Rick Pitino has been put on unpaid administrative leave amid the recent scandal in college basketball. Yesterday we found out four coaching assistants in college basketball have been working to funnel money to recruits and steer them to certain agents. Louisville was named in the federal documents as paying $100,000 to a former All-American high school player. The player in question seems to be Brian Bowen a freshman on this year’s squad who like the report said was the last 5 star player in his class to commit. Bowen committed to the Cardinals in June in what many called a surprise committment.
This is the second such scandal in a matter of a few years for Louisville. Two years ago the basketball program was found to have paid an escort service to have sex with recruits and current players in the dorms. The coach orchestrating that scandal was Andre McGee a former Louisville player under Pitino.
According to sources, Tom Jurich was asked to fire Rick Pitino, refused, both were fired
— Kent Taylor (@KentTaylorWAVE) September 27, 2017
Along with Pitino, Athletic Director Tom Jurich was put on paid administrative leave. As Kent Taylor reported above, Jurich was relieved for refusing to fire Pitino. Pitino’s lawyer has told Phillip Bailey of the Courier Journal that he has not been dismissed but that he is “effectively fired”.
