Xavier to promote assistant Mack

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CINCINNATI -- Top assistant Chris Mack will succeed Sean Miller as Xavier's head basketball coach, a university spokesman said Tuesday.

The formal announcement will be made at a news conference on Wednesday, Xavier spokesman Tom Eiser said. Eiser declined any additional comment.

Miller left last week to take the head coaching job at Arizona. Xavier athletic director Mike Bobinski had interviewed several candidates.

Mack has no head coaching experience but close ties to the program. He played for Xavier and was a two-time captain before graduating in 1992.

He was director of basketball operations at the Jesuit school from 1999-2001, and spent three seasons as an assistant to Skip Prosser at Wake Forest before returning to Xavier as an assistant coach in 2004. He was an assistant for all of Miller's five seasons as head coach.

Xavier finished 27-8 last season and reached the round of 16 in the NCAA tournament before losing to Pittsburgh. The Musketeers will lose only two players from that team to graduation.

The Musketeers have advanced to the round of eight twice in the past six years. They have won three straight Atlantic-10 regular season titles, growing in national prominence while replacing coaches who leave for bigger schools.

Xavier has enjoyed a stretch of consistent growth under coaches Pete Gillen, Prosser, Thad Matta and Miller, who was promoted when Matta moved on to Ohio State.

Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press

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