Mike Pegues discusses a tumultuous week for Louisville

It was a tumultuous week for Louisville, which saw a coaching change mid-week — and in the middle of the Cardinals’ season. Mike Pegues is in as the interim headman and spoke about the events of the week on Saturday’s edition of College GameDay.

Chris Mack is out as Louisville head coach, and Pegues is taking over in the interim. It’s a great opportunity for Pegues, who has never been a head coach at the Division I level, but it came in a weird manner. That said, he vowed to get his team through it.

“Just trying to stay focused and steady on the task at hand,” Pegues told ESPN’s Bob Wischusen. “Obviously, I want to be a leader in this situation and a tough time for our program. I want to be there for our guys and give them as much support as we can. Our staff is committed to picking up the pieces and moving forward.”

The crazy part about the timing is it came a huge game. Louisville hosts Duke on Saturday at the KFC Yum! Center, and Pegues said the players handled everything well, all things considered.

But he knew how tough Mack’s departure was for them, which is why he took time to let them talk it out.

“[The players] stayed strong,” Pegues said. “Our guys, they’ve been reinvigorated. They’re sad, obviously, on one hand. We had a team meeting on Wednesday and I told them, ‘Hey, listen. Let’s get all of this stuff off our chest now. Let’s talk about it, let’s cry about it, let’s laugh about it, let’s get it behind us.’ Because … on Thursday, we [had] to start moving forward and get prepared for an excellent Duke team today.”

Louisville is 11-9 overall and 5-5 in ACC play this season. Tip-off between the Cardinals and the No. 9-ranked Blue Devils is coming up Saturday at 12 p.m. ET on ESPN.