Former Louisville men's basketball assistant coach Dino Gaudio has been federally charged with interstate communication with intent to extort by the United States Attorney's Office of Western Kentucky following the non-renewal of his contract.
Charging documents released Tuesday say that Gaudio on March 17, in an in-person meeting with Louisville personnel, threatened to report to the media allegations that the basketball program had violated NCAA rules in its production of recruiting videos for prospective student-athletes and in the use of its graduate assistants in practices - unless the university paid his salary an additional 17 months or an equivalent lump sum.
Gaudio sent a text message to U of L personnel containing one of the recruiting videos he threatened to send to the media.
This followed end-of-season staffing decisions made by Louisville coach Chris Mack. The contracts of Gaudio and Luke Murray were not renewed when they expired at April's end. Murray, an assistant coach under Chris Mack at Xavier, has since been hired an assistant on Dan Hurley's staff at Connecticut.
More: Louisville basketball contracts for Gaudio, Murray not renewed
The university responded to the U.S. Attorney charges against Gaudio with a statement Tuesday: “This afternoon, the United States Attorney’s Office of Western Kentucky charged former University of Louisville assistant men’s basketball coach Dino Gaudio with 'interstate communication with intent to extort' related to the non-renewal of his contract with the University. 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. 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.”
U of L's release included a statement by Mack: “While I cannot comment on the details or substance of the matter, I am grateful for the professionalism of members of law enforcement and the United States Attorney’s Office. The University and I were the victims of Coach Gaudio’s conduct and I will continue to fully cooperate with authorities in their investigations. We take seriously any allegation of NCAA violations within our basketball program and will work within the NCAA processes to fully review the allegations.”
Mack goes back more than three decades with Gaudio at three schools: Xavier, Wake Forest and Louisville. He played at Xavier when Gaudio was an assistant under Pete Gillen. The late Skip Prosser hired Mack as Xavier's director of basketball operations where Gaudio returned as an assistant coach. Mack and Gaudio left for Wake Forest when Prosser was hired there in 2001.
Mack, a former three-year assistant coach with the Demon Deacons, went back to his alma mater to assist Sean Miller before being promoted to the Musketeers' head coach in 2009. Gaudio spent eight years as an ESPN analyst before rejoining Mack at Louisville.
Mack said Monday in a virtual press conference announcing staffing updates that the decision to part ways with Gaudio and Murray was not easy but he believed the program needed a fresh perspective.
"That was the first time I let anybody go in the 12 years I've been a head coach, so this isn't anything that is taken lightly. They're two excellent coaches, Dino and Luke. Excellent," Mack said.
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"And the honest assessment: Our program wasn't where I wanted it to be at the end of this past season. We could write down all the reasons as to why I think, or you think, we didn't qualify for the NCAA Tournament. But the bottom line is we didn't. That's not to say that Dino and Luke were the fall guys and it's all on them. There's been a long look in the mirror to see what I can do better."
Mack promoted Kahil Fennell to assistant coach from director of basketball operations. He also hired Ross McMains, who has international assistant coaching experience and is regarded highly for his tactical skills and player development, as another assistant coach.
Also:Louisville's Chris Mack hires Ross McMains as final assistant hoops coach
U of L is coming off a disappointing COVID-19-interrupted, injury-affected season in which it finished 13-7 (8-5 in the ACC) and missed the NCAA Tournament. The team's 68 points per game ranked 12th among 15 ACC teams, their field goal percentage (43.1) was 11th and their made 3-pointers (5.4 per game) were last.
"I think that these changes really reflected things that we really needed for our players, who are the most important people in our program," Mack said.
Reach Shannon Russell at [email protected] and follow on Twitter @slrussell.
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