Chris Mack (basketball)

Chris Mack (born December 30, 1969) is an American college basketball coach and the current head men's basketball coach at Xavier University.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he grew up in a small town in Cincinnati, OH North College Hill. Where he played basketball in the neighborhood growing up. Mack graduated in 1988 from St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was named 1987-88 Cincinnati Post Metro Player of the Year.

He continued on to the University of Evansville, where he played basketball for two seasons. After he was kicked off the team for hitting on the head coach's wife (amongst other issues), he transferred to Xavier in 1990, where he played his final two seasons of eligibility (after redshirting one for transfer rules), and graduated in 1992 with a B.A. in Communication Arts.

He is married to Christi Mack (Hester), a former University of Dayton guard (1996–2000). They have three children and reside in northern Kentucky.

High School Coaching

Mack started his coaching career as junior varsity head coach at McAuley High School, an all-girls high school in Cincinnati, in 1993. In 1995, Mack was named head coach of the girls varsity basketball team at Mount Notre Dame High School in Reading, Ohio, where he received the 1996 Coach of the Year award from the Cincinnati Post.

Collegiate Coaching

Xavier & Wake Forest

In 1999, he was named Director of Basketball Operations at Xavier, serving under the late Skip Prosser, whom he followed as an assistant coach to Wake Forest in 2001.

Return to Xavier

In 2004 Mack returned to Xavier, joining new head coach Sean Miller as his assistant.

Running the show at X

When Miller moved to the University of Arizona in 2009, on April 15, 2009 it was announced that Mack would replace Miller as Xavier head coach. The first top 25 ranking by a Mack-led Xavier team was March 1, 2010 when it made its season debut in the Associated Press Poll at #25. During that season, the Jordan Crawford-led Musketeers won the Atlantic 10 Conference and advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16. The Musketeers had question marks heading into the next season, yet Mack guided the team to its fifth consecutive Atlantic 10 Championship before falling to Marquette in the first round of the NCAA tournament. During both of these years Mack earned Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year awards. Heading into the 2011-2012 campaign the Musketeers were slatted to be one of the top teams in the country. With senior All-American Tu Holloway returning, Mack and Xavier were on the cusp of a special year. Xavier got off to a great start and a #7 ranking before the brawl with their in-city rival UC Bearcats derailed the Musketeers. Mack's squad did not win the Atlantic 10 Tournament title in 2012 but was able to advance to the NCAA Sweet 16 with wins over the Notre Dame and Lehigh. Since Xavier joined the Big East for the 2012-13 season, it has continued to build upon the success attained in the A-10 making the Sweet Sixteen for a third time in six years during the 2014-15 season while attaining regular Top Twenty Five rankings. Mack won several national coach of the year awards following the 2015-16 season in which Xavier finished 28-6, including the Hank Iba Award. The Musketeers had the highest pre-season ranking in school history of 7th (Associated Press) under Mack prior to the 2016-17 season.