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Mack to the future: A glance at new look Louisville basketball program

By Charlie Thomas

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Everything around the Louisville Basketball program just feels different under Chris Mack. While he has yet to coach a game the feeling of winning is in the air.

September 27, 2017

It was a normal day, or so we thought until news dropped about the NCAA Pay for Play scandal that was said to shake college basketball to it’s core. What made this news different from most “NCAA news” was that it was from the FBI – yes, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was involved in COLLEGE BASKETBALL. After reading through the initial news dump of information I thought Louisville basketball was luckily in the clear.

The Louisville Basketball image was already pretty down still coming off the Katina Powell book “Breaking Cardinal Rules”. Then in a group Twitter DM a friend posted “I don’t know man this Coach 2 sounds like Pitino and Brian Bowen. Then everyone started to put the pieces together and my iPhone started buzzing with notifications that Louisville was in fact involved in this.

It was a matter of days from the initial report and Rick Pitino was out as head basketball coach and Tom Jurich, the heralded University Athletic Director, was also out at Louisville.  The fan base rightfully assumed we were now at rock bottom. The tag team of Jurich and Pitino had resurrected the Louisville Basketball program winning 416 of 559 games at Louisville including three Final Four runs and the 2013 National Championship.

Pitino and Jurich were not the only people let go from the FBI news, pretty much the entire men’s basketball coaching staff was let go with the exception of soon to be Interim Head Coach David Padgett. The 2017 – 2018 basketball season was a season unlike any other I have lived through.

Coach Padgett did the best he could with the circumstances he inherited and the entire fan base will always have a special place for Padgett for guiding this team through the hardest time in program history, just missing the NCAA tournament. The UVA game (yes you know what game I am talking about) was just a dagger right through the heart of Card Nation and the uncertainty of what the future held had the fans anxiety level at an all time high.

March 27, 2018

The dark cloud over Louisville basketball was lifted. Chris Mack, the long-time head coach at Xavier – who many considered to be a shoe in for the job when Pitino moved on, was hired to lead the men’s basketball program out of the darkness of scandal(s) and back to glory atop college basketball.

Side note- I do not know if you all know this or not but Coach Mack’s wife Christi is from Louisville. She was an amazing high school basketball player I got to witness first hand as she was a year ahead of me at Holy Cross High School.

The Mack’s won over the majority of the fan base from the introductory press conference.  Newly hired permanent athletic director Vince Tyra went out and got the man he wanted and Coach Mack has already made some major moves.

Most of the country would tell you coming off of two major scandals that Louisville Basketball would be down for some time. The possibility of a “death penalty’  would deter recruits from coming to Louisville.

Louisville was an after thought to most of the college basketball world.

May 31, 2018

Another normal day in Louisville, until it wasn’t. Chris Mack, who had warned us at his press conference that he was avid social media user, and a fan of connecting with people in the community. But we had no idea that Mack would use the social media platform so deeply hated by Rick Pitino to foreshadow his soon to be first commitment in the class of 2019.

https://twitter.com/CoachChrisMack/status/1002353260316020736

Shortly after we’d find out that coveted recruit, Josh Nickleberry  a four star recruit ranked in top 60 – 65 at the time depending on recruiting service, had made the decision to commit to Louisville.

Since that day, the eye balls, eye balls,  Uh oh…L’s up has become a new tradition when a recruit commits, one that we’ve seen four more times on the way to the #2 class in the country.

The future for Louisville Basketball is as bright as it has ever been but lets take a moment to talk about this current roster for Mack’s first season a realistic expectations for the Cardinals. The Cards just missed the tournament last season and this year they will be without Ray Spalding and Deng Adel who both moved on to the NBA.

Those are some big roles to fill but Coach Mack has added grad transfers Christen Cunningham, Khwan Fore, and returning Cardinal Akoy Agau to fill out the roster. Big man Steven Enoch will also be available this year after sitting out last season as he transferred in from UConn.

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The Cardinals are returning a great nucleus from last season. I look for standout years from Jordan Nwora, V.J. King, and Darius Perry, all of which were heavily recruited players back in 2017. While you would be hard pressed to find Louisville in any pre-season top 25’s, I fully expect the Cardinals to flirt with and more than likely move in and out of the rankings in the upcoming season.

While a National Championship or Final Four expectation is totally unfair to place on this team I think it is without a doubt a NCAA tournament team. After that who knows, I think a round of 32 would be a fair expectation of this team and a Sweet 16 run would not be out of the question but, of course all of that would depend on match-ups.

Louisville Cardinals basketball is going to be more than okay. Louisville is going to come out of the shadows of scandal and will be back in the national spotlight in no time thanks in most part in hiring Chris Mack.

dark. Next. Should Louisville Basketball be a top 25 to begin the season?

He is a players coach that is approachable and more relateable to fans. Mack is going to great lengths to reshape the student section with the help of The Ville’ns the official student section group.

The Louisville Live event at 4th Street Live was just the tip of the iceberg of what Mack has in plan for moving the Cardinals program forward.

Louisville is a college town and the Cardinals basketball program is back!

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