The Louisville Cardinals is one of the best teams in the nation, and many people believe they would be a very real Final Four threat. Unfortunately, this Louisville team will not be able to play in the ACC tournament or the NCAA tournament due to self-imposed sanctions stemming from a prostitution scandal.
Due to the scandal and his team's inability to compete in the postseason, it has been a crazy and tough year for head coach Rick Pitino. He has insisted that he had no knowledge of what was going on in the alleged incident involving prostitutes and Louisville recruits. He also said in the past that he will not resign from his position as head coach and has been steadfast in his thought that he did nothing wrong in this scenario.
Pitino seems to have softened up his stance on his future at Louisville as he is now unsure what might happen after the team plays its final games this season. The Cardinals have two more games left in the regular season schedule (home for Georgia Tech, which is senior day, and at Virginia) and, after that, their season will be over. At that point, Pitino said he will need time to think about what his next move is. But, for now, he is more focused on his seniors who will be playing their final home game Tuesday night.
One of the big considerations Pitino will make when deciding whether he will remain at Louisville is whether the school would be better off without him. Pitino said that if he feels the school is better with him as the coach, then he will come back and "fight for a championship." If he feels that the right thing to do is move on, however, he will do just that because he is "without ego now."
Pitino is 63 years old, so retirement would make sense for him, but he said he doesn't think he could "live a day without coaching." The logical course of action here would be for Pitino and Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich to mutually agree to part ways because of the black cloud hanging over the program, but Pitino still thinks there is a good chance he will be back next season.
If Pitino is let go, he will likely listen to offers from NBA teams about becoming a head coach professionally again. Pitino says it is in his blood to coach and that he has no desire to stop now, so whatever the outcome of this Louisville situation is, expect Pitino to be coaching somewhere next season.
