UPDATE (1:08 p.m. ET): A technicality has saved Rick Pitino from officially being “fired.”
The Louisville men’s basketball coach, along with Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich, have been placed on administrative leave without pay, the school’s interim president, Greg Postel, announced in a press conference Wednesday. Pitino has a clause in his contract that prevents Louisville from firing him without 10 days’ notice.
Pitino’s and Jurich’s employment will be “reviewed at a later date,” per Postel.
ORIGINAL STORY: Rick Pitino apparently has overseen one too many scandals at Louisville.
The University of Louisville on Wednesday fired Pitino as its men’s basketball coach, according to a press release from the school, and plans to dismiss athletic director Tom Jurich, per multiple reports. The head coach and AD didn’t go quietly, either, per Kent Taylor of WAVE-TV in Louisville.
Pitino had been the head coach at Louisville since 2001 and is one of the most successful coaches in college basketball history. He tallied a .744 winning percentage (416-143) with the Cardinals and led them to their second-ever national championship in 2013.
But the 65-year-old also was present amid multiple scandals and illegal activity during his tenure at Louisville. Pitino was suspended five games this summer for his failure to prevent a multi-year recruiting scandal involving paid sex for players. The school still was under probation from that scandal when the FBI implicated it in a bombshell bribery scheme.
A criminal complaint accused at least one coach at Louisville of being involved in a scheme to funnel $100,000 from Adidas to the high school of an All-American player the Cardinals were recruiting.
That accusation of corruption apparently was the last straw for interim Louisville president Greg Postel, who met with Pitino and Jurich on Wednesday and fired them, per ESPN.com’s Jeff Goodman.
Thumbnail photo via Thomas Joseph/USA TODAY Sports Images
