Louisville has imposed a one-year postseason ban for its men’s basketball team amid the NCAA’s ongoing investigation into an alleged recruiting scandal at the school.
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Louisville is now the subject of an NCAA investigation that was brought on by the allegations of a self-described madame who wrote a book last fall detailing numerous alleged incidents with paid dancers and escorts who involved themselves with Louisville basketball players and recruits from 2010-2014.
Ramsey then noted that the investigation is still ongoing and the school will have nothing more to say until that process is finished.
Mens basketball coach Rick Pitino was stunned by the universitys decision.This is a punishment I never thought would have happened this season, said Pitino, who also attended the news conference with Ramsey, Jurich and former NCAA investigator Chuck Smrt.
Pitino expressed a stance that the team’s punishment should come financially rather than by hurting the players and staff. He said he believes the NCAA’s system is wrong and that the university itself should be punished, and the coach’s pay docked as penance for the violations.
That does not mean he agreed.
“This is a decision as harsh as anything I’ve ever seen in college basketball”.
“The Cardinals are now ranked 19th in the Associated Press poll”, ESPN reported on Friday, “and have an 18-4 record this season, including a 7-2 mark in ACC play”. It will be the first time since 2006 that Louisville will not play in the NCAA Tournament. Calling the sanction “a complete shock”, Louisville coach Rick Pitino expressed extreme disappointment upon learning that his team would be penalized this season after the university “became aware of information” that confirmed the basketball program committed a violation of NCAA rules.
Pitino, who briefed the players earlier today, said “painful” was an “understatement”.
Benz also said the allegations and the university’s response show that Ramsey’s administration is properly overseeing the athletics department. After a detailed investigation, it’s clear Louisville is taking the necessary moves to work on cleaning the situation up with the one-year ban.
“As I told them the penalty, they all stood up and started hugging Damion and Trey as they cried”, Pitino said. They came here to go far in the tournament.
Speaking of the NCAA, I think it’s absurd that Jurich and Pitino were kept completely out of the loop during this investigation. “So unfortunately we’re going to have to go through this, and this team that’s totally innocent will have to go through it. I’ll get them through it. I got those Kentucky guys through it, I’ll get this group through it”. The University of Louisville Foundation announced the hiring of a law firm to review the allegations two days later. The parties took place at Minardi Hall, named after Pitino’s late brother-in-law, and Powell said she worked with former UofL player and graduate assistant Andre McGee to arrange the escorts.
Lewis echoed his coach and added, “We feel like the opportunity was taken away from us”.
The guess here is that in the end Pitino will end up with a Boeheim-type suspension, one similar to the nine-game suspension the NCAA handed SMU coach Larry Brown this season.
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Lewis, the Cardinals’ second-leading scorer at 12.1 points per game, said Louisville will focus on its remaining nine games.
