Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino has been placed on unpaid administrative leave and athletic director Tom Jurich has been placed on paid administrative leave Wednesday for allegations involving bribery of college recruits and their families that surfaced on Tuesday.
Louisville President Greg Postel said in a news conference on Wednesday afternoon Pitino was not technically fired as of yet because the investigation is still ongoing. Postel said placing the individual in question on administrative leave is typical for this type of situation.
Pitino's attorney Steve Pence told the Courier-Journal Pitino was "effectively fired" after he met with Postel on Wednesday.
The annoucement comes after Louisville was handed NCAA sanctions in June for an escort scandal.
Pitino, who has been the head coach at Lousivlle since 2001, released a statement Tuesday afternoon writing he was in "complete shock" about the allegations involving Louisville basketball and would work with the U.S. Attorneys Office to ensure the "third-party schemes, initiated by a few bad actors, operated to commit a fraud" on the university would be punished.
Pitino’s administrative leave comes after Louisville announced Tuesday it was one of the schools alluded to in a federal investiation of alleged bribery involving recruits of top collegiate programs and three employees at Adidas.
Petino, 65, was not named in the report released Tuesday, however, 10 people including four assistant coaches at Power 5 schools were arrested along a director Adidas.
Here’s what Twitter users had to say about Pitino and Jurich’s firing:
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