Louisville has hired Xavier’s Chris Mack as its new men’s basketball head coach on a seven-year deal, the Cardinals announced Tuesday.

Chris Mack Louisville head coach deal

Mack — whose deal is reportedly worth $4 million — replaces David Padgett, who served as Louisville’s interim coach in 2017-18 after longtime coach Rick Pitino was fired amid a pay-for-play scandal before the start of the season.

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Mack has been the head coach of the Musketeers for the past nine seasons, and helped the team reach the NCAA Tournament eight times. Xavier had at least one victory in six of their eight NCAA showings. The team captured the Big East championship this year, and took the top seed in the NCAA Tournament until Florida State defeated them in Round 2.

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On Tuesday afternoon, Mack took to Twitter to thank Xavier:

Mack, 48, played for Xavier and Evansville before working as an assistant for both the Musketeers and Wake Forest. He now inherits a Louisville program that not only missed the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three years, but also had its 2013 national title — among other victories — vacated due to the aforementioned scandal.

Allegations against Louisville include payments of $100,000 to the family of recruit Brian Bowen to sign with the Cardinals.

Mack finishes his tenure with Xavier with a 212–96 record — including three Sweet 16 appearances and three Elite Eight appearances.

Florida State may have lost to Xavier in the 2017 NCAA Tournament, but they got their revenge on Sunday.

Florida State vs. Xavier NCAA Round 2 score

The No. 9 Seminoles secured a 75-70 comeback victory over the No. 1 seed Musketeers in a second-round game in Nashville on Sunday night.

Only two No. 1-seeds will be playing in this year’s NCAA Sweet 16: Villanova and Kansas (who will face No. 5-seeds West Virginia and Clemson respectively on Friday).

FSU beat a top-seeded squad in the NCAA tourney for the first time ever.

Florida State went on a 7-0 run in the final 1:08 to secure their win over Xavier. The Seminoles converted 19 of 22 free throws and ended the game on a 31-14 run over the last 10:44.

For the second straight game, sophomore guard Trent Forrest was the best player for FSU. He finished with 13 points, five rebounds, three steals and three assists in 26 minutes.

The Musketeers led 34-32 at halftime thanks to a pair of free throws that came after a foul on center Chris Koumadje.

Caption:CINCINNATI, OH – FEBRUARY 24: Jalen Reynolds #1 of the Xavier Musketeers dunks the ball during the 90-83 win over the Villanova Wildcats at Cintas Center on February 24, 2016 in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

Cincinnati has long been a cradle for college basketball, with the city’s two big-time rivals separated by only three miles.

Big East Conference Redefined After No. 5 Xavier Beats No. 1 Villanova 90-83

It thus seems fitting that, 37 years after David Gavitt founded the old Big East Conference, this conference was finally redefined.

The No. 5 Xavier Musketeers secured a 90-83 home victory over the No. 1 Villanova Wildcats on Wednesday night at the Cintas Center in Cincinnati. Both top-five teams have real shots at being one-seeds in the NCAA Tournament — which would mark the first time a conference has had multiple one-seeds since 2009.

“If you’re a college basketball fan, you tuned in tonight,” Xavier head coach Chris Mack said. “You saw some high-level basketball. You saw some teams competing their tails off. You saw some players that are going to play at the next level at some point for both sides.”

The arena also saw the largest crowd ever, counting 10,727 fans.

“You dream about this,” said Xavier’s freshman point guard Edmond Sumner, who had a career-high nine assists and 19 points during the game. “So when the opportunity comes, it just comes naturally.”

Villanova had only 10 turnovers, but a Xavier defenseman was right there every time to capitalize on them, proving the strength of the Musketeers’ defense.

In Xavier’s time in the Big East, the Musketeers have played the Wildcats six times. Until Wednesday, they lost every single time, and by an average of 17.2 points. The win must have thus meant that much more to Xavier, which was still referred to as a mid-major school up until a few years ago.

The Wildcats started strong, with Jalen Brunson getting in the lane and Kris Jenkins hitting threes. However, after an early seven-point Villanova run, Mack called a timeout, and Xavier’s defense tightened up after that. J.P. Macura came off the bench and scored 19 points for Xavier, nearly outscoring Villanova’s entire bench just by himself.

“March is coming up,” said Xavier guard Myles Davis, one of six Musketeers players who scored in double digits. “We still got time to get better. The ceiling is through the roof.”

Xavier can certainly become a strong contender for the Final Four if it continues to improve next month.

“I never wanna lose but I’m glad where if we’re gonna lose, we lose to a good Big East team,” Villanova Coach Jay Wright said. “I’m glad No. 1 and No. 5 was Xavier and Villanova, not somebody else from some other league.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK4nc1LgRvo

Caption: CINCINNATI, OH – FEBRUARY 24: Jalen Reynolds #1 of the Xavier Musketeers dunks the ball during the 90-83 win over the Villanova Wildcats at Cintas Center on February 24, 2016 in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)