COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The University of Louisville has placed two men’s basketball coaches on leave Friday, leaving the marquee but tarnished ACC program with only one full-time coach, acting head coach David Padgett, to run pre-season practice.
Associate head coach Kenny Johnson and assistant coach Jordan Fair were placed on paid administrative leave as the university continues to investigate NCAA violations involving paying a blue chip recruit. Johnson is in his fourth season with the school. Fair is in the second. In the court documents related to the wide ranging corruption scandal, two unnamed U of L staffers, “Coach 1” and “Coach 2” are directed linked to the scheme.
The investigation has already led to suspensions and potential firings of coach Rick Pitino and athletic director Tom Jurich.
Louisville, one of the biggest names in the Adidas stable, and Pitino were linked a week ago to an alleged scheme to pay $100,000 to the family of 6-7 McDonald’s All America selection Brian Bowen Jr., in deal reportedly arranged by Adidas Director for Global Marketing, Jim Gatto. Bowen, who was being heavily recruited by Michigan State and Oregon, committed to the Cards after his travel team coach contacted Pitino out of the blue. Bowen enrolled after visiting the campus unofficially on Memorial Day. “Luckiest I’ve ever been,” Pitino said at the time.
According to a federal complaint issued after an FBI undercover investigation, it wasn’t luck at all. The New York Times reported an unnamed Louisville coach conspired with several men, Gatto, Merl Code, who works for Adidas grassroots, Christian Dawkins, an employee of a sports management company with ties to Saginaw, and Munish Sood, a money manager, to funnel four payments of $25,000 apiece to Bowen’s family if he played for the school. In the wake of this revelation, Bowen has since been removed from all team activities. He and his family claim they are innocent and have hired a lawyer seeking reinstatement, but his college future is murky.
The Louisville Athletic Association has since voted unanimously to begin the process to terminate Pitino with cause, and interim president Greg Postel wants to know more about the school’s new 10-year $160,000 sponsorship with Adidas that will supply shoes and apparel to all university athletic teams. Pitino received 98 percent of the cash the school received in the expiring deal with Adidas that totaled $1.5 million a year over a five-year period that ended July 1. All the money in the new deal is earmarked for the school.
The 32-year old Padgett has assured Cardinal fans his name would not be attached to the ongoing investigation. Padgett is expected to rely on his father Pete, a former University of Nevada star and Division I assistant coach, for help in the short term. Staffers Michael Bowden, Logan Baumann and R.J. Evans have been moved to temporary coaching positions by interim AD Vince Tyra.
