By ADAM ZAGORIA
Xavier coach Chris Mack will meet this weekend with Louisville officials to discuss their men’s basketball coaching opening, he told the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Louisville parted ways with interim coach David Padgett on Wednesday.
Mack has long been linked to the Louisville job in part because his wife is from there. His agent, Jason Charney, is also based in Louisville.
“It is an elite program,” Louisville interim AD Vince Tyra told the Louisville Courier-Journal. “It’s going to remain an elite program. And our opportunity right now is to hire an elite coach to maintain that. We certainly didn’t make the NCAA this year, and everybody knows that our expectations are much higher than that, to compete for national championships. They’re difficult to come by. We’ve only had one in the last 32 years and it got snagged away from us. We’re going to work hard to get back in that circle and we’re going to do it right away.”
Mack, 48, guided Xavier to a Big East-regular season title this year and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament before bowing out in the Big East Tournament semifinals and the second round of the Big Dance.
Mack is 212-96 (.688) in nine seasons at Xavier, with eight NCAA Tournament appearances.
