CARDINALS

Pitino to skip ACC basketball media day

Jeff Greer
Louisville Courier Journal

Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino will skip ACC media day next week in Charlotte, the program announced Friday. Pitino, team spokesman Kenny Klein said, has been advised not to participate by the university's lawyers.

Graduate transfers Trey Lewis and Damion Lee are still planning to attend Wednesday's event, which includes morning round-table interviews with print and Web writers, brief press conferences with television stations, radio interviews and short sit-down chats with the ACC's own digital network.

"I do not want the allegations we are facing to negatively impact the other 14 institutions on what should be a great event to talk about the approaching basketball season," Pitino said in the release. "I realize that while many would like to question me on the allegations, the NCAA does not permit me to speak on the subject."

The concept that Pitino may not attend the conference media day came up on Oct. 13 at the U of L Basketball Tipoff Luncheon.

Powell: Exposing UofL sex scandal about money

Early on in his 19-minute speech to U of L hoops fans, Pitino said the NCAA has "suggested" that he doesn't "say anything about anything." That, he said, means he doesn't have to go to "media day."

"I get to avoid all these questions that people get to ask," he said.

It was unclear at the time if Pitino meant the ACC or local media day, both annual functions. And Klein, asked for clarification, said he didn't know of any plans to skip those events.

Given the ongoing investigations into the claims laid out in "Breaking Cardinal Rules," a book filled with allegations that a former U of L hoops staffer paid escorts thousands of dollars and gave them game tickets in exchange for them dancing for and having sex with players and recruits, U of L's legal team determined it would not make sense for Pitino to participate in all-day interviews.

For ACC media day, the coaches meet with ESPN at the network's Charlotte studios, then run through radio interviews, a press conference and a round-table discussion with print and Web reporters.

Coach confirms Andre McGee resigns from UMKC

It's a long day, one that prompted Pitino last year to have a cup of coffee, something he said he hadn't done in years.

This year's sessions with Pitino surely would have focused almost entirely on the ongoing investigations, though the coach has already said this week that he is trying to focus on basketball and the upcoming season, as hard as that may be.

"Let's let the investigators do their job and we will play basketball," he wrote Thursday in a blog post on his website.

After the opening segment of his blog post, in which Pitino said he will not resign as coach, he went player-by-player through his roster and provided updates on their progress through preseason workouts.

To make up for Pitino's absence at the league's media day, U of L released a video on Friday afternoon of Pitino once again breaking down his team and the 2015-16 season.