By Russ Brown
Special to NKyTribune
LOUISVILLE — It was billed as a news conference by University of Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino to preview the Cardinals’ Atlantic Coast Conference opener Sunday evening against Wake Forest.
But with Pitino, you never know what you’re going to get — virtually nothing lately — and he surprised the media types Friday afternoon by addressing the Katina Powell sex scandal, skipping press conferences and allegedly making an obscene gesture to a Kentucky fan after UK’s 75-73 win Dec. 26 in Rupp Arena.
It was his first pre-game press conference of the season after 14 years of conducting such sessions.
The 63-year-old coach embarked on a 15-minute monologue covering those topics when a reporter asked a question about the accusation that he raised his middle finger to a fan while walking off the court.
<a href=”http://www.kyforward.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Rick_Pitino_1.1.16.jpg”><img src=”http://www.kyforward.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Rick_Pitino_1.1.16.jpg” alt=”After avoiding most opportunities to speak with media during the basketball season, Louisville head coach Rick Pitino broke his silence during a Friday afternoon news conference (U of L Athletics Photo)” width=”500″ height=”300″ class=”size-full wp-image-127182″ /></a> <em><small>After avoiding most opportunities to speak with media during the basketball season, Louisville head coach Rick Pitino broke his silence during a Friday afternoon news conference (U of L Athletics Photo)</em></small>
After again denying the gesture, Pitino explained why he didn’t attend the post-game press conference at UK, indicating he thought he might get questions about the investigations into the sex scandal.
“It’s a very emotional game for me,” he said. “When we go into a press conference, in a neighborhood like that, I don’t want to hear about the scandal. That (the scandal) has bothered me every single night.”
Pitino had said a number of times that he had been asked not to comment on the scandal by attorneys and school officials, but he apparently is no longer heeding their advice. At least he didn’t Friday.
“I’m not going to say, ‘No comment.’ I’m just not going to say it. I’m too old. I’m not going to say it. There’s only one good thing about being 63 — you don’t care what people think anymore.”
Pitino emphasized again that he hasn’t read Powell’s book that detailed stripper and sex parties at Billy Minardi Hall allegedly paid for by former UofL basketball assistant Andre McGee.
“You guys read the book,” Pitino said. “I only know what people tell me. But if there are crimes being committed, why is the NCAA or ESPN giving a forum to that person?”
At the very end of his rant, Pitino admitted for the first time that he believes something did occur, which seems to contradict his assertion that UofL is being “wronged” by the allegation and a suggestion that investigators follow “the money trail.”
“We have been wronged,” Pitino said. “Now, did one person do some scurrilous things? I believe so. What I know now, I believe so. The only thing I don’t know is, I don’t know why he (McGee) did it. I just, for the life of me, can’t figure it out. He knew better. He was taught better, by his parents and by me. That’s the last I’ll mention it. I’m sure you’re thankful of that.”
Here is a full transcript of Pitino’s long answer — courtesy of some quick typing by WDRB.com’s Rick Bozich and Eric Crawford — when he was asked, “Did you flip off the UK fans?”
“I did not. It wasn’t fans, per se, I was in the tunnel, and it’s really not important. And I’ll say this to you guys, you guys think it’s important, and I respect if you say I should show up for a press conference and you write it. That is not what I’m pissed off at you about. There’s a lot of other things. That’s fine. That’s your opinion. You have a right to your opinion.
“I said it 36 hours before the game to Paul (Rogers, WHAS broadcaster) as well as Kenny (Klein, UofL sports information director), I wasn’t doing the press conference because it’s a very emotional game for me. When we go into a press conference in a neighborhood like that, I don’t want to hear about the scandal, OK? I don’t want to hear about that. That has bothered me every single night.
“What bothers me about you (turning to Bozich) is you say, I know everybody’s body fat, you must know about this (events in the dorm). That pisses me off, beyond your wildest dreams. Because that took place in Billy Minardi Hall, and we didn’t get one recruit. Somebody criminally came onto our campus. I’m pissed off at ESPN for even giving a forum to that person. If there are crimes now I didn’t read the book, you guys read the book, so I only know what people tell me but if there are crimes being committed, why is the NCAA or ESPN giving a forum to that person? If there are crimes, now I don’t know if there are crimes being committed.
“The NCAA is upset at me because if I say, I can’t find one person, not one, that knew anything about it, the NCAA says you’re intimidating the witnesses. That wasn’t my intent to say that. So that’s why I didn’t go to (ACC) media day. They’re telling me I’m intimidating. Well, soon as this happened, I went ballistic on everybody. Wait a second. You didn’t know one, single thing? The security person. You never saw a thing in four years and you worked for four years around the clock? No. Well the answer is obvious isn’t it, Rick, isn’t the answer obvious?
“The reason that nobody saw anything, they knew that all hell would break loose if I found out that one single thing was going on. That would be the obvious thing to me. So I don’t want to put myself out on a press conference like that, not for you, not for you, you’ve already asked your questions. But for other people who are going ask that question that you just had to ask you wouldn’t ask it, but you’re working for people.
“So I’m not going to say no comment. I’m not going to say it. I’m too old. I don’t care, OK? So I’m not going to say it. There is only one good thing about being 63, is you don’t care what people think anymore. But that’s really the only good thing. So it bothers me because I’ve got a lot of failings in my life. We all know what I’ve been through. But one failing is, I’m totally compliant to the rules of the NCAA. I don’t believe in breaking any of those things. At all.
“And if anything, what was going on, if things did go on the way they say it, we weren’t going to get one player. I still can’t figure out, when it’s all said and done, why? Why was this being done? I don’t understand. It’s the only question that I would love to get answered. I don’t understand why. None of it makes sense to me.
“So I believe, and I have to thank Eric publicly because he’s the only guy that said, I’m going to show you that this, I know one thing, that guy is the cheapest guy I’ve ever been around in my life, I know those numbers, and Eric did it, said follow the money trail, and showed it wasn’t that money. He proved it. He proved the inaccuracies in the book.
“When we went up there, and I’ll leave it with this — and 2016 is hopefully going to be a better year — when Kenny Klein and John Carns (UofL director for compliance) went up there (to Indianapolis) to this book company to find out what’s going on, what can we investigate, what can we do? They made a statement that was interesting. I don’t know if it was a racist statement, I don’t know. Correct me if I’m wrong on this.
“The statement was made, You mean to tell me this person kept a four-year log of everything that was going on? Wrote a journal about this? (Answer) No, no, we wrote it. She canít complete two sentences the right way to write a book. That was said. So you mean to tell me a book was written, a four-year record was kept? There was no four-year record. You’ve got to be kidding me.
“So nobody goes after, ESPN doesn’t go after, are you telling the truth? Did you keep a four-year journal? Did you write it? Or was it written just to get this book out because the excerpts were going to be given to The Courier-Journal or The Courier-Journal was going to get hold of it? There’s a lot of things I’m bothered by, every, single night that I go to bed.
“I’m really bothered by the fact that you (Bozich) think I knew something because I knew everybody’s body fat. Because of the amount of time I’ve known you, thinking that even in your wildest dreams, to think I would do something like that in Billy Minardi Hall. Now you might think because of my personal failings 10 years ago, oh yeah that’s . . . Well, I’m bothered by that, but you have a right to your opinion, and I have a right to my opinion.
(Bozich: “That’s fair.”) “I speak to you just professionally, even though, and I was just told this by the way the other day when I was in Miami, for the first time. So I’m bothered by this a lot, when I go to bed at night, I bothered by a lot of all of this, because of my beliefs in how a program should be run. I’m not too sure that a lot of these things are the truth. And the only one who has gotten to the bottom of this is Eric Crawford where, it’s not the truth. Here they’re saying they kept a journal for four years, but can’t complete two sentences. Something’s not right here.
“I think you’ve got to follow the money trail. And then 11 people are suing her saying it’s not the truth. Is it 11? Whatever the number is out there. So I don’t know what’s going on with all this, but I know that everybody gave a forum to this person who may have committed criminal acts. But nobody went after her. Was this true? Was your daughter 18, was it 16, how much money, where’d the money come from? I don’t know any of that. It’s bothered me every, single night. So if I don’t want to do a press conference, it’s because it’s a very emotional time.
“It’s not because I lost a game. I’ve done press conferences for 40 some-odd years. Give me a break. We lost a game. It’s not going to be because of that. I’m not going to say no comment anymore, because I don’t care at 63. I want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. And I want to clean it up. If there are some things that have to be cleaned up I know one thing, why I didn’t know about it: I guarantee if a chair gets broken at Minardi Hall and I find out about it, there’s going to be a problem. So you can bet if something like that was going on I’d be the last to find out about it, because all hell would pay. Right away. The moment it happened. All hell would pay.
“But, and just to answer some of the points, there are security people that are good people. One guy I had more complaints about, that he was too hard on our players, too hard, all the time, and the more I heard that he was too hard, the more I liked him. That’s good. That’s the type of guy I want running the dormitory. So did he sneak them through the back door? Did they hide in the room? I have no idea. But I guarantee you if anybody knew about it, and it got back to me, all hell.
“And I really feel the same way about my assistant coaches, the same way about them. I think they’re an extension of me. I think if they would have known anything, all hell would have broken loose. So in 2016, this will be the last time I ever mention it. But I am getting it off my chest now, because I want to say it one time. And I really don’t care about what anybody thinks, why I don’t show up at a press conference, I couldn’t care less.
“There’s a reason for it. It’s not because we lost a basketball game. It was a terrific (game). When we lost to Duke (at Kentucky), I always say it was one of the greatest games ever played. So if I wasn’t afraid to meet the press in the most difficult loss of all time. So come on, give me a break with that stuff. If I show up for Duke, I think I can show up for that. And by the way, the Final Four was at stake in that game.”
Q: Have you been given any updates on the status of the investigations?
A: “No. I have not been interviewed myself yet. You know what’s going to happen. I think they’ve got to contact every recruit that’s come in here. Then they go forward. They still haven’t resolved North Carolina, and how many years were they at Syracuse? How many years did that last? North Carolina’s been going on how long? I think the earliest this is going to go is July. I think that’s the
earliest you’re going to see anything resolved.
“The only thing I want to do as far as the university is, if there’s a lie, if the book publishing company lied, then there’s always these conspiracy theories that this is Indiana — I don’t believe that. They have to graduate from somewhere. But the one thing I can tell you is if there are lies in this book, then I want to point it out. I don’t know why everybody gave this person a forum.I don’t understand any of it, why they gave them a forum, because if someone’s lying the whole time, or not telling the truth and did not keep a journal, I don’t know — I’m a Doubting Thomas with a lot of things. If none of us did know anything about it …
“Let’s understand this: Back in the old days, when a coach was making $17,000, $19,000, he may have turned his eyes to certain things that may have been going on. When someone is making the incomes that we’re making today, as well as the assistant coaches, you are not risking one single thing. Not one single thing, with the amount of income that’s going on. Some people may still be on the fence and take risks, but you’re not going to find people taking risks anymore. Just follow the money of what people make today. You think they’re going to risk bringing people in to strip? Are you crazy? Doesn’t make any sense to me. None of
it does.
“So, that’s my piece. I’ve said it once and for all. I think this university has as much integrity … I’ve said it on my blogs.
“I want our university, if we feel we’re being wronged, to step up and say, ‘No, we’re being wronged.’ It’s tough to do sometimes because the NCAA says, just like they were saying to me, ‘You can’t be saying those things because you have no proof. You may be intimidating them.’ That wasn’t my intention, to intimidate anybody. I got fed up with them when they said that. Then I’m just not going to go (to ACC media day). The university said that’s the best thing. Not anymore.
It’s not going to happen that way.
Q:What changed?
A: “Because when I hear all these things are going on, and nobody’s sticking up for us, except those 11 people who moved forward and said, ‘No, that’s not true,’ and then I hear the comments that Kenny (Klein) and John Carns take. I said, ‘How can they keep a four-year journal? What’s going on here?’ You know what I always say, the truth lies somewhere in the middle sometimes. If there’s 20 times,
there’s been 10. If you say there’s 10,000, it’s 3,000 or 4,000. Or maybe it was none. I’m bothered by it.
“The way we run the program here, I believe in it whole-heartedly. I believe in Tom Jurich, the way he tells every coach, ‘I’m behind you 100 percent but don’t break a single rule.’ I know what was said to me. I know what was said to Rex (tennis coach, Rex Ecarma) over in tennis. I know what was said to our track coach, our football coach. I believe in him, I believe in the program and the way we do things, and I think we have been wronged.
“We have been wronged. Now, did one person do some scurrilous things? I believe so. What I know now, I believe so. The only thing I don’t know is, I don’t know why he did it. I just, for the life of me, can’t figure it out. He knew better. He was taught better, by his parents and by me. That’s the last I’ll mention it. I’m sure you’re thankful of that.”