A book set to be released has reportedly sparked an NCAA investigation into the Louisville’s basketball program after an escort who authored the book claims she and others stripped, danced for and had sex with players and recruits after being paid by a former assistant.
The reason is simple, this happens at almost every large university in America, so you can’t be shocked by the allegations.
Yahoo breaks down the story:
The University of Louisville is investigating explosive allegations in a new book that claims a basketball staff member paid escorts to dance for and have sex with players and recruits, Yahoo Sports has learned.
The book, “Breaking Cardinal Rules: Basketball and the Escort Queen,” is being published by IBJ Book Publishing of Indianapolis. The book is written by Louisville resident Katina Powell – the self-described madam who allegedly provided women to the University of Louisville team – and Indianapolis-based journalist Dick Cady.
The book alleges that over a four-year period, Powell brought women into Billy Minardi Hall – the basketball dormitory on the Louisville campus that is named after Pitino’s late brother-in-law – through a side door to entertain players and recruits. Powell also says her dancers – which included her daughters – also entertained Louisville players at other locations off-campus. After the women danced for the players for an agreed-upon sum, Powell alleges that she would negotiate a second payment for the women to have sex with the athletes.
The book alleges: “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.”
The madam claims to have ALL THE TEXT MESSAGES.
Pitino smartly doesn’t appear to be involved in any of this, but the backlash is going to hit him anyway.
By Glenn Erby
