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Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino suspended for role in Louisville sex scandal

Posted at 2:43 PM, Jun 15, 2017
and last updated 2017-06-15 14:43:17-04

Rick Pitino the head coach of the Louisville Cardinals. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Head coach Rick Pitino failed to properly monitor his men’s basketball program. That’s the ruling from the NCAA Committee on Infractions after reviewing a case in which a Louisville men’s basketball staff member repeatedly brought strippers and prostitutes to campus and local hotels and into contact with
prospective and enrolled student-athletes, among others.

Pitino, a member of the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame, is suspended for the first five ACC games of 2017-18. The program is also on probation from June 15, 2017 through June 14, 2021 and will face financial penalties in addition to the postseason ban and scholarship reductions self-imposed last season.

Head coach Rick Pitino of the Louisville Cardinals holds up the National Championship trophy. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

Perhaps the most significant penalty is the “vacation of basketball records in which student-athletes competed while ineligible from December 2010 to July 2014.” This means the Cardinals’ 2013 NCAA Championship is in jeopardy of being wiped-out.

Read the NCAA’s complete report on the decision here.