The Louisville Cardinals have been the talk of the college basketball world recently as they self-imposed a postseason ban for this season. This Louisville team is currently ranked 13th in the nation and was clearly headed to the NCAA Tournament. In fact, some thought it might be able to make a deep run. Now that this news has settled in the attention turns to the head coach, Rick Pitino, and his job security. There are questions as to whether Pitino should be fired, but it seems like his job is safe, and there are plenty of people who agree, including Kate Fagan and Jay Bilas of ESPN.
Pitino has maintained his innocence from the very beginning of this scandal when the allegations were first made, and to this day he still vehemently denies knowning about the wrongdoings of the basketball program. There are plenty of people who agree with him, saying that there is no way he could have known about the prostitution scandal, but it is still his program and it is not a good look for him. While most people seem to think Pitino should be absolved of any wrongdoing, Dan Dakich of ESPN is one person who thinks he should have been fired a while ago.
The NCAA is still investigating the allegations made against Louisville, and it remains to be seen if the self-imposed one-year ban will be enough in the NCAA's eyes. On top of that, it is completely reasonable to think the NCAA will punish Pitino for this scandal. The NCAA rule states that the head coach is responsible for everything that goes on in his program, and whether Pitino knew about this or not, it happened under his watch. Earlier this season Jim Boeheim was suspended for nine games for something he reportedly had no knowledge of, so considering the magnitude of the allegations in this case, it wouldn't be a shock to see Pitino get a similar or worse punishment.
Regardless of what type of punishment he might receive, Pitino refuses to resign, and he ultimately believes he will be cleared of any wrongdoing.
"In the end, I'll be totally vindicated, and people will understand how it happened," said Pitino, according to Eric Crawford of WDRB in Lousiville.
At this point it doesn't look like Louisville has any plans to fire Pitino based on this scandal, but as mentioned before the NCAA investigation is not done, and who knows what it will find. There have been rumblings that Pitino could be fired after this season is over just to remove the cloud over the program's head, but he has remained confident that he will be cleared. It is easy to see both sides of the argument in this case, but it is hard to get a read on Pitino's future until the findings of the investigation come out. If the NCAA finds he had no knowledge, he will likely stay, but if it is found that he knew anything at al,l then he will likely be on his way out at Louisville.
