Rick Pitino, the Hall of Fame college basketball coach who over his 31-year head coaching career has led his teams to seven Final Fours and two national championships, has almost certainly coached his last game.
The University of Louisville placed Pitino, its figurehead for the last 16 years and the highest paid head coach in all of college basketball, on unpaid administrative leave Wednesday citing allegations of corruption detailed by the acting US attorney for the southern district of New York that implicated Pitino’s program and led to the arrest of 10 people including four assistant coaches at other major college basketball programs.
“The allegations in a criminal investigation being conducted by the United States Attorney’s office and the Federal Bureau of Investigations are troubling to all of us,” University interim president Greg Postel said. “Doing nothing would be a tacit endorsement of unethical and criminal behavior.”
The University of Louisville was not specifically named in the allegations, but as soon as the details were announced, it was easy to see what the claim entailed. According to the report, an unnamed Louisville assistant coach worked with an Adidas executive to funnel $100,000 to the family of a top recruit, identified in media accounts through context clues as Indiana-based prospect Brian Bowen, in exchange for his signing to play with the Cardinals. Pitino claimed that he had no knowledge of the arrangement, but after being implicated in a scandal that involved a rogue assistant coach hiring escorts to party and have sex with recruits on campus between 2010 and 2014 (a charge to which Pitino again claimed to have no knowledge), another impropriety so close on the heels of the previous scandal essentially left Louisville officials with no choice. Postel announced the school’s decision regarding Pitino and also placed athletic director Tom Jurich on leave Wednesday afternoon. Postel also announced that school would be informing one player (presumably Bowen) would be held out of all NCAA activities indefinitely.
Pitino’s ouster, and make no mistake this administrative leave designation is nothing more than bureaucratic i-dotting and t-crossing before his eventual dismissal), is the headline for today. But what is truly shocking is that the fall of a Hall of Fame coach may end up being merely a footnote as this investigation into the biggest college athletics scandal in recent memory continues to play out.
The four assistant coaches who were arrested – Chuck Person at Auburn, Emanuel Richardson at Arizona, Lamont Evans at Oklahoma State and Tony Bland at Southern California – have been charged with fraud and corruption. According to the report, Person received a cash bribe from an agent who was trying to build a relationship with players at Auburn. Richardson, Bland, and Evans are charged with similar crimes. All have either been suspended or placed on administrative leave. Also arrested was NBA agent Christian Dawkins, one of the key figures in the Louisville case, who allegedly told an unidentified assistant coach that they would have to be “particularly careful” about passing money along to a recruit’s family because the program was already on probation due to the escort scandal. Dawkins’ previous employer, NBA agent Andy Miller, reportedly had his office raided and his computer seized by FBI agents on Tuesday. And perhaps most importantly, Jim Gatto, a high-ranking executive at Adidas, was charged with funneling money to the families of prospective recruits with the tacit understanding that those players would attend schools whose basketball programs were sponsored by Adidas, and in the event that the player would eventually go pro, sign a shoe deal with company. Merl Code, a former Nike employee who recently started working with Adidas, financial adviser Munish Sood, former NBA employee Rashan Michal and Adidas-affiliated grassroots basketball program director Jonathan Augustine were also arrested on Tuesday as a result of this two-year sting operation.
“The picture of college basketball painted by the charges is not a pretty one,” Joon H Kim, the acting US attorney for the southern district of New York, said Tuesday. “For the 10 charged men, the madness of college basketball went well beyond the Big Dance in March. Month after month, the defendants exploited the hoop dreams of student-athletes around the country, allegedly treating them as little more than opportunities to enrich themselves through bribery and fraud schemes.”
Paying cash to recruits, whether it be an overly enthusiastic university booster, an agent trying to get his foot in the door with a potential client or a shoe company eyeing an endorsement deal with a next generation superstar, has always been the worst and best kept secret in college athletics (worst as in everybody knew it was happening and best because it was very hard to prove). But this investigation is a game changer. And it is probably just the beginning. Federal investigators and not the NCAA, who found out about these charges at about the same time the public did, are running this probe. Unlike the governing body of college athletics, the FBI has subpoena power and these are criminal charges. The defendants are facing long prison sentences, and as the vise tightens around them, it is almost a guarantee that some if not all of them will name names. College basketball season is just a little bit more than six weeks away, but those around the sport seem frozen, petrified of another shoe dropping, another assistant being charged or another head coach being dismissed. But for now, the show must go on, and it will go on at Louisville. Postel said that the school will be looking to replace Pitino with an interim coach in the next 48 hours, and he let it be known that winning still trumps all.
“We’re looking for someone with integrity, with knowledge of the sport, someone who can have the respect of the players and help us move along,” Postel said when asked what he would be looking for in a new head man. “We’ve got talented players. That hasn’t changed, and so there’s no reason this team can’t have a good season.”
