Twitter has reports of a black Lexus being loaded with boxes and bags. Implied that it is the Pitino-mobile.
Arrests in Major NCAA College Basketball Probe
- Thread starter Was (Not Wasdin)
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ESPN reported that he told his staff and players this AM that he was getting fired:
ESPN’s Michael Eaves reports this morning that Rick Pitino has told his team and players that he’ll be fired this morning as Louisville’s head basketball coach. Here’s the full report.
Louisville head basketball coach Rick Pitino has told members of his coaching staff that he expects to lose his job over allegations the Cardinals basketball program is involved in a federal investigation into fraud and corruption in college basketball recruiting.
A source told ESPN's Michael Eaves that Pitino "knows it's coming" after a staff meeting of the basketball coaches Wednesday morning in Louisville.
On Tuesday, federal prosecutors in New York announced charges of fraud and corruption against 10 people involved in college basketball, including four assistant coaches -- Auburn's Chuck Person, Oklahoma State's Lamont Evans, Arizona's Emanuel "Book" Richardson and USC's Tony Bland.
The FBI probe focused on coaches being paid tens of thousands of dollars to steer NBA-bound players toward sports agents, financial advisers and apparel companies.
Federal criminal complaints accuse at least one coach at a "public research university located in Kentucky" -- identified as Louisville -- of taking part in a scheme to funnel about $100,000 from Adidas to an All-American high school player whom the Cardinals were recruiting.
Tuesday night, Pitino released a prepared statement saying the allegations "come as a complete shock to me" and saying he knew nothing about them.
https://www.crimsonquarry.com/2017/9/27/16373582/report-rick-pitino-tells-coaching-staff-hell-be-fired-at-louisville-this-morning
ESPN’s Michael Eaves reports this morning that Rick Pitino has told his team and players that he’ll be fired this morning as Louisville’s head basketball coach. Here’s the full report.
Louisville head basketball coach Rick Pitino has told members of his coaching staff that he expects to lose his job over allegations the Cardinals basketball program is involved in a federal investigation into fraud and corruption in college basketball recruiting.
A source told ESPN's Michael Eaves that Pitino "knows it's coming" after a staff meeting of the basketball coaches Wednesday morning in Louisville.
On Tuesday, federal prosecutors in New York announced charges of fraud and corruption against 10 people involved in college basketball, including four assistant coaches -- Auburn's Chuck Person, Oklahoma State's Lamont Evans, Arizona's Emanuel "Book" Richardson and USC's Tony Bland.
The FBI probe focused on coaches being paid tens of thousands of dollars to steer NBA-bound players toward sports agents, financial advisers and apparel companies.
Federal criminal complaints accuse at least one coach at a "public research university located in Kentucky" -- identified as Louisville -- of taking part in a scheme to funnel about $100,000 from Adidas to an All-American high school player whom the Cardinals were recruiting.
Tuesday night, Pitino released a prepared statement saying the allegations "come as a complete shock to me" and saying he knew nothing about them.
https://www.crimsonquarry.com/2017/9/27/16373582/report-rick-pitino-tells-coaching-staff-hell-be-fired-at-louisville-this-morning
Would heckling during the BC Louisville field hockey game next Friday be infelicitous? Waiting for 2018 bb ACC season seems too long.
Jurich has been fired by Louisville
https://www.cardchronicle.com/2017/9/27/16373712/tom-jurich-fired-louisville-athletics-greg-postel
https://www.cardchronicle.com/2017/9/27/16373712/tom-jurich-fired-louisville-athletics-greg-postel
@YahooForde
UL president Gregory Postel just told us that there will be a press conference at 1 ET. Said Jurich and Pitino will not attend.
UL may get serious death sentence talk. The school itself is in all sorts of legal trouble. Not a great time to be Dr. Postel.
UL president Gregory Postel just told us that there will be a press conference at 1 ET. Said Jurich and Pitino will not attend.
UL may get serious death sentence talk. The school itself is in all sorts of legal trouble. Not a great time to be Dr. Postel.
Interesting. Pitino's contract apparently says that he has to be given notice of reason for firing, a chance to present evidence, and only the board of the U of L Athletics Association – or a committee of that board – can make the decision to fire.
http://www.wdrb.com/story/36464682/university-of-louisville-would-have-give-pitino-notice-chance-to-present-evidence-before-firing
http://www.wdrb.com/story/36464682/university-of-louisville-would-have-give-pitino-notice-chance-to-present-evidence-before-firing
Kent TaylorVerified account @KentTaylorWAVE
According to sources, Tom Jurich was asked to fire Rick Pitino, refused, both were fired
in a fun side story, Bobby Petrino has in his contract that his buyout is cut in half if Tom Jurich is fired
According to sources, Tom Jurich was asked to fire Rick Pitino, refused, both were fired
in a fun side story, Bobby Petrino has in his contract that his buyout is cut in half if Tom Jurich is fired
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You know....when you have to decide with to fire someone or lose your $1.4MM job...you gotta just stand your ground.
There's no way that Jurich wouldn't have been fired anyway.
He was given the Derek Jeter request - "fire (insert name) on your way out the door so I don't have to" - and he declined.
Since Penn State, then followed by Montana/Baylor/Vanderbilt (with reminders that Nebraska - and likely countless unnamed others, including Binghamton -- enabled similar criminals), I have trouble getting worked up over this. While there were different levels of "official" culpability in the various scandals, people acting with honor could have kept away the criminals away -- only to be fired and replaced by ones who would bring the criminals in.
I suppose there are victims here -- most likely the players who get rotten financial advice and/or get robbed from being able to trade off the scholarship for anything resembling a legit education/degree. But if the payoffs to players are six figures, that lessens the victimhood, in my mind. Other than state taxpayers, who end up on the hook for millions to the coaches, can anyone help me understand who has been seriously victimized?
I'm not saying the FBI shouldn't pursue fraud and go after these folks. I'm just thinking seeking out, welcoming, enabling and protecting rapists, child molesters and other violent criminals is much, much worse than what's been alleged here. IOW, Art Briles has more to answer for than Chuck Person, in my mind.
I suppose there are victims here -- most likely the players who get rotten financial advice and/or get robbed from being able to trade off the scholarship for anything resembling a legit education/degree. But if the payoffs to players are six figures, that lessens the victimhood, in my mind. Other than state taxpayers, who end up on the hook for millions to the coaches, can anyone help me understand who has been seriously victimized?
I'm not saying the FBI shouldn't pursue fraud and go after these folks. I'm just thinking seeking out, welcoming, enabling and protecting rapists, child molesters and other violent criminals is much, much worse than what's been alleged here. IOW, Art Briles has more to answer for than Chuck Person, in my mind.
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Not disagreeing with you, but it shows what a cesspool college athletics is that mere bribery, fraud and tax evasion is not really to be seen as a big deal. "At least Pitino wasn't protecting child molesters" doesn't seem like an adequate defense somehow.
Calipari isn't going down for penny ante stuff like this. He's going down in a blaze of hookers, blow, gangsters and millions in cash.
I believe that movie is scheduled for a 2019 release date.
The reigning NCAA basketball champions are from a university that enabled a 20+ year academic fraud of almost incomprehensible proportions for the sole purpose of keeping athletes eligible.
The best part is that there is no longer a dispute about the facts. But UNC remains unpunished because the NCAA can't seem to bring itself to act because nothing short of the death penalty is appropriate. And UNC is not getting the death penalty. (Especially after winning the tournament last year.)
So let's be clear about one thing. The NCAA is the biggest fraud of all.
The victims are the hard working, clean nosed programs like Duke who, despite having to play a bunch of cheaters, still manage to win championship after championship. One can only imagine that Duke would have surpassed UCLA if not having to play teams that cheat so much - Duke lost to Arizona and Louisville deep in the NCAA tournament in just the past few years. Add in the fact that Duke has been forced to play a team that had completely made up fake classes for their athletes for two decades (20 years!), 2x a year (usually beating them, but still), and it really is an incredible testament to the integrity and brilliance of Coach K!!
Oh, the NCAA as a whole (see the previous two posts). Even Roy and Coach K ought to be a little concerned about all of this...
If Carolina is implicated in this, then they really suck at offering bribes to get the best recruits.
Darren HeitnerVerified account @DarrenHeitner
Sources: Employees of Nike's EYBL grassroots division, along with documents, have been subpoenaed by FBI in furtherance of investigation
Pitino is not walking through that door. He's on unpaid leave.
https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/louisville-puts-rick-pitino-on-unpaid-leave-is-effectively-fired-his-lawyer-says/
https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/louisville-puts-rick-pitino-on-unpaid-leave-is-effectively-fired-his-lawyer-says/
Anecdote: a friend of mine has a brother who is a D1 head coach. He was an assistant at several big schools prior. One in particular, after they took over, they had a group of players that were particularly difficult (like showing up to practice high or drunk). They wanted to nip this stuff in the bud and called a team meeting. After it was over, a couple of the players came to him and asked for their $100, which was the previous arrangement for team meetings. I'm not sure if he was surprised or not, but was definitely disappointed.
Tom Jurich's daughter was hired by Adidas "months" before Adidas and UL signed their 10 year/$190MM sponsorship contract. Nice.
http://www.wdrb.com/story/36464932/adidas-hired-tom-jurichs-daughter-months-before-160-million-deal-with-university-of-louisville
http://www.wdrb.com/story/36464932/adidas-hired-tom-jurichs-daughter-months-before-160-million-deal-with-university-of-louisville
Nike apparently got subpoenaed today, so the amounts that Duke funneled to Tatum, Okafor and others through Nike to go to Duke should be available soon.
These are second-tier programs. Good, but not great programs. Probably to be expected since they are Adidas schools. Until Nike is implicated, which is the top-tier schools' line, the blue chips are safe.
But, regardless, this is further stupidity at the NCAA using cheap (I won't see free due to scholarship, room & board) labor. All you have to do, literally the only thing, is allow student-athletes to sign with shoe companies and other endorsement opportunities. Schools don't have to pay them --- just let the market. They should be allowed to be in commercials, market themselves, whatever. If they fail out, they are kicked out of school. Otherwise they should be able to make money off their likeness constantly. It would streamline a lot of this shoe -> AAU -> college bullshit.
But, regardless, this is further stupidity at the NCAA using cheap (I won't see free due to scholarship, room & board) labor. All you have to do, literally the only thing, is allow student-athletes to sign with shoe companies and other endorsement opportunities. Schools don't have to pay them --- just let the market. They should be allowed to be in commercials, market themselves, whatever. If they fail out, they are kicked out of school. Otherwise they should be able to make money off their likeness constantly. It would streamline a lot of this shoe -> AAU -> college bullshit.
School like Duke and Carolina do not need to have players funneled to them. Granted, Carolina's recruiting has been down since one rogue administrator and one rogue professor tried to bring the Women's Basketball Team and Football team down and several men's basketball players were accidentally enrolled in those courses but even during that time they've recruited well enough to go to back to back National Championships and win the last one.
A guy like the one Louisville just payed $100,000 to get? Maybe he gets 10-15 minutes at Carolina by his Junior year, if his defense develops.
Last thought for the moment - this was always the danger of the ACC getting in business with the Big East. Now you have second-tier programs cheating just to try to get a chance to taste the glory of Tobacco Road. Not good. Hurts the brand.
I'm sure these five star kids are turning down $100k to go play for free at North Carolina or Duke because they respect Roy Williams and Coach K so much. Or whatever Duke and UNC (and Syracuse and UCLA and...) fans have to tell themselves right now.
those are the second tier kids. can you imagine what the top flight kids are charging?
i wonder if some of these kids are taking a pay cut to go professional.
Lolol. The ACC sold out the day they took Florida state. But without them, there would be no ACC
John Wall begged Coach Williams to bring him to NC even late in the process. All Roy would say is that he was a great kid but "the fit wasn't right."
It's true that Carolina is not going to win the recruiting wars. They make their headlines in March and April, not over the Summer.
With the numbers we’re seeing, just how much did Bagley get to reclassify and choose Duke over USC and Arizona?
Absolutely.
Edit - the top tier is Carolina, Duke, Kentucky, Kansas and Michigan State. All are Nike schools with the exception of Kansas (Adidas and recently I believe).
This does not mean that Louisville and Arizona are not good programs or "major," they are just not top tier.
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It's great how every college head basketball or football coach claims his team is the only clean program, and 90% of his fan base believes him, despite all evidence to the contrary. It's like Santa Claus, except Santa Coach K.