Rick Pitino knew of bribe to Louisville recruit, federal indictment alleges

A federal indictment in New York in the ongoing college basketball corruption and bribery case alleges that former Louisville coach Rick Pitino knew of a plan to pay recruit Brian Bowen and participated in the plan.

At issue in the indictment against Adidas executive Jim Gatto is a July 27 meeting in a hotel room in Las Vegas, in which sports agent and former AAU coach Christian Dawkins described the plan to lure Bowen, a 5-star recruit, to Louisville, per Mark Schlaback of ESPN:

“Dawkins explained that while [Pitino] and the University of Louisville were recruiting [Bowen], Dawkins asked [Pitino] to call James Gatto to request that [Adidas] provide the money requested by the family of [Bowen], which [Pitino] agreed to do,” the indictment reads.

Pitino was placed on administrative leave by Louisville on Sept. 27, then fired for just cause on Oct. 16, after coaching for 16 years at the school. A statement released by Pitino’s lawyers when he was placed on leave said, “Coach Pitino has done nothing wrong and there is no evidence to suggest otherwise.”

Bowen was cleared of any wrongdoing by the FBI on Oct. 2, and the freshman remains enrolled at the school, though he has not yet been reinstated from suspension by the basketball program.

Dawkins, who was also indicted this week, maintains his innocence through his attorney Steve Haney, to Yahoo Sports:

“For decades, college basketball has been nothing short of a sham of amateurism and [a] fraudulent one-year holding pen for the NBA. This environment has been endorsed by the universities, who have turned a blind eye and been the billion-dollar benefactors of alleged federal crimes. The sins of the NCAA are not going to be visited upon my client.”