Update: Fox Sports’ Jeff Goodman writes that Pitino scandal is bound to affect recruiting.
Here’s my column saying that the scandal will affect Rick Pitino’s ability to his job.
But my friend Mike DeCourcy doesn’t quite agree. The Sporting News’ college basketball expert thinks Pitino will have some difficulty, but will still be able to pull in top-notch recruits.
Excerpt:
Second, there is bound to be some player out there - or, more likely, a family member of a player - who views this development as a reason to eliminate Louisville from consideration. Even if it’s only one player - and there’ll never be a way to tally them - losing somebody the program might otherwise have landed would be a negative consequence.
Generally, the impact will not be debilitating. Pitino’s contacts, particularly in New York and Seattle, are firmly established. The Cardinals will still land players capable of competing in the Big East.
Meanwhile, over at CBS Sportsline, Garry Parrish says coaches have been fired for less.
Excerpt:
Remember, Eustachy was pushed out of Iowa State after photographs of him partying with young women and drinking cheap beer surfaced. It was a bad deal, no question. But was it worse than a married man nailing a stranger on a table in a restaurant, and then paying for a subsequent abortion?
It doesn’t sound worse, does it?
And that’s really my point.
When you take a step back — and consider Louisville president James Ramsey has been less than supportive in his public comments — it doesn’t seem like a given that Pitino’s career will continue uninterrupted, which is not to say I would suspend or fire him. Just so we’re clear, I would not. If I was in charge at Louisville, I’d keep Rick Pitino as my head coach, and all indications are that he will indeed continue as Louisville’s head coach. But it took a couple of radio guys in Iowa to remind me that coaches (specifically Eustachy) have been removed for much less, and now I’m not so sure Pitino will coast through this soap opera the way I initially anticipated.
John Clay is a sports columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader. A native of Central Kentucky and graduate of UK, he covered UK football for 13 seasons before being promoted to columnist in 2000. He lives in Lexington with his wife and two sons. You can e-mail him at jclay@herald-leader.com.
My guess is that the Pitino scandal will grow exponentially as more details of this and other rumored trysts come out of the woodwork in Louisville and Lexington.
UL’s President would do well to let the pot boil for awhile to see what else emerges. There is no need to give Pitino absolution while the situation is just beginning to boil.
Mr. President has been embarrassed enough by not knowing all of the facts. He will be wise to get a top notch private investigator to spend plenty of time on the case before he gives his OK to Pitino continuing as coach or deciding to let him go.
He should check into the Iowa, Indiana, USC, UNLV, Arizona and NY Knick cases to familiarize himself with the risks of making a hasty decision.
DeCourcy needs to check out Coury and his waitpersons at Porcini to find out what they know about previous cases when Coury tossed the keys to Rick with best wishes for scoring.
billyb
Considering the Herald-Leader chose to devote more space to the Louisville football program than to its own hometown Cats in Sunday’s sports pages maybe I shouldn’t be surprised it now has more man-hours than ever this year to endlessly cover the Pitino affair.
Good grief!
Dan, in our defense, the Louisville coverage centered on quarterback Justin Burke, a Lexington native who graduated from Lexington Catholic High School. The name of the newspaper is the Lexington Herald-Leader. Good grief!
billyb, why should the UL President hire a top notch investigator? Don’t you think the U.S. Prosecutor’s Office, FBI, State Sex Crimes Unit and Louisville Metro Police are more than capable of handling any investigation? Do you think the Federal investigators really give a crap about Ricky P, UL or Louisville basketball? What PI could they possibly hire with better credentials?
You forget what started the investigation to begin with. Charges of EXTORTION, by the way which were investigated, deemed prosecutable and further enhanced by Sypher being charged with lying to the FBI! What Ricky P did has morality implications, but apparently he did nothing illegal, which is more than can be said for her. He has to look his family in the eye everyday knowing the pain he has caused them.
You just want to know all the other potential dirt that Ricky P has accumulated during his lifetime. Unless it’s pertinent to the case, why should it be investigated. If there were a pattern of misbehavior, it would have been well documented by now given his profile and love/hate relationship with both the media and fans.