https://www.espn.com/mens-college-b...8914267/rick-pitino-deserved-fired-louisville
Admitting that earns a little more respect from me.
Admitting that earns a little more respect from me.
Pitino Says He Deserved To Be Fired By Louisville
- Thread starter cardinalrod
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I think he understood this all along, but with a $40 million payout in dispute, he couldn’t say this.
To me, the logic was always inescapable. Not only did he hire Andre McGee, he recruited him, signed him, and coached him at UofL for 4 years before he hired him. Pitino was 100% responsible for McGee’s actions as his assistant coach, even more so than anyone else he ever hired.
To me, the logic was always inescapable. Not only did he hire Andre McGee, he recruited him, signed him, and coached him at UofL for 4 years before he hired him. Pitino was 100% responsible for McGee’s actions as his assistant coach, even more so than anyone else he ever hired.
Which only explains why Rick did not anticipate McGee would betray him. I guess the lesson learned is don’t trust anyone....
I wouldn't go that far. It's better to trust but verify. Nothing wrong with being sure.
Would have never heard of that idiot magee if patino had taken Rondo and Lofton.
Patino's recruiting fiascos has cost the University dearly.
I don’t think Rick would have hired him as a asst if he had done something malicious as a player. What’s that 4-6 years?
Glad he said this. I think this will help a few fans heal.
Understood, but still he could have went behind him just ONCE to see if he was doing what he was supposed to be doing, that is IF we're to believe he knew nothing about what McGee was doing. I'm not convinced he didn't know. IMO he knew, but didn't want to know.
I just don’t believe he would let that go on in Minardi Hall, not with everything he did and said about his best friend. If he did know then that does make him about the lowest form of human beings. Of course, i don’t think much about people who cheat on their spouses either.
You have a very different take on this than I do. I approach it from the idea that “adult entertainment” is provided on these official visits (not just at Louisville) and that Rick expected McGee to arrange the entertainment. Rick didn’t know the details because (1) he didn’t want to and (2) because he trusted McGee to handle those details, since Pitino had been mentoring him as both a player and a coach for 10 years.
To my way of thinking, when Pitino says (both then and now) that McGee betrayed him, he means that McGee used poor judgment in trusting Katina Powell to keep these secrets. That he still cannot believe McGee could have chosen to cheat in such a reckless manner by trusting a drug addict.
Pitino cannot of course be that completely honest .. to admit that he endorses cheating because “everybody else is doing the same thing.” But as we’ve seen with the FBI scandal, coaches really have been cheating for years to sign the star players ... by conspiring with shoe companies to funnel money to those players as an inducement to sign with their school.
Why in the 16-17 year tenure at U of L and in his entire coaching career was this the only occurrence? It’s more believable that McGee did go rogue. But it still does not absolve him of his responsibility.
Was he of the mindset the players did nothing but study and sleep in Minardi? Of course not. Did he think a rogue staffer was providing strippers and paying for sex acts over a four year period? Hell to the no. Pitino has been in the business long enough to know college kids like to have a good time. You can't, however, convince me he had any idea Katina-gate was going on. He would have shut that down immediately.
Easily explained ... Because Andre McGee used a drug addict to provide the extra benefits. And then when Andre moved on to UMKC, her revenue stream from Andre was cut off, so she started looking for other ways to make money. The brilliant idea she came up with was to write a tell all book about how she arranged for sex parties for UofL basketball players.
We can assume that whichever assistant coach or director of basketball operations Pitino used in the past to entertain recruits (both at UK and at UofL) did so without using a drug addicted hooker.
It would have been awesome if he had said, "Louisville had to FARRRR that sonofabeyitch - and believe me - I'm from New York so I've never said these words before in my life - but I was that sonofabeyitch and I needed FARRRR'd."
If Rick was gonna get ho's, he would have gotten better looking ho's. Sounds like a joke, but it's true, and that's what has long convinced me that he had nothing to do with this.
I say Rick didn’t know, because Rick is very thorough with everything he does. If he did ever recruit illegally, you can bet he did it top secret with no evidence left behind, mafia style. There wouldn’t have been a paper trail and he wouldn’t have worked with someone he couldn’t trust.
He probably knew that there may have been some small stuff behind the scenes as there is at all 300+ D1 schools, but couldn’t imagine Andre would do something so stupid. Rick puts pressure on everyone, assistants included. They wanted to get Rick the best players, and sometimes people do dumb things under pressure.
"Heal" over what? Many may miss the good times or the results of his coaching. But I haven't encountered the first fan who thinks he should still be working here.
That fan sentiment could change if/when the NCAA starts allowing the behavior that Pitino was allegedly fired over. But that'll make things WORSE, not better...
There are a few fans that felt like he was unjustly terminated and were hoping he’d receive his buyout.
There were a few fans like me who thought that clowns botched up the way he exited the program and how they created unnecessary fallout. Pitino admitting to something doesn't change that.
Nor does Pitino's admission have anything to do with him receiving a contractual buyout. A coach who does a bad job can admit to failure without violating the terms of his contract. Some are reading more into his statements than he said...
A few fans that were unsure if his termination was “with cause” will look at his comment and find closure knowing that Rick himself understood that proper oversight was a key component of his contractual obligation as head coach and that he ultimately failed on this term of his contract.
Kind of a contradiction there, isn't it? If he was actually thorough then McGee never would have been able to do what he did without Pitino knowing about it.
If he didn't know then he wasn't thorough because he didn't know what was going on within his own program.
All this is water under the bridge regardless and shows me how desperate we are wanting to talk about anything sports related. I'm happy for Pitino. Really I am. He's not at UofL which makes me happy, and he's back home which makes me happy. Good luck to Iona and Rick Pitino. I am seriously glad he's there.
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Schools use campus co eds to "entertain" recruits. Probably sorority members.
Thats what was so galling about what the bastard magee did.
Plenty of Ladies on campus for free, yet he shelled out money.
Things are pretty slow, and I'm more than happy to re-litigate Pitino's transgressions...
In essence, Pitino was an employee who THOUGHT he was executing "proper oversight"--a term that I don't think is in his contract--nor was he ever told until after the fact that he wasn't. That's the difference between a process and a result.
And in a situation of ambiguity, I doubt that a third party is gonna interpret that requirement as a result esp. if it's that vaguely worded. As far as an NCAA violation, that's concrete either way--you did or you didn't in the NCAA's eyes. After the fact, an employer could fire anyone with cause and abrogate a $40 million contract over an employee delivering a result that didn't show "proper oversight" and without prior warning.
Pitino didn't know, didn't do anything himself, and had evidence supporting those facts. And in view of his contract, I would have liked to see U of L clowns trying to prove that wasn't enough to pay the man...
It was likely that a 3rd party (arbitrator) was going to view things differently than you suggest. Thus, we saw Pitino and his legal team fold up their tent.
Rick didn't know. I don't know how he is supposed to know what the hell is going on in a dorm at 1am on a Friday night. No HC is doing bed checks. Guys can't bluff hangovers, or addictions, Rick was for sure dialed into those sort of things. It's why he gave Chane so many chances, he loved the kid and wanted to save him. But there's no way Rick knew about Katina gate.
He trusted the wrong guy. It's sad in so many ways.
He trusted the wrong guy. It's sad in so many ways.
Maybe, but do you think Pitino knew Andre McGee was brining low class prostitutes into the basketball dorm, where there are log books and cameras, to hook up with recruits?
I think trust was his issue. He trusted Andre, because Rick LOVES his players. They are like his children. Which is why former players aren’t always the best assistants.
Except that with those ladies there’s always the potential for a misunderstanding and a nasty accusation of sexual assault or even a rape charge. I expect that McGee thought the risk of such an allegation was much lower using “Katina’s girls”.
He also didn’t have much money to work with, so that’s all he could afford. So that definitely was an Andre operation.
I have a police officer in my family, he said the street level cheap girls are the ones that are involved in drug trade, robbery, etc. They’re just desperate for any type of payment, aka why Katina wrote the book.
Precisely! Good luck convincing a judge that you were getting paid $4.5 million per year, but that you were surprised to learn that your employer expected you to know what your assistant was doing with a recruit during the entire time that he was on his official visit.
Pitino said he was acting against his lawyers' advice. He's got plenty of money to pay them, and it didn't take two years for smart guys to figure things out.
Those factors had nothing to do with the decision...
No chance. As others have said many times, he sure wouldn't have approved THOSE hos.
Pitino stupidly thought he had things under control and did not.
I've heard McGee made six figures but was cheap, the thought of which makes me LOL under these circumstances. That's the more likely explanation...
Pitino wouldn't make that argument.
He would say that he thought he knew and that he took measures to know--and that, as an employee, he was never counseled that those measures weren't enough. That gets at the root of your issue.
That's also a PROCESS that he would have claimed demonstrated the "proper oversight" that was earlier specified and that is otherwise specified in his contract. Such oversight can only be deemed "improper" based on a result after the fact...
I thought there would be dorm sign in sheets and possibly cameras. Where is all that evidence? You can’t tell me no one, I mean no one saw a bunch of skanky ho’s coming (oops) and going? My understanding is that Minardi Hall wasn’t exclusive to just basketball players, so my thoughts are the University, not the coaches should have been monitoring the situation.
If I’m not mistaken, they did have the dorm sign in records. I think by law they have to keep them and that’s how they knew who was officially there, not to mention the pictures.
Ultimately an RA may not be interested in policing that sort of thing. It's one thing to bust an 18 year old kid sneaking in beer. This situation was just on another level. As for higher ups, not sure we can expect them to run back the film either. Other students, in less they are threatened not sure they are going to blow a whistle either.
Just a real bizarre situation.
Just a real bizarre situation.
Funny he comes out says this the week he gets a new job, and HBO announces the upcoming Dawkins interview on 3-30-2020. Bottom line is Pitino did not monitor his assistants and it falls on him. Also, why would he not pursue the $40M? Always about him and threre was stuff he didnt want to come out.
Pitino and U of L were investigated and prosecuted as much as anyone, and nobody had a motive to withhold anything in the way of evidence. You're entitled to your opinion, but it's not grounded in facts...
It really was an amazingly stupid plan by McGee. The risk far outweighed the reward.
I don’t really blame Pitino for that mess. In his mind he had all the check and balances but he never imagined McGee doing something so dumb and careless. There is a saying that applies here “you can’t fix stupid”. You can have all the safeguards in place but stupid obliterates all good plans.
He could of avoided Bowen but was blinded by filling a need. That is why he was fired. The only program to lose a title and then linked to the FBI scandal.
I don’t really blame Pitino for that mess. In his mind he had all the check and balances but he never imagined McGee doing something so dumb and careless. There is a saying that applies here “you can’t fix stupid”. You can have all the safeguards in place but stupid obliterates all good plans.
He could of avoided Bowen but was blinded by filling a need. That is why he was fired. The only program to lose a title and then linked to the FBI scandal.
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