If you like winners, this one is for you.
Charleston hired a new men’s basketball coach this offseason after former coach Pat Kelsey was named the head coach at Louisville.
In a bit of an ironic move, the Cougars hired Chris Mack, who was the head coach of the Cardinals from 2018-22 and posted a 63-36 record as the head coach of the traditional power. Kelsey is Mack’s former assistant coach.
He arrives at Charleston after a two-year coaching hiatus with a career winning percentage of 68 percent.
Mack was the head coach at Xavier from 2009-18 and had a record of 215-97 with the Musketeers before heading west up the Ohio River for the Cardinals job. He set the school record for wins at Xavier and went to eight NCAA Tournaments in nine seasons, including four Sweet 16s and an Elite Eight berth. Mack has 11 NCAA Tournament wins and three conference championships on his lengthy head coaching resume.
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Mack started his basketball coaching career as a junior varsity girls head coach a McAuley High in Cincinnati and was the varsity head coach at Mount Notre Dame High in Reading, Ohio where he was named the 1996 Coach of the Year by the Cincinnati Post.
He got his start in men’s college basketball in 1999 when he was named the Director of Basketball Operations under the late Skip Prosser at Xavier. He followed Prosser to Wake Forest in 2001 as an assistant coach before returning to Xavier in 2004 to work under former and current Musketeers head coach Sean Miller as his top assistant. He replaced Miller, who is now back at Xavier as the head coach, when Miller left for Arizona in April of 2009.
Mack was born on Dec. 30, 1969 in Cleveland, Ohio. He played basketball collegiately at Evansville before finishing his career and earning his degree from Xavier. His wife, the former Christi Hester, is a Louisville native that played college basketball at Dayton.
Landing a coach like Mack is quite a move for the Cougars program. No stranger to making noise in major college basketball, Charleston has been to the last two NCAA Tournaments, falling in the first round both seasons to eventual Final Four squads San Diego State (63-57 in 2023) and Alabama (109-96) both years.
Legendary coaches John Kresse and Bobby Cremins have coached at the school, along with Boston College head coach Earl Grant and Kelsey. The program made the Big Dance three straight seasons from 1997-99 and earned its lone tournament win in 1997, shocking Maryland, 75-66, as a No. 12 seed before falling to eventual-National Champion Arizona, 73-69, in the second round.
Charleston is a member of the Coastal Athletic Association.
Mack is the most recent guest on Chin Music, hosted by Chad Holbrook, Colin Morris and Scottie Frier. This episode brings fans closer to the man that is set to lead the Cougars on the hardwood moving forward.
Chin Music is a conversational-style podcast that is available on the Chief Sports App and wherever you stream your collection of podcasts and is hosted by Holbrook, Morris and Frier. The show features a collision between the worlds of sports, music and leadership. Previous guests prior to Mack include.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace
Football coach Shawn Elliott (South Carolina, Georgia State)
Massachusetts men’s basketball coach Frank Martin
Former South Carolina quarterback Stephen Garcia
Music industry legend Luke Lewis
The team at Halls Chophouse
Major Leaguer Whit Merrifield (Atlanta Braves)
Actor and signer/songwriter Charles Esteen
Mark Bryan of Hootie and the Blowfish
Ryan Stasik of Umphrey McGee
Charlie Worsham, 2023 CMA Musician of the Year nominee
The team behind Charleston’s Riverfront Revival
Hall of Fame men’s basketball coach Roy Williams
Singer/Songwriter Patrick Davis
Former South Carolina quarterback Blake Mitchell
Kelsey (now at Louisville)
Beautiful Crazy songwriter Wyatt Durrette
Songwriter Warrick McZeke
Holbrook is currently the head baseball coach at Charleston and is formerly the head baseball coach at South Carolina and a top assistant coach at his alma mater, North Carolina. He is an occasional co-host on Inside the Gamecocks The Show, a three-hour University of South Carolina focused Iive stream that is the flagship South Carolina show on the Chief Sports Network.
