One of the biggest questions about the Louisville Cardinals sex scandal is whether Rick Pitino had any knowledge of the sex parties.
Pitino denies having any knowledge of the sex parties former staffer Andre McGee arranged through madam Katina Powell. The details of the parties became public thanks to a book published by Powell. Pitino has even tried to pass the buck onto McGee and wants the current UMKC coach to “tell the truth” about the parties aka take all the blame.
McGee supposedly was arranging the sex parties — many of which occurred in a dorm — for recruits and their family members, as well as members of the Cardinals program. Between what was going on and what McGee told her, Powell believes the head coach knew what was going on.
From ESPN’s story on the subject:
Powell said she asked McGee whether Pitino knew about the parties: “I said, ‘Does Pitino know about this?’ And he said, ‘He’s Rick. He knows about everything.'”
While Powell said she has no firsthand knowledge that Pitino knew about the parties, she finds it hard to believe he wouldn’t have: “Four years, a boatload of recruits, a boatload of dancers, loud music, alcohol, security, cameras, basketball players who came in [to the dorm] at will … “
The natural reaction from Louisville fans would be to criticize Powell’s character like McGee’s lawyer did, but she does have a point.
While I can’t believe Pitino would condone one of his staff members paying for players and recruits to have sex with strippers, I can believe he would give staffers handling recruits the autonomy to “do whatever it takes” to land top recruits. Some coaches choose to bury their heads in the sand and look the other way, preferring not to know exactly what was done to lock up some recruits. If that were the case, Pitino would be guilty of negligence, which could qualify as a lack of institutional control in the eyes of the NCAA.
