Former Louisville basketball coach Dino Gaudio federally charged with extortion
Shannon Russell
Louisville Courier Journal
" Multiple entities are reporting that former Louisville assistant coach Dino Gaudio has been federally charged with extortion.
Documents say that Gaudio on March 17 in an in-person meeting with Louisville personnel threatened to report to the media allegations that the basketball program had violated NCAA rules in its production of recruiting videos for prospective student-athletes and in the use of its graduate assistants in practices - unless the university paid his salary an additional 17 months or provided an equivalent lump sum.
Gaudio sent a text message to U of L personnel containing one of the recruiting videos he threatened to send to the media.
This followed end-of-season decisions made by Louisville coach Chris Mack. The contracts of Gaudio and Luke Murray were not renewed when they expired at April's end. Murray, an assistant coach under Chris Mack at Xavier, has since been hired an assistant on Dan Hurley's staff at Connecticut.
Mack had extensive history with both coaches that went back more than three decades with Gaudio and included three schools: Xavier, Wake Forest and Louisville. He played at Xavier when Gaudio was an assistant under Pete Gillen.
The late Skip Prosser hired Mack as Xavier's director of basketball operations where Gaudio returned as an assistant coach. Mack and Gaudio left for Wake Forest when Prosser was hired there in 2001.
Mack, a former three-year assistant coach with the Demon Deacons, went back to his alma mater to assist Sean Miller before being promoted to the Musketeers' head coach in 2009. Gaudio spent eight years as an ESPN analyst before rejoining Mack at Louisville.
Mack said Monday in a press conference announcing staffing updates that both men were excellent coaches and that the decision to part ways was not easy, but he believed the program needed a fresher perspective.