The NCAA charged Rick Pitino with a failure to monitor his program, but his defiant response to those charges is his real failure. Louisville will fight to keep its national championship, but it has lost its chance to reclaim its dignity.
Rick Pitino struck a defiant pose on Thursday in response to the punishment leveled by the NCAA for Louisville’s sex-for-play scandal.
Anyone expecting contrition from Pitino was mistaken. And his bosses are standing beside him, vowing to overturn the punishment on appeal. It was a brazen response given the sordid details of the scandal and the weakness of the punishment.
Who are Pitino and Louisville kidding?
For hiring strippers and prostitutes to attend more than a dozen sex parties with recruits and players at an on-campus dormitory over a five-year period, Louisville was placed on four years’ probation by the NCAA, and Pitino was suspended from coaching in the first five ACC games this coming season.
In addition to other penalties, the Cardinals were also ordered to surrender four scholarships and possibly vacate as many as 108 regular-season victories and 15 NCAA tournament wins as well as their 2013 national championship.
Pitino and the Cardinals weren’t the only ones who looked bad on Thursday. The NCAA infractions committee once again looked toothless, at least when it comes to punishing high-profile coaches. To almost anyone who still puts value in doing the right thing, the NCAA’s punishment seems like a slap on the wrist. A five-game suspension feels like an endorsement for looking the other way, rather than a deterrent for college coaches to monitor their programs closely. A significant penalty — like a one-year suspension — might finally convince coaches that they’re responsible for what happens in their programs, whether they were directly involved or not.
Sure, the Cardinals might have to edit their record books and remove a couple of banners from the rafters, but to listen to Pitino and Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich tell the story, it sounds as if the NCAA cut off their hands at the wrist. In fact, if you believe Pitino and Jurich, they’re the real victims in this shameful mess. The NCAA penalties are “extreme” and “over the top, ” they said during a news conference on Thursday, and interim president Greg Postel said the university will appeal the NCAA’s punishment, which “went beyond what we consider to be fair and reasonable.”
“For 35-some-odd years, I’ve had a lot of faith in the NCAA and have reacted that way accordingly as a head basketball coach in the belief of their rules, ” Pitino said. “Not only is it unjust … over-the-top severe, but personally I’ve lost a lot of faith in the NCAA that I’ve had over the last 35 years with what they just did.
“We believe we will win the appeal because it is right, it is just, ” he added. “What went on [the NCAA’s ruling] was unjust, inconceivable.”
No, quite frankly, what’s inconceivable and unbelievable is Pitino’s defense that he really didn’t know the sex parties were happening. Katina Powell, a self-described former escort, alleged in a book that former Louisville director of basketball operations Andre McGee paid her $10,000 for 22 shows at the dorm from 2010 to 2014. According to the NCAA committee on infractions report, 15 recruits and three players attended the parties.
“It was crazy, ” a former Louisville player told Outside the Lines in October 2015. “It was like I was in a strip club.”
At least seven of the recruits who engaged in sex acts with women were under the age of 18, according to the report, and one recruit interviewed by the NCAA said a Louisville assistant told the team it had practiced poorly “because ya’ll had strippers in there all night.” The recruit told the NCAA the assistant knew about the parties because he was “close” with McGee. Another recruit told NCAA investigators that it was “common knowledge” that the parties were occurring.
In case you were still wondering, yes, NCAA rules prohibit schools from hosting such parties. From the infractions report: “Without dispute, the bylaws do not allow institutional staff members to arrange for stripteases and sex acts for prospects, enrolled student-athletes and/or those who accompany them to campus.”
If you believe Pitino, he didn’t know anything about the parties and never recognized a “red flag” that might have warned him that something improper was going on. Pitino contends he never once heard a word about the parties from his players or coaches.
“In four years, not one piece of social media has come out — ever, ” Pitino said. “That’s almost impossible. That’s the greatest hidden thing I’ve ever witnessed in my lifetime.”
Editor’s Picks Louisville to appeal Pitino ban, NCAA penalties
Louisville coach Rick Pitino received a five-game ACC suspension as part of discipline from the NCAA regarding a sex scandal that engulfed the program. A vacated national championship would put Louisville on history’s bad side
If the NCAA forces Louisville to vacate its 2013 title as a result of NCAA sanctions, it will join a small group of unwanted NCAA history-makers.
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Louisville coach Rick Pitino received a five-game ACC suspension as part of discipline from the NCAA regarding a sex scandal that engulfed the program.
If the NCAA forces Louisville to vacate its 2013 title as a result of NCAA sanctions, it will join a small group of unwanted NCAA history-makers.
For the sake of argument, let’s take Pitino at his word and assume he didn’t know about the parties. (McGee did not cooperate with the investigation, so we may never know his version of events) . That admission might be an even bigger indictment of the Hall of Fame coach. When you’re being paid $5 million per year to coach basketball at a state university, you better know when something so disreputable is occurring within your program. And it’s not like strippers entertained Louisville’s recruits and players only once.
Yet, even after the NCAA delivered its punishment, Pitino wasn’t ready to admit his program’s shortcomings. His actions were more about protecting his image and legacy and making sure the 2013 national championship banner will still be hanging in the KFC Yum! Center for years to come.
And Jurich, who was once regarded as one of the country’s top athletic directors, stood behind his coach once again.
