Rick Pitino won't take the NCAA to court, but he hopes the school that fired him will.
The Hall of Famer held a press conference in Manhattan on Wednesday and spoke for nearly 20 minutes about the NCAA Committee on Appeals' decision to vacate Louisville's 2013 national championship and his unequivocal disapproval of that decision.
"To say I'm disappointed with the NCAA's appeals ruling is a gross understatement," he said. "The NCAA cannot rewrite history by taking a banner down. Our players won those games by outplaying outstanding opponents, and to say I'm proud would also be an understatement."
The Committee on Infractions' historic decision, which was finalized Tuesday after an appeal by Louisville did not succeed, is a high-water mark for symbolic punishment in major college basketball. Pitino's press conference was essentially to have his word heard, straight from the source, about his unbounded issues with the NCAA.
He implored Louisville to litigate, bringing reference to the ultimate NCAA heel, the late Jerry Tarkanian. Tark famously won a lawsuit against the NCAA. It was his oft-public dismissal of the NCAA machine that endeared Tarkanian to the general public over the years, even if he also had his detractors.
Pitino's situation is different.
His legacy has been shredded over the past few years, the deepest cuts to his reputation coming last fall after Louisville fired him with cause following an enormous FBI probe that discovered U of L's illicit recruitment of five-star prospect Brian Bowen. After spending more than 40 years in coaching, winning two national championships and 769 games at the college level (123 of which are now stricken from the record), the embarrassing winter of Pitino's career at Louisville is sure to be what he's remembered for most.
There were dorm parties organized by a former Pitino player-turned-staffer, featuring strippers with Louisville players and recruits in attendance. Then, while on probation for the stripper/escort scandal, the FBI caught Louisville assistants -- supposedly on wiretap -- in schemes to lure players to the school by nefarious means.
Again, all of this under Pitino's watch. The NCAA's official bylaws state that a head coach is responsible for everything that happens in their program.
"I take full responsibility for everyone I hire," Pitino said.
That's not the same thing. And so, once again, Pitino opted out of a rounded-out mea culpa and refused to own up for anything more than he absolutely had to, which is to say anything that remotely suggest he had any knowledge of Louisville's renegade habits. These are violations that could set Louisville's program back for years. The university has held itself accountable but Pitino will not.
The man has not lost his conviction.
"Anybody who lies is a fool," Pitino said. "Because the truth is going to come out."
Remember, the NCAA has not even begun to examine in any official capacity the wrongdoing in the FBI matter. Pitino maintains he never knew about the escorts on campus and swears he was unaware that Bowen's father was accepting money in exchange for his son's commitment to Pitino's program.
Yet, when Pitino wasn't criticizing the Committee on Infractions, he repeatedly gave credit to the NCAA by referencing the fact that the organization did not brand Louisville with the dreaded lack-of-institutional control label.
"I feel awful for what has happened," Pitino said. "I've run a clean program all my life."
There are many who will never believe that.
Pitino was under no obligation to hold a press conference on Wednesday. Ultimately, he clearly felt it necessary to speak publicly and defend his program -- but in essence, himself -- in the wake of the NCAA's landmark decision. With an opportunity to show more remorse and take more responsibility than he ever has, Pitino instead stayed on-beat from the few interviews he's given since the FBI case broke last September.
"I had no knowledge of the reprehensible things that went on in that dormitory," he said. "Did a few of them partake in parties they didn't organize? Yes they did. But that had nothing to do with an extra benefit. That nothing to do with helping their eligibility or performance in winning that championship. My heart is broken and shattered for them, our fans and our great university. It serves no purpose now for me to argue the unjust ruling of the committee members. ... I hope the university will not give up its fight and follow suit and take this injustice to the courts and filing an injunction for that banner not to come down."
Louisville's already taken the banner down. Meanwhile, Pitino's in the process of suing the university for violating the terms of his contract.
Whether or not Pitino will ever find work on a sideline again -- in the NBA or in college -- remains a tough sell at the moment. He was asked at the press conference if he's talked to any NBA franchises or college institutions. He said no, then waxed about the daily routine of coaching and how much he misses it.
"I miss every minute of player development, every minute of scouting and game-planning to beat an opponent," Pitino said. "I miss every minute of every timeout. But what the NCAA did, this committee did, hurts. It takes time to get over that hurt."
Pitino admitted his hiring of former player Andre McGee, who organized the stripper parties in the dormitory named after Pitino's late brother-in-law, was a mistake. But for those who were looking for a bigger step forward from the 65-year-old, it never came. He riffed off-script and took many more questions than his lawyer initially indicated would happen. It's obvious how much this bothers Pitino, and that's of course a very human response.
"I want all the facts to come out and I welcome the truth being exposed," he said. "Quite frankly, my words are just not enough."
His words aren't enough now and they clearly weren't enough in recent years. Because if they were, and if everything Pitino swears is the truth is actually so, then he wouldn't have needed to call a press conference on the 38th floor of the MetLife building in midtown Manhattan in the first place.
