Louisville Dismisses Jurich and Pitino Denies Knowledge

Louisville continued to attempt to cleanse itself of the current corruption scandal that has engulfed the university Wednesday when it fired AD Tom Jurich with cause in a 10-3 vote of the school’s board of trustees

The decision to fire Jurich came two days after the school’s athletics board voted to fire men’s basketball coach Rick Pitino. Both were placed on administrative leave Sept. 27 as a result of the FBI’s ongoing investigation into fraud and corruption in recruiting related steering recruits to Adidas, sports agents and financial advisors.

Vince Tyra will continue to serve as interim athletic director.

Pitino and Jurich have denied any wrongdoing through their attorneys. Pitino reiterated in a wide-ranging interview with ESPN’s Jay Bilas that aired last night he had “no knowledge” of an alleged payment from a Louisville assistant coach to the family of elite recruit Brian Bowen, citing a lie detector test he took earlier this month. “I was asked two questions,” Pitino said. “And I said, ‘I want you to ask me if any other recruits in my tenure were ever given anything. And the examiner said, “That’s not what we’re here for. We’re here for: ‘Did you have any knowledge of the Bowen family getting any money? Did you have any knowledge of the Adidas transaction?”

“I answered ‘absolutely not’ on both questions and passed the test. So I had no knowledge of this.”

Despite the denials, the fact Louisville is under federal investigation is just the latest scandal to hit the athletic department. In June, the NCAA committee on Infractions announced the Cardinals’ basketball program would have to vacate wins, and potentially its 2013 national championship after it was found that strippers and escorts were paid to entertain prospective recruiting between 2010 and 2014. Also, a university audit showed that Jurich’s son Mark, an associate AD for development, was paid nearly exclusively from U of L foundation funds and Jurich’s daughter Haley was hired by an apparel company as a brand manager last March.

In a related development, Miami coach Jim Larranaga and Pitino have both received grand jury subpoenas. The L.A. Times reported Larranaga received a subpoena for texts, emails and other items. Pitino’s attorney has confirmed that his client was gathering relevant information for the U.S. Attorney. Larranaga’s attorneys told the Times, “We are trying to get them to admit they made a mistake and move on.”

Miami president Julio Frenk has acknowledged the program was under investigation, however Stuart Grossman, an attorney for Larranaga, said he expected his client and the program to be cleared. Grossman told the Miami Herald Larranaga had never been approached about a payment and never spoke to any recruit or Adidas representative about a payment and had no idea where the story came from. FBI documents don’t explicitly mention Larranaga or Miami by name, however the school was identified as having been involved in paying players in conjunction with Adidas.

This scandal has all of college basketball concerned because no one knows how deep it could spread and how many high profile coaches could be involved. Perhaps, if the NCAA really wanted to clean up the sport, it should hire the FBI to serve its enforcement arm