The Louisville Cardinals have found their next head basketball coach. The program has reportedly tabbed Xavier coach Chris Mack as the man to fill interim head coach David Padgett’s shoes, a move that had been long assumed to be in the cards at some point but became finalized on Tuesday afternoon.
The word of Mack’s move to the other side of the Ohio River was reported by Jeff Goodman of ESPN, who included word that Mack will receive a very handsome seven-year deal from the Cardinals.
Louisville has agreed to a 7-year deal with Xavier’s Chris Mack worth about $4 million per season, sources told ESPN.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) March 27, 2018
Xavier has been Mack’s only head coaching job at the collegiate level. After cutting his teeth as an assistant program at Xavier and Wake Forest, Mack returned to Cincinnati in 2004 and was promoted to head coach in 2009 after Sean Miller left for Arizona.
In his nine years at the helm of the Musketeers, Mack accrued a 212-96 record with a 105-49 mark in conference play in the Atlantic 10 and the Big East. He has led the program to the Sweet 16 four times and the Elite Eight once. This year, Xavier went 29-6 with a 15-3 record in the conference with a Big East regular season title to earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but fell in the second round to Florida State.
Mack will replace Padgett, who took over the program this year following Rick Pitino’s firing. Padgett, who was an assistant at Louisville from 2015-17, led the team to a 22-14 record and a 9-9 mark in the ACC, but was not retained after the team fell to Mississippi State in the quarterfinal of the NIT.
