Chris Mack Named Head Coach of USF Men’s Basketball
Veteran head coach led Xavier and Louisville to the NCAA Tournament;
You have posted 12 20-win seasons and an almost 68% successful share
TAMPA, MARCH 25, 2026 –University of South Florida CEO of Athletics Rob Higgins you’ve gotten named 2016 nationwide coach of the 12 months Chris Mack because the thirteenth head coach of the Bulls males’s basketball program.
Mack, who led Xavier and Louisville to the NCAA Tournament, involves South Florida after posting a pair of 20-win seasons on the College of Charleston. He brings a 323-153 (.679) profession file to Tampa throughout 15 seasons as a head coach with stops at Xavier (2009-18), Louisville (2018-22), and College of Charleston (2024-26).
Mack has posted 12 20-win seasons and led groups to 9 NCAA Tournament appearances (posting an 11-9 file), together with 4 Sweet 16 and one Elite Eight look with Xavier. He posted 259 victories in his first 11 seasons as a head coach, marking the twelfth most amassed by a coach in that time-frame. As a participant, assistant coach, and head coach, Mack has been half of 19 NCAA Tournament appearances. Teams Mack have led have achieved each a No. 1 Associated Press Poll rating (Louisville) and a No. 1 seed within the NCAA Tournament (Xavier).
“Bulls basketball has incredible momentum, and we’ve found an outstanding coach and leader to elevate our program to the next level,” Higgins stated. “Chris Mack has reached 20 or more wins in 12 of his 15 seasons as a head coach and guided teams to nine NCAA Tournaments, including several Sweet 16s and an Elite Eight. He brings elite experience in roster building through the portal and transforming programs in a short time frame. We couldn’t be more excited to welcome Chris and his family to Bulls Nation. With Chris and Kristy (Curry) leading our men’s and women’s programs, Tampa Bay’s Home for Hoops will be rocking and poised for an incredibly bright future.”
Mack, one of simply 19 coaches in faculty basketball historical past to steer their workforce to a No. 1 rating inside the first two years at their faculty, was named the 2016 Henry Iba Award winner because the nationwide coach of the 12 months chosen by the United States Basketball Writers Association. He has twice been named a convention coach of the 12 months, incomes 2018 Big East Coach the Year and 2011 Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year honors, and has led groups to 3 convention regular-season championships. Mack was additionally named the winner of the 2011 Skip Prosser Man of the Year Award, given yearly to an NCAA Division I males’s basketball head coach who not solely achieves success on the basketball courtroom, however shows ethical integrity off the courtroom as nicely.
“I am truly excited for the opportunity to lead a South Florida basketball program that’s on an exceptional trajectory and to join a university and athletic department defined by strong leadership, shared aspirations, and tremendous alignment,” Mack stated. “The exceptional vision and commitment Rob outlined are inspiring, and I am grateful for his trust and belief in my leadership of Bulls basketball. I’m eager to connect with Bulls Nation, the students in the SoFlo Rodeo, and the passionate fans who make the Yuengling Center such a special home court.”
Mack involves South Florida after two seasons main the College of Charleston program. In his first season, he guided the Cougars to a 24-9 file and a 13-5 mark within the Coastal Athletic Association. He adopted that with a 21-11 mark (14-4 CAA) and a second-place convention end in 2025-26.
Mack guided Louisville to a 24-7 file and a 15-5 ACC mark in 2019-2020. It was the very best general file by 31 video games for a Louisville workforce in six years and marked probably the most convention victories for the Cardinals of their first six years within the ACC. The Cards achieved a Top 15 rating all through the season, together with two weeks because the nation’s No. 1-ranked workforce within the AP and USA Today polls. No postseason was held that 12 months because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In his first season at Louisville (2018-19), Mack guided the Cardinals to a 20-14 file whereas going through the nation’s fourth-toughest schedule and earned a No. 7 seed within the NCAA Tournament. Picked to complete eleventh within the ACC, Louisville achieved a 10-8 convention file and earned a tie for sixth within the closing common season standings. The Cardinals beat 4 Associated Press Top 25-ranked groups and reached No. 22 within the nation within the NCAA’s NET rankings. Louisville ranked among the many nation’s prime 30 groups in each offensive (twenty seventh) and defensive effectivity (twenty fourth).
Mack spent 9 seasons as the top coach at Xavier, guiding the Musketeers to a 215-97 file and eight NCAA Tournament appearances, together with reaching the Sweet 16 on 4 events (2010, 2012, 2015, 2017) and the Elite Eight in 2017. His groups gained or shared three convention common season championships whereas compiling a 105-49 (68.1%) league file over 5 seasons within the Big East and 4 within the Atlantic 10.
His 2017-18 squad achieved a 29-6 file, gained Xavier’s first-ever Big East Conference common season championship, and earned the varsity’s first-ever No. 1 seed within the NCAA Tournament. Mack was honored because the 2018 Big East Coach of the Year and NABC District 5 Coach of the Year as he turned the all-time teaching wins chief in Xavier males’s basketball historical past.
His 2016-17 Xavier workforce made an NCAA Tournament run to the Elite Eight after incomes a No. 11 seed. The Musketeers defeated No. 6 seed Maryland, No. 3 Florida State and No. 2 Arizona earlier than falling to No. 1 seed Gonzaga within the Elite Eight.
Mack was named the 2010-11 Atlantic 10 Conference Coach of the Year in his second 12 months as a head coach, as he led the Musketeers to a 15-1 convention file and top-20 nationwide rating. He additionally earned the Skip Prosser Man of the Year award that season.
He was named the 2009-10 Basketball Times Rookie Coach of the Year as he guided Xavier to a 26-9 file, a share of the Atlantic 10 regular-season championship and development to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16.
Before turning into a head coach, Mack was half of profitable staffs all through his profession. He spent 5 seasons as an assistant on Sean Miller’s Xavier workers (2004-09) after serving on the staffs of the late Skip Prosser at Xavier, as director of basketball operations (1999-01), and at Wake Forest (2001-04), as an assistant coach.
In 10 seasons as an assistant or operations director, he helped his groups produce a 229-96 file (.705), win 4 regular-season convention titles and one convention event championship, safe eight NCAA Tournament appearances and make three Sweet 16 appearances and one Elite Eight.
In 1992 Xavier graduated with a level in Communication Arts, Mack was a two-time workforce captain as a participant at Xavier beneath then-head coach Pete Gillen. His Xavier groups gained an MCC common season title and made an NCAA Tournament look in 1993. He additionally performed two seasons at Evansville, serving to the Purple Aces to a 1989 convention title and the NCAA Tournament.
Mack and his spouse, Christi, have three youngsters: Lainee, Hailee and Brayden.
About USF Athletics
USF Athletics sponsors 21 varsity groups, with 20 competing on the NCAA Division I stage within the American Athletic Conference, together with the latest additions of ladies’s lacrosse and girls’s seaside volleyball. The Bulls’ athletic program, based in 1965, celebrates its 60thseason in 2025-26.
Nearly 500 student-athletes prepare and compete within the Tampa General Hospital Athletics District on the east finish of USF’s Tampa campus. The Bulls have gained 156 convention titles throughout 16 sports activities, with 84 males’s championships and 72 ladies’s championships. Men’s tennis and males’s soccer lead with 20 titles every, whereas ladies’s applications have been headlined by ladies’s tennis (14) and volleyball (13). Since becoming a member of the American Athletic Conference in 2013, USF has secured 38 convention workforce titles.
Academically, USF student-athletes have achieved a program file of 22 consecutive semesters with a mixed GPA of 3.0 or earlier as of fall 2025. Since 2015, greater than 800 Bulls have earned their levels.
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