Fired Louisville assistant claims Chris Mack threatened to pull scholarships after missing NCAA tourney
By Jake Rill
Published:
After Louisville assistant basketball coach Dino Gaudio was fired in March, he was threatening to reveal alleged rules violations if he didn’t get paid 17 months of salary by the school. In the latest chapter of this saga, the bad blood between the two sides has continued.
On Wednesday, Marcus Green and Travis Ragsdale of WDRB shared that Gaudio said his firing came shortly after a “contentious meeting” with the Cardinals’ staff. During that meeting, Louisville head coach Chris Mack was threatening to pull players’ scholarships after the team missed the NCAA Tournament, something that Gaudio said he stood up against, per Green and Ragsdale.
Despite that, Gaudio “did not envision anything had changed” in his relationship with Mack, according to the report from Green and Ragsdale.
Gaudio pleaded guilty in June in the federal extortion case for attempting to get that salary amount in exchange for keeping quiet on the alleged violations. New court documents show that Mack told Gaudio he would pay him, a conversation that was recorded by Gaudio, per Green and Ragsdale’s report.
Although Gaudio pleaded guilty, numerous notable people sent in character references on his behalf, including Kentucky head coach John Calipari:
Among those who sent character references on Gaudio's behalf to the sentencing judge were UK coach John Calipari, Pete Gillen, Iowa coach Fran McCaffery, a Major General, a Brigadier General and a Lt. Colonel. pic.twitter.com/RbgUjva1qV
— Eric Crawford (@ericcrawford) August 11, 2021
Gaudio was an assistant at Louisville from 2018-21, after previously serving as the head coach at Wake Forest from 2007-10. He also had earlier stints as the head coach at Army (1993-97) and Loyola (1997-2000).
Jake Rill contributes to news coverage for Saturday Down South. He has covered the SEC since 2016.
