The Chris Mack era is over

After nine years and 312 games, Chris Mack has left Xavier. The program’s all-time winningest coach will leave Victory Parkway for Louisville, where he’ll take a seven year contract worth $4,000,000 a year, a number Xavier simply could not match.

Xavier is coming off a season in which they earned their first ever #1 seed and first ever Big East Conference championship. After this news, and the departure of at least Luke Murray and Mike Pegues, the program is left with no head coach. For now, and it’s tenuous, Mario Mercurio and the rest of the staff remain at Xavier. There is, obviously, no news on any of the players at this time.

Where Xavier goes from here remains to be seen. That will be sorted out in the next week or so. For now, there’s an understandable ache in the heart of every Xavier fan. A season that ended painfully and far too soon is now followed with another hammer blow.