Louisville basketball: 5 things I learned from Chris Mack

A matchup with Xavier could come down the road

Presley Meyer, Alex Stengel, and I talked multiple times over the days leading up to our sit-down with Coach Mack and tried to determine where we wanted to go with our questions in order to gain as much new and insightful information.

One question that was not determined beforehand was whether or not Mack and Louisville would ever be interested in scheduling a reunion game of sorts with Xavier, where he is the all-time winningest coach in program history?

His answer surprised me. Mack said:

“I think in the short-term, no. Simply because there are some hard feelings with fans, and I understand that. And also, I would never want to coach against guys that I did coach. I don’t want to put them in that situation. In time, I’m sure that the game would be something we would look at. Everybody’s opportunities now just keep shrinking and the control you’re able to have over the schedule isn’t what it used to be 10 years, but that’s something we’d be open to in time.”

First of all, until I did some research via Twitter I was not aware that Xavier fans were upset with Mack following his departure in 2018 following 22 total years with the program. He left after taking them to the NCAA Tournament on eight different occasions, including winning three conference titles (A-10 & Big East), and multiple Sweet 16 and Elite 8 appearances to take over a job that was clearly a step up and would give him a better chance to rise up the coaching ranks.

We’ve since seen many deem Mack as one of the next coaches most likely to win his first NCAA title, and while I understand why that’s hard to watch for Xavier fans who felt that they were set to be the next Villanova or even like a Gonzaga but never did I think that would lead to hard feelings.

Xavier has continued to play at a very high-level and following the completion of the 2021-22 season there will be no more players on the roster now coached by a long-time assistant, Travis Steele – meaning that’s when we can realistically think about that being a scenario.

It will probably be longer down the road and who knows, maybe an unscheduled tournament game will happen before then, but it’s at least cool to know that Mack would be open to putting his former school on his current school’s schedule in an attempt to create a fun new rivalry.