Why Rick Pitino Needs to Resign
Ryan Desmarais is a senior at the University of New Hampshire at Manchester, where he will receive his BA in English in December 2009. Ryan is also a writer at The Bleacher Report and Celtics Town. He currently resides in Manchester, NH.
The University of Louisville put their faith in Rick Pitino.
School officials believed that he would be the right man to lead a group of talented kids through challenging basketball seasons year in and year out.
They believed that he would help produce victories and, ultimately, championships for a school that hadn’t cut down the nets since 1986.
They believed that he would be a role model for the young men that would become part of the Louisville community.
The University was half right.
The Cardinals have won 200 games in Pitino’s eight seasons at the helm. They’ve made the NCAA Tournament six times, advanced to the Elite Eight twice, and made a trip to the Final Four in 2005.
Pitino has padded his legacy as one of the greatest coaches in college basketball history during his time at Louisville, upping his career win total to 521. With five career Final Four appearances and a National Championship on his resume, Pitino is a sure bet for the Hall of Fame.
However, his image has taken a huge hit over the last couple of days due to a sex scandal that involves a restaurant, health insurance, and $3,000.
Amazingly, those seem to be the only parts of the scandal that are clear-cut.
Pitino, his lawyers, and the University have been doing some major damage control since the story broke in an attempt to save face amidst contrasting reports.
But the best damage control for all parties involved is for Pitino to resign.
Immediately.
The scandal has caused some major trust issues between Louisville and Pitino. Although Pitino had told University President James Ramsey earlier about the extortion attempts by Karen Cunagin Sypher, the woman involved in the scandal, Ramsey said he found some of the details of the scandal “surprising.”
No matter what job you have, it’s never a good idea to surprise your boss with really bad news.
Especially when it involves legal matters.
Anytime there’s a negative surprise, it usually means that the whole truth didn’t come out immediately. Now that Ramsey knows that Pitino’s been hiding the truth from him, is Ramsey going to be able to fully trust Pitino to run the program going forward? It’s not going to help matters.
But the real trust issues come with Pitino’s most important resource: the recruits and their parents.
Pitino’s coaching numbers speak for themselves. But whether it’s fair or not, the parents of his top recruits expect him to help build their teenage kids into respectable young men.
These parents see the head coach as a main representative of the University when they allow him into their homes on recruiting trips.
Is it possible for these same parents to ignore an extremely messy scandal involving a very powerful head coach who will be guiding their child through the next four years of his life?
Even more, is it possible for the parents to trust a school that doesn’t take any disciplinary action on high-ranking officials that are involved in these situations?
This scandal will become a huge distraction for Pitino, the program, and the University as the season gets closer. The media circus will invade Freedom Hall with no intention of asking Pitino about the upcoming Big East schedule. Everything’s going to be about the controversy.
The players will be affected by all the negative attention coming their way. How will a group of 18- to 21-year-olds handle the nightly scrutiny of something that isn’t even their problem in addition to focusing on their opponent?
Pitino’s too deep in this situation right now.
The trust is gone and now he’s threatening to get others involved in this mess.
A simple apology won’t get the job done anymore.
It’s time for him to move on.
I fully understand that you wrote this piece with a strong opinion to hopefully get responses in return, but come on. Resign? You are talking about one of the greatest coaches in NCAA history, and all you can come up with is that it’ll be a distraction?
If this was some rookie coach at some small time program I can understand having him step down, but this is Rick Pitino. This will all be gone by the time the season rolls around and no one will care anymore.
kellex,
I fully understand your point and you are partially correct that I wrote this piece with a strong opinion to get discussions flowing. It looks like it’s worked already and I thank you for the feedback.
The distraction is more like the icing on the cake more than anything else. The major reason why I feel Pitino should resign is because of his reputation and how this will affect Louisville’s ability to recruit. Like I said, parents care about these kind of situations and when they don’t trust the person who is going to oversee their child for some years, chances are they won’t consider it an option.
You could be right. it could all blow over and disappear. It’s possible. But if it doesn’t, it could affect the mindset of the team and cause a lot of problems. Who knows how everything’s going to play out, but I respect your opinion and I’m very glad you voiced it here. Thanks for reading.
My personal opinion is that Pitino should resign based on his actions. And I agree with Ryan that parents won’t trust him. But then again wasn’t Pitino trying to go back to the NBA next season anyway?
But
I’ve heard reports already that Louisville is backing Pitino. So I guess keelex is right that it will blow over.
This incident is not going have a major impact on Pitino’s ability to recruit. Pitino recruits top 100 basketball players. Most of them are interested primariy in getting to the NBA, they are not looking for a father figure or a moral compass. Pitino has a track record of getting players to the NBA and his sex life doesn’t diminish that fact.
If these are the standards U of L allows for the sake of winning, it’s not a school to send daughters for an education. Everyone is replaceable and it’s time Pitino found work elsewhere, particularly away from young people. There are plenty of good coaches who will focus on the sport instead of women, sex, and horse racing.
Pitino should to the respectful thing and resign. There will be much more damaging and embarrassing information (true or not) coming out during the extortion trial. i have followed U of L basketball since Crum arrived. I am disappointed, but not surprised. As a parent of a former college basketball player, it was very important to my wife and I that our daughter played for a coach with high morals and character. This would have been her first time away from home for any extended time and so it was crucial that she went to a place where she would be molded into a better basketball player, but more importantly, a better human being. So, yes, It will have an impact on his recruiting.