I think it will be the same when the Cardinals go
looking for a head coach next spring. Louisville
is still a Top 10 program with a Top 3 arena and
competitive pay. It’s an elite job and — as Virginia
Tech coach Buzz Williams once said — many
coaches would crawl over broken glass to get
to Louisville.
Williams, Xavier’s Chris Mack, Villanova’s Jay
Wright, Cincinnati’s Mick Cronin and Dayton’s
Anthony Grant will all be on the short list of
candidates.
What’s next for Rick Pitino?
Louisville’s Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino isn’t
fighting for his job any more — that part of the
fight is over. Now, he is fighting for his reputation.
Pitino and his lawyer, Steve Pence, filed a
lawsuit against Adidas over its handling of the
recruiting scandal that rocked the University of
Louisville and four other universities last month.
Pitino told Jay Bilas that Adidas “robbed him of
his love of basketball.”
Through lawsuits against Adidas and the
University of Louisville, Pitino will attempt to
prove he didn’t know any of the alleged activities
were going on. And he just might do that.
Regardless if he wins or not, it is difficult
to imagine him coaching college basketball
again at age 65. So what’s next? TV, of course.
Rick Pitino would be a smash hit as a television
analyst - breaking down games for ESPN or CBS.
It’s a natural fit.
What’s that you say? No way a network hires
him with the NCAA issues. Ahem, Lou Holtz
left NC State, Minnesota, Arkansas, Notre Dame
and South Carolina on NCAA probation. That’s
FIVE schools, and the TV networks love him.
He’s even in rental car commercials. Pitino will
follow that same path.
What’s next for the Yum! Center?
The specter of a possible NCAA Death Penalty
is a worst case scenario for the Yum! Center and
the city of Louisville. Without a season of men’s
basketball games, the Yum! would have 20 more
dates to fill and no real way to make up that kind
of income.
The good news? Very few believe the NCAA
will ever enact the Death Penalty on a program
again. More likely, the NCAA will enact more post-
season bans or perhaps the same kind of media
blackout that hit Kentucky basketball during the
“Kentucky Shame” days of the late 1980s.
The Yum! Center is restructuring debt and is
also getting an extra $2.5 million per year from
Louisville, it’s primary tenant, as well. Hopefully,
that will keep it viable for years to come.
What’s next for Romeo Langford?
The New Albany superstar guard was once
thought to be leaning toward Louisville. Not
anymore. After recently visiting Indiana for
Hoosier Hysteria, many people think his choices
are Kansas, Indiana, Vandy, UCLA, Kentucky and
North Carolina. The trouble is — with the FBI
still investigating every major program in the
nation — committing to ANY college at this point
is fairly perilous because of their involvement
in possible recruiting violations. Well, except
maybe Vandy.
So what’s a recruit to do? At the very least, it’d
be best to wait until the spring to make the pick
and even then, I wouldn’t advise him to sign a
binding National Letter of Intent to any school.
Romeo’s good enough that colleges will hold
a spot for him if he tells them he’s on his way.
[Editor’s Note: This issue of Extol Sports went
to press Oct. 25.]
What’s next for college basketball?
While some coaches have issued statements
noting their “shock” and “surprise” at the
allegations of rampant payments in college
basketball, don’t believe them.
While individual coaches c an be shocked that
their actual assistant coaches were involved (see:
Pitino, Rick), the fact that some recruits were
getting paid is not news to anyone in the business.
And it’s not just an Adidas issue.
The assistant coaches ensnared in the first wave
of the FBI probe worked for schools represented
by Nike (Arizona, USC and Oklahoma State),
Adidas (Louisville and Miami) and Under Armor
(Auburn).
How big will the FBI’s net get? On the day the
initial indictments were filed, the FBI told college
basketball coaches, “We have your playbook.
You will be better off contacting us before we
contact you.”
In the weeks since then, some have suggested
the initial estimates of 50-80 coaches involved,
have been diminished, but others have said this
issue is just getting started.
“There are some problems that are baked in
that are perhaps a little more prevalent because
of the structure of college basketball,” Big 12
commissioner Bob Bowlsby said, “but you don’t
have to have too vivid an imagination to see this
showing up in other sports.
“As a result, this is going to be around for
a while, and we’re likely to be in the same
situation we’re in now We don’t have very much
information and we aren’t going to get a heads
up before something happens, and as a result
it’s a period of discomfort.”
So how big could this get? What happens next to
summer shoe-circuit basketball? My guess would
be the Blue Ribbon panel the NCAA convened to
talk about the issue will shut down shoe-circuit
basketball tournaments and camps in favor of
NCAA-led summer efforts. Will that stop the
cheating? No, but it should slow it down some.
What’s next for Tom Jurich?
In addition to firing Rick Pitino, the University
of Louisville fired Athletic Director Tom Jurich
during its cleanse of all things athletics in mid-
October. Jurich, who likely stands to land a bundle
of money from the university in a lawsuit over how
his termination was carried out, could certainly
take another athletics director job at another
university. He has had many options over the
years, offers from many of the top traditional
programs in NCAA sports, but he has never left
Louisville.
He could certainly say yes to one of those offers
now, but my guess would be that he doesn’t.
Instead of finally taking one of the southern
California schools up on their consistent offers,
my guess would be he creates and chairs a search
firm where he can be hired by schools all over
the country to help hire coaches in major sports.
We all know he has a knack for hiring effective
coaches, and this would allow him the flexibility
to work outside the typical athletics framework
to land the right candidates with the right jobs.
He’d be a smashing success at it.
What’s next for the Louisville Athletics?
Interim President Greg Postel may have struck
gold in Vince Tyra. The life-long Louisville fan
whose father, Charlie, is one of the greatest
players to ever don a Louisville uniform, Vince
hit the ground running as acting AD and hasn’t
looked back.
35