Louisville Basketball: 10 candidates to replace Chris Mack as head coach

Matt McMahon

We briefly mentioned earlier that Louisville is the type of job that the bigger mid-major names would get mentioned for, though many of them have been hired for other jobs in recent years. This isn’t like a decade ago when Shaka Smart, Brad Stevens, and Gregg Marshall would get thrown around for every big coaching opening; the pickings are a bit slimmer these days. Still, there’s a pretty fantastic mid-major candidate just west of Louisville who’s doing brilliant things in the state.

McMahon spent two decades as a D1 player and assistant before getting his chance to run a program, but he’s really succeeded at Murray State. Since taking over the Racers program in 2015, he’s maintained their standing at the top of the OVC. He recruited Ja Morant and won an NCAA Tournament game with him in 2019, and this year’s Racers team is in position for another one of those kinds of runs at the postseason.

The lack of experience at power conference programs might be unnerving, but McMahon has shown that he’s a winner, and he’s very familiar recruiting Kentucky and the Midwest. With Murray State set to down the MVC next season, it might be a weird time for McMahon to move forward, but the Louisville job doesn’t open up very often.

For Louisville, it comes down to trusting a talented mid-major coach; would they do that again after things didn’t work out with Mack, who had great success when Xavier was a mid-major.