Rick Pitino and his scandal ridden coaching career finally caught up to him.
According to ESPN, Wednesday Louisville fired the hall-of-fame head coach amid that latest bombshell scandal to rock the college basketball world and the second such to involve the Cardinals program in the past three seasons. This time around however instead of trying to lure recruits with prostitutes, Pitino is in the middle of a nation wide federal investigation into programs using money supplied by Adidas to lure high-profile prospects to certain Adidas supplied programs.
Via ESPN:
On Tuesday, 10 men — including a top Adidas executive and four assistant coaches — were charged with using hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to influence star athletes’ choice of schools, shoe sponsors, agents, even tailors. Federal prosecutors said at least three top high school recruits were promised payments of as much as $150,000, using money supplied by Adidas, to attend two universities sponsored by the athletic shoe company. Louisville’s president later confirmed the school is part of the investigation.
Aside from this latest scandal and the Louisville program hiring prostitutes to conduct orgies with players and recruits, Pitino was also at the center of a publicized affair at an Italian restaurant back in 20013. In that instance, Pitino ended up testifying in a federal extortion case against Karen Sypher who tried to extort money and gifts from the coach in exchange for her silence. And although not basketball related, it was surely another occasion in which Pitino managed to garner negative attention for himself further escalating distractions for the team.
In addition to Pitino, Louisville also fired AD Tom Jurich who apparently wouldn’t fire the head coach himself.
However what’s ironic and sort of telling when it comes to the NCAA is what Pitino was ultimately popped for. It wasn’t the head coach covering his ears and looking in the other direction as players, prospects and in some cases parents received blowjobs in his own athletics facilities. Nope, it was payments directed towards players which is in every which way a no-no in the NCAA’s world, especially when they’re not in on the cut.
