Rick Pitino may not survive the day.
According to a report from ESPN “SportsCenter” anchor Michael Eaves, Louisville plans to fire Pitino a day after the university was linked to college basketball’s massive corruption scandal.?Pitino reportedly told his staff he expects to be canned. Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich’s job is also potentially in jeopardy. According to Yahoo Sports, Jurich met with Louisville officials for five minutes?Wednesday and left without comment to reporters.
Scout.com reported that Jurich was fired in that meeting.
Louisville staffers are accused of funneling a $100,000 bribe through an Adidas executive in order to land five-star recruit Brian Bowen.?There is also a second incident involving what appears to be a Louisville coach being videotaped in a Las Vegas hotel room negotiating a payout for a high school player who will graduate in 2019,?according to WDRB.com.
Pitino does not plan on going down without a fight, according to his lawyer, Steven Pence.
“Pence promises that [the University of Louisville] ‘won’t fire Pitino without a bare-knuckle fight,'” Terry Meiners, a Louisville TV and radio personality, posted on his blog.
According to Pence, Louisville would be in a legal fight over $44 million it would owe Pitino as part of his buyout clause. It’s the second embarrassing controversy to touch the program since Pitino took over in 2001.
The NCAA put Louisville on probation and vacated wins after it proved Cardinals assistant Andre McGee’s role in hiring escorts to strip and have sex with recruits. As with that scandal, Pitino suggested he was ignorant Tuesday of the accusations that are rocking the college basketball world to its core.
“These allegations come as a complete shock to me,” Pitino said in a statement. “If true, I agree with the U.S. Attorneys Office that these third-party schemes, initiated by a few bad actors, operated to commit a fraud on the impacted universities and their basketball programs, including the University of Louisville. Our fans and supporters deserve better and I am committed to taking whatever steps are needed to ensure those responsible are held accountable.”