5 minutes ago, TheDeuce said:

Russ Smith was a 2-star recruit and now his jersey is hanging in the rafters at the Yum Center. There’s not one player that has developed under Mack. 

Russ is only one player and doesn’t give a true picture of the Mack tenure, other than Williams, he has had no other players that had true talent to compete with.

14 minutes ago, nikeman49 said:

Russ is only one player and doesn’t give a true picture of the Mack tenure, other than Williams, he has had no other players that had true talent to compete with.

Russ isn’t a Mack guy. 

I agree with you, Mack hasn’t gotten the players, but he also hasn’t developed any. That’s just as big of an issue. 

 

2 hours ago, John Anthony said:

Louisville at the time hired the right guy. I’m surprised he flopped so quickly.

Did the state of the program and/or athletic department play a role at all in his failure?  There's no denying he was walking into a tough spot.

4 minutes ago, MJAlltheWay24 said:

Did the statement of the program and/or athletic department play a role at all in his failure?  There's no denying he was walking into a tough spot.

Not in my opinion. A tough spot yes… But not so bad he missed the tournament two years in a row…

2 minutes ago, TheDeuce said:

Not in my opinion. A tough spot yes… But not so bad he missed the tournament two years in a row…

I haven't followed the Louisville program as closely as I did with Pitino was there.  I think that's probably more because I haven't followed college basketball as much in general, so I wasn't sure.

Jeff Walz and his team seem like the only lifeboat on the Titanic that is U of L Athletics

 

I would love to see Pearl take that job.   But would Louisville be willing to take a chance on a name caught up in the same scandal that both Pitino and Mack were caught up in at Louisville and Xavier respectively?   It will be an interesting time.    I'll have my popcorn and soda ready.

I thought the Mack hire was a home run when it happened.  He did not do himself many favors.  I'm curious to see who they land.

Off the court, Mack has apparently dug his own holes and needs to work out of them.  IMO, if he were winning more games, I think the off the court problems wouldn't have them negotiating a separation.

One the floor, I think Mack and Louisville are one of the biggest victims in the COVID era of the NCAA.  The 2019/2020 team with Jordan Nwora was primed to make some noise in the Tourney.   When COVID cancelled it, and they didn't get to make that run, they didn't get to take that momentum and build off of it.   Would be interesting to see what would have happened had the 2020 dance happened.

Mack was always going to have his work cut out for him because he followed Pitino. You never wanna be the guy after the guy. Then you throw in everything else and it was never going to be an easy gig.

I think his personality and temperament were the biggest issues here, he just doesn’t fit. A lot of people were wrong on that, myself included. 

10 hours ago, TheDeuce said:

Mack was always going to have his work cut out for him because he followed Pitino. You never wanna be the guy after the guy. Then you throw in everything else and it was never going to be an easy gig.

I think his personality and temperament were the biggest issues here, he just doesn’t fit. A lot of people were wrong on that, myself included. 

Deuce, you seem very connected to the UL fanbase. What is your feeling on who the fanbase wants and why? Is that different than who YOU want? 

12 minutes ago, Kenny Powers said:

Deuce, you seem very connected to the UL fanbase. What is your feeling on who the fanbase wants and why? Is that different than who YOU want? 

Bruce Pearl and Kenny Payne are the top two at the moment. Pearl would immediately inject a spark back into the program and he can obviously coach. He's a big personality and you need that here.

Payne was and is wanted by a lot of the "old guard" type fans. Former players have pushed for KP even back before they hired Mack. IMO, hiring him would be a move to appease a crowd that I'm not sure genuinely supports UofL. 

Mick Cronin has been tossed around as well, but definitely not as much as those two. Others mentioned have been Nate Oats, Eric Mussleman and Brad Stevens (LOL).

I would be fine with Pearl. At this point, I couldn't care less about any prior NCAA stuff with him. If I were calling the shots, I'd start there.

Payne does absolutely nothing for me. I don't believe in the "Louisville guy" mentality. He has zero head coaching experience, Louisville can get someone better than that. 

 

Is Louisville willing to pay crazy top dollar for a coach?

8 minutes ago, TheDeuce said:

Bruce Pearl and Kenny Payne are the top two at the moment. Pearl would immediately inject a spark back into the program and he can obviously coach. He's a big personality and you need that here.

Payne was and is wanted by a lot of the "old guard" type fans. Former players have pushed for KP even back before they hired Mack. IMO, hiring him would be a move to appease a crowd that I'm not sure genuinely supports UofL. 

Mick Cronin has been tossed around as well, but definitely not as much as those two. Others mentioned have been Nate Oats, Eric Mussleman and Brad Stevens (LOL).

I would be fine with Pearl. At this point, I couldn't care less about any prior NCAA stuff with him. If I were calling the shots, I'd start there.

Payne does absolutely nothing for me. I don't believe in the "Louisville guy" mentality. He has zero head coaching experience, Louisville can get someone better than that. 

 

Thanks for the info. Cronin is an interesting idea. He seems pretty frustrated at UCLA and I don't know if it would take that much to draw him back to this area. I think there are a lot of UC fans wishing they would have treated him with a lot more respect and probably didn't realize how well they had it.