Former Louisville Staffer Paid To Provide Sex to Players/Recruits?

LOUISVILLE, KY – JANUARY 11: Rick Pitino the Head Coach of the Louisville Cardinals is pictured during the the Big East Conference game against the Villanova Wildcats at Freedom Hall on January 11, 2010 in Louisville, Kentucky. Villanova won 92-84 (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

Louisville’s very own fan boy and Yahoo Sports writer Pat Forde broke some news today that could put Louisville Basketball in the NCAA’s dog house. Earlier today, Forde tweeted out that a book that is on pre-order right now, was written by Louisville resident Katina Powell stated that a former staffer for Louisville Basketball apparently paid for “escorts to dance for and have sex with players and recruits”. Certainly not looking good for little brother and Pat Forde who will now have to write a story on how Pitino made his bed and how he will have to lay in it, after he wrote a similar bogus story about Calipari. (P.S. he wont do it)

The book written by Katina, one of the escorts, is called Breaking Cardinal Rules goes in depth on how Andre McGee paid for her services for the players and also paid for services of other escorts as well. McGee was the director of  basketball operations from 2012-2014, and yes that includes the NCAA Championship in 2013. If Louisville was to be sanctioned you can almost guarantee that the beloved championship would be taken away leaving everyone in Louisville with neck tattoos and line beards (90% of UL fans) devastated.

Yahoo Sports acquired a copy of the book and here an excerpt of the book

"“At the peak of the dormitory and off-campus entertainment more than $10,000 cash changed hands to Katina for supplying the women. This does not include the hundreds of one dollar bills thrown at the dancers at each party by McGee, the recruits and players. Nor does it include the money paid to the women who had sex with the recruits afterward. So frequent were the escapades that Katina would later say, especially after the Cardinals won the 2012-2013 NCAA championship: I felt like I was part of the recruitment team. A lot of them players went to Louisville because of me.”"

Could this be a ploy for her to get money? Yes, it very well could be, but it seems more and more unlikely that that is the case as photo’s like this leaked from the Indianapolis Business Journal showing a picture of Katina Powell and a recruit. The NCAA has already talked to current LSU player and ex-Louisville recruit Antonio Blakeney about his visit to Louisville and what transpired.

Of Course Louisville brain trust in athletics including Tom Jurich, Rick Pitino held a press conference this evening to discuss the matter. First, we will start off with this quote from Jurich about Pitino, “We talk all the time. Hes My basketball coach. He wouldn’t condone this either,” and here is the kicker, “He has a perfect track record.” Yep, a perfect track record that includes the whole Karen Sypher incident, he must not consider that as part of the track record. Then Pitino spoke and said, “To say I’m shocked is an understatement,” he is probably shocked that someone finally came out about it. He then continued to say, “I don’t think any recruits came because of these women,  “To say I am disheartened, disappointed would be the biggest understatement I’ve made as a coach,” and “You know the allegations. Now we have to find the truth,” well Mr. Pitino it seems as if you don’t have to search for the truth any longer, you can pre order your copy of the “truth” on ibj.com/books.

There may be a twist, in this story. Did Indiana University turn in Louisville basketball? Tom Jurich, did not mention or want to comment on the fact that IU may have been the driving force behind all of this. Jurich did say that he learned of the allegations via email from Indiana’s athletic director Scott Dolson. Zach Osterman of the Indystar.com tweeted this out earlier today regarding this:

If Indiana turned Louisville in then so be it, but here is the reason that Powell wrote the book, as she stated here:

"I decided to write the book to tell my story and to let people know what goes on inside of college basketball…. and how they get their new recruits. It’s important for people to know how young kids are persuaded to do certain things by sex, drugs and alcohol.”"

Whether this is the case or not, there seems to be a big problem brewing for Louisville basketball. Now, obviously Louisville isn’t the only school that has done this, tons of other schools do this as a way to bribe kids to go to their school, throwing beautiful women at them to sway their decision. As you may recall, although nothing came out of it, there many rumors that while Andrew Wiggins was on campus at Florida State University that someone paid for women to get to know Wiggins a little better. It does happen at other schools so don’t think Louisville is the only place this happens, the just happened to get caught.

While the investigation continues, keep in mind that nothing is completely official yet, and still very well could just be a plan for this lady to make a lot of money, then again it may be true. Until then, we will keep you posted on the developments of this story. Also, don’t forget to have a little fun with all of your Louisville Cardinal loving co-workers and give them a hard time. Remind them that if their banner gets taken down that Kentucky actually “won it last” and that their last championship will continue to be 1986. Apparently there was a little more to the “White Pimp” suit that Pitino wears then we originally thought. One last bit of fact, only Louisville could get the word “hookers” trending on twitter. Go Cats.

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