Meet the Big Mac.

Louisville has hired Chris Mack to be the university’s new basketball coach.

The University of Louisville has signed coach Chris Mack to a seven-year deal worth about four million per year. Mack will try to help Louisville get back on their feet after scandals and investigations caused by coaches hit the program hard.

Louisville has its first official men’s head basketball coach since the firing of Rick Pitino before the 2017-18 season. The team was led through this past season by former player and assistant coach David Padgett. Padgett served as the interim head coach and led the Cardinals to a 22-14 record, but without a signature win, the Cards missed out on the NCAA tournament and would end up finishing their season with a loss to Mississippi State in the quarterfinals of the NIT.

Mack will be leaving Xavier, a school where he played at as a player and experienced plenty of success with as a coach. Mack had spent nine seasons with his alma mater, where he went to an elite eight, three sweet sixteens and only missed the tournament once in his nine seasons. The 2017-18 season was his greatest regular season, as he went 27-4, and won the Big East conferences’ regular season title, earning them a one seed in the NCAA tournament. But both the conference tournament and the NCAA tournament disappointed, as the Musketeers were bounced in the second round of both.

Louisville men’s basketball was expected to have a few down years due to the scandals that led to the firing of Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino. But Mack has no other intentions than to win. Louisville has no recruits incoming this coming season or any after, so Mack went on a recruiting spree just hours after accepting the job, offering five scholarships within his first six hours as coach. There is also the concern of what players will return, as they could decide to transfer if they are unhappy. Players like Ray Spalding and Deng Adel have also expressed interest in trying out the NBA waters.

Mack has had other head coaching offers present themselves before he decided to leave Xavier for Louisville. Some notable jobs Mack passed on are; Indiana, Ohio State, Georgetown, and Dayton. Mack said in his introductory press conference on Wednesday, “This place is special… two permanent head coaches since 1973, I don’t take that lightly.”