By Russ Brown
NKyTribune correspondent
LOUISVILLE — The NCAA’s notice of allegations announced on Thursday regarding its year-long investigation into the University of Louisville basketball program is as notable for what it DIDN’T say as for what it did say.
And, thanks primarily to the silence of the leading character in the sordid affair, the investigation failed to answer the biggest mystery in the matter: where did the thousands of dollars come from that former UofL staffer Andre McGee allegedly paid to escorts?
There were no bombshells in the report, not even any mild surprises, and very little that we didn’t already know.
The investigation involved claims by escort Katina Powell in a book that McGee, who was director of basketball operations at the time, paid her and other escorts more than $10,000 and gave them game tickets from 2010-14 in exchange for sex and dancing for recruits and players.
Deep Throat told Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodard during their investigation of the Watergate break-in that if they wanted to get to the bottom of the crime they should “follow the money.” That would have been good advice in this instance, too. But the NCAA apparently hit a dead end in that pursuit because McGee, on the advice of his attorney, refused to cooperate with the investigators.
“We have a lot of questions we would love to have answered, but probably we’ll never get answered,” UofL basketball coach Rick Pitino said during a noon press conference in Grawemeyer Hall on the UofL campus. “Something I’ve wondered about every night is the why part. I just don’t get it.”
McGee resigned last October as an assistant coach at the University of Missouri Kansas City, his whereabouts are unknown and he has never commented on any aspect of the matter.
Acting UofL president Dr. Neville Pinto said university officials were “disappointed that McGee did not cooperate,” and Pitino and athletics director Tom Jurich have both expressed a similar sentiment.
Despite the NCAA charging in its letter of allegations that UofL and Pitino committed four Level 1 violations — the highest level — the document could be considered good news for the basketball program and the university in some ways.
That’s because the school escaped the most serious potential allegations — charges of a lack of institutional control and failure to monitor the program, which could have resulted in severe penalties. The NCAA also didn’t allege that Pitino had any knowledge of the sex parties or that there was an atmosphere of compliance failure.
The NCAA’s notice, which UofL received Monday after an investigation that included more than 90 interviews with former players and recruits, parents, coaches and others involved in the case, alleges the following:
* That McGee provided impermissible benefits of at least $5,400 to at least 17 prospective or then-current student-athletes in Minardi Hall, plus two “nonscholastic coaches” (probably AAU coaches) and one friend of an athlete. All the names were redacted in the school’s public release of the report.
* Former program assistant Brandon Williams, who is no longer working for UofL, refused to provide telephone records to the university or the NCAA, which the NCAA said is a “severe breach of conduct.”
* McGee knowingly violated ethical conduct policies and twice refused to be interviewed by NCAA investigators, once in February and again in June.
* Pitino violated “NCAA head coach responsibility legislation because he is presumed responsible for the allegations laid out” against McGee and “did not rebut that presumption.” Pitino, the notice contends, showed a failure to monitor McGee by failing to “frequently spot-check the program to uncover potential or existing compliance problems.”
Jurich says the university “disputes strongly” the allegation against Pitino and will file an appeal.
“I have worked with Coach Pitino for over 15 years and I can tell you that if he ever caught a whiff of what was going on, he would have hit the roof,” Jurich said. “I have, however, asked myself a million times, should he have known? I’ve come to the conclusion that he could not have known. No matter what he did or how close he is to his players and staff, he could not have known. This activity was clearly kept from him, knowing how he would have reacted if he had known. I believe that Andre acted furtively, doing everything he could to keep this away from a coach who would never tolerate it.”
Pitino says he “absolutely” does not agree that he was guilty of a failure to monitor McGee, adding that he overmonitors his staff.
“When this all broke, I couldn’t fathom any of this happening.” Pitino added. “We knew we had full security in the dorm.
We knew we had managers living in the dorm, not even a hint of this ever come up (on social media). And the reason it would never come up to me in any way is everybody knew that if you were a player you would be immediately suspended and if you were a coach you would be terminated immediately. They all knew that, so that’s why it was kept from me. I wish word had leaked out to me because it would have been stopped immediately. I’m not guilty of failing to monitor my staff, I’m guilty of trusting someone.”
If the allegation against Pitino is upheld, he could face a show-cause order and possibly a suspension for 30-to-50 percent of the 2017-18 season, similar to the nine-game suspension handed Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim last season for a number of serious violations. But it is probably going to be another seven or eight months, at least, before we learn of any penalties.
Now that it as received the list of allegations, UofL has up to 90 days to respond and dispute any of the NCAA’s findings.
Then the NCAA has another 60 days to review the reponse before the case goes before the committee on infractions. The committee conducts a hearing in which both sides can present their arguments. After that, the committee determines what the NCAA calls “the facts of the case” and prescribes punishments.
Last February, the university self-imposed penalties, the most serious of which banned the basketball team from competing in the 2016 NCAA Tournament. There are concerns that UofL could be forced to vacate victories, or even its 2013 national championship, but based on the allegations and the university’s cooperation with the investigation, that appears unlikely.
Both Pitino and Jurich reiterated Thursday that they feel no further sanctions will be forthcoming.
“My personal opinion is that this is over,” Pitino said. “But I’m not the one to say; that’s up to the NCAA. They’re the judge and jury. I think it will be in our rearview mirror very soon because we have been transparent and told the truth, and by telling the truth your problems become part of your past.”