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Pitino sex scandal bound to affect recruiting

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Jeff Goodman

Jeff Goodman is a senior college basketball writer for FOXSports.com. Check out his Yardbarker blog. MORE>>
 
Updated Aug 19, 2009 9:43 AM ET
     
 
Late Tuesday night, the news broke out of Kentucky that Louisville hoops coach Rick Pitino had admitted to having an affair. But not just any affair.
According to a report in The Courier-Journal, Pitino and Karen Sypher had sex at a table in an upscale Louisville restaurant in August of 2003 (while one of Pitino's assistants was apparently lying on the restaurant floor nearby). Two weeks later, Sypher told Pitino she was pregnant and planned to have an abortion but didn't have any health insurance. According to Pitino's lawyer, the Louisville coach then gave Sypher $3,000 in order to pay for her insurance. Almost six years later, the case became public when Pitino announced in April that someone had tried to extort him. Sypher surrendered to authorities a few days later after being named in a criminal complaint. She currently faces federal charges of lying to the FBI and attempting to extort $10 million from Pitino. Then in July, Sypher told police that Pitino had forced himself on her, both during that initial encounter at the restaurant, then again several weeks later. Pitino has denied that claim, and Kentucky authorities have said there is not enough evidence to prosecute. But the bottom line is that this is a mess that won't just impact Pitino and his personal life. It's going to have an effect on the Louisville program as well as Sypher's federal trial may well drag out into the start of the college basketball season. And the timing couldn't be much worse for Pitino. It's August, when most of the country's elite basketball players are whittling down their school lists and figuring out where to take official visits. Now it suddenly makes sense why Pitino shuttled his son, Richard, one of the elite young recruiters in the business, down to Gainesville to work for Pitino's former player, Billy Donovan. He clearly didn't want him to be in Louisville and be subjected to this soap opera up close and personal. Now it makes sense why, instead of hiring a big-time recruiter to help him do battle with the new coach down the road in Lexington, John Calipari, Pitino instead brought in his best friend, 63-year-old Ralph Willard. Pitino needed a trusted confidant far more than someone to help him lock up recruits. Louisville already missed out on their top recruit for the Class of 2010 last week when Brazilian big man Fab Melo somewhat surprisingly chose Syracuse over the heavily-favored Cardinals. While Pitino may not be able to land another Samardo Samuels or a guy the caliber of Melo, there are still those whose views on Louisville in the wake of the Pitino news haven't altered a bit. "It doesn't change anything with us," said Rod Odom Sr., whose son, Rod, is being recruited by several other Big East schools. "We sat down as a family last night and analyzed it and spoke to Rod about it." The same goes for rising 6-foot-10 junior Michael Chandler, one of the elite big men in the Class of 2011, who committed to Pitino and the Cardinals back in January. "My commitment is still strong," Chandler said on Tuesday. "It wouldn't change because of this because it's not true. This won't affect my decision at all." While Chandler maintains that he hasn't been the target of negative recruiting, that probably will change. Many programs that will go up against Louisville in recruiting wars will likely use the uncertainty involving Pitino to their advantage. "It just happened, so we haven't gotten any of that yet," the elder Odom said. Just wait. There will be recruiters who speculate whether Pitino will resign or take a leave of absence in order to gain an advantage. It'll be floated that Pitino hired Willard in the event that he needed to step away. Pitino has a team worthy of top 25 consideration. There's Samuels and another talented sophomore big man in Terrence Jennings up front with a trio of experienced guards in Edgar Sosa, Jerry Smith and Preston Knowles. The freshman class is led by talented guard Peyton Siva. The Cardinals may not be up there with Kansas or Pitino's rival down the road, but they do have enough talent to make a run at a Sweet 16 appearance. Now it's just a question of whether they can stay there.
Tagged: Kansas, Samford, Syracuse, Louisville

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