Pitino hires Teague’s coach

So it turns out the Rick Pitino has done another shady thing – Louisville has hired Pike assistant coach Shabaka Lands. Lands will be a “special assistant” to Rick Pitino. Why is this shady? Well, Lands coached Marquis Teague, one of the top prospects who was a strong Louisville lean before opening up his recruitment: he is now looking at IU, UK, Purdue, Ohio State, Wake Forest and Cincy. He’s incredibly talented, and looks likely to be a big contributor when he hits the courts in college, so I understand the desire to get him to commit.

I know that Pitino isn’t the first or only coach to do this, or the only one, or anything like that.  But it still rubs me the wrong way. It seems like an inappropriate way to gain a kid’s interest, and I don’t believe that it has absolutely nothing to do with recruiting. After all, “special assistant”? The timing? If it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, it’s pretty likely that it’s actually a duck.

I don’t understand why the NCAA is so uptight about putting things on bagels, but they don’t review and rewrite the section on “inappropriate benefits”. Recruiting a player’s coach for a job, or his siblings/cousins for the team seems like a really underhanded and inappropriate way to get a commit. And, it puts undue pressure on the player – he now isn’t choosing just for himself, but for everyone involved with him. It’s a weird situation to put a 17/18 year old kid.

I defend the NCAA and college sports a lot, but these types of situations try my patience more than anything else. If you have any great insights into this whole deal, let me know. There has to be something I’m just not getting.

Pitino press conference, an end to the Vargas drama

Rick Pitino gets riled up in this 3 PM press conference. He responds to the allegations made by Karen Sypher (which happen to be made public today here), and gets very angry about people “spreading lies”. He knows that the truth will come out. Basically, Pitino ranted and raved for about five minutes about how the media is portraying him. It wasn’t particularly convincing, and I can’t say that it garnered a lot of sympathy. It seemed like the yelling of a desperate man. I have never expected him to step down directly because of this scandal, but I am betting that he won’t be able to last long at Louisville. This press conference (who, seriously, who thought this was a good idea?) just sort of sealed that for me.

In UK news – Coach John Calipari announced that walk on Marc Krebs will be getting a scholarship. This means that UK has no more available scholarships. This means that Eloy Vargas will NOT be given a transfer to UK this year…unless he wants to go from scholarship at Florida to walk-on at UK…which makes basically no sense. So we can put that whole subplot to bed.

Monday Bits – Pitino/Porcini, Syracuse is weird, UK football, and some Tide

I have another post up at the Phoenix Pub – this time about the SEC and their idiocy concerning the use of social networking/media by fans. Check it out, but only after you read the rest of this post.

Oh, and one more thing – thanks to spams-ukwildcatbasketball.com for the link. I can only hope I get linked again in the future.

Alright, now it’s time to get down to business:

Where the magic happened.

1. Porcini’s, the Italian restaurant where Rick Pitino bumped, drunkenly, into Karen Sypher and the scandal, is hoping that the Pitino ties will make it more popular. I can see where they’re coming from – I mean, now you can go out to eat at a place of basketball history – but I think they’re missing the bigger picture. The whole Sypher-Pitino situation is so fucked, I can’t imagine that I could just nonchalantly eat in the place where it went down. It’d make me a little nauseas. All I’m saying: I’d only go there if I were on a diet.

2. Greg Paulus is the starting quarterback for Syracuse. Before I delve into the actual relevant part of the article, let me assure Mr. Eric Dorval that my hatred of Duke has nothing to do with them being “good for so long.” I hate them because they are floppers, rule-twisters, chest-stompers, and pretentious pricks.

Now that that’s settled – Paulus can be quaterback for Syracuse for only one season, per NCAA rules. As such, this is his only chance to shine, so he’s pretty lucky getting that starting spot. Now, no offense to my Big East pals, but that conference is not known for football (though I say that a good argument can be made for them being better, overall, than the ACC). For Paulus to leave a lasting legacy at Syracuse, he only has to be average. Given his basketball performance, that should be a good expectation for the former Dukie.

3. Football season is almost upon us, so there have been a lot of retrospectives, pre-season polls, and the like. I’ll probably end up with some of that, too. But right now, the Tennessean is wondering how much Kentucky has really improved under Coach Brooks. My answer: a whole hell of a lot. Look, even though Kentucky is at the bottom of the SEC East in pre-season polls, even though Kentucky still has difficultly beating traditional SEC opponents, the fact remains that the University of Kentucky football team has grown in leaps and bounds since the beginning of Rich Brooks’s tenure. The program might have a long way to go, but it’s come a long way, too. It’s a program that Wildcat fans can be proud of now.

4. So I don’t know about you guys, but when I realized I could follow compliance offices on Twitter, I jumped all over it. I found out that it is OK people bagels and fruit, but that cream cheese may be a tricky gray area (or flat out verbotten). Now I find out that a third party paying for players to take a fishing trip may be equally frowned upon. Well, right now, the Crimson Tide has to worry about the future of Julio Jones and Mark Ingram who took a fishing trip paid for by a friend. Alabama is hoping/thinking that there is no reason why the players should sit out, but given that this is the “3 different people call and ask a question and all 3 get different responses” NCAA, well, we’ll just have to wait an see.

I’m on the update train

A bit more news tonight before I call it a day (aka focus on writing something for The Phoenix Pub). Only two more quick notes.

A young, hopeful Elliot Williams, before he made a pact with the Devil, I mean Blue Devils

First – Elliot Williams has been cleared to play for Memphis. His transfer waiver was accepted and he will be ready to play the 2009-2010 season. Williams is transfering to Memphis from Duke in order to be closer to his sick mother. Since Latavius Williams left Memphis to pursue greener pastures in China, I’ve been hoping to see Elliot Williams at Memphis. He will add experience (well, some) and depth to the team, and hopefully help lead the Tigers to a solid post-Calipari season.

Second, the Pitino-Sypher story is getting another twist. Don’t get too excited. It isn’t as insane of a twist as the last one that came out. This time, it looks like Sypher will be undergoing psychiatric evaluation in order to see if she is mentally competent to stand trial. I don’t even know what to think. Her actions were the actions of a desperate, troubled woman, but I don’t know how detached from reality she really is. I’ll be following this trial with great interest.

Update Pitino Part 2

Pitino has just finished giving his press conference at the YUM Center. No questions were permitted. Pitino, fidgety and anxious, was desperate to get into the good graces of the audience and fans. He said that the team was his extended family, stuttered through a declaration of love for his family, and brought up 9/11 and the importance of Louisville to feel like a community. Overall, he tried to hit every contrition point.

I think that diehard UL fans will take it. Pitino did not do anything illegal, he has the support of UL AD Tom Jurich and UL President James Ramsey. He apologized and he’s gotten UL into the Big East and into the national spotlight. Basketball is big in the state of Kentucky, and this rivalry was well on the way to becoming just as intense as Duke-UNC.

Still, this affair puts a huge blotch on Pitino’s record. He can not escape what he has done, and the offense is so serious that I doubt that Pitino will be able to stay in coaching for long. He is getting on in years (not old, but not a “spring chicken” either), and he may look to retire early. I do not think he will be a head coach anywhere after Louisville, but given this situation, I can’t see him staying in Louisville for many more years.

I hope that this does not affect his recruiting or coaching, but this has to have shaken him, his players, and the fans. Kentucky is better when there are sevweral strong teams, so I selfishly wish for Louisville to remain relevant.

Update Pitino Part 1

Jerry Tipton is reporting that Tom Jurich, Louisville AD, will release a statement today in the afternoon about the viability of Rick Pitino as head men’s basketball coach. This comes right after Jurich voiced a vote of confidence in Pitino yesterday. There is also talk that Pitino’s lawyer is claiming that the 3000$ was for a medical procedure (KSR). Back-tracking at its weakest.  I’ll keep you posted.

So it wasn’t just a bad dream…

Here I am, up early and cheery like some sort of daffodil, and it looks like the Pitino story has only grown bigger. It broke last night, so I can’t say I’m too surprised that there continues to be attention, however, this looks like one of the bigger college basketball stories this summer. Understandable, not much happens in the summer. And the story is just too good. I summarized the story last night, but let me provide you with a time line of events, so you can really see how this came together.

April 17, 2009 – Richard Pitino, Rick Pitino’s son and assistant coach, took a job working as an assistant coach for Florida. At the time, weird rumors were starting to circulate, and speculation was that Richard’s move had something to do with what was brewing.

April 18, 2009 – The first stories break the Rick Pitino is the target of an extortion attempt. People make connections back to Richard Pitino’s move, but any link is denied. At this point, no one knows why Rick Pitino was being extorted. What is known is that Karen Sypher gave an interview to a local news station, but the interview was not released.

End of April – By this time, the story is framed in such a way that Sypher is given no credence, even though she claims she is only defending herself. What exactly Rick Pitino did was not yet known, but Sypher had been successfully painted by the media as unhinged.

May 12, 2009 – Karen Sypher is indicted on extortion charges. The plus side for people just wanting info – her side of the story will come out. The con – Louisville fans had something to worry about.

May 13, 2009 – Karen Sypher puts in a plea of not guilty. Her attorney and she are still on good terms.

June 10, 2009 – Rick Pitino hires Holy Cross coach, Ralph Willard, to be his assistant coach. This is a sort of strange move, since Willard had been working as a head coach for nearly 20 years at this point. While the money might be better at Louisville, many speculate that the move had something to do with the extortion case. Pitino might have been setting up his successor.

June 24, 2009 – It turns out that there is a second person involved. Apparently, Karen Sypher coerced Lester Goetzinger into making threatening phone calls to Rick Pitino. Goetzinger claimed he acted stupidly, but “with his heart” for he felt great sympathy for Sypher. A few days later, it comes out that there may have been a sexual aspect to their relationship.

July 13, 2009 – Karen Sypher goes to the Louisville Police Department Sex Crimes Unit. Everyone gets excited because it means that maybe her story will come out. The PD say that Sypher’s claims are not substantial and that Pitino will not be charged with any wrong doing. Regardless, statements had been taken by the PD from everyone involved.

July 15, 2009 – Karen Sypher releases a statement saying this was being done for her children. I fail to see how that is possible.

July 25, 2009 – Karen Sypher’s attorney steps down, claiming that they had irreconcilable differences. Sypher indicates that she will need the services of a public defender. You have to wonder what exactly went down to make her attorney choose to part ways.

August 11, 2009 – Thanks to the Kentucky Open Records act, we found out what really went on. I summarized this yesterday so:

Pitino had consensual sex with Karen Sypher after a night of drinking shortly after hiring Reggie Theus as an assistant. He had sex with Sypher at a restaurant with his designated driver present (listening, but not watching). Then, Pitino met with Sypher, Sypher claimed she was pregnant, and Pitino paid her 3000$ for an abortion. Only after this did Sypher get married to Tim Sypher. Sypher claimed that she was the victim of rape and sexual assault, however, the attorneys had reason to doubt her story, including when she came forward with the information (after the extortion charges were brought forth) and the fact that the dates she gave coincided with times Pitino was in California and therefore could not have touched her.

August 12, 2009 – We’re all wondering what this means for Rick Pitino. I was among the many who thought his job was safe for the time being, however, the Courier-Journal has found that Pitino’s contract included a morality clause. Now, his job might still be safe, but it is looking a bit more precarious than before. Tom Jurich, Louisville AD, has claimed that Pitino was forthright and honest with them throughout the entire process and that Louisville stands by him. Now, University President,  James Ramsey, claims to have been surprised by some of the information the Courier Journal reported.  We’ll have to wait and see. Regardless, this scandal will leave a blotch on Pitino’s legacy.

Pitino case gets a bit more open

The information provided by Pitino and garnered by the Louisville Police Department has come out. The Courier Journal goes into the whole story. Here is a quick summary: Pitino had consensual sex with Karen Sypher after a night of drinking shortly after hiring Reggie Theus as an assistant. He had sex with Sypher at a restaurant with his designated driver present (listening, but not watching). Then, Pitino met with Sypher, Sypher claimed she was pregnant, and Pitino paid her 3000$ for an abortion. Only after this did Sypher get married to Tim Sypher. Sypher claimed that she was the victim of rape and sexual assault, however, the attorneys had reason to doubt her story, including when she came forward with the information (after the extortion charges were brought forth) and the fact that the dates she gave coincided with times Pitino was in California and therefore could not have touched her.

All I can say right now is – wow. The picture that was removed from the Courier Journal site several months ago (but maintained for perpetuity at KSR) was accurate: Pitino did pay for an abortion. Internet rumors about Pitino, Sypher, and Porcini’s were also not too far off. The story is pretty messy and my heart goes out to Pitino’s family and the children of Karen Sypher. They did not ask to be pulled into this mess.

But what does all of this mean? Rick Pitino started coaching at Louisville at 2001 and was not expected to spend much more time coaching at the school. There have been rumors of retirement floating around for a while (how true they are is really, really debateable…I mean, there are a ton of rumors out their about his health, too). This year marks the longest he has ever been at one school, so that may be the source of it. It doesn’t look like Pitino did anything illegal, but the scandal will not sit well with U of L fans. Given his less than impressive performance at UL (he has yet to recreate the magic he had at UK), this scandal could be enough to shorten his tenure. He won’t get fired, but there may be less incentive for him to stay. I’m still working through this, and I am anxiously anticipating more information about the reactions of UL staff and AD.

Midweek Mish Mash

Let’s see what’s been in the news:

1. BIG NEWS – Yesterday it came out that Fab Melo will be playing for Syracuse, not Louisville. Rick Pitino has seen some rough times with recruiting with Jeremy Tyler choosing Europe over Louisville, the distancing of Marquis Teague (a former “lock”), and now this decision from Melo. We’ll see what all this means for Louisville – it is far too early to count them out now, even though this streak doesn’t look great.

2. Gary Parrish runs an analysis (well, maybe analysis is too strong a word) of what would happen if July recruiting were removed. John Calipari has spoken publicly about his dislike of the July recruiting period. I can see where he is coming from – it’d be good to be on campus, or making connections (Coach Cal + Papa Johns 4ever), or giving the kids some time to just play ball and have fun. On the other hand, Parrish (and others) suggest that the July recruiting period is crucial for non-powerhouses. These programs need to be able to scount the kids, look for players who are flying under the radar and could make a big contribution to the program. I don’t know enough about this topic, I must admit, but anything that widens the gaps between the power-schools and the rest is distasteful to me. Other than watching UK win, the biggest excitement for me is watching the Cinderella stories. I’d hate to see those become even more rare.

3. Check out my post at the Phoenix Pub on technology and recruiting. It’s worth it, I swear.

Long time no see

I’ve been really busy with work this past week, which meant no time to scour the internet for news. But I’m here now, so let’s let by-gones be by-gones.

1. Louisville Athletic Department has a small problem on its hands. Looks like Twitter is wreaking havoc throughout the land, this time in the form of fake Twitters. Now, I like a good fake Twitter (and, sadly, had to say good-bye to the Ron Artest one this past July), but come on people, there has to be someone better to lampoon than Tom Jurich and Steve Kragthorpe. Rick Pitino, on the other hand, could be pretty funny.

2. I’m sure all you UK fans have heard the John Calipari has let go of 3 more walk-ons, leaving only Mark Krebs. According to Calipari, he leads an optimal practice when there are only 12-13 guys there. I can see that – I mean, there’s the whole small classroom argument, but it still bums me out to see people like Dwight Perry go, especially after working so hard with the team. I feel like UK has a tradition of having walk-ons make an impact, and it’ll be sad to see that go. However, Calipari says that usually his walk-ons are other student athletes  chosen for specific skills – this sounds like an interesting tactic, one which I can’t wait to see in play.

3. Karen Sypher has a new attorney, a former federal prosecutor. James A. Earhart was appointed for by the court. Let’s hope that they have better chemistry than Sypher and Clay.

Alright I’m out for now. More work. I will have a Pub post up soon, and I’ll get you the link.