Atlantic 10 Basketball: Top 10 head coaches of the century (2000-20)

By Joey Loose | Jul 18, 2020

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MARCH 12: A general view of the Barclay Center prior to the start of the 2020 Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball Tournament - Second Round on March 12, 2020 in the Brooklyn Borough of New York City. Tournament games will be played without fans amid growing concerns of the spread of COVID-19 (Coronavirus). (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images) /

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CINCINNATI, OH – FEBRUARY 28: Head coach Chris Mack of the Xavier Musketeers (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

6. Chris Mack – Xavier (2009-2013)

Mack was a relative unknown before bursting onto the scene with the Musketeers. He played at the school and had been an assistant under Skip Prosser and Sean Miller, while also following Prosser briefly to Wake Forest. He was a former high school head coach, though his ascension to the top job at Xavier in 2009 was his first chance to be a collegiate head coach.

Mack took the momentum at Xavier and clearly continued it, putting the Musketeers in prime position for success in the Atlantic 10. In those four years, he led Xavier to a pair of Sweet Sixteens as a 6-seed in 2010 and a 10-seed in 2012. The 2011 team also made the NCAA Tournament, while he also claimed a pair of Atlantic 10 regular-season titles. His 90-44 mark during this time was clearly impressive and led to much greater things for the young coach.

Xavier departed for the new Big East in 2013 and the success only continued, leading to Mack receiving the Louisville job five years later. Mack already has the Cardinals trending in a great direction while Xavier remains a competitive force at the power conference level. While he didn’t exactly build Xavier from scratch, he did good work to maintain their place atop the Atlantic 10 and transition them onwards to bigger things.

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