Louisville basketball roundtable: Looking back at a historic offseason

We are a little over two weeks away from Louisville basketball officially getting the 2018-19 season underway. The Big Red Louie team takes a look at back at the offseason.

This offseason was easily the most action packed the Louisville basketball program has seen since Rick Pitino was hired way back in 2001.

After a tumultuous season that saw the firing of long-time head coach, Rick Pitino, and Athletic Director, Tom Jurich, everyone knew that the Cards were going to need a hit home run. With an ongoing FBI Investigation that likely would spell trouble in the foreseeable future coupled with the past scandals still providing a dark cloud over the program, no one really knew if new Athletic Director, Vince Tyra, was going to be able to get the guy everyone had had their eyes on for sometime – Chris Mack.

But on March 27th 2018, it became official – Xavier coach Chris Mack, would be the next coach at Louisville. The Cards got the guy they wanted all along. Even with that being the case, I don’t think anyone expected all of what was to come. During his introductory press conference Chris Mack quickly won over the fans of the Louisville program and most importantly the players. With quotes like:

"“I know these past few months have been unbelievably difficult. They say the darkest clouds elicit the brightest lightning bolts. That lightning bolt is coming. It’s not me, it’s those guys (players). It’s time to turn the page and start building something special once again. I urge you, fill the Yum!, give these guys a chance, let’s get this place rocking. I want you to take pride in your city, in your team, and again, my promise won’t come in wins and it won’t come in banners, it’ll come in the sense that I will work my ass off every single day to make you proud of Louisville basketball.” “I told these guys about a half hour ago, and I think a couple of them will start shaking their heads, I recruited about half of them, and if they wouldn’t come to me at Xavier, I told them, ‘You’re stuck with me, I’m going to come to you.’ There will be no, ‘Those are Pitino’s guys versus Mack’s guys.’ I chose this group; you guys are my guys. I’m going to work hard every single day to make you better, to make us better, to make Louisville basketball better. Earlier on, I talked to them about meeting a high standard. I see my job as the head coach of keeping that standard high, and not lowering the standard when it’s not met. It’s not going to be easy. I want our team and our players to be tough together and unbreakable.”"

Big staff changes were made. Ray Spalding & Deng Adel, two stars for the 2017-18 team, headed off to the NBA. Louisville legend, Ray Ganong, officially retired. Three graduate transfers committed to the program. Louisville basketball officially joined Twitter, doing so in a big way. Andy Kettler was brought on to beef up the dudes. And finally, Coach Mack put together potentially the best recruiting class in the history of the program, landing five top 100 players in a matter of a few months.

Crazy right?

With all of that behind us and the Cards taking the floor for the first time as a team yesterday in the Red-White scrimmage, the team at Big Red Louie thought it was the perfect time to take a look back before we take a look ahead at the upcoming 2018-19 season.

We take the time to answer a few questions about the offseason, roundtable style.