College basketball insider breaks down early favorites to be Louisville's next coach

The Louisville Cardinals athletic administration is officially moving on from Chris Mack as the team’s head coach–and naturally–anyone with a pulse on college hoops is beginning to mull over potential candidates to replace him.

While the Louisville job as historically been considered an elite ACC gig, there are several factors that make this process a bit more difficult than a routine search for a top program.

Seth Davis is a college basketball reporter for CBS Sports and also covers the sport as a Senior Writer for The Athletic.

Shortly after the news broke that Mack and the Louisville Cardinals were officially parting ways, Davis published a piece outlining the entire rise and fall of Mack, the factors in play as Louisville seeks to replace him, and closed it out with an intriguing list of potential prospects.

Here are the names outlined by Davis as potential candidates to replace Mack at Louisville.

Ed Cooley, head coach, Providence.

Scott Davenport, head coach, Bellarmine University.

Andy Enfield, head coach, USC.

Eric Musselman, head coach, Arkansas. 

Nate Oats, head coach, Alabama. 

Kenny Payne, New York Knicks assistant coach. 

Bruce Pearl, head coach, Auburn. 

Kevin Willard, head coach, Seton Hall

In the full article from The Athletic, there are extensive breakdowns and factors to why each candidate would make sense to take the helm for the Louisville Cardinals, and the potential hinderances that would make each tough to sway to the program.

Davis reveals most likely choice to take over Louisville Cardinals

After outlining a bevy of candidates thoroughly above, Davis closes out the piece giving his most realistic choice.

“It’s nice to dream about coaches like Oats and Pearl, but the reality is that those guys are going to be expensive, and they have very good jobs with plenty of long-term security,” Davis said of the Louisville Cardinals search.

The longtime college basketball guru then revealed his most realistic choice.

“The more realistic, smart choice is Payne,” Davis concluded. “Sure, he’s never been a head coach, but neither was Tommy Lloyd before he took over at Arizona. Now he’s in the running for national coach of the year. Much like Mike Woodson did when he came back to Indiana, Payne has the potential to bridge the gaps between this program’s lousy present and its storied past. He already has a lot of support from many former players, who have been complaining to the administration about a lack of diversity hiring across the board. Indeed, it is striking that a program that was known for signing Black players before many other schools in the South recruited them has never had a Black head coach. This would be a chance to remedy that and bring home a highly qualified favorite son.”

And just like that, all eyes are on the Louisville Cardinals head coaching search.