Familiar face awaits as Xavier climbs back to prominence

JACKSONVILLE — Landing the the head coaching job at his alma mater before his 40th birthday was a dream for Chris Mack, but the challenges he's encountered since then have been numerous.

First, there was the inherent pressure of taking over for Sean Miller, who left for Arizona after two of the best seasons in school history. Then, once Mack proved he could keep Xavier operating at a high level, he had to deal with the fallout of an ugly brawl during the December 2011 game against Cincinnati.

The following year, Xavier lost three of its best players when Dez Wells was expelled over a rape allegation — Wells claimed he was innocent, sued the school and settled out of court last year — and top recruits Myles Davis and Jalen Reynolds were ruled academically ineligible.

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Last season, Mack had had to prepare Xavier for a quick transition from the Atlantic 10, where the Musketeers had long been a dominant program, to the much more demanding Big East.

But for all intents and purposes, Saturday's 75-67 victory against Georgia State confirmed that Xavier has emerged from the last few tumultuous years as strong as ever. And in some ways, it's appropriate that making this particular Sweet 16 — Xavier's fifth in the last eight seasons — means an opportunity for Mack to beat Miller head-to-head and officially surpass the accomplishments of his predecessor and former boss.

Still, it won't be easy for Mack to look across the court at the West Region on Thursday night and face one of his closest confidants with so much at stake.

"It's really tough," Mack said. "I don't think it's tough for (the players) because they don't really know Sean. He didn't recruit them. I recruited all of these guys that play for me. But Sean gave me a heck of an opportunity. He put a lot of responsibility and trust in me. He ultimately really pushed for me to become the head coach, and for that I'm eternally grateful. It's hard to play against one of your best friends in the business, but it really won't matter to our guys or Arizona because they don't know me from a bucket of paint."

As recently as a few weeks ago, it seemed improbable for Xavier to be in this position. On March 7, the Musketeers' NCAA tournament fate was uncertain; only a 74-73 escape at Creighton kept them from flirting with the bubble.

Had the season gone the other way, on the heels of missing the NCAA tournament in 2013 and getting ousted at the First Four last year, it could have been a disaster for Mack.

Instead, Xavier's experience in close games — four overtime battles and seven others decided by four points or fewer — helped sharpen the Musketeers for the postseason, where they have played their best basketball with runs to the Big East tournament final and now the Sweet 16 as a No. 6 seed.

"I think it finally got to the point where we had to realize that if we wanted to go to the tournament and do what we wanted to do, we didn't have any more time to wait," said Davis, who scored 17 points in the Round of 32 win against Georgia State. "We started coming along at the perfect time. It's been a long process. We've been through some things through the last three years, and it's a great feeling to get back to the Sweet 16. Not many people get this opportunity, and we're not even done."

Under different circumstances, this might be a difficult game for Mack purely from a perception standpoint. When first-time head coaches replace someone who was highly successful, it's often a struggle to maintain the continuity and culture of a program while establishing credibility and a separate identity.

Mack's early success — he went 50-17 right off the bat with a Sweet 16 appearance — established quickly that he could coach and guide the organization. But when the next three years weren't as good, it was natural for the Xavier fan base to question whether Mack's first two seasons were an anomaly, built around players recruited by Miller.

In that respect, the fact that Mack has had to retool the program under some adverse circumstances and get back to the Sweet 16 with a roster built from scratch further separates his résumé from Miller's.

"These guys came to Xavier in large part because the expectation is to get to the tournament and advance and be relevant," Mack said. "It wasn't necessarily tough to maintain the first couple years, but we hit some speed bumps — some self-inflicted, others not. We were down to eight scholarship players and playing walk-ons (in 2012-13), and it was very, very difficult. But these guys continued to come to practice every day, believe in one another and our message and players have gotten better."?

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