Reports: Louisville Fires Rick Pitino, AD Tom Jurich Amid Scandal
Reports: Louisville Fires Rick Pitino, AD Tom Jurich Amid Scandal
Louisville has reportedly fired head basketball coach Rick Pitino and athletics director Tom Jurich one day after the Department of Justice connected the Cardinals program to an illegal payment of a recruit.
The question of what's next in the FBI's investigation into fraud and corruption in college basketball didn't take long to get an answer. Louisville head coach Rick Pitino and athletics director Tom Jurich have been fired, according to multiple reports.
As reported by Kent Taylor of WAVE-TV, Jurich was asked to fire Pitino but refused and both were fired.
[tweet url="https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/status/913065028458369024" hide_media="0" hide_thread="1"]
The terminations come one day after the Department of Justice indicted 10 men on fraud and corruption charges and connected the Cardinals program to an illegal payment of a recruit.
This was not the first incident, either. Louisville, one of the most successful programs in the game's history, already was ordered to vacate its 2013 national title and received scholarship sanctions due to a high-profile escort case in 2016, and now the evidence from the FBI indicates more problems followed as recently as this summer and allegedly involving 2017 Flo40 wing Brian Bowen.
There are still plenty of dominoes to still fall here, maybe even the NCAA death penalty is in order. But If one thing is certain, Louisville basketball, and likely its entire athletics department, will never be the same.
As reported by Kent Taylor of WAVE-TV, Jurich was asked to fire Pitino but refused and both were fired.
[tweet url="https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/status/913065028458369024" hide_media="0" hide_thread="1"]
The terminations come one day after the Department of Justice indicted 10 men on fraud and corruption charges and connected the Cardinals program to an illegal payment of a recruit.
This was not the first incident, either. Louisville, one of the most successful programs in the game's history, already was ordered to vacate its 2013 national title and received scholarship sanctions due to a high-profile escort case in 2016, and now the evidence from the FBI indicates more problems followed as recently as this summer and allegedly involving 2017 Flo40 wing Brian Bowen.
There are still plenty of dominoes to still fall here, maybe even the NCAA death penalty is in order. But If one thing is certain, Louisville basketball, and likely its entire athletics department, will never be the same.