Kevin Mackey (born August 21, 1946) is a former head coach of men's basketball at Cleveland State University. His CSU Vikings upset the Indiana Hoosiers and the Saint Joseph's Hawks to make the Sweet 16 in the 1986 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. He is also known for recruiting future NBA player Manute Bol. Early coaching career Mackey was a successful high school coach at the former Don Bosco Technical High School in Boston, winning the 1976 state championship and three consecutive Class A Catholic championships. From 1977 to 1983, he served as an assistant coach at Boston College under Tom Davis and Gary Williams in the early days of the Big East Conference. He was well known as a top recruiter, and was well known for landing inner-city prospects. Collegiate and pro career Cleveland State Mackey coached at Cleveland State University from 1983 to 1990 and posted a record of 144 wins and 67 losses. His teams made one NCAA and two National Invitation Tournament appearances and averaged more than 20 wins per season. His best team was the 1985-86 unit, which won a school-record 29 games and advanced all the way to the Sweet 16—becoming the first #14 seed to advance that far. It was also the first postseason bid of any sort in the program's 57-year history. Before his first-round game against Indiana, he went up to Bobby Knight saying, "Take it easy on me, big guy." Knight exploded, knowing Cleveland State would likely give the Hoosiers all they could handle with its "run n' stun" style. He became a celebrity in northeastern Ohio, with the local press dubbing him "the King of Cleveland." Cleveland State used the money from the 1986 NCAA run to build what is now the Wolstein Center. Earlier in 1985, Mackey invited Bol to Cleveland after seeing him in action with a Sudanese team that was touring the United States. However, Bol didn't speak or write English very well at the time. He was unable to improve his English-language skills after months of English language classes at ELS Language Centers on the Case Western Reserve University campus, and never played a game for Cleveland State. Five years later, Cleveland State was placed on two years' probation for providing improper financial assistance to Bol and two other African players. They were also banned from Mid-Continent conference play for the duration of the