Rick Pitino believes NCAA will reinstate Louisville's 2013 championship

This morning, Louisville finally received sanctions from the NCAA’s Independent Accountability Oversight Committee (IARP) for allegedly brokering a $100,000 deal for Brian Bowen through Adidas in 2017 and other violations. The Cards essentially got off with time served, the only penalties being a $5,000 fine, some minor recruiting limitations, and two years of probation. As you might expect, everyone in Card Nation is breathing a big sigh of relief, but Rick Pitino? Oh, Rick Pitino is taking his victory lap.

Pitino and his lawyer held a 35-minute Zoom with reporters to discuss the ruling, which exonerates him of any wrongdoing in the matter. It was a classic Pitino presser, with all the braggadocio and exaggerations we’ve come to know and love. I’ll get into all of that in a minute, but the real headline from it was that Pitino believes the NCAA should and will reinstate Louisville’s 2013 national championship even though it was vacated for an entirely different scandal. You know, the one with the prostitutes.

“We have our tenth anniversary coming up of our national championship team in 2013. You don’t take championships away. You can’t rewrite history. We won the championship…If the IARP was involved in looking at that case, that banner would still be hanging today.”

“I believe the championship banner will be hung again,” Pitino added later. “I believe the championship will be recognized as it should be because I believe in the NCAA. I believe in the character of the NCAA.”

Look, we’ve found the one person who still believes in the character of the NCAA!

“I do believe the NCAA will hang the banner and give these young men, these young men, they earned it on the court,” Pitino continued. “We all know that what went on in that dorm was reprehensible behavior but it had nothing to do with the play on the basketball court and it should not be taken out on them, the great fans of Louisville, and certainly the pride that we took in building that championship.”

Speaking of what went on in that dorm…

He used the phrase “Ladies of the Night”

Although the IARP’s ruling dealt solely with the pay-for-play scheme in 2017, a good portion of the presser centered around the other scandal, the prostitute one, for which the NCAA made Louisville vacate all wins from December 2010 to April 2014, including the 2013 national championship. Pitino once again claimed he had no knowledge of what went down at Minardi Hall with Katina Powell, her staff, his players, recruits, and their families.

“When you sneak people through an emergency door at midnight, I couldn’t possibly know that. If I did all hell would have broken loose,” Pitino said. “I wish I could have stopped it. I wish I would have known but I could not have known.”

Pitino said that the NCAA enforcement staff asked him why he didn’t notice anything was off with recruits’ families when he met with them on their visits.

“I said, ‘Why would I be looking for red flags? I asked the parents did they enjoy the visit, did they enjoy practice, did they get all their academic questions answered, what did they think of the campus, what did they think of what we’re doing in terms of academics and tutoring. No, I didn’t ask them did they see any ladies of the night roaming around.”

He won’t go back to Louisville until they apologize to Tom Jurich

Even if the NCAA reinstated Louisville’s 2013 NCAA Championship and the Cards raised the banner again, Pitino said he wouldn’t come to the ceremony unless the school apologizes to Tom Jurich.

“I wish [current Louisville AD] Josh [Heird] nothing but the absolute best and Kenny Payne I absolutely love but my days at Louisville are over. I love the fans. I think when they reconcile with Tom Jurich, then I would possibly consider coming back but until that day happens, I think it’s better that I stay in New Rochelle.”

In fact, Pitino said Jurich being ousted is the single biggest regret of his life. Louisville fired Jurich two days after Pitino, but Pitino told reporters today that Jurich came to him beforehand and said that he was given an ultimatum: fire Pitino or he’d be fired himself.

“As far as the University of Louisville is concerned, as I said, I wish them nothing but the best but there’s one thing missing. It’s not my contract, it’s not me going away from a great fanbase that I love. The only thing I regret amongst a lot of personal things, as well as professional things, is my life, the thing I regret the most is that Tom Jurich resigned.”

“Tom Jurich did not deserve his fate,” Pitino continued. “What he did at Louisville was absolutely incredible from a facilities standpoint. What he did in taking those programs to national prominence was amazing. And Tom, to this day, if I could take back one thing, I wish you would have stayed on and fired me. That being said, it speaks volumes to your character and what you’re all about and that’s the thing I feel most sad about today.”

He compared himself to John Wooden

Now that he’s been cleared of wrongdoing in this particular scandal, Pitino spent some time talking about his legacy. After walking through his career accomplishments, Pitino said this “bump in the road” will always be remembered, like how John Wooden would always be linked to Sam Gilbert, the controversial UCLA booster and money launderer.

“Two people I admire greatly. Coach Wooden is one of them. I’m sure he had his problems trying to get Sam Gilbert out of that program because there’s not a man alive — if you read every book about Coach Wooden, you know, suddenly Sam Gilbert always pops up. There’s not a more humble person, a person with more integrity, a person that stood for everything we believe in and like than Coach Wooden. And he had to go through certain things in his life as well. We all do. There are people out there that go through certainly more hardships than I’ve been through even though these times have been very difficult.”

He also recalled another coaching great, Jim Valvano, telling him about the toll his dealings with the NCAA took on his health and how it made him vow not to let the process break him.

“He thought what he went through with the enforcement staff and NC State, he thought his whole constitution, the ability to fight cancer, was broken down by everything that he went through. He felt his immune system was broken down…That story resonated with me so strongly because we all admired Jim so much and how he fought cancer that I said in those five years, that’s not going to happen to me. It’s not going to beat me down to the point it kills my immune system. I’m not going to do that.”

He claims he’s staying at Iona

Now exonerated, Pitino will likely get some job offers from bigger schools. When asked, he claims he’s happy at Iona (or at least in the state of New York).

“I enjoy where I live. I’m part of the greatest city, the greatest state in the United States…I’m back home. I love where I live. I love the players I’m coaching.”

Right. See you in a high-major job in a few years, Rick.