Louisville Basketball: Chris Mack Overcoming Obstacles on the Recruiting Trail

Two major scandals have rocked the University of Louisville basketball program in recent years, but Chris Mack refuses to let that hurt recruiting.

Cardinal fans have become numb to the talk of the two recent scandals involving the Louisville basketball program in the last several years. First it was the prostitution scandal, involving former assistant coach Andre McGee. Then it was the FBI Investigation that named another former Louisville assistant coach in a “pay for play” tie up.

While the former has been resolved and put in the past, which resulted in the Cards losing their coveted 2013 National Championship banner (screw the NCAA, that championship still happened), the latter seems to still be hanging over the program.

Though the University of Louisville cleaned house, removing former head coach Rick Pitino from his job last September, and former Athletic Director Tom Jurich just a few days later, new head coach Chris Mack has had to deal with many of the issues that fans feared.

The biggest of them being recruiting.

Many Cards fans believe that the reason the team was unable to land a “big name” graduate transfer, sit-out transfer, or class of ’18 player for the 2018-19 roster may have been because of the FBI investigation and teams recruiting against them.

We’ve heard about the possibility of other coaches whispering to those players things like, “they may pull another post-season ban on you, just like they did to Damion Lee and Trey Lewis,” in an effort to keep the Cards from consideration.

While that may be true, what’s more likely is the reports that tied Louisville to these guys may not indicate the “true” interest level the Cards had. While several guys were linked to Louisville, a few of them actually ended up making visits, or receiving offers.

With those players going elsewhere, it was often labeled as the Cards “swinging and missing,” which may not have been the whole story.

Chris Mack has mentioned on several occasions that when it comes to adding bodies to the 2018-19 roster, they won’t add players just to add them. Instead they are focusing on adding the right guys, who bring the right characteristics to a team that has a strong core nucleus. Reports don’t always indicate truth.

So what’s the big issue then? Was writing an article about recruiting necessary when the Cards have already landed a big time four star guard in Josh Nickelberry, along with two graduate transfers; Christen Cunningham and Khwan Fore?

Yes, it was.

Over the last few days, a top 50 prospect in the class of 2019 made some comments regarding his interest level in Louisville, to a Lexington newspaper of all places, shortly after cutting his list to 10.

Keion Brooks, a four star forward from Indianapolis, narrowed his list of schools on Sunday night. He was asked about the teams he included, and the teams he didn’t; in particular Louisville. Chris Mack offered Brooks shortly after being named head coach, and seemed to get some type of consideration from the 6’8, 200 pound big man.

Brooks told the Herald-Leader at the USA Basketball camp in Colorado Springs something that seemed to raise eyebrows, and maybe speak to what other recruits might be thinking.

"“Speaking for myself, I’m just unclear on the direction right now. With all the things that are going on with the FBI (investigation, I’m just not really sure what’s going on.”"

While other recruits from the USA camp had more positive things to say, many have taken the comments from Brooks and run with them.

But it might be worth digging into the other quotes a bit more.

“It’s a great program and a historic team. I feel like the new coach (Chris Mack) coming in, he’s going to make them even better.”

Five star and top five prospect Matthew Hurt said, “They had a great hire, and I think Chris Mack is going to change their program around. I think in my class he’s going to get some top guys. They lost some 2018 recruits, but I think they’re going to get some key guys in my grade.”

While neither Lewis or Hurt are really seen to be considering the Cards, it speaks in depth about what Chris Mack and his staff have done in just three months on the recruiting trail. With Mack coming over from Xavier, who has recently been one of the best programs in the country and saw a major uptick in recruiting, he has been able to maintain some of the relationships with recruits he built there. However, for the most part, he’s had to start fresh.

We saw the payoff just a few weeks back when the Cards were able to land highly coveted recruit Josh Nickelberry, a 6’4 guard out of North Carolina.

With offers from several big time program such as Florida, UConn, Florida State, North Carolina, NC State, and plenty of others, Nickelberry chose the Cards, making him the first four year commit of the Chris Mack era at Louisville.

What Nickelberry told ESPN Recruiting Analyst Jeff Borzello only confirmed what Cards fans already knew, Chris Mack was going to be able to recruit.

"“I believe in what Coach Mack is preaching about the program he will be building. I want to be the first guy to get things going in the right direction.”"

You’d be wrong to think that Nickelberry will be it for the class of 2019. The Cards are trending upward in the recruitment of Jahmius Ramsey, a four star guard, as well as big man Jason Jitoboh, a rising big man who just visited past weekend. Chris Mack and his staff are also in on elite talent such as Aidan Igiehon, Isaiah Stewart, Orlando Robinson and plenty of others.

“We don’t feel like there’s going be an NCAA Tournament ban. You never say never. That part’s going to be answered down the line,” Mack said in a story written by the Courier Journal’s Justin Sayers. That stuff has to work its way out in the courts anyway.”

Cards fans, we all have a tendency to think the worst at times (I’m in this boat too), but believe me when I say Chris Mack is going to get the job done. With big shoes to fill, following behind two hall-of-famers, there’s not a doubt inside the Louisville program that the Cards will continue on as an elite program, with the goal of winning another national championship.

Next: Chris Mack Brings Intensity to Battle of the Bluegrass