Rick Pitino reportedly expects to lose his job as Louisville's basketball coach as yet another scandal swirls around the Cardinals.
According to ESPN, Pitino told members of his coaching staff Wednesday morning he anticipates he will be fired on the eve of what would have been his 17th season in Louisville, a day after a Justice Department report alleged a Cardinals recruit was paid $100,000 by Adidas to sign with the school.
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Athletic director Tom Jurich's status also is in question. He met briefly with interim school president Greg Postel on Wednesday but did not acknowledge reporters' questions before or after the meeting, according to the Courier-Journal.
Pitino has been a head coach in college or the NBA for most of the last 40 years, winning NCAA titles with Kentucky and Louisville and reaching seven Final Fours.
But the 65-year-old has come under fire more than once in his tenure at Louisville, first when he was caught up in an extortion scheme after having an affair with the wife of a school employee and more recently when a Cardinals basketball staffer arranged for prostitutes to dance for and have sex with recruits and players at an on-campus dorm.
The latter scandal resulted in significant NCAA penalties, including a five-game suspension Pitino was set to serve at the beginning of ACC play this season, but the coaching icon had managed to hold onto his job through it all.
The apparent final straw came Tuesday, when the Justice Department released the initial results of a two-year FBI investigation into corruption in college basketball. One criminal complaint against Adidas executive Jim Gatto and four other men includes an allegation that the defendants funneled $100,000 to a high school player to entice him to sign with "University-6," which is described as a public research university in Kentucky with approximately 22,640 students.
Louisville acknowledged Tuesday afternoon it is that university, and multiple media reports said the player in question is five-star recruit Brian Bowen. While Pitino said Tuesday the allegations came as a "complete shock," the complaint says the payments were arranged "at the request of at least one coach from University-6."
Pitino has compiled a 770-269 record in a college coaching career that featured stops at Boston University, Providence, Kentucky and Louisville. He also went 192-220 in six seasons in the NBA with the Knicks and Celtics.
He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013.
Jurich, 61, was named Louisville's AD in October 1997 after previously holding the same job at Colorado State and Northern Arizona. Hiring Pitino to replace Denny Crum in March 2001 is his signature achievement. Jurich's contract is set to run through July 2023.