Opinion: Dino Gaudio's Louisville exit exacerbated by 30-year friendship with men's basketball coach Chris Mack
LOUISVILLE — Dino Gaudio was steamed. He was ready to talk, willing to go public, eager to expose injustice.
Then the matter became moot.
On the eve of the Atlantic Coast Conference basketball tournament, the University of Louisville's assistant basketball coach complained that the protective bubble planned for the NCAA men's tournament would preclude him from getting vaccinated for COVID-19.
Gaudio said he was prepared to drive from Indianapolis to Louisville and back for his inoculation, and promised that he would not get out of his car, but organizers said he would not be allowed to leave once sequestered at the tournament site. He feared what that might mean for his family and shared his concerns about the pandemic, unprompted, with a reporter.
Then came Selection Sunday and the abrupt end of Louisville's season. Upon failing to make the NCAA tournament, coach Chris Mack concluded major changes were in order and decided not to renew the contracts of Gaudio and fellow assistant Luke Murray.
Then, according to the U.S. Attorney, Gaudio attempted to extort Louisville by threatening to go public about alleged NCAA violations unless he was paid an additional 17 months worth of salary.
The court filing landed like a thunderbolt Tuesday. Gaudio had known Mack for more than three decades, first as an assistant coach when Mack transferred from Evansville to Xavier in 1991, later on the same coaching staffs at Xavier and Wake Forest, and ultimately as an assistant at Louisville.
“Dino Gaudio is a home run for us,” Mack is quoted as saying in the school's 2020-21 basketball media guide. “He’s trusted, loyal and a person that I have always looked up to in this profession."
Somewhere along the way, something must have changed. Mack decided Gaudio was expendable and his "trusted, loyal" aide allegedly turned on him. Attorney Brian Butler characterized Gaudio's outburst as a loss of temper and said things he soon regretted.
"Unfortunately," Bennett told reporters, "those things were taped and he wasn't given a chance to walk them back."
According to the charges, Gaudio subsequently sent a recruiting video to university personnel that could have been construed as a violation of NCAA rules, threatening to share it with the media.
Now he was on tape and in text messages. Now he had crossed the line of no return.
Mack did not respond to a request to elaborate on the incident, confining his public comments to a prepared statement that essentially acknowledged what was already known.
“As detailed in the charging document, after Gaudio was informed that his contract would not be renewed, he threatened to inform members of the media of alleged NCAA violations within the men’s basketball program unless he was paid a significant sum of money," Mack said. "The allegations of violations are the impermissible production of recruiting videos for prospective student-athletes and the impermissible use of graduate managers in practices and workouts. While the University cannot comment further due to the ongoing federal investigation and the NCAA process, it continues to cooperate with authorities as well as with the NCAA on the matter.”
At this point, the alleged NCAA violations cited by the U.S. Attorney and Mack would appear to be relatively minor, certainly as compared to the Level I infractions alleged in the Brian Bowen bribery case. Even in light of Louisville's recurring NCAA issues, the possibility of additional infractions seems insignificant beside a rift that has resulted in a 30-year friendship ending in a federal extortion case.
Something doesn't quite fit here. Dino Gaudio had been fired before. He compiled losing records as a head coach at Army and Loyola (Md.) before being promoted to the Wake Forest job following the death of Skip Prosser in 2007, and then lost that job two weeks after a second-round exit in the NCAA tournament in 2010.
This was not some kid prone to impulsive miscalculations, but a seasoned, savvy veteran who turned 64 in late March. Like most coaches, Gaudio has done his share of bouncing around, including a prolonged stint with ESPN. Unlike most coaches, though, his exit was exacerbated by the depth of a relationship spanning three decades.
Monday, after Mack announced the completion of his coaching staff and addressed the firings of Gaudio and Murray for the first time publicly, Gaudio declined an interview request from the Courier Journal.
"I am still dealing with some things with U of L and I cannot speak about things at the present time," he said via text message. "When I can talk, I will definitely reach out to you. My apologies, Dino."
Tuesday, another interview request went unanswered. The questions, of course, had changed.
Contact Tim Sullivan via email at tsullivan@courier-journal.com and follow him on Twitter @TimSullivan714