Free Republic

ick Pitino found the scandal he couldn’t survive. The Louisville coach, as well as athletic director Tom Jurich, was canned on Wednesday, according to multiple reports, one day after the corruption scandal that rocked the NCAA focused intently on Louisville. Pitino and Jurich met with Louisville officials Wednesday. According to WAVE-TV, Jurich was asked to fire Pitino and when he refused was fired himself. A news conference is scheduled for later Wednesday. The FBI investigated corruption and bribery in college sports, arresting assistants from four programs. Louisville was spotlighted by the investigation, which found a Cardinals recruit was funneled $100,000...

Rick Pitino says Louisville didn’t run up the score against Savannah State: ‘We played four white guys and an Egyptian’ Louisville beat Savannah State by 61 points Monday night, 87-26. With five minutes to go in the first half, the No. 6 Cardinals led 29-0 ... “I tried everything. We played four white guys and an Egyptian ..." [coach Rick Pitino]

President Obama welcomed the NCAA Champion Louisville Cardinals to the White House on Tuesday, praising some of the star basketball players by name, then noting that Coach Rick Pitino is the first coach in history to win a championship at two different schools. “But Coach understands he didn’t do any of this alone. As he said, ‘Players put coaches in the Hall of Fame,’” Obama said. But Pitino’s record shows that he's the one who’s made winners out of his players, not the other way around. The president has used a similar refrain—that success is always a collective achievement—in the...

Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino told a jury Wednesday that a woman accused of demanding millions from him initiated sex by whispering to him and unzipping his pants in an empty Italian restaurant. Pitino testified Wednesday that he met Karen Cunagin Sypher on July 31, 2003, at the restaurant where he'd gone following a golf outing. Pitino, who's married, said he bought Sypher a drink and the two exchanged small talk after the restaurant closed.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- Louisville coach Rick Pitino said Wednesday a sex scandal involving a woman accused of trying to extort millions from him has been "pure hell" for his family, fuming that newly released video of her police interview revived her "total fabrication." Pitino spoke at a hastily called news conference hours after Louisville police released audio and video recordings of phone calls and an interview with Karen Cunagin Sypher, the woman at the heart of the scandal. Pitino has told police that he had sex with her six years ago. Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/basketball/ncaa/08/26/pitino.1.ap/index.html