Rick Pitino refutes suggestion of prior NCAA wrongdoings: 'I've always run a clean program'

After three years at Iona, Rick Pitino is back at the power level of college basketball. He was introduced as the new head coach at St. John’s on Tuesday, and after his press conference, he spoke candidly about the scandals in his past.

“One thing I can tell you is I’ve made my mistakes. But I’ve always run a clean program,” Pitino told Sage Steele on SportsCenter. “I’ve never, ever — I got cited for violations of failure to monitor my assistant coaches. But nowhere along the way did the NCAA ever find any wrongdoing on my part. I’ve never cheated in the game. I have too much respect for the game to do that. I believe in hard work, I believe in the strong work ethic second to none.

“And it’s not about believing me, because that’s irrelevant. Some people will, some people won’t. Talk to Billy Donovan. Talk to all the players I’ve coached. I always say that to people. Ask them what I was like to play for, ask them what I was like as a coach. … Ask them what it was like and what I was like. They’re what my legacy is all about, the players I’ve coached. They’re the ones that put me in the Hall of Fame. I didn’t score a point, I didn’t grab a rebound. My players put me in the Hall of Fame. I’m very, very proud each step along the way of all of them.”

While Pitino was at Louisville, the program self-imposed a postseason ban due to an investigation into a sex scandal that involved recruits from 2010-14. The NCAA charged Pitino with failure to monitor his program and suspended him for the first five ACC games of the 2017-18. The 2013 national championship and 2012 Final Four appearance were also vacated as a result.

Then, in 2017, Louisville was at the center of an alleged pay-for-play scandal involving an Adidas executive who allegedly conspired to pay the family of a top-ranked recruit $100,000 to play for the Cardinals and represent Adidas during his pro career. That led the university to place Pitino on administrative leave and, ultimately, fire him in 2017.

Rick Pitino on past issues: ‘I can tell you I’ve never cheated the game’

Pitino, 70, also quoted legendary St. John’s coach Lou Carnesecca when talking about his complicated legacy in college basketball. He reiterated he didn’t “cheat the game” during his career and said although the NCAA vacated Louisville’s 2013 national championship, they still hoisted the trophy. That still makes them national champions in his eyes.

“Lou said it best. That’s what confessions are for,” Rick Pitino said. “But I can tell you I’ve never cheated the game. I’ve never cheated in the game. You can’t vacate a national championship. Look, you can take a banner down. You can’t vacate. You can’t change history. We won the national championship. We didn’t cheat to win the game, we didn’t pay players, we didn’t do any of that. Things were done wrong by certain people, and that’s something that I’m not proud of that happened.

“But I’m always proud of Peyton Siva, Russ Smith, Gorgui Dieng, Montrezl Harrell, Chane Behanan, Kevin Ware. Russ and Peyton, I’m proud of all those [guys]. They earned that national championship. You cannot vacate that. You can take a banner down, but you can’t vacate that. As far as some personal things, I’ve paid my dues with that and I have a very forgiving family. I’m very thankful for my family.”