The Louisville basketball program has been in the news a lot lately due to the allegations of them having paid escorts on campus to help woo recruits to come to Louisville. The allegations say that former assistant coach Andre McGee paid escorts to come dance, strip and have sex with recruits on their visits and a few former recruits have since confirmed these allegations. The NCAA is still doing their own investigation and will make a decision at some point on what kind of potential punishment they may want to levy on the program but the biggest question might be Rick Pitino's future.
Pitino took to his personal blog on Thursday morning and wrote a quick statement saying he will not resign from his position and he is focused on his basketbal team for the upcoming college basketball season.
"First, above all, I'm sorry we all have to endure the pain of these allegations. I so appreciate your support and friendships. I will not resign and let you down. Someday I will walk away in celebration of many memorable years but that time is not now. I do not fight these accusations by others but rather turn the other cheek. Couldn't do it at 33, but at 63 it's the wise thing to do. Let's let the investigators do their job and we will play basketball," writes Pitino.
Many people have questioned whether Pitino should be fired but the big question is whether he knew about these escorts and there are differing points of view. There are some people, like Kentucky head coach John Calipari, that feel it is a head coach's responsibilty to know about everything that is going on with his team and that not knowning isn't an excuse. On the other side of that there are some who feel that it is truly impossible for the head coach to know about everything that is going on and that Pitino shouldn't be punished for this.
For the most part people are in agreement that Pitino would have had nothing to do with the hiring of escorts. Almost everyone who has spoken on this subject has said that the head coach typically takes the recruits and their families out to dinner and then drops them off at the dorms with the younger coaches to have a good night.
The question now becomes how the NCAA will view this because they typically feel that the head coach needs to know what is going on and he is responsible for everyones actions below him. Based on their history it would seem as though Pitino will be getting a pretty harsh penalty in the near future.
This years Louisville team just missed out on being ranked in the preseason top 25 (they got the 27th most votes) but they should be a pretty good team. For now that is Pitino's focus and he will coach the team as long as the NCAA allows him to.
