Can Xavier hold onto Chris Mack, this year's hottest coaching commodity?
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Greg Christopher, Xavier’s athletic director since 2013, refers to it as “a rite of spring” for his job. Once again, the Musketeers are making a deep NCAA tournament run.
And once again, his coach, Chris Mack, is suddenly everybody’s hot name on the coaching carousel.
"For anyone involved in college athletics, in some ways, we follow the coaching moves with more interest than the games," Christopher said here on the eve of Xavier’s Elite Eight clash with Gonzaga. "I’m not sure what that says about what we do."
Xavier has been through this many, many times before over the past three decades — Pete Gillen (Providence), Skip Prosser (Wake Forest), Thad Matta (Ohio State) and Sean Miller (Arizona) all eventually left for perceived higher-profile (at the time) jobs. Mack, who succeeded Miller eight years ago, had a serious flirtation with Cal in 2014 before opting to remain at Xavier.
Chris Mack
But neither school nor coach has gone through anything quite as high-stakes as the events that could soon play out with the fall of a couple dominoes.
For one, arguably no Xavier coach’s stock has ever been higher than Mack’s is right now after leading the 11th-seeded Muskies (24-13) to consecutive tourney upsets of sixth seed Maryland, third seed Florida State and second seed Arizona over the past two weekends. Xavier is the first 11th seed to beat three straight higher-seeded teams since LSU in 1986.
If he follows that up Saturday by knocking off No. 1 seed Gonzaga to deliver the school’s first-ever Final Four berth? Oh my. Mack had already built up considerable respect by reaching four Sweet 16s in eight seasons. But a Final Four puts rising coaches in another stratosphere. Think Brad Stevens. Or Shaka Smart. Or Gregg Marshall.
And man, talk about timing. It just so happens that Indiana, widely considered one of the premier basketball schools nationally, is looking for a coach. (UPDATE: Indiana hired Archie Miller on Saturday, after this story was published.) While it’s widely believed Indiana AD Fred Glass has eyes only for Hoosier State hero Steve Alford, he’d be foolish not to at least place a call to the 47-year-old Mack, whose current school is just 130 miles from Bloomington and regularly recruits that state.
Xavier Musketeers
And if Indiana does hire Alford, then perhaps UCLA would itself target Mack. This isn’t Cal three years ago — these are two of the sport’s bluest bluebloods.
After UCLA's loss to Kentucky late Friday, Alford said: "I am absolutely 100 percent not going to Indiana."
But it’s hardly a sure thing Mack would leave for either. The product of Cincinnati suburb North College Hill and former Xavier player himself is more deeply entrenched in that community than any of his predecessors, including his original mentor — the late Prosser — or former boss Miller. His wife, Christi, played at Dayton.
Mack’s first coaching job was for a high school girls team in Cincinnati, and he’s been known to coach his elementary school daughters’ teams. In fact, if you follow Mack on Twitter you know his daughters, Lainee and Hailee, are seemingly always at his side.
https://twitter.com/CoachChrisMack/status/844654181478653952
https://twitter.com/christimack30/status/844318041009639425
He very much leads a Cincinnati everyman’s life — the farthest thing from the fishbowl of Bloomington or the spotlight of L.A. Not that those things aren’t enticing.
Mack has addressed the coaching carousel in general terms a couple of times this tourney.
"I think coaches have learned that the grass isn't always greener," he said at first-weekend site Orlando. "We certainly have a great thing going at Xavier."
"I don't think there's any coach in the NBA, in college, in high school, that can say, hey, I'm here forever," Mack said here Friday. "But when you have what we have at Xavier, it's special. And I don't take that for granted."
Chris Mack
Christopher said he’s vigilant about making sure the school does the same. As a private school, Xavier does not publicize Mack’s salary, but a contract extension increased it from the $1.2 million USA Today reported prior to the 2016 NCAA tournament — at the time, 36th highest nationally and third in the Big East.
Indiana could easily pay two to three times that.
"Yes, we know he loves Cincinnati and we know he loves Xavier, and those feelings won't change regardless," the AD said. "But we don’t want him to ever feel like we take him for granted. We talk on a regular basis, not just about his compensation but his entire support program. What do we need to be successful?"
The answer these days is simply — not much more.
The single biggest reason why Xavier might avoid being a springboard today, as with coaches past, is its conference. With its move in 2013 from the Atlantic 10 to the Big East, the school’s resources, exposure and recruiting profile leapt considerably. It now plays in a league that sent 70 percent of its teams to the NCAA Tournament this year and produced the 2016 national champion, Villanova.
Chris Mack
If the goal of any coach is to reach the Final Four and compete for national championships, well, Mack is already pretty well-positioned in his current job.
"Xavier is in a much different place than it was five, 10 years ago," he said. "The league that we're in, as I've said many times this year, is a monster."
According to Department of Education data, Xavier basketball in 2015-16 generated $12.8 million in revenue, even higher than Villanova’s $11.4 million.
"What more does a Xavier or a school from the Big East need to win at a high level?" Christopher asked rhetorically. "I don’t know what it is. I can't fill in that gap and say yeah, we’re missing this."
On the other hand, that $12.8 million, while respectable, still lags considerably behind Indiana’s reported $23.1 million. The now-ousted Tom Crean was making a reported $3.1 million last year, eighth-highest nationally.
Chris Mack
And of course, while Xavier has won a lot of games over the past three decades, the fact is it’s playing for its first-ever Final Four trip Saturday. Indiana has won five national championships and reached eight Final Fours, albeit none since 2002.
Ultimately, if Mack truly does get pursued by one of those bluebloods, Xavier will not likely be able to win a bidding war. But fans will keep their fingers crossed that it never comes to that.
Asked Friday whether Xavier has become a program where a successful coach can spend his entire career, Mack first joked: "If they don’t fire you," before responding, "I'll say, yeah. It might not have been that way 10 years ago, 15 years ago," but it is now.
But that was also right before he said that no coach can say, "Hey, I'm here forever."
Like Mack said, the mystery and speculation is almost as fun as the games themselves. Xavier’s been winning a lot on the court with its defense lately. Soon it may have to do the same off it.
