorrow."
Earlier in the day, the university called for a joint meeting between the Board of Trustees and the UofL Athletic Association's Board of Directors for Wednesday at 4:00 p.m., which was set to discuss "proposed or pending litigation and personnel matters." Adding to the speculation, Mack's weekly radio show, which was set to broadcast Tuesday night, was cancelled.
The fourth-year head coach led Louisville to a 44-21 record over his first two years at the helm, including achieving a No. 1 ranking during his second season. Mack made the tournament in 2019 but fell to Minnesota in the first round, and was poised to make a deep run in 2020 before that year's tournament was cancelled due to COVID-19.
Louisville started the 2020-21 season at 9-1, but were struck by a myriad of COVID issues and offensive inconsistencies. The Cardinals finished the year at 13-7, and were designated as the "First Team Out" of the NCAA Tournament.
The university suspended Mack for the first six games of the 2021-22, stemming from his handling of the extortion attempt by former assistant Dino Gaudio. While the university concluded that Mack was indeed a victim of Gaudio's extortion attempt, he "failed to follow University guidelines, policies, and procedures in handling the matter".
Soon after, the NCAA would later amend Louisville's Notice of Allegations from May of 2020 to include additional allegation that arose from Gaudio's extortion attempt. In it, four new Level II allegations were added, all against Mack.
Assistant coach Mike Pegues took over in Mack's absence to start the 2021-22 season, leading Louisville to a 5-1 record. The Cardinals have gone 6-8 since Mack took back over, and have lost five of their last six games, most recently a 64-52 drubbing at Virginia.
In their most recent home game, an 82-70 loss to Notre Dame, Louisville was booed off the court. When asked in the postgame press conference if the players had tuned out the coaches, forward Malik Williams responded with no comment. Mack would later state that Williams was thrown off by the question and didn't know how to respond.
(Photo of Chris Mack: Jamie Rhodes - USA TODAY Sports)
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