Louisville investigating allegations of paid escorts

Louisville’s 2013 national basketball championship might be in jeopardy if allegations are true in a new book that claims former staff paid escorts to dance for and have sex with players and recruits.

The book, written by Katina Powell with Dick Cady, is titled, “Breaking Cardinal Rules: Basketball and the Escort Queen”, according to a release from the IBJ.

The book also alleges that over a four-year period, Powell brought women into the basketball dormitory through a side door to entertain players and recruits.

The NCAA was notified of the allegations almost a month ago and is reaching out to multiple former Louisville recruits.

McGee is now an assistant at UMKC under former Louisville assistant Kareem Richardson.

U of L, in response to the upcoming book, put out a statement on Friday afternoon announcing that the school had hired Chuck Smrt, a private investigator from the Compliance Group, to conduct a “thorough, objective review” of the book’s information.

The alleged Louisville staffer is former Louisville basketball player Andre McGee, who played for the Cardinals from 2005-2009. There are, for now, no specific allegations that head coach Rick Pitino was aware of this. Powell also says her dancers – which included her daughters – also entertained Louisville players at other locations off-campus.

It’s good for Louisville that Pitino is jumping right out in front here to hit this head-on; it shows that they’re not going to tolerate this kind of mud being slung in the direction of their program, especially if these allegations turn out to be untrue.

In coordination with the University’s legal counsel and faculty athletics representative, Mr. Smrt’s review was quickly launched to assess the validity of the information and the potential for any NCAA rules violations. “The University, on its own initiative, notified the NCAA Enforcement Staff regarding this matter and has been in regular communication with them”.

In a statement, the university said it was shocked to hear of the allegations, but it is taking the accusations seriously. He was hired by IBJ Book Publishing to dig up details and co-write the book with Powell. Powell told the IBJ that part of the reason she is doing the book is to make money. She’s set to receive “10% of the commission of the gross, not net”, according to the release. Yahoo Sports has an advanced copy of the allegations in the book. ESPN’s attempts to contact him were not immediately returned.