LOUISVILLE, Ky. - It was quite the busy Friday surrounding the Louisville men's basketball program.
Former assistant coach Dino Gaudio, who had pled guilty to a single count of "interstate communication with intent to extort", was sentenced to one year of probation and a $10,000 fine. Considering the felony charge carried a maximum penalty of two years in prison, Gaudio's plea deal certainly paid off for him.
His attempted extortion target? None other than head coach Chris Mack.
During a meeting with Mack back on Mar. 17, Gaudio was informed that he would not have his contract renewed. Gaudio then exploded on Mack, threatening to go public with alleged NCAA violations if he wasn't paid through his anticipated retirement date of September 2022.
Around the same time as Gaudio's sentencing, the audio from this meeting was released by ESPN Louisville through an open records request. Unknown to Gaudio, Mack started to record the conversation moments after informing Gaudio of his firing.
He told Sports Illustrated's Pat Forde that he sensed "an explosive situation was imminent", and that he wanted to protect himself and "make sure there was no confusion about this hostile situation.”
I'd say he sensed correctly.
If you haven't had a chance to listen to the uncensored audio or read the transcript, just imagine literally any Joe Pesci scene from Goodfellas.
But the biggest news of the day came roughly a couple hours before Gaudio was sentenced and the audio was released. The university announced that Mack would be suspended without pay for the first six games of the 2021-22 season.
The university stated that Mack had "failed to follow University guidelines, policies, and procedures in handling" Gaudio's firing and subsequent extortion attempt. In the release, Louisville even went as far to say that the suspension is unrelated to the attempt itself, and that Mack was indeed a victim of the extortion attempt.
So... what exactly was he punished for?
Speaking with the media later that day, athletic director Vince Tyra offered some clarity on the matter, stating that Mack "didn't handle it in the way that we would have liked to seen it handled." When asked how he wanted Mack to handle it, Tyra said that Mack was asked to have a third party present in in the room with him when informing Gaudio of his firing.
"I think Chris felt comfortable with his relationship with both Luke (Murray) and Dino. Felt like it, obviously, went well enough with Luke," Tyra said. "I don't think either were happy when they were being notified that their contracts weren't being renewed, and obviously the second meeting with Dino, I don't think he ever suspected would go that way, but it did."
At face value, this doesn't exactly seem fair for Mack. He was the one being extorted, he was the trying to cover himself by recording the meeting to prove it, and he gets hit with a pretty harsh penalty. Especially considering he will lose $210,000.
But let's play devil's advocate for a brief second.
This wasn't an NCAA mandated penalty. This wasn't even an athletics department-based penalty (we'll get to that here in a second), this was an HR penalty. And anyone who has ever been called up by HR know they don't mess around.
Say Mack does have a third party in that room, as protocol mandated. It could have been Tyra, John Carns, Kenny Klein, even one of those grad assistants Gaudio alleged to have helped Louisville in practice.
It's probably still a contentious meeting, considering Mack and Gaudio had a friendship and business relationship that lasted three decades, but it's one that probably doesn't end in extortion.
Now, the university has another black eye, Louisville's public image continues to take a downward spiral. Because a simple HR protocol was not followed.
Mack was absolutely a victim, that much is certain. But to say he is not culpable in Louisville's latest run-in with the court of public opinion is just false.
Okay, now let's stop playing devil's advocate.
Yes, Mack has a very small role in Louisville yet again looking like complete idiots. But is it one that really deserved a six game suspension?
If anything, this seems like one of those classic "we'll deal with it internally" situations. Hell, even a one or two game suspension would seem relatively fair considering to what actually played out.
But six? That almost seems like the type of punishment that's dealt because it's personal, or partly because of the sins of your predecessor (which Louisville certainly has).
While the latter certainly has some credence, as Tyra mentioned Louisville's extensive history with the NCAA, the former might also be true to a degree.
According to WDRB's Eric Crawford, the decision to suspend Mack "was driven from the president's office, not the athletic department" and that there was "strong debate over proceeding with it".
Tyra even stated that while Mack is a "direct report of mine", the decision to suspend him was made collaboratively with U of L President Dr. Neeli Bendapudi.
“While Chris has done so many positive things during a challenging time for our men’s basketball program, he is held to the same standards as other U of L employees, and we believe that this suspension is commensurate with his actions—whether intentional or not," Bendapudi said in a statement.
Without getting too speculative, it sounds a lot like Bendapudi had more of a hand in swinging the hammer than Tyra did. How hard would Mack have been hit if Tyra was the judge, jury and executioner? It's hard to determine.
What we do know is this: Mack will not be on the sidelines, or around the program at all, for the majority of the month of November. And it was all completely avoidable.
He was indeed a victim, there's no denying that at all. But he wouldn't have been a victim at all had he followed the HR protocols set in place to ensure something like this didn't happen, and the University of Louisville wouldn't have its name drug through the mud yet again.
Does Mack deserve a six game suspension? In my opinion, no. He didn't do anything wrong, per se. Maybe he did if the latest NCAA infractions alleged by Gaudio are in fact true, but innocent until proven guilty, and Tyra stated that the suspension isn't tied to any NCAA investigation, anyways.
However, while completely unintentional, he did play a role in U of L experiencing even more bad PR, in a time where they can't really afford any more. If you're Louisville, the tolerance for any negative press, as minor as it, is zero.
I get that he had a long-standing trust in Gaudio, someone he had known for almost 30 years on and off the court. But if my best friend was the one deciding between me and my employment, I don't care how long I had known him, I'd be pissed.
Maybe not commit-a-felony-level pissed, but I certainly wouldn't be happy about it.
The six-game suspension might be a harsh and slightly unwarranted message, but the message is loud and clear: the protocols are put in place to make sure both you and the university don't look worse than they already do.
Next time you have to fire an assistant, call me.
(Photo of Dino Gaudio: Timothy D. Easley - Special to the Courier Journal, Chris Mack: Scott Utterback - Courier Journal via Imagn Content Services, LLC)
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