Chris Mack threatened to pull scholarships after missing NCAA Tournament, per report

Another day, another drama-filled story out of Louisville.

Per a report from WDRB’s Marcus Green and Travis Ragsdale, former Louisville Cardinals basketball assistant coach Dino Gaudio claimed head coach Chris Mack threatened to pull players’ scholarships after the team failed to make the NCAA Tournament. The report comes from released court documents regarding Gaudio’s extortion case.

“On March 14, coaches and players gathered to watch the NCAA Tournament Selection Show,” the court documents said. “As the evening wore on, it became increasingly clear that Louisville was going to fall just short of being selected to compete in the NCAA Tournament. The mood soured and Mack called a coaches meeting following the disappointing Selection Show. Mack immediately began criticizing the players.”

The WDRB report states Gaudio fought back by telling Mack the school needed to “honor their commitments to the young men they recruited.”

Gaudio also said he warned Mack about alleged NCAA recruiting and COVID-19 health and safety protocol violations “at least twice” last summer.

In June, Gaudio pleaded guilty to attempting and get 17 months of salary in exchange for not revealing these reported NCAA violations.

According to the documents, Gaudio says Mack agreed to pay his severance package “either through the University of Louisville or personally” during a meeting on March 17, 2021, when Mack fired Gaudio because of “poor staff chemistry.” Mack secretly taped the meeting, per the documents.

Gaudio even landed the support of Kentucky Wildcats head coach John Calipari in the documents, who penned a letter in support of the assistant he “developed relationships” with.

Stay tuned for the next drama-filled story out of the Ville.