Louisville AD Vince Tyra Discusses Chris Mack Suspension

Mack was suspended for six game for failing to "follow University guidelines, policies, and procedures" in regards to the extortion attempt from ex-assistant Dino Gaudio.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - On Friday, the University of Louisville announced that men's basketball head coach Chris Mack had been suspended without pay for the first six games of the 2021-22 season.

The university had determined that Mack "failed to follow University guidelines, policies, and procedures" in his handling of firing and extortion attempt of former assistant coach Dino Gaudio. The suspension was unrelated to the extortion attempt itself, and the ongoing NCAA process.

“As I have said since the beginning of my tenure, we have high expectations for all of our staff members and coaches and we hold people accountable for their actions,” athletic director Vince Tyra said in a release. “While we have made great strides over the last four years in changing the culture in our Department of Athletics, we cannot afford to have any setbacks, no matter how big or small, in our pursuits.

"I am confident that Coach Mack now understands the impact of his actions. We all have confidence in him moving forward. I am grateful for the partnership and support of President Bendapudi in this matter.”

Later that day, Tyra spoke to the media to expand on the subject. Below is the transcript from the press conference:

(Opening Statement)

As you can imagine, not a fun day. This is a day for Coach Mack, and certainly one of my worst days here, I can assure you. Makes my hair either turn gray or turned loose, one of the two, or both. But nonetheless, we know we've got the announcement out today.

(On if he was the one who made the decision to suspend Mack)

The decision was made collaboratively, something of this magnitude, with Neeli (Bendapudi) and myself, and certainly some board input. Noting that Chris is a direct report of mine, it rests with me.

(On what Mack did not follow protocol/policy-wise, and how you fix the perception of the program)

I'll work backwards. I would say that, on how do you fix perception, you deal with things as they come up. I feel like, at least in my four years here, I try to be consistent in representing the values that I felt like I brought to the program, and when you gotta be fearless about doing the right thing, and deal with them as they come up. In this case, feel like we did that. You're trying to address it right away and certainly, where we are today of the outcome. You try to take credence in the fact that you are doing the right thing, and trying to raise the values and the integrity of the program, even when things don't go well. They're not going to go perfectly, we recognize that. But we've got a history here of some issues, and when they're compounding and they cause negative PR to this degree, you certainly are going to address it.

Related to how this was handled, around the situation. Obviously, Chris didn't handle it in the way that we would have liked to seen it handled. Obviously the HR part of it, we did a review, and it came out to the point where we feel like there's some lessons learned here for him, and probably for us too. Without getting into too much of that, I think we're comfortable with where we are today.

(On of the decision was due in part of the ongoing IARP investigation)

No, this is independent of the NCAA issues. This is thinking about how we need to operate the program better, in a different way. Chris was faced with a difficult scenario, if you guys have now heard. But we feel like there was an ability to avoid, mitigate, what happened if we had just followed the procedures.

(On how the university would have preferred him going about this situation)

He was asked to have someone in in the room with him. I think Chris felt comfortable with his relationship with both Luke (Murray) and Dino. Felt like it, obviously, went well enough with Luke. I don't think either were happy when they were being notified that their contracts weren't being renewed, and obviously the second meeting with Dino, I don't think he ever suspected would go that way, but it did.

(On if he knew about the alleged use of graduate assistants in practice)

I can't touch on anything related to a pending NCAA investigation.

(On if Tyra is leery of Mack's ability to choose assistant coaches)

I think I can speak to where we are today. I think that, certainly I've got familiarity with Kahil (Fennell), as he was promoted into the position of assistant, and feel really good about him. Feel really good about his player relations and recruiting. Ross (McMains), we obviously spend a lot of time talking about Ross, and how to vet him to join the staff, and why that was a good fit for us. Chris is obviously known as a defensive minded coach, and Ross is an offensive minded coach. I think based on where Chris went with the decision, on both the assistants, chemistry was a concern.  I think that we talked about fit and chemistry quite a bit as he filled those two posts, and these two guys have exhibited that with the team. We can see within the players, which makes me feel good about how they're going to step up here, as well as the staff. I can see the chemistry amongst the new guys, with the veterans, and then certainly with the coaches. It's a different feel, and it's a positive one.

(On how it was decided that six games would be the penalty)

We looked at the way we handled discipline on campus as much as athletics. We had a lot of time, obviously, to think about this, and where we wanted to come out. Suspension without pay is is not uncommon, but if you're thinking about a coach vs. a dean-the business school, for example, games matter. If you're going to send a message, games are important to coaches, and we felt like that sent a clear message of the importance and the magnitude of the issue at hand. Then, certainly, we weighed the number of games. Six is a lot of games, certainly takes us all the way through the Bahamas, but it felt like that was the best place to land based upon our conversations.

(On who will lead the team while Mack is suspended)

Chris is meeting with his staff now, certainly didn't get a chance for me to really talk about that when I met with the team and staff earlier. I'm going to let him handle that conversation. 

(On if there was a connection to the announcement of the suspension coming an hour before Gaudio's sentencing)

We didn't want to get in the way of the process that was going on related to Dino's sentencing throughout. You let the authorities take care of their situation without us interfering. I think the timing of the release, and the timing of the announcement the suspension in general, or just imposing the suspension, was just that. It was purely just that.

(On if Mack is at risk of being terminated due to his contract stating he can be fired for cause in the event of a Level II violation)

I can't speak to the where the investigation is, or what may come of it, but all I can confirm is that you're right in the language in the agreement.

(On if termination was a topic of conversation with President Bendapudi)

I can't speak to that, where we came out. I don't want to share the conversation we had leading to today. I'm just comfortable talking to where we came out.

(On if Mack was the one who went to the FBI regarding the recording with Gaudio)

No, that wasn't a step that Chris took. Chris notified us of what occurred that afternoon, and we we quickly met that that day to discuss it. So, to his credit, he did bring forth what occurred right away.

(On if the case could have been handled differently)

You can certainly speculate how it may be handled or not, I can always speak to the way we handled it today. I didn't hear the judge's comments, so I'm not sure what the frame of reference was there.

(On if he was part of the decision not to retain Gaudio and Luke Murray)

Chris and I met the day before, talked about the future of the program, where we were going. Obviously, he talked about his desire to go ahead and make some very difficult decisions, which he had not had to do historically in his career. So, did I have a role in it, I would say yes, by virtue of that.

(On if he knew Mack had recorded the conversations with the assistant coaches)

No. No, I wasn't aware of that.

(Photo of Vince Tyra via University of Louisville Athletics)

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