PHILADELPHIA– Louisville has always been desperate to be Kentucky, ever since the Commonwealth state legislature passed a bill forcing the two national powers to meet in the early 1980s.
The Cardinals have had their moments, winning two national championships under Denny Crum in 1980 and 1986 and another under Rick Pitino in 2013.
But this season has not been one of them.
Chris Mack arrived at the Ville three years ago as a rising star after coaching Xavier to a pair of Final Eights. But he found out quickly the two programs are in different worlds.
The pressure to win big at Louisville is constant and finishing in the lower tier of the ACC is a nonstarter.
Mack, who was suspended by the Louisville for the first six games of the season after admitting to NCAA violations, was 6-8 in games he coached with its last five losses coming against teams that weren’t ranked in Ken Pom’s Top 50. Duke is on the horizon. There was growing speculation he had lost his team after the Cardinals fell behind, 25-8, in the opening minutes of a 64-52 loss to Virginia at home last Wednesday and the team was booed at home Saturday following a loss to Notre Dame
These are ugly days at the Ville and the school’s board of trustees, acting without a full- time president and an interim AD. decided to cut its losses yesterday, cutting ties with Mack yesterday before the end of his fourth year. Mack was 63-36 at the Ville but never won anything of consequence and never won an NCAA game. Recruiting was down. Attendance at home games dipped to historic lows. Double digit losses were messy and there were no signs of player development. The only question now is how far the school can negotiate a $12 million buyout down.
Assistant coach Mike Pegues, who coached the Cards to a 5-1 record in Mack’s absence, will coached the team for the rest of the season.
You had to see this coming after Louisville failed to make the NCAA tournament field and Mack hit the panic button, blowing up his staff and jettisoning a one- time close personal friend Dino Gaudio, which caused instant backlash when Gaudio had a threatening conversation that Mack chose to record and turn into the administration. That set an FBI investigation in motion that resulted in extortion charges against Gaudio who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year’s probation. But it also opened a can of worms after the school, which was already fighting a major investigation, admitted to compliance problems stemming from using graduate assistants in practice and producing illegal recruiting videos.
The new staff has never worked out and Mack’s insistence on playing a walk it up, micromanaged offense has resulted in an offense ranked 185th in efficiency and a roster, which has seven newcomers, never coming together.
It’s time for a change.
And the team is likely to begin a national search. It would be nice if they could go back in time and recreate Rick Pitino, but that isn’t going to happen. Most likely, they will take a long look at former Louisville star, former Kentucky assistant and current Knicks’ assistant Kenny Payne, giving them a chance to hire the school’s first black head coach. Wake Forest’s Steve Forbes and Seton Hall’s Kevin Wlllard will also be on the radar for a school that considers itself a Mercedes program.
