He was going to watch the Indiana Bulls play in Nashville, Tenn., to scout a few kids he was recruiting. He was dressed in his school’s apparel, like always. A subtle reminder to the players where he was coming from.
Except this time his clothes were different. They were still red, but the logo had changed. Instead of an L representing the University of Louisville, he was wearing a pitchfork, representing his new school, IU.
Dan McDonnell was also there, trying to recruit many of the same players.
McDonnell is the coach at Louisville, where less than 24 hours ago Lemonis was his top assistant.
Now the two best friends were competing.
***
The relationship between Lemonis and McDonnell stretches back to 1988, when the two 18 year-olds were beginning their playing careers at the Citadel, a military college in Charleston, S.C.
“Me and Chris were very close,” McDonnell said. “Our classmates were super close, and we still get together to this day. Every fall we go down to the Citadel for a homecoming football game.”
That freshman class was especially close, giving themselves the nickname “The Pals.” In addition to their yearly reunion at the Citadel, “The Pals” have a group text message and a group email, both of which McDonnell said are active ?every day.
McDonnell graduated a year before Lemonis, due to ?Lemonis redshirting his first season. Immediately after graduating, McDonnell became an assistant, eventually rising to be the recruiting coordinator and top assistant at the Citadel.
After Lemonis graduated, he spent a year coaching high school baseball before accepting a position on the Citadel’s coaching staff before the 1995 season.
The two would spend six seasons coaching together before McDonnell left to be an assistant at the University of Mississippi following the 2000 season.
***
It was six years after McDonnell had left the Citadel for Ole Miss, and Lemonis was on a recruiting trip, visiting players’ houses. He was expecting news, but not related to the kids he was visiting.
It was related to his best friend, McDonnell, who was interviewing for a head coaching position. It could be the first head coaching job of his career, and Lemonis was excited for him. But he was also excited for himself.
He and McDonnell had talked vaguely about what would happen if McDonnell got the Louisville job. One of the things they had talked about was working together.
Lemonis had risen to be the top assistant and recruiting coordinator at the Citadel, but he wanted more.
He wanted a greater recruiting success rate than getting one out of 10 kids to be interested, he said.
He wanted to be at a power program. He wanted the opportunity to return to the College World Series, where he and McDonnell had played in together in 1990.
So when Lemonis’ phone buzzed, he knew what his ?answer was. The text was from McDonnell.
“Hey, I got the job — are you coming?”
Lemonis accepted immediately. He had never seen Louisville’s campus, but it didn’t matter. He was going to coach with his best friend.
***
In their first season at Louisville, the pair returned to the College World Series. Louisville won 47 games that year, the most in program history. McDonnell was named National Coach of the Year by rivals.com.
In 2013, Louisville returned to the College World Series after breaking its own program record for wins with 51.
Louisville had 10 members of that team named to an All-Big East team, the majority of whom were recruited by ?Lemonis.
Following the season, seven players were selected in the Major League Baseball draft. Lemonis was named Assistant Coach of the Year by Baseball America.
It was the greatest Louisville season of all time. But there was one team better, one Louisville had already played that year and lost to, a team a little more than 100 miles away.
Led by a complete game shutout by Joey DeNato, IU beat Louisville, 2-0. In its next game, Louisville was eliminated by No. 3 Oregon State, 11-3.
Lemonis was gaining national attention. And with attention came job offers.
But Lemonis wasn’t about to leave Louisville or the players he had recruited to come there. It would take something special to convince him to leave ?McDonnell.
“We were in each other’s weddings,” McDonnell said. “I godfathered one of his daughters. I mean, our families ?are tight.”
***
Lemonis knew this day was coming. McDonnell knew this day was coming. But that didn’t make it any easier.
As Lemonis walked across the locker room, carrying possessions and memories from eight seasons spent in Louisville packed neatly into a box, he knew this wasn’t a simple goodbye.
“The last day in the office was pretty hard when I walked out with my stuff because it wasn’t just, ‘It was a great eight years, I enjoyed it and we had a lot of success,”’ Lemonis said. “It was a great eight years with your best friend.”
It was a tough choice, but the right choice for Lemonis, ?he said.
Just like leaving Louisville was more than leaving a job, coming to IU was more than starting a new job.
“I’ve told a lot of people it’s a dream job,” Lemonis said. “I’ve had opportunities to go other places, but I wanted it to be the right spot. I didn’t think twice about this one.”
Coaching at IU not only put Lemonis in charge of one of the best teams in the country the past two seasons but also provides his family a home in a town much different than ?Louisville.
Lemonis said the small town, family feel of Bloomington suits him better than the urban layout of Louisville.
It also suits the best interests of his youngest daughter, ?Mackenzie.
Mackenzie is starting high school next fall and is interested in studying the performing arts and drama once she gets to ?college.
“I don’t know if there’s a better city in the country to come to than Bloomington, so she’s really excited to get here,” Lemonis said.
IU is also what Lemonis calls the Mercedes of baseball programs.
After years of selling 6 a.m. military workouts at the Citadel, Lemonis said he was ready to start selling a Mercedes.
“This is where you get it all,” Lemonis said. “Great degree, great baseball, national program, great facilities and great crowds. We’re really selling it all.”
***
Kyle Hart didn’t want to lose.
He was preparing to start his junior season at IU after having to miss most of the 2014 season for Tommy John surgery.
So when he heard Tracy Smith was leaving for Arizona State, he wanted to make sure whoever was replacing him wasn’t interested in rebuilding. Hart wanted to win. Now.
Hart was the student-athlete representative on the search committee to replace Smith, and he made his opinion quite clear.
“Their biggest concern was ‘Coach, we want to win now,’” Lemonis said. “I think because Indiana and Louisville are so close to each other that they had a lot of respect for Louisville.”
Lemonis had been in the situation himself as a player. After going to the College World Series in 1990, his coach accepted another coaching job. Lemonis said he was not interested in being the leftovers.
He, like Hart, wanted ?to win.
That pressure to win is also what Lemonis was looking for in a program. He wasn’t interested in taking a few years to rebuild a ?program.
“I’d rather come into this clubhouse with kids who’ve won, like to work, like the culture and the expectations of the fans,” Lemonis said.
Lemonis knew it. Hart knew it, but Lemonis needed to ensure that the rest of the team as well as any players IU was recruiting knew it.
Lemonis said on the day he was officially hired, he called and texted hundreds of people and was in contact with players and recruits within an hour of accepting the job.
“That was the first thing,” Lemonis said. “Everybody hugs and congratulates, you’ve got a pit in your stomach and then I was on ?the phone.”
Amongst those calls and texts was McDonnell, and then the rest of “The Pals.” McDonnell said he probably wasn’t the first call, that honor probably went to Lemonis’ wife.
McDonnell knew the call was coming. He had given Lemonis the highest recommendation possible, as he had every time another program had asked about Lemonis. He also knew the appeal of a job at IU.
McDonnell has been telling his players and young coaches baseball is a rewarding sport.
If you are good to the game, then the game will be kind in return. His time ?had come.
But that didn’t make the reality of his best friend leaving any easier.
“In one sense I was happy for him, but in another sense I knew I was losing a great coach and a great friend,” McDonnell said. “I think my wife cried when she got the news just knowing that their family was going to be ?leaving town.”
***
Back in Nashville, a battle was brewing. A battle between two of the best recruiters in not only the Midwest, but the country.
Lemonis and McDonnell will always remain friends. That won’t change. But they both love to compete even more.
“Once the umpire says play ball, all bets are off,” McDonnell said. “We love and care for each other and our families but we love to compete, love to win and hate to lose.”
