The University of Louisville has announced at a press conference that they will self-impose a ban on postseason play for their men’s basketball team this season.
This move comes as the NCAA investigation into the claims that escorts were given thousands of dollars and game tickets in exchange for having sex with basketball recruits that the University of Louisville were courting is still underway. What got the ball rolling on this issue was ESPN report published in October of 2015 alleging that former Grad Assistant Andre McGee paid exotic dancers to have sex with recruits and players based on the book published in that same month titled “Breaking Cardinal Rules: Basketball and the Escort Queen”.
Players named in the report include NBA players Montrezl Harrell and Russ Smith among others still currently playing basketball for Louisville and others teams.
The Louisville Cardinals are currently 18-4 on the season and sit in second place in the ACC behind North Carolina. Louisville sits at #19 in the current AP Top 25 Poll and #18 in the USA Today Coaches Poll. Forgoing this post season will break a streak of nine straight years making the NCAA tournament.
Louisville has nine games left on it’s regular season schedule and is fresh off a victory over top ranked North Carolina. They have two tilts left with Duke and road games against ranked Miami (FL) and Virginia.
Head Coach Rick Pitino is holding a press conference where he has confessed that he had no idea that this was occurring and that “he’s just a soldier in this army” who’s just following orders in regards to the University of Louisville’s decision to self-impose a ban from the postseason. Watching the live stream of this press conference, I do believe that he is genuine when he says that he had no idea that the payment for sex with recruits was occurring, but I still don’t believe it.
The NCAA investigation into the situation is still ongoing.