Louisville Fires Pitino

Submitted by xtramelanin on

Mates,

Its official now, Louisville fired Pitino.  

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Louisville's Athletic Association has officially fired coach Rick Pitino nearly three weeks after the school acknowledged that its men's basketball program is being investigated as part of a federal corruption probe.

So sad to see him go.  Grief Counseling is available.

XM

Yeoman

October 17th, 2017 at 9:23 PM ^

I'm serious about this. Calipari's not suing Nike if the shit ever hits the fan. He does things the right way (it may be more of a mobster's "right" than what right is for most of us, but it's a code of honor nonetheless) and it's going to be a lot harder to get someone to roll over on him than it was to get them to rat out Pitino.

Yeoman

October 17th, 2017 at 10:56 PM ^

It's speculation; I don't really know anything. I've got family in the business so I hear vague stuff, rarely any specifics, more just a matter of noticing how different people are talked about.

But some obvious (at least to me) differences:

1. Calipari's already gone down a couple of times and we've seen how he behaved. He might have played dumb, but he was pretty low-key about it and as far as I know he never stabbed anybody in the back.

2. Calipari's not nearly as personally reckless as Pitino. We aren't making jokes about his staying power in bed--he keeps that crap out of the newspapers and blogs.

3. Calipari's network's entrenched. Do you think Christian Dawkins was hustling players at UK last year? Maybe I'm wrong but I don't see them being that desperate.

I honestly think it's Calipari's primary attribute as a coach. He's completely trustworthy, from this point of view. Agents love landing players there, which means he gets to work with the best people, which means players can trust that they're not to going to get hooked up with some "financial advisor" who's stealing their credit cards. Maybe you won't learn a whole lot of basketball there but you'll get showcased and nothing's going to happen that could jeopardize your career. I can't believe I'm defending the guy--to me the measure of a coach is how much basketball he teaches, not the size of his rolodex--but in his own way he's the perfect coach for this era.

lhglrkwg

October 16th, 2017 at 4:26 PM ^

In the NCAA, cheaters do prosper. People will always remember Louisville as the 2013 National Champions despite it being inevitably vacated.Until the NCAA actually gives the death penalty to someone big, teams will keep cheating because it makes sense to. Louisville got rich, Pitino got rich, and the players got paid and everyone got their rings.

Meanwhile Michigan did it clean, got nothing, and will get nothing. If anything it stings a little more now.

Perkis-Size Me

October 16th, 2017 at 4:14 PM ^

While it certainly does not feel the same as how winning the national title would've felt, it feels good to know that justice was served for Michigan on some level.

Pitino, arguably the biggest slimeball in the college basketball, coached his last game and lost to John Beilein, the cleanest coach in the college basketball. 

skegemogpoint

October 16th, 2017 at 4:20 PM ^

Now the real fight begins. This one is gonna get real ugly as Pitino claiming he was wrongfully terminated "for cause".  At issue is $44m in contractual obligations.  Pitino has gone so far as taken a lie detector test administered by FBI (inadmissible) and released personal text messages in support of his claim that he was w/o knowledge of payment(s) to Bowen.

Btw his contract required 10 day notice and today the UofL Athletic Ass'n (his employer) voted unanimously 12-0 to axe him.

xtramelanin

October 16th, 2017 at 4:27 PM ^

or something very close to that, he is going to have to go about suing for his $44MM very carefully.  If/when he gives a deposition he will be exposing himself to potentially big time federal and possibly state criminal charges.  if i was advising U of L i would tell them to stand pat and to tell pitino, 'come and get it little satan'.   

Yeoman

October 16th, 2017 at 5:11 PM ^

...they haven't said so. What they have is metadata showing three calls between Gatto and Pitino's phone during the week before Bowen's commitment. Pitino says they were talking about Terry Rozier and the subject of Bowen never came up.

As for the polygraph, I'm reminded of Dave Bliss doubling down last year on his claim that Dennehy was dealing drugs. You start out with a CYA lie and if you have a certain personality type you pretty quickly convince yourself the lie is actually true. I think most successful con men are skilled at self-delusion.

LSAClassOf2000

October 16th, 2017 at 4:20 PM ^

Well, I think we all saw that coming - we call those "decision making leaves" here, and more often than not, it ends with that person not returning to their position. As for Pitino, it will be interesting to see if he ends up somewhere eventually, even at some no-name place if he doesn't somehow end up in criminal trouble, possibly one with a much less developed adult entertainment market and booster who are not as willing to bring local talent straight through the back door of the dormitory (and out again mere hours later).