Louisville Basketball: 5 keys for a successful 2018-19 campaign

Chris Mack needs to bring stability

As I alluded to in the introduction, Louisville has faced its fair share of adversity in the past year. This is why the introduction of Chris Mack as the new head coach is such a big deal both for the team on the court and for the look of the program off the court. Now with a long-term head coach in place (David Padgett was an interim last year), the Cardinals have a new face of the program.

The expectation is that Mack will start to build his own culture in Louisville right away and that is something that can only benefit the program in the long run. Now with someone at the helm of the program that the university can count on to be there for years to come, Mack has already brought stability to the state of the program. However, in order for Louisville to succeed this year, Mack and his staff need to get the team on board with his plan.

For starters, it is not easy to foster a new culture with inherited players from a prior head coach’s recruiting classes. That is exactly what Mack will need to do, though, as the majority of the roster is remaining from the Pitino/Padgett era at the school. If he can get these players to buy into his system, then that will be a step in the right direction for the program to have a good year in 2018-19.

In addition, Coach Mack needs to find a stable rotation. With Snider, Adel, Spalding, and Anas Mahmoud all gone, there are plenty of minutes to be had. This will certainly ignite competition for playing time within the team. Also, considering the additions of four players via transfer, team chemistry could be an issue early on. How Coach Mack handles this could dictate the year ahead.