By Russ Brown
Special to NKyTribune
LOUISVILLE–Former escort Katina Powell finally broke her public silence Tuesday regarding her allegations about sex parties for University of Louisville basketball players and recruits.
However, although Powell said during interviews with “Good Morning America” and ESPN that she believes coach Rick Pitino knew about the parties, more damaging revelations came in ESPN’s “Outside The Lines” report featured on its website.
ESPN reported that five former UofL players and recruits told its reporters that they attended parties at a campus dorm from 2010-14 that included strippers paid for by Andre McGee, a former graduate assistant and director of basketball operations.
Before, only one — current Ohio State player JaQuan Lyle — had been reported as confirming the “gist” of Powell’s charges.
In a story written by John Barr and Jeff Goodman, ESPN said that one of the former players told its reporters that he had sex with a dancer after McGee paid her. Three of the ex-players said they attended parties both as recruits and players.
“I knew they weren’t college girls,” one of the former recruits said. “It was crazy. It was like I was in a strip club.”
All of the former players requested anonymity due to a fear of retribution from Louisville fans, players and coaches.
Pitino, reached by ESPN, said he couldn’t comment. University officials have also declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigations by UofL, the NCAA and Louisville Metro Police.
UofL issued a statement that said, “To preserve the integrity of the review process, the university will withhold comment on any details until the review is concluded.”
Pitino had earlier said the charges were “like a knife going through me” and “almost made me sick to my stomach. I don’t believe in any kind of cheating at all to get an advantage with a recruit.”
Pitino has been defended by former players and assistant coaches who say they are certain the head coach knew nothing about the parties if they occurred.
But Powell told “Good Morning America” and ESPN that she cannot imagine Pitino not knowing, although she has no evidence or first-hand knowledge that he was aware of the situation and has never met or talked to the coach.
“Four years, a boatload of recruits, a boatload of dancers, loud music, alcohol, security, cameras, basketball players who came into the dorm at will. . .how could Rick not know?”
Powell also said that McGee told her his job was on the line.” She said she asked McGee if Pitino knew about the parties and he replied, ‘He’s Rick. He knows about everything.'”
Powell added, “My theory is, you’ve got players so loyal to Pitino, who wouldn’t go back to Pitino and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got dancers and sex and all that going on?’ My thing is, how could he not know what was going on?”
In Powell’s book, “Breaking Cardinal Rules: basketball and the Escort Queen,” Powell, 42, writes about two dozen stripping and sex parties in on-campus Billy Minardi Hall, which houses UofL basketball players and other students. She says McGee, who has since taken an assistant coaching job at Missouri-Kansas City, paid her about $10,000 during the four-year period to supply dancers.
She said some of the dancers also engaged in sex with players, recruits and their guardians or fathers as “side deals.”
Powell said of McGee, “Andre was the one who always had the money. Passed out the money, made it rain, made the deals, paid the deals.
“Andre would come to me, tell me what girl the recruit wanted, and I would tell the girl, and she would say her price. I would tell him, he would say, ‘OK.’ Give me the money, that was just it. He would take them into another room and her and the recruit would do what they did behind closed doors.”
Outside the Lines reporter Barr asked Powell: “Montrezl Harrell, JaQuan Lyle, Antonio Blakeney, Jordan Mickey, Terry Rozier, you’re saying they all had sex on their recruiting visits?” Powell answered, “Yes.”
Asked by WDRB in Louisville for comment, McGee’s attorney, Scott Cox, told the station he was considering issuing a statement Tuesday afternoon.
Harrell, a power forward who now plays for the Houston Rockets, denied Powell’s allegations earlier this month.
Rozier, now with the Boston Celtics, had this to say: “I don’t want to talk about it. I was already committed before I took my visit. I will say, though, Coach P (Pitino) as far as the dorm situations and visits, he’d go out to eat with the recruits and their parents. As fas as after that, he wouldn’t know. I can say his nose is clean.”
Outside the Lines said the others mentioned by Powell either couldn’t be reached or declined comment.
ESPN said it reviewed Powell’s journals, text messages and phone records and independently confirmed that text messages sent to Powell to arrange the parties came from McGee’s cell phone. It also confirmed a wire transfer of money from McGee to Powell on one occasion.
“I couldn’t make this up if I wanted to,” Powell says. “I have no reason, or have the need, to lie to anyone. Everything I’m saying is 100 percent true.”
ESPN is telecasting an expanded, hour-long report on the scandal at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Although Pitino declined to comment for Outside the Lines, later in the day he did a joint interview with ESPN.com columnist Dana O’Neil and Yahoo.com sports in which he called for McGee to come clean and reiterated that he won’t resign.
McGee, who has been placed on administrative leave at UM-KC, said though his attorney that he knows Powell but did not pay anyone to have sex with players or recruits.
“I don’t know if any of this is true or not,” Pitino said. “But there’s only one person who knows the truth and he needs to come out and tell the truth to his teammates, to the University of Louisville, to his fans and to his coaches that have taught him to do the right thing for years and allowed him to be a part of something special. He’s the only one with any answers.
“Obviously, by what people are saying something did go on, but there’s only one person that knows the truth. Everything else is absurd. I don’t care about the legal issues. If he’s done something wrong, he needs to own up to it and do his penance.”
Pitino also said that the latest revelations have left him “devastated” and “disappointed, but that he loves his current team and will “give them all I have.”
UofL athletics director Tom Jurich issued a statement through sports information director Kenny Klein’s office saying that Pitino “has no plans to step down.”
But local and national sentiment is turning against Pitino, with several columnists Tuesday afternoon calling for him to resign. More are likely to follow.
The Courier-Journal’s Tim Sullivan, John Clay of the Lexington Herald-Leader, Rick Bozich of WDRB.com and USA Today’s Nancy Armour all wrote it is time for Pitino to go. A common thread was that even if Pitino didn’t know about the parties — as he has repeatedly insisted — he should have known, and ignorance is no excuse.
Typical was Clay’s online column, which called UofL’s basketball program a “laughingstock” and an “embarrassment.” Clay also wrote:
“. . .He (Pitino) gets paid to know. It’s his program. It’s his responsibility to know. Louisville can claim it didn’t know what was going on inside its own athletic dorm, but surely it now knows this: Rick Pitino has to go.”
Russ Brown has covered University of Louisville athletics for over 30 years, including 15 for The Courier-Journal in Louisville. He is senior writer/editor for the Louisville SportsReport, which he helped found, and also writes for Cardinalsports.com.
The TRUTH behind the scenes that ALL athletes should know- the article:
Lamar Odom, Trick Rolling, Broke Athletes And Entertainers
I smell STANK and a bunch of Glora Allred driven lawsuits