Louisville coach Rick Pitino said the school’s self-imposed sanctions are enough to satisfy the NCAA as the governing body continues investigating an escort’s allegations that a former Cardinals staffer hired her and other dancers to entertain recruits and players.
The school in February announced a postseason ban from the Atlantic Coast Conference and NCAA tournaments after its investigation into Katina Powell’s allegations determined that violations did occur. Louisville imposed additional sanctions in April, reducing scholarships and recruiting visits and contacts by staff in 2016-17 and 2017-2018. Several investigations into the program continue, but Pitino says measures suggested by investigator Chuck Smrt should be enough.
“Chuck tells you, ‘OK, this is what I find you guilty of and this is what we must do,’ so he was the guy that told us what to do, it wasn’t the school,” Pitino said during a radio interview Tuesday on Louisville’s 840 WHAS.
“We have to rely on his (Smrt’s) expertise, so in his expertise and his feelings, we’ve done everything that we needed to do.”
Pitino expressed the same feelings about the school’s actions in a podcast with College Hoops Today earlier this week.
Powell alleged last October in the book “Breaking Cardinal Rules: Basketball and the Escort Queen” that former Cardinals men’s basketball staffer Andre McGee paid her $10,000 for 22 shows from 2010-14 at the players’ Billy Minardi Hall dormitory. Pitino has denied knowledge of the activities described in Powell’s book but has also seemed inclined to move on from the scandal, no matter what the NCAA investigation determines whenever it serves the school with a notice of allegations.