So is Pitino clean as a whistle too then, since he didn’t know (or claimed to not know) about strippergate or the pay for play scheme? I know there was plenty of wire taps of people saying Pitino didn’t know adidas was paying the Bowen’s to get him to commit to Louisville. But even as a Louisville fan I feel that’s more that he didn’t wanna know bc of the whole plausible deniability thing. I honestly don’t think he knew about strippergate though, just bc I don’t think he would have ever allowed such to go on in a building named for his late friend/BIL Billy Minardi, who will now be known moreso in history for the strippers in minardi hall than who he was as a person.
Didn’t the ncaa pretty much invent the show cause/lack of institutional control penalty bc of Calipari? They found nothing tying him directly to the scandals so they invented a rule that head coaches should know what all is going on in their program. Honest question, not trolling, were those penalties even an option when the ncaa investigated Umass and Memphis?
And I’m kinda like jimbo, I don’t much gaf about what was happening at Memphis or Umass 10-20 years ago, or how much if any cal was involved in. Whether it was clearing players that committed domestic abuse, or fraudulent grades, or 40k$ worth of fur coats stolen, it’s all ancient history that affects nothing in the present.
I just find it amusing how quickly bbn changed their opinions of the way cal ran his program at Memphis once he got hired on at UK. But I get it, they are UK fans, it’s not like they got a say in who the AD hired, and I wouldn’t have changed my allegiances over a coaching hire either. Plus he immediately made UK relevant again when he brought his recruiting class with him year 1.
Hell I never liked Pitino until Louisville hired him. I respected his coaching ability, but didn’t like him as a person, mainly bc I hated him so much at UK and his arrogant persona. But after we hired him, I had no choice but to root for him, bc his success and Louisville’s success were one in the same. Now I’ll argue that his matchup zone is one of the most dominant defenses ever employed, after watching it for so many years.