Rick Pitino defends Tom Jurich in radio interview from 'witch hunt of epic proportions'

Courier Journal

Former Louisville men's basketball coach Rick Pitino stuck up for former athletic director Tom Jurich during a Wednesday evening interview with Terry Meiners on WHAS-840.

"This is a witch hunt of epic proportions on that man and his family," said Pitino, responding to the termination letter for Jurich that was made public Tuesday. "He is the best athletic director in the game. ... You need to build a statue of Tom Jurich, not smear him."

In a continuation of comments made in an ESPN interview last week, Pitino took aim at a few members of the University of Louisville's board of trustees that fired Jurich last week and the school's handling of the scandal that has unfolded as a result of an FBI investigation that brought allegations against the Cardinals' men's basketball program.

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"No assistant coaches got indicted," Pitino said. "Nothing has happened yet. The facts haven't been out. They rushed to judgment. They killed my dreams. They killed some of the players' dreams who wanted to play for me. They killed one of the top recruiting classes in the history of my tenure without any facts going on. ... And these are outsiders coming in and doing this to our program."

Pitino said Louisville's response has been "the opposite of North Carolina," which successfully argued a lengthy academic case with the NCAA and recently emerged with its men's basketball program unscathed.

"North Carolina stuck together to go against their battle with the NCAA and prevailed," Pitino said. "We're going in there and we're just breaking everything apart, sabotaging basketball, sabotaging the appeal and just really killing everything that the players fought for to make our program special. It truly breaks my heart what they did with that letter to Tom yesterday. They're trying not to pay him. ...

"You can try to save money and try to do whatever you want contractually, but you don't do that in the eyes of the community, in the eyes of the coaches that are there. What do you think Dan McDonnell the baseball coach or Bobby Petrino the football coach, all of these people who have stood by Tom and are behind Tom 100 percent are going to say: 'Boy, if they're doing that to Tom, what's going to happen to me?'"

Calling the trustees' actions "a blueprint how not to deal with the NCAA," Pitino referenced the infractions case that resulted in Louisville's sanctions this past summer and implied it has been mishandled.

"We walked in last time with Chuck Smrt, didn't know any of the people on the (NCAA) committee (on infractions), didn't do our research," Pitino told Meiners. "We walked into that taking probation, taking all these sanctions, limited scholarships and everything else. How'd we fare, Terry? We did the opposite of what North Carolina did, didn't we?"

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Pitino mentioned David Grissom by name as one of the trustees he was criticizing.

Pitino said "about a month ago, maybe six weeks ago" he spoke with the board of trustees and "They were totally against me. I felt it."

"The people in handcuffs (as a part of FBI's investigation), none of their head coaches were even dismissed at all," Pitino said. "They said, 'We're not going to rush to judgment. We're going to wait and see.' Our entire recruiting class — which was going to be unbelievable — was totally broken up. They're not going to be able to sign a quality player because of that. Such a rush to judgment. Why? Let the facts come out. Let me coach this year, and if you see I did anything improper fire me on the spot. But let the facts come out."

Correcting himself for using "we" and "us" in reference to Louisville's program — "I guess I'm no longer a part of it, so I'll stop saying us." — Pitino told Meiners he doesn't want to "get bitter" as "I was so pumped up about this team this year."

Pitino said his lawyers are handling the situation with his contract and that "if it comes to litigation, that's in their hands."

"I want to coach my basketball team. That's all I want," Pitino said. "They want to bring me back tomorrow, I'll be back to tomorrow."

► Pitino implied during the radio interview that fired assistant coach Jordan Fair was "Coach 1" in the FBI's complaint, which describes a July 27 meeting in a Las Vegas hotel that included an assistant coach from Louisville referred to as "Coach 1." The complaint alleges the meeting was to discuss a plan to attempt to funnel money to a recruit's family in order to get him to attend Louisville.

"I don't have the facts to any of that, and I'm not going to hang (Fair) out to dry," Pitino said. "Whatever he did, it was a wrong move, and he needs to explain his behavior. ... He did the wrong thing by stepping in that room, and he has to speak up on that matter and not hide behind lawyers as well, because he has not been indicted like those other four assistant coaches."