Louisville Basketball: Another scandal clouds Rick Pitino
With a second scandal popping up for Rick Pitino and the Louisville Cardinals, the Hall-of-Fame coach is about to find out how many lives he really has left.
Four assistant coaches were implicated in today’s bombshell report by the Justice Department. They came from Auburn, Oklahoma State, Arizona, and USC. The head coaches of those four programs, while not be directly implicated, may very well face crippling sanctions for the program.
One school whose staff hasn’t been named as of yet is the Louisville Cardinals. And that should be considered a good thing considering the Louisville scandal that involved prostitution at dorms that ended assistant coach Andre McGee’s tenure at the school.
The leader at the helm, Rick Pitino, denied any knowledge of the events that took place at the dorms. Whether true or not, this is a common tactic that coaches use to avoid punishment from the NCAA.
Ultimately Louisville had to self-impose a one-year postseason ban, which is convenient considering a top-ranked recruiting class was coming. The real victims were the two grad transfers in Damion Lee and Trey Lewis who just wanted an opportunity to play in March Madness.
This time the allegations involve a top 20 recruit in Brian Bowen, who made a surprising decision to choose the Cardinals this summer. Now, with allegedly $100,000 involved with acquiring his services implicating Adidas and the school, a likely ineligible player could be the downfall of a legendary coach.
Related Story: How is Brian Bowen involved in the investigation?
Now to be clear, Pitino’s name has not been brought up whatsoever. He also wasn’t directly involved in the McGee scandal either. But the NCAA still charged the head coach with “failing to monitor the program”, a charge that has now become a response to coaches claiming they “didn’t know anything”.
A precedent has been set that head coaches will now be held responsible for the actions of those involved with the basketball program. Whether it’s the assistants like McGee or administrators in the school, there’s an expectation that the head coach is aware of what happens in the program.
Pitino himself may not be dirty, but it appears that those around him are, which is an indictment in itself of the Louisville coach. Is it really possible a coach who’s so detailed oriented on the X’s and O’s can be so clueless about what’s going on around him?
If his name is even mentioned once in this investigation, then it’s likely over, regardless of his overall resume. With the FBI now involved, expect a lot of people to start talking to avoid jail time. Even then, the NCAA may want to make a preemptive move on its own, taking drastic action at all the schools already or about to be implicated.
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If Pitino was an average coach, he’d probably be gone by now. But with his status, he might be able to survive this scandal as well, even though his reputation is close to being ruined. Athletic Director Tom Jurich has stuck by his coach before; the upcoming weeks will test this relationship like never before.