by The results of an NCAA investigation into Louisville men’s basketball program on a 2017 FBI investigation into college basketball corruption was released Thursday, and Louisville avoided major penalties from the NCAA’s Independent Accountability Review Process (IARP) ruling.
Former Louisville coach Rick Pitino, who was fired in 2017 after the scandal broke, spoke to the media about the decision on Thursday. The current Iona coach chose to use the time to also highlight Louisville’s vacated 2013 NCAA Tournament title.
The team vacated its 2018 basketball title after the NCAA denied its appeal. It was discovered that the program “staged strip dances and sexual acts for applicants, student-athletes and others” to entice players to attend the school, per NPR. The program also had to vacate its record from 2011 to ’15, which included the team’s Final Four appearance in 2012. They lost 123 wins from those seasons.
Pitino strongly believes his 2013 team still deserves to hold the league title.
“You don’t take away championships,” Pitino said, via him Courier Newspaper. “You can’t rewrite history. We won the championship. No, we didn’t use steroids. We didn’t steal labels. We didn’t do anything illegal to gain the basketball advantage. We beat Michigan with great defense—a great, well-coached Michigan team. We beat Wichita State—a great, well-coached team—with hard work, great defense, unselfish offense, and my players are to be commended. They are champions. You can’t take that away from them.”
Pitino believes that if IARP had conducted the investigation that ultimately caused the program to vacate the title, the title would not have been removed.
“I’ll tell you this: If the IARP had been involved in looking into this case, that banner would still be up today because they have nothing but experts on that panel — not a committee hired by the NCAA,” Pitino continued. . . “It doesn’t work that way. These are not rumours. he examines the facts, examines the evidence and comes out with an honest decision. So this is not a knock on the people who serve on these committees, but these young men in 2013, won a championship the honest way. Was it reprehensible behavior involving some of them and an assistant coach? 100% We were against it at the University of Louisville.”
It appears that could be something the university is considering, after Louisville athletic director Josh Hurd told the media on Thursday that if the school is in a position, they will look into the possibility of the program winning back its pennant.
“While I’m not going to sit here and make any promises, I can tell our fans, unequivocally, that if there’s an opportunity to do something along those lines, we’re going to try to do it,” Heard said, via Louisville Fair.
In terms of the IARP ruling, Louisville avoided any significant penalties, including avoiding a postseason penalty and any NCAA penalties for Pitino and former coach Chris Mack. However, the program must pay a $5,000 fine and receive a small reduction in available recruiting days, as well as two years of probation.
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