Mack promoted to Musketeers top job

Xavier Associate Vice President and Athletic Director Mike Bobinski introduced Chris Mack today as the new Musketeer men's basketball head coach in an afternoon press conference. Mack, who is the 17th head coach in program history, succeeds Sean Miller , who recently took over as Arizona's head coach. Mack spent the past five seasons as an assistant on Miller's staff here at Xavier.

'I was fortunate to have the opportunity to evaluate a number of highly qualified individuals for our head coaching position,' said Bobinski, who also serves on the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee. 'The position our program occupies in the college basketball world today generated a quality group of candidates and any number of them could clearly have been a solid choice. In the end, however, the most impressive candidate, and the person best equipped to lead our program to even greater success in the years ahead, happened to be someone we know very well. I've known for some time that Chris was ready to be a successful head coach. I'm very excited to say that he will do so at Xavier.'

Mack, a two-time team captain as a player at Xavier, is 39 years old and a 1992 Xavier graduate with a degree in communication arts. Mack is the fifth Xavier alumnus out of 17 all-time head coaches to take over the Xavier men's basketball program and is the first since former XU team captain Don Ruberg spent four seasons at the helm from 1963-67. Joe Meyer (13 seasons from 1920-33), Ed Burns (one season in 1945-46) and Harry Gilligan (one season from 1919-20) are the other XU alums that have been named head coach.

'I am honored to be named the new head coach at Xavier,' said Mack. 'I have a great love for Xavier, our loyal fans and the City of Cincinnati. I want to thank Fr. Graham, John Kucia and Mike Bobinski for believing in me and trusting in me to lead our basketball program. My time at Xavier under the leadership of the late Skip Prosser and Sean Miller has served me well and has prepared me for the challenge ahead. I have enjoyed being a part of our recent success and I am even more excited about Xavier's potential for the future as we continue to solidify ourselves as one of the elite programs in all of college basketball.'

Mack has logged seven years on the basketball staff at Xavier, including five years under Miller and two under Prosser, helping XU make five NCAA Tournament appearances and an NIT. During these past five seasons while Mack was a Xavier assistant, the Musketeers compiled a 120-47 record that included four straight NCAA Tournament berths, three straight Atlantic 10 Conference Regular Season Championships (2009, 2008 and 2007) and an A-10 Tournament Championship (2006). XU has recorded four straight 20-win seasons, including 25 wins or more in each of the past three seasons. XU advanced to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 this past season (2009), the NCAA Elite Eight and a school record 30 wins in 2008 and the NCAA Second Round in 2007. XU made one NCAA Tournament (2001) and one NIT (2000) in Mack's two years on Prosser's Xavier staff, while compiling a combined 42-20 record.