Chris Mack focused more on the game — less on the rivalry — ahead of UK-Louisville
On the eve of his first foray into the Kentucky-Louisville basketball rivalry, new Cardinals head coach Chris Mack started his Friday press conference with a just-another-game mentality.
“I just think we have to get our players ready to play. We have to get them as prepared as we possibly can,” Mack said. “We know the challenge ahead. If you’re asking if I worry about controlling emotion, I really don’t. It just has to be challenged the right way. That’s sort of how I always approached games like tomorrow’s game.”
That kind of answer, of course, won’t do around here.
Mack, the head coach at Xavier for nine seasons before taking the U of L job earlier this year, was pressed on his attachment to the UK-Louisville rivalry, what it meant to him before he took over the Cardinals’ program, what it means to him now that he’ll actually be part of the game, and even what it means to his wife, Christi, a Louisville native.
“I mean, you pay attention to it,” he said. “I’ve been in college basketball for a long time as either a player or a coach, and it’s one of — if not the — premier non-conference games in all of college basketball. So, as a college basketball fan — not just a coach — even though I didn’t have any horse in the race, so to speak, I still gravitate to watching great basketball.”
Mack is no stranger to rivalry games.
He was part of one of the most heated in the country — Xavier vs. Cincinnati — as a player, assistant and head coach with the Musketeers, who went 6-3 in the Crosstown Shootout with Mack in the top job. Though not as celebrated nationally, that annual game shares the same kind of animosity seen between the Cats and Cards, on and off the court.
“I would say that, generally, the fan bases don’t like each other,” Mack said. “That really has nothing to do with the coaching staffs or the programs or the players. But, for those of you that have ever been to Cincinnati or lived in Cincinnati, like, you had a little feeling when you saw somebody walking around with a Bearcat logo on, if you were a Xavier person. And vice versa.
“And when you’re driving on Watterson or you’re driving on Gene Snyder (in Louisville), and you see that Big Blue plate next to you, you just sort of keep staring straight ahead. Or you hit ‘em from behind.”
Mack paused and chuckled, making sure all knew he was just kidding about any acts of rivalry road rage.
“We all have those feelings as fans, but when it comes to the players and the coaches — at least from our end — there’s a ton of respect, and we know how talented and well-coached the team we’re going to play tomorrow is,” he said.
Without putting the game on the larger-than-life pedestal that former UK and U of L coach Rick Pitino often did, Mack did explain that, yes, he is excited to be part of this rivalry. “This is why you come to Louisville — to play in games like this,” he said. “As I said before, it’s the best non-conference game in the entire country. If you’re not playing, and you’re a college basketball player or coach, you’re tuning into the game. And, so, who wouldn’t want to be a part of something like that?”
A few minutes earlier, U of L co-captain Christen Cunningham — a former high school standout in Lexington — analyzed his coach’s approach in the lead-up to this game, the team’s first in eight days following a 73-59 victory over Robert Morris last week.
“He’s locked in. I can tell he’s ready to go,” Cunningham said. “He’s always really serious and focused, but I can tell — since we got back — everybody’s locked in for this one. It’s a big game, and we understand that. We’re not going to try and act like it’s not.”
But instead of dwelling on the crowd and the past and what it all means — again, as Pitino often did in recent years — Mack kept bringing the conversation back to basketball itself.
There was plenty of talk about UK’s stellar showing against North Carolina over the weekend, and what it might mean for Saturday’s game. Plenty of talk about the Cats’ seeming advantage in the post, and how the Cards might try to counter that in Saturday’s game. Plenty of talk about UK’s struggles defending the perimeter, and how the Cards might be able to exploit that in Saturday’s game. Plenty of talk about Keldon Johnson and Tyler Herro and Ashton Hagans, and how they might be hard to handle in Saturday’s game.
There was plenty of talk about Saturday’s game, and less about the rivalry itself.
“Yeah, you want to be a part of it. But I don’t want it to seem as if, ‘Hey, now Coach watches more film. Hey, now we practice longer.’ That would be a disservice to the other teams that we play,” Mack said. “And we’re always concerned more about ourselves than the opponent, regardless of how good the opponent may be.”
This story was originally published December 28, 2018 at 4:36 PM.