Why Chris Mack is willing to risk it all at Louisville
Pat Forde
Yahoo SportsMay 14, 2018, 3:56 PM
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Jack Fry’s is as old-school Louisville as it gets, a landmark restaurant in the city’s Highlands neighborhood that was opened during the Depression by its namesake, a gambler/bootlegger. Everyone who is someone in town will eat there eventually, surrounded by black-and-white photos of champion thoroughbreds and athletes and socialites from another time.
The newest someone in the city slipped into a seat there last week without fanfare. It took until the end of lunch for Chris Mack to be approached.
“Glad to have you in the city,” said Jackie, our waitress, with a bright smile. “Welcome. Sorry about the blue tie today. This is the only blue I wear.”
Mack knows the color scheme of his new home: blue is Kentucky, red is Louisville, and the divide between them is deep and abiding.
“No problem,” Mack shot back. “You didn’t know we were showing up. I’ll expect a red one next time.”
If the coach of the Louisville Cardinals wants red ties on servers at Jack Fry’s and any other restaurant in Louisville, area department stores should expect a run on red ties. It’s his town now.
Mack has been given big money (seven years at $4 million per) to do a big job (navigate a daunting scandal cycle of unknown length). If he does it well, he will be the latest big deal at the greatest of urban basketball programs, a place that is accustomed to larger-than-life coaches.
Denny Crum made Louisville a destination job, staying 30 years, winning two national titles and going to six Final Fours. Rick Pitino maintained and even enhanced the program’s stature in his 16 seasons, winning the 2013 national championship* (until it was vacated) and helping the school rise to membership in the Atlantic Coast Conference. With those two in charge, Louisville was the most profitable basketball program in the country.
Now comes Mack — and while the 48-year-old’s résumé is not currently Hall of Fame material like the men who came before him, the school should feel wildly fortunate that a coach of considerable ability would embrace its basketball job at this toxic point in time.
“It might not be the perfect time for Louisville basketball,” Mack said, “but it was the perfect time for me.”
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Not long ago, another Power Five conference program with considerable resources and tradition made a run at Chris Mack. The Xavier coach was on vacation with his family in Turks and Caicos at the time of the call. His response: “Thanks, no thanks. Let’s go to the beach.”
“I think people would be surprised if they knew some of the opportunities we let come and go,” Mack said, declining to identify the school that couldn’t even get him to put off snorkeling long enough to consider its job. “They didn’t move the needle at all.”
So why did Louisville, coming off one major NCAA investigation and now toiling under the looming cloud of another, spike the needle on Mack’s personal coaching seismograph? Why is a program that was rocked by a stripper scandal, shaken by complete leadership turnover and implicated in the federal investigation of college basketball the place Mack couldn’t turn down? Why should a coach with eight NCAA appearances in nine years, four Sweet 16 appearances, a No. 1 tourney seed and a Big East title take on the leaning tower of risk that is Louisville?
Because it’s a bedrock basketball school with all the advantages of a football school. It’s one of the few places that cashes major-conference revenue checks and still cares more about hoops than anything else. If you’re a basketball coach and want to be king, Louisville is one of maybe half a dozen Power Five addresses where you can do it.
“I always wanted to take that next step at a place that truly cared about basketball,” Mack said. “Sometimes coaches talk among themselves about being at a place where football is more important and they leave you alone. I don’t know. At Xavier, we were at the forefront — basketball was it. I didn’t want to go to a place where they didn’t necessarily passionately care about basketball. That’s no disrespect to football at Louisville, which has been great, but there’s a huge commitment to basketball. And I always thought the ACC was the best basketball conference in the country.
“Really, there aren’t many Louisvilles out there.”
View photos
Chris Mack finished 215-97 in nine seasons as Xavier’s head coach. (Getty)
Pat Forde
Yahoo SportsMay 14, 2018, 3:56 PM
View photos
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Jack Fry’s is as old-school Louisville as it gets, a landmark restaurant in the city’s Highlands neighborhood that was opened during the Depression by its namesake, a gambler/bootlegger. Everyone who is someone in town will eat there eventually, surrounded by black-and-white photos of champion thoroughbreds and athletes and socialites from another time.
The newest someone in the city slipped into a seat there last week without fanfare. It took until the end of lunch for Chris Mack to be approached.
“Glad to have you in the city,” said Jackie, our waitress, with a bright smile. “Welcome. Sorry about the blue tie today. This is the only blue I wear.”
Mack knows the color scheme of his new home: blue is Kentucky, red is Louisville, and the divide between them is deep and abiding.
“No problem,” Mack shot back. “You didn’t know we were showing up. I’ll expect a red one next time.”
If the coach of the Louisville Cardinals wants red ties on servers at Jack Fry’s and any other restaurant in Louisville, area department stores should expect a run on red ties. It’s his town now.
Mack has been given big money (seven years at $4 million per) to do a big job (navigate a daunting scandal cycle of unknown length). If he does it well, he will be the latest big deal at the greatest of urban basketball programs, a place that is accustomed to larger-than-life coaches.
Denny Crum made Louisville a destination job, staying 30 years, winning two national titles and going to six Final Fours. Rick Pitino maintained and even enhanced the program’s stature in his 16 seasons, winning the 2013 national championship* (until it was vacated) and helping the school rise to membership in the Atlantic Coast Conference. With those two in charge, Louisville was the most profitable basketball program in the country.
Now comes Mack — and while the 48-year-old’s résumé is not currently Hall of Fame material like the men who came before him, the school should feel wildly fortunate that a coach of considerable ability would embrace its basketball job at this toxic point in time.
“It might not be the perfect time for Louisville basketball,” Mack said, “but it was the perfect time for me.”
____________________ " data-reactid="41" style="margin-bottom: 1em;">
____________________
Not long ago, another Power Five conference program with considerable resources and tradition made a run at Chris Mack. The Xavier coach was on vacation with his family in Turks and Caicos at the time of the call. His response: “Thanks, no thanks. Let’s go to the beach.”
“I think people would be surprised if they knew some of the opportunities we let come and go,” Mack said, declining to identify the school that couldn’t even get him to put off snorkeling long enough to consider its job. “They didn’t move the needle at all.”
So why did Louisville, coming off one major NCAA investigation and now toiling under the looming cloud of another, spike the needle on Mack’s personal coaching seismograph? Why is a program that was rocked by a stripper scandal, shaken by complete leadership turnover and implicated in the federal investigation of college basketball the place Mack couldn’t turn down? Why should a coach with eight NCAA appearances in nine years, four Sweet 16 appearances, a No. 1 tourney seed and a Big East title take on the leaning tower of risk that is Louisville?
Because it’s a bedrock basketball school with all the advantages of a football school. It’s one of the few places that cashes major-conference revenue checks and still cares more about hoops than anything else. If you’re a basketball coach and want to be king, Louisville is one of maybe half a dozen Power Five addresses where you can do it.
“I always wanted to take that next step at a place that truly cared about basketball,” Mack said. “Sometimes coaches talk among themselves about being at a place where football is more important and they leave you alone. I don’t know. At Xavier, we were at the forefront — basketball was it. I didn’t want to go to a place where they didn’t necessarily passionately care about basketball. That’s no disrespect to football at Louisville, which has been great, but there’s a huge commitment to basketball. And I always thought the ACC was the best basketball conference in the country.
“Really, there aren’t many Louisvilles out there.”
View photos
Chris Mack finished 215-97 in nine seasons as Xavier’s head coach. (Getty)
