More audio has been released, via Open Records Request, from the day that former Louisville basketball assistant Dino Gaudio was fired.
Explosive tape of former Louisville basketball assistant coach Dino Gaudio from the day he learned his contract was not being renewed has been released to the public.
The Gaudio audio, which comes after an Open Records Request made by ESPN Louisville, provides another five minutes of an unhinged Gaudio being escorted out of the Louisville basketball offices. It is unclear whether or not the recordings took place before or after his previously released conversation with Chris Mack.
Additionally, audio of a voicemail that Gaudio left Mack has been released. In the voicemail, Gaudio requests for Louisville AD Vince Tyra to write up a contract stating that the school will pay him $25,000 a month.
“I’ll be in tomorrow at noon,” Gaudio says. “Have Tyra create a contract stating ‘paid through September 30th of 2020.’ If he doesn’t have time to create a contract, have him create a memorandum understanding stating ’17 months at $25,000 a month’ or one lump sum of $425,000. If you want to put in there a non-disclosure agreement, so be it. And on April 30th, we’ll release that I’m retiring.”
Gaudio’s contract was set to expire on May 1st, 2021, meaning that he was given prior notice that his contract would not be renewed.
Here is a thread of the full audio released in the Open Records Request, provided by ESPN Louisville.
Initial Reaction
My immediate reaction is that this audio provides more detail into why Mack and Tyra are upset about Mack’s suspension. Gaudio was clearly unhinged and downright scary. Louisville basketball personnel had to call security on Gaudio, who demands to speak to Mack. He is given the chance to disclose the NCAA violations that he is threatening the university with.
The man recording the audio- It appears to be either director of compliance John Carns or Associate AD Matt Banker- offers to give Gaudio the opportunity to disclose knowledge of wrongdoing, as stipulated by his contract. Gaudio, essentially, tells him to shove it.
Additionally, it feels like this is obvious evidence that Gaudio’s lawyer is fudging the truth when he says this was a “heat of the moment” thing. We now have three instances where Gaudio was escorted from the Louisville basketball facilities, left a voicemail for Mack, and approached Mack face-to-face.
This, again, bodes well for Mack. If the incident in the basketball facility was prior to the heated conversation in his office, Mack was in the right to record the incident to save himself.
There is a lot more breakdown, but for now, the main takeaway is that Gaudio did not behave in the way that he portrayed himself to have acted.
Stay tuned as we provide more reactions to the second round of Gaudio Audio.
Related: What to make of Louisville basketball suspending Chris Mack | Why Replacing Chris Mack would be a terrible idea
If one were to NOT listen to the audio, your spin and indignation may appear to be justified. Sadly, you have appeared to embrace the “alternate facts” approach.
Guadio appears to actually be rather calm and collected, for a man who realizes he is violating contractual terms regarding informing program violations to authorities. Based on thus audio, portrayal of Guadio as “clearly unhinged and downright scary” is rather a stretch of the imagination – As far as the Police escorting Guadio from the building, that is a rather common practice in the Corporate world when terminating employees (before your time, there was a Printing company in the Louisville area that was the scene of a disgruntled employee shooting rampage, which has led to many of the current procedures and cautions).
Honestly? I have no “dog in this hunt”. I only heard about this story from seeing a story regarding the suspension Chris Mack on a Cincinnati website. I listened to the audio that was originally released, and it appears that Mack was aware of program violations.
At the end of the day, I feel that all parties in this handled the situation incorrectly. Guadio should have NOT seen Mack, and the conversation should have been with the proper authorities, or directly to the NCAA, possibly?
There is one other item that struck me, as I looked at the Program staff…. With the exception of Mack, all current staff appear to be at least 20 years younger than Guadio… Is this an unintended cultural bias, or something that bears investigation?