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Louisville Fires Back Against Ex-Coach Over NCAA Bribery Scandal

Louisville Fires Back Against Ex-Coach Over NCAA Bribery Scandal

(Bloomberg) -- The University of Louisville fired back against former men’s basketball coach Rick Pitino in his lawsuit against the school over his firing in the wake of a bribery scandal, alleging he was the “active wrongdoer” and was terminated because he failed to adequately supervise his coaches.

Pitino sued the school late last month in federal court in Louisville, Kentucky, saying he was improperly fired after charges were filed following a two-year probe into corruption at the highest levels of college basketball.

Louisville Fires Back Against Ex-Coach Over NCAA Bribery Scandal

The school countersued, saying in a court filing Wednesday the former coach has damaged the school’s reputation and affected its ability to recruit, meet financial responsibilities associated with its basketball program, sell tickets and generate donations. The university said that while Pitino had expressed concern that the mother of a player was living in a four-star downtown hotel and told a coach to look into it, he never reported the matter to the school.

Federal prosecutors in New York unveiled charges in September against assistant coaches, managers, financial advisers and sportswear company executives as part of a wide-ranging corruption probe into college athletics, including the Louisville basketball program. Pitino, a Hall of Fame coach who won National Collegiate Athletic Association titles at the University of Kentucky and Louisville, wasn’t charged but he was suspended by the school and fired the following month.

To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Dolmetsch in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan at cdolmetsch@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Wollman

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