Louisville Basketball: The worst of the escort scandal is behind the Cardinals

With no lack of institutional control violation, Louisville basketball looks to be in the clear moving forward.

Louisville had one of the best teams in the ACC last year and had two graduate transfers, Damion Lee and Trey Lewis, who were itching to play in the NCAA Tournament.

But that opportunity was ripped away from them when Katina Powell’s “Breaking Cardinal Rules: Basketball and the Escort Queen” book was released online.

Powell reveled that Louisville assistant coach Andre McGee paid her and her staff to dance or have sex with Louisville recruits and players in an on-campus dorm (Minardi Hall). This resulted in multiple investigations, Louisville self-inducing a postseason ban in February and later, limiting future scholarships and recruiting privileges.

Now, the Cardinals are dealing with even more news regarding the scandal. With the season less than a month away, the NCAA released a Notice of Allegations, which contains four Level I violations against McGee, former Louisville assistant Brandon Williams and head coach Rick Pitino.

"Louisville’s four violations include:McGee providing impermissible benefits in the form of adult entertainment.McGee’s refusal to furnish relevant information to the investigation.Former assistant Brandon Williams’ refusal to furnish relevant information to the investigation.Head coach Rick Pitino’s failure to monitor McGee."

The university has 90 days to respond to the violations and likely won’t face the Committee of Infractions until the spring. That means that if any further penalties come down against the Cardinals, they will affect the 2017-18 season.

However, the Cardinals should be in the clear. I (and many others) don’t expect the NCAA to come down with harsh sanctions (if any) against Louisville. They could very well strip Louisville of their 2013 National Championship, but with most of the basketball players involved in the scandal being recruits, the NCAA is unlikely to do so.

The school has already taken significant action and there is no further ‘lack of institutional control’ violation that could prompt the NCAA to heavily sanction the Cardinals.

So no, Louisville isn’t going to deal with another postseason ban.

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They likely won’t need to adhere to more recruiting restrictions.

The program already handed themselves the biggest blow. The Cardinals got ahead of the charges and limited a potential Final Four club to just 31 regular season games.

The lone issue lies with their head coach Rick Pitino. Pitino was handed a Level I violation for failing to monitor his staff member. He “failed to frequently spot-check the program to uncover potential or existing compliance problems, including actively looking for and evaluating red flags, asking pointed questions and regularly soliciting honest feedback to determine if monitoring systems were functioning properly regarding McGee’s activities and interactions with then men’s basketball prospective and current student-athletes visiting and attending the institution.”

It would frankly be surprising if he wasn’t given a Larry Brown or Jim Boeheim-like suspension of nine games. And it would be even more stunning if he completely avoided any individual penalties.

Since day one, Pitino has consistently denied that he knew of McGee’s actions, however, under the new NCAA rules, all head coaches are responsible for what happens within your program. It doesn’t matter if an assistant is going rogue. It was Pitino’s job, at least according to the NCAA, that he should’ve had some knowledge of what was happening in Minardi Hall.

There have been rumblings about Pitino potentially stepping down following the 2016-17 season to avoid all uncertainty in 2017-18. But Pitino continues to have the university and the athletic directors support. He is still only 64 years old. And he is certainly hungry to reach his first Final Four since the Cardinals won it all in 2012-13.

If he does get pushed out by higher-ups, it would be damaging to the program if he landed at another ACC school or high major program.

Next: Conference USA preview

The meeting with the Committee of Infractions in the spring will continue to loom over the program and the scandal will not be forgotten any time soon. However, the Cardinals are able to focus their attention on the basketball court. With the exception of a potential Pitino suspension, it looks like Louisville has dealt with the worst of what has been a tumultuous year.

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