Scandal makes Pitino's job harder

Scandal makes Pitino's job harder


Updated Aug 5, 2010 6:58 PM ET

Rick Pitino needs to win. In fact, he has to win.

For now, seeing Karen Cunagin Sypher — who tried to extort more than $10 million from the Louisville coach — land in prison can serve as a victory for Pitino.


However, it still won’t alter the perception many now hold of Pitino.

Now, that vision for some is as an adulterer — at a restaurant table with Sypher back in 2003.

The jokes have already begun to surface about Pitino and his “15 seconds” — the total time he said elapsed during the entire sexual encounter.

But we all know that sports fans forgive and forget.

Just look at Alex Rodriguez.

A-Rod admitted his transgression, and the majority of the New York Yankees fan base has absolved him of his wrongdoings.

The same can be said about Kobe Bryant.

In other words, fans wiped the slate clean. Some believe Pitino's image also will be restored because of the way he responded to the scandal initially.

“He was honest and open,” said former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, now a sports media consultant. “He’s survived the worst of this, and he will survive this trial.”

“The poster child for the other side is Barry Bonds,” Fleischer added. “He treated people badly and wasn’t perceived as being honest.”

But the fans won’t forgive or forget — even though he has come clean — if Pitino wins 20 games and bows out of the NCAA tournament in the first round year after year — as was the case this past season.

“If he’s a winner,” Fleischer said. “It will change.”

If A-Rod hadn’t have hit 30 homers in the regular season a year ago and a half-dozen more in a sizzling postseason in which the Yankees won another World Series title, those in the Bronx would be booing instead of cheering.

What Fleischer may not completely comprehend, though, is that the odds have become stacked against Pitino over the last couple of years since some guy named John Calipari moved 80 miles down the road in Lexington and took over the Kentucky program.

For Pitino, who turns 58 in September, winning hasn’t been this difficult since he took over the Louisville program in 2001. Or maybe even since he was with the Boston Celtics.

And the worst part: Pitino has nowhere to go.

He is stuck in Louisville.

Pitino can’t return to the NBA because, well, his track record in that league doesn’t justify a third go-around.

His last hurrah was a 3½-year, near-catastrophe in Boston.

Even the Sacramento Kings weren’t interested a year or so ago.

And even worse: The guy that won a national title with Kentucky in 1996 and has taken three different programs to the Final Four couldn't land another big-time job in the college ranks these days.

So he will, in all likelihood, ride it out and conclude his career in Louisville.

Sure, it wasn’t all that long ago that Pitino had the Cardinals as the top overall seed in the NCAA tournament.

That was, believe it or not, less than two years ago.

But it seems like an eternity.

Since then, Pitino has been bashed by just about everyone from the general public to colleagues with negative recruiting — and he’s watched with jealous envy as Calipari continues to stockpile elite talent at the school where he was a legend back in the 1990s.

Rick Pitino

Rick Pitino may be stuck at Louisville thanks to his sexual affair in 2003 with Karen Cunagin Sypher.
Ed Reinke

It’s so bad that Pitino even lost his top recruit, Marquis Teague — who just happens to be the son of one of his former players — to none other than Calipari.

Crushing.

It’s gotten to the point where the guy who didn’t want to deal with one-and-done players now has his sights set on Quincy Miller — a clear-cut, one-year loaner who is a virtual lock to leave college after the 2011-12 season.

Pitino would like nothing more than to get out of Louisville and get a fresh start.

But there are no viable options.

“It would be very difficult to hire him now,” said one athletic director of a top-20 caliber program. “Not with everything that’s happened. He wouldn’t be on my radar.”

“No chance,” said another big-time AD. “He’s almost unhireable right now.”

Pitino lost his top three scorers from last year’s group — including big man Samardo Samuels, who wasn’t even drafted — and the incoming recruiting class is hardly intimidating.

Pitino is so desperate, in fact, that he took on Roburt Sallie — a player that Memphis coach Josh Pastner didn’t even want. Sallie has one immediate year of eligibility left and will likely start for Louisville this season.

That’s how bad it’s all gotten.

Pitino does have a verbal commitment from one of the top rising seniors in the country, Chicago’s Wayne Blackshear, and adding Miller to the class would make him relevant again for something besides his indiscretions.

Maybe then — and only then — would all be forgotten.