A Rick Pitino response is garbage.
Need a Rick Pitino @GoCards resignation.
KD had stronger thoughts on the matter.
If Rick Pitino didn’t know, he sure as Hell should have known
If University of Louisville Head basketball Coach Rick Pitino is really going to claim plausible deniability in this “hookers for recruits” scandal, he should still be fired. To quote Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal from 'Casino': “Listen, if you didn't know, you're too fuckin' dumb to keep this job. If you did know, you were in on it.”
In fact, if this was any other coach in the country not named Mike Krzyzewski, he would have already been fired. Jim Boeheim and Bob Knight were pushed out for less.
The Head Coach runs the program. So everything that happens is on his watch. The buck stops with Pitino. If a rogue assistant coach hires prostitutes for recruits and players and the Head Coach is in the dark about the situation, having his head in the sand is not an excuse.
Pitino knew what was going on. And if he honestly didn’t know, he sure as all Hell should have known.
On background, I am a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Class of 1997. Those four years coincided with four trips to the NCAA Tournament, and appearances in the Elite Eight and Final Four (since vacated). I happened to live in the same dorm, John Adams, as the basketball team.
While I was on the 20th floor, and the basketball team was sequestered on the seventh floor, it wasn’t a closely guarded secret what went on there. But when you are winning big, blind eyes get turned. It is difficult not to notice prostitutes walking into your college dorm when you are kicking a hacky sack in front of the building.
The fact of the matter is, while Coach Pitino points his finger at a dirty former assistant coach, he’s the one who hired the guy in the first place. He delegated recruiting responsibility to him to some extent. And degrees of separation are completely immaterial.
Since the University of Louisville is a publicly funded state school, tax dollars were essentially funneled to a hookers for basketball recruiting scheme. Pitino has to go for this, even if it sets the Louisville program back a decade.
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