USF men’s basketball lands proven winner in Chris Mack (but first he needed players)

Chris Mack had a housewarming “present” of sorts after he arrived from the College of Charleston as USF’s new head men’s basketball coach on March 25. He was handed an empty roster.

No players. None. Zero. Zip. Nada.

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Those who were on the American Conference championship team that finished last season 25-9 either were out of eligibility or hit the Transfer Portal. The exodus wasn’t personal — just business as usual in Division I college basketball today.

“We had a team meeting, the day I arrived, and I think there were five players, maybe six. In today’s day and age, I think it’s almost normal for players to choose the coach rather than coaches choose the players,” he said during a sitdown chat with Green, Gold and Bold.

“I wasn’t I wasn’t necessarily expecting anybody to come back. Certainly, they would be welcome to, and they’re all great kids. I had the opportunity to work with them for a week or so. and then saw them through the rest of the spring as they’d use the facilities. Each of them were great.”

At USF, the standard protocol for one-on-one interviews like this is for a member of the sports communications staff to escort you to the coach’s office. But when I arrived the basketball office and practice complex at the Muma Center, Mack was at the door already.

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He popped it open, asked, “Are you Joe?”

“I am.”

“Hi, I’m Chris. Great to meet you.”

We both have roots in the Cincinnati area, so we shared a couple of tales from there. It immediately felt like I had known him for years instead of minutes. But then it was time to get down to the business of talking hoops.

Despite the player exits, there was no panic or doubt about what he and is staff had gotten themselves into. The portal taketh, but the portal also giveth. In short order, there were 12 new Bulls entering from the portal along with three high school freshman recruits.

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It’s an interesting group of players.

There is size at the rim in 6-foot-10 Zayden High from North Carolina and 7-foot Tiefing Diawara from Syracuse.

The guard play should be in good hands with senior Sonny Wilson from Toledo, Chris Davis Jr. who played for Mack last year at The College of Charleston, and graduate student Mike James (Louisville/NC State/Vanderbilt),

There are three seniors, one grad student, three juniors, four sophomores, and four freshmen (Diawara is a redshirt freshman).

“Our staff did a really good job of identifying the types of players that we wanted in the program and they worked incredibly hard at a really fast pace. But I’d like to think that that’s an anomaly that’s only going to happen the first year,” he said.

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“We want to be a program that retains players and retains guys that are about what we’re about. And I think that when you bring in your own players, you have a better chance of doing that year to year. We don’t want to have wholesale changes every year. If retention’s going to be important to us, I can’t say that and then have 11 seniors on the team. We’ve got to distribute it pretty well from seniors all the way down to freshmen. “

Sophomore forward Joshua Lewis is a name USF fans should be familiar with. He is the son of USF Hall of Famer Fred Lewis, who helped lead the Bulls to two NCAA Tournament appearances and one NIT in the early 1990’s.

Joshua was a consensus four-star recruit coming out of Blake High School in Tampa. He was having a solid freshman season at Louisiana when he suffered a a torn patella tendon in mid-January of this year.

Mack said he believes Lewis will be ready for the start of the season,

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“We are thinking in the fall,” he said. “In September or October, he should be cleared full go.”

Mack’s arrival is USF’s third consecutive home-run hire for its men’s basketball program. Amir Abdur-Rahim put the Bulls on the college basketball radar in one season before his untimely death in 2024. Bryan Hodgson built on that legacy in his one season before departing for Providence.

Now, it’s Mack’s turn. His credentials are impeccible — a career record of 323-153 (.679) across 15 seasons as a head coach with stops at Xavier (2009-18), Louisville (2018-22), and the College of Charleston (2024-26). He has Nine NCAA Tournament appearances, including four Sweet 16 appearances and one Elite Eight.

“Chris Mack is a winner, plain and simple. He is among the best teachers and communicators in the game, and his teams always fight together to win. Mack’s teams are always tough, disciplined and gritty. USF hired an outstanding coach in Chris Mack,” ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas said.

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And the best news is, no matter successful the Bulls become under Mack, he’s not looking to use USF as a stepping stone for a bigger program. CEO of Athletics Rob Higgins is one big reason for that.

“A lot of these opportunities or coaching changes, I don’t think people realize the speed of which they happen. Athletic directors and administrators work around the clock for about two or three days, and during Bryan’s departure, Rob and his staff were already sort of figuring out available options, and it’s a marriage.,” he said.

“When I was contacted by USF and the more I dug in and the more I researched. Obviously I knew the success the last few years the program it had. Our program (at Charleston) had played USF the last two years. Then I started doing a lot of digging on Rob, and I was just incredibly impressed. My family’s always loved the state of Florida, but that’s just such a small part of the decision. Rob was a big part of that. You know, his vision for the program is commitment to the program. I just felt like it was a no-brainer,”

Mack is working on the upcoming non-conference schedule. There are home-and-home series with DePaul and Dayton — USF will be on the road against those teams this year. They’ll also be playing St. Louis on a neutral floor as part of the American Conference/Atlantic 10 Alliance.