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College Basketball Coach Suspended After Bizarre Extortion Attempt

The start of college basketball is still months away, but head coach Chris Mack will not be joining the Louisville Cardinals for the beginning of its season.

The University of Louisville announced on Friday afternoon that Mack is suspended for the first six games of the season.

"The University concluded that while Mack was a victim of an extortion attempt by former assistant coach Dino Gaudio, Mack failed to follow University guidelines, policies, and procedures in handling the matter. The sanctions imposed upon Coach Mack are unrelated to the extortion attempt itself and the ongoing NCAA process," the university said in a statement shared by the Louisville Courier Journal.

Gaudio was sentenced to one year on probation and a $100,000 fine on Friday in a federal extortion case. In June he pled guilty to threatening to expose potential NCAA violations if the school did not pay him $425,000.

Louisville let him go in May when his contract expired.

The former assistant coach accused the Louisville men's basketball program of using graduate assistants in a way that violated NCAA rules and also created individual30 For 30-style videos to recruit players, according to WDRB. The university and the NCAA is now investigating the accusations.

Louisville did not go into specifics about what Mack did to lead to the suspension, which will cover six non-conference games from November 8 to 27. Mack will not be allowed to contact his coaching staff or the student-athletes during that time, and he'll forfeit $221,000 in compensation.