Louisville’s Pitino: Fine schools, coaches for violations

“I was tearing up after the national anthem”, Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. The University announced a one-year postseason ban for its men’s basketball team amid on…

But Pitino’s postgame press conference was the story as he addressed the ban, handed down by athletic director Tom Jurich and announced by school president James Ramsey.

Louisville self-imposed a preseason ban for this year in the wake of a bombshell scandal broken by ESPN’s Outside The Lines last fall in which it was alleged players on previous Louisville teams were encouraged to sign with the Cardinals by enticement of sex-laced parties with prostitutes in a UL basketball dormitory.

The ban is for all postseason tournaments, including the NCAA and the Atlantic Coast Conference tournaments. They showed loyalty when the allegations came out, and they showed loyalty on Friday, when they said they wouldn’t have picked any other school, even knowing what is ahead, even though it isn’t in their best interest. Louisville’s graduate transfers, senior guards Damion Lee and Trey Lewis, are in tears, according to the coach.

It also opens up a spot in the NCAA Tournament, which the Cardinals would’ve likely made, potentially for a Syracuse team that could be on the bubble. The #19 ranked Cardinals are 18-4 overall, and their 7-2 record puts them second in the ACC heading into Saturday’s match-up against Boston College.

“Painful probably I could characterize it as one of the best understatements I could make”, Pitino said of the team meeting.

That does not mean he agrees with the move.

I talked to him only one time and he misled me.

Though it is unclear if Louisville will implement additional self-imposed penalties if its investigation uncovers more violations, the NCAA could hit the men’s program with more sanctions.

Pitino, 63, has consistently denied any knowledge of the arrangement, and as recently as last month questioned Powell’s credibility during a news conference.

Louisville, like previous schools under investigation, is throwing itself at the mercy of the NCAA court. The athletic department hired Smrt of The Compliance Group to look into the allegations.

Louisville-Duke Preview Rick Pitino doesn’t believe his Louisville players should be punished for the mistakes of others, but he won’t mind if they take out their frustrations on opponents.

ACC Commissioner John Swofford praised Louisville’s decision, saying in a statement that “removing themselves from any men’s basketball postseason opportunities is both proactive and significant….” Friday’s surprise decision was made because investigators concluded severe violations occurred that merited immediate action, school officials said. They went to Louisiville specifically to play in the postseason and win a championship.

‘As I told them the penalty, they all stood up and started hugging Damion and Trey as they cried, ‘ Pitino said. “This team doesn’t deserve this”.

“They came here to go far in the tournament”, Pitino said of Lee and Lewis.

“When you’re a little kid”, Lee said, adding onto Lewis, “and you work so hard for something, and then you get to that moment where you feel like you can finally have it; you can finally taste it, and it just gets ripped away from you …” Powells book, “Breaking Cardinal Rules: Basketball and the Escort Queen” was released online October 3 and in hardcover 17 days later. “So I feel for Rick (Pitino), because had two guys particularly (who) came there from Cleveland State and Drexel that wanted to see if they could be on a team that’d make a run during the tournament”.

The NCAA hasn’t accepted coaches’ explanations that they didn’t know about violations or illegal activities.