Louisville Cardinals Basketball

Former Louisville head basketball coaches Rick Pitino and Chris Mack won't be disciplined by the NCAA following an investigation into allegations of violating recruiting rules and ethics standards.

Per Matt Norlander of CBS Sports, both men avoided any type of punishment and Louisville only received a $5,000 fine with two years of probation, no postseason ban and a "small" reduction in recruiting days.

The FBI announced in September 2017 the arrest of 10 people related to an investigation into bribes and corruption in college basketball. Four assistant coaches and Adidas executive James Gatto were among those arrested.

Louisville was among seven schools implicated in the first wave of the scandal, specifically its recruitment of Brian Bowen II.

Per ESPN's Mark Schlabach, an unidentified Louisville assistant coach had a phone call with three others, including then-Adidas employee Merl Code, financial advisor Munish Sood and an undercover agent for the FBI.

"The men discussed how they were going to mask an initial $25,000 payment from Adidas to the father of a high school player who had recently committed to Louisville, which has a shoe and apparel deal with Adidas," Schlabach wrote.

Schlabach noted the FBI complaint also said Gatto and Christian Dawkins, a former agent at ASM Sports, along with the other men previously "agreed to funnel $100,000" to Bowen's father in four payments.

"Dawkins told the others he was paying the player's father at the request of a Louisville coach," according to Schlabach.

Pitino was placed on unpaid administrative leave and athletic director Tom Jurich was placed on paid administrative leave by Louisville.

Jurich was originally fired for cause by the university in October 2017, but the two sides agreed to a settlement seven months later that paid him $4.5 million, his employment ended without cause since he resigned and described his settlement as a "retirement."

The University of Louisville athletics board unanimously voted to terminate Pitino's contract for cause in October 2017.

Pitino filed a $38.7 million lawsuit against the University of Louisville Athletic Association. Both parties reached a settlement in September 2019 in which Pitino received no money, but his personnel file changed his termination to a resignation.

Mack was named Louisville head coach in March 2018 after spending the previous nine years as Xavier's head coach. He was added to the NCAA investigation in October 2021 for three alleged violations that came to light following former assistant coach Dino Gaudio's dismissal earlier in the year.

Per The Athletic's Dana O'Neil, Gaudio threatened to go to the NCAA if he wasn't paid his full salary in a conversation recorded by Mack. The conversation initiated an extortion claim, leading to Gaudio pleading guilty and receiving one year of probation.

Mack was suspended for the first six games of the 2021-22 season for not following school guidelines after Gaudio's attempted extortion.

Louisville fired Mack in January after the team got off to a 6-8 start. He finished 63-36 in four seasons with the Cardinals.

Hercy Miller, the son of rapper Master P, plans to walk on for the men's basketball team at Louisville, according to On3's Matt Zenitz.

Miller began the 2021-22 season at Tennessee State and averaged 2.0 points and 0.2 assists in six appearances. He had also signed a $2 million name, image and likeness deal prior to suiting up for the Tigers.

However, Miller entered the transfer portal for the first time in December after suffering a season-ending hip injury. Master P explained the injury was the impetus for the decision.

"We've got a great program at Tennessee State. We've got great people. We loved the culture. We just don't have enough trainers," he said, per The Tennessean's Mike Organ. "We don't have enough medical people to take care of what needs to be taken care of. We don't have the technology that the Dukes and all these major universities have. An injury like this could have been prevented."

Miller eventually settled on Xavier as his next step. Although the NCAA instituted a rule allowing athletes to transfer one time and maintain immediate eligibility, the 6'3" guard was unable to play for the Musketeers because he switched schools in the middle of the season.

Per 247Sports, Miller will be Louisville's second addition through the transfer portal after power forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield joined the Cardinals from Tennessee. First-year head coach Kenny Payne also has commitments from a pair of 4-star high school recruits, small forwards Kamari Lands and Devin Ree.

Payne, who played at Louisville and was a part of the national championship-winning squad in 1985-86, took over for Chris Mack.

The Cardinals started well under Mack, reaching the 2019 NCAA tournament and winning 24 games in the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season. However, Mack was out of a job by January after the team went 6-8 to open the year.

The Louisville Cardinals reportedly made a notable move in the race to land top recruit D.J. Wagner.

According to Jeff Borzello of ESPN, Louisville hired Milt Wagner, who played for the Cardinals and is the grandfather of D.J. Wagner. Wagner will be the program's director of player development and serve in an alumni relations role.

The younger Wagner is the No. 1 player in the 2023 recruiting class, per 247Sports' composite rankings.

Milt Wagner is one of the most accomplished players in Louisville history.

He played for the Cardinals from 1981-86 and won a national championship while reaching three Final Fours. He was also an All-Metro Conference selection three times and was a second-round draft pick of the Dallas Mavericks after his collegiate career.

His NBA career included stops on the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat, and he won a championship with the Purple and Gold in 1988.

As for D.J. Wagner, Borzello noted he is "the subject of an intense recruiting battle between Louisville and Kentucky."

There is also some family history in place outside of his grandfather's connection to Louisville. Kentucky head coach John Calipari coached his father, Dajuan Wagner, at Memphis. Dajuan Wagner signed with the Tigers after Calipari hired Milt Wagner for the Memphis program at the time.

What's more, Louisville head coach Kenny Payne was teammates with Milt Wagner on Louisville's 1986 national championship team.

"Just the Kentucky-Louisville rivalry, I feel like that's crazy. I'm still open to every college right now, I'm just enjoying the process," D.J. Wagner said. "But I think that rivalry, just Kentucky and Louisville in general, the history behind it, it's a great rivalry."

Winning this battle on the recruiting trail will set the table for either Louisville or Kentucky to win the rivalry showdown on the court as well.         

Iona men's basketball head coach Rick Pitino denied any involvement in allegations levied by former Adidas executive Merl Code, who claims that the 69-year-old signed off on a $100,000 payment in 2017 to the father of 5-star recruit Brian Bowen when he led Louisville's program.

Code reiterated those allegations in his upcoming book, "Black Market: An Insider's Journey Into the High-Stakes World of College Basketball."

Those claims are part of the FBI's investigation into a wide-ranging college basketball corruption scandal primarily involving bribes for players to suit up for various schools.

As relayed by Matthew McGavic of Louisville Report, the NCAA's notice of allegations against Louisville states that "Code and fellow Adidas executive Jim Gatto arranged a $100,000 payment in the summer of 2017 to Bowen's father through agent Christian Dawkins in exchange for Bowen II to commit to Louisville."

Code claims that Pitino "signed off" on the transaction.

"The gist of the prosecution was that, as it related to me, my actions made Brian Bowen ineligible, thus defrauding the University of Louisville," Code said. "As a consultant with Adidas, I did not act on my own, nor could I have done so. I simply ran the proposition by my bosses, who did the same after consulting with Rick Pitino, and the answer that came back from up high was, 'Rick wants our help. Get it done.'"

Pitino has denied the allegations numerous times, including once in an interview with ESPN's Jay Bilas in October 2017. He said that he passed a lie detector test when asked whether he knew of any payment to the Bowens.

The notice of allegations includes more claims than the one involving the Bowens. ESPN's Mark Schlabach and Jeff Borzello provided an overview in May 2020:

Louisville received a notice of allegations from the NCAA on Monday, including one Level I allegation involving improper recruiting offers for former signee Brian Bowen II and the coach of another prospect and three Level II allegations, including one against former basketball coach Rick Pitino.

Louisville also is accused of failing to adequately monitor the recruitment of an incoming, high-profile student-athlete.

The NCAA alleges that Pitino, who recently was hired at Iona, did not satisfy his head coach responsibility when he failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance. Former assistant coaches Kenny Johnson and Jordan Fair are accused of providing impermissible benefits and transportation and having impermissible contact with a recruit.

The University of Louisville Athletic Association board fired Pitino for cause in October 2017 after news of the scandal broke. Pitino filed a breach of contract lawsuit in response. Two years later, he and Louisville settled. His departure from the school was officially changed from a firing to a resignation.

Pitino's lengthy coaching resume includes the 1996 and 2013 national championships and seven Final Four appearances. A 2013 inductee into the Basketball Hall of Fame, he is in his second season at the New Rochelle, New York, school. Iona (21-5) made the NCAA tournament last year and currently leads the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference with a 13-2 record this season.

Chris Mack has confirmed he is no longer the head coach for the Louisville men's basketball team. 

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Mack said he's "not bitter in any way" about the end of his tenure with the Cardinals. 

ESPN's Jeff Borzello and Pete Thamel reported on Tuesday that Mack's job status was "in peril" and the school was "engaged in discussions to separate with the fourth-year head coach."

Mack has had a tumultuous 2021-22 season that left his status with the Cardinals up in the air. 

In August, Louisville announced Mack was being suspended for the first six games of the season for failing to follow proper guidelines related to an extortion attempt by former assistant coach Dino Gaudio. 

Gaudio pleaded guilty to a federal charge of attempted extortion for threatening to go public with alleged NCAA violations committed by the men's basketball program during a meeting with Louisville officials after it was decided his contract would not be renewed. 

According to Borzello and Thamel, the NCAA amended a previous notice of allegations against the men's basketball program related to Gaudio's firing to include three new alleged violations:

The alleged violations stem from last spring's firing of Gaudio, which resulted in Gaudio attempting to extort Mack. In a recording, Gaudio told Mack he would expose violations if not paid the remainder of his salary.

The NCAA alleged that Mack 'either participated in, condoned, or negligently disregarded violations involving graduate assistants and others participation in practice as well as the creation and use of personalized recruiting videos and aids.'

The notice included one Level I allegation and three Level II allegations. 

Mack was hired in March 2018, five months after Rick Pitino was fired for his role in the bribery and corruption scandal involving a total of seven schools. Louisville vacated all of its wins from 2011-15, including its national title from the 2012-13 season. 

Louisville went 68-37 in 105 games with one NCAA tournament appearance with Mack as head coach. The Cardinals have lost five of their last six games since starting this season 10-4.     

Chris Mack's days at Louisville may be numbered.

Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated reported the Louisville Board of Trustees and its athletics board are set for a meeting on the men's basketball coach's future Wednesday that "could result in a change." Mack's weekly radio show on Tuesday has been canceled amid the rumors.

Jeff Borzello and Pete Thamel of ESPN reported the school is currently in negotiations to fire Mack, who is due a $12 million buyout. It's possible that number is lowered as part of exit negotiations.

Louisville has lost five of its last six games and dropped to 11-9 on the season. The Cardinals have put together a series of increasingly listless efforts of late, including managing a season-low 52 points in Monday's 12-point loss at Virginia.

The Louisville home crowd also loudly booed in Saturday's loss to Notre Dame.

“I'm frustrated too," Mack told reporters after the game. "I appreciate everybody coming tonight, they care deeply. They care deeply. They want Louisville to win, we want Louisville to win. Trust me, we're trying to do everything we can to get better and to improve."

Mack, 52, is in his fourth season at Louisville after spending the previous nine years at Xavier. The Cardinals have not gotten out of the first round of the NCAA tournament during his tenure and are 68-37 overall.

The program had been a beacon of stability for the better part of 50 years, with Denny Crum leading Louisville from 1971 to 2001 and then Rick Pitino taking over from 2001 to 2017. Former assistant David Padgett coached the team on an interim basis after Pitino's firing ahead of the 2017-18 season, but the Cardinals hoped they had found their next stalwart in Mack a year later.

The results have simply not followed. Mack has struggled to recruit at a high level, with 247Sports currently ranking Louisville 42nd in the 2022 class and never once landing a top-10 class during his tenure. He's struggled to coach up the talent he's brought to Louisville as well, with the team consistently finishing in the middle of the pack in the ACC.

With the once-promising 10-4 start to 2021-22 falling apart, it appears the administration is reaching a breaking point.

A COVID-19 outbreak within the Louisville Cardinals men's basketball team has forced Wednesday's game against Kentucky to be postponed. 

Louisville interim athletic director Josh Heird announced all team activities have been paused indefinitely "due to multiple positive COVID-19 tests among individuals within the program."

"Officials from Kentucky and Louisville will monitor opportunities in which the teams can reschedule the annual rivalry game," the statement said.

A Louisville spokesman told Matthew McGavic of the Louisville Report on Saturday that an unspecified player was entered into COVID-19 protocols. 

Per Mike Rutherford of CardChronicle.com, Louisville center Malik Williams didn't play against Western Kentucky on Saturday because he was in the protocol. 

Williams was the only Cardinals player unavailable for that game. 

Per ESPN's Jeff Borzello, Kentucky will attempt to find a replacement opponent for either Wednesday or Thursday. 

The Wildcats are coming off a 98-69 win over North Carolina on Saturday. They were originally scheduled to play Ohio State, but the Buckeyes had to cancel due to a COVID-19 outbreak. 

North Carolina's game against UCLA scheduled for Saturday was also canceled due to COVID-19 issues within the Bruins program. 

If the game is unable to be rescheduled, this will mark the first time since the 1982-83 season that Kentucky and Louisville haven't played in the regular season. 

Louisville's next scheduled game is at home on Dec. 29 against Wake Forest. Kentucky is currently scheduled to play Missouri at Rupp Arena on Dec. 29.    

The University of Louisville announced Friday men's basketball head coach Chris Mack will be suspended six games without pay for failing to following school guidelines after an extortion attempt by former assistant coach Dino Gaudio, who left the Cardinals program in March.

Here's the full statement, via CBS Sports' Matt Norlander:

In June, Gaudio reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors to avoid prison time, instead receiving probation and a fine in exchange for pleading guilty to a charge of interstate communication with intent to extort, according to the Associated Press.

Prosecutors said in court documents Gaudio threatened to expose potential NCAA violations, including use of "production of recruiting videos for prospective student-athletes and in the use of its graduate assistants in practices," if the program didn't pay him 17 months of additional salary or a lump-sum payment of $425,000 after being informed his contract wouldn't be renewed, per the AP.

Gaudio served as an assistant to Mack on the Louisville staff since 2018.

The 64-year-old Ohio native previously served as a head coach at Army (1993-97), Loyola (1997-2000) and Wake Forest (2007-10) as part of a 31-year coaching career.

Louisville was already under NCAA investigation for a potential "failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance by former Cardinals coach Rick Pitino," who led the program from 2001 through 2017, which included evidence from the 2017 FBI probe into corruption in college basketball that led to the arrest of 10 people.

The NCAA hasn't announced whether it will investigate Gaudio's allegations about the program as part of either that investigation or a separate one.

Meanwhile, Mack will be prohibited from contact with Cardinals basketball players during the suspension, which will run from Nov. 8 through Nov. 27. He'll lose $221,000 in salary.

The ban will include the Baha Mar Hoops Nassau Championship tournament in the Bahamas in late November.

Louisville's full schedule for the 2021-22 season hasn't been announced, but Mack is scheduled to return ahead of a marquee clash with Michigan State on Dec. 1.

Dino Gaudio, a former assistant coach for the Louisville men's basketball team, has pleaded guilty to an extortion charge as part of a plea agreement. 

Per Travis Ragsdale of WDRB.com, Gaudio pleaded guilty to a felony charge of interstate communication with intent to extort. 

The charge normally carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison, but Gaudio's deal will result in probation and a "low-end fine" with no time served.

Gaudio was one of two Louisville assistants whose contracts weren't renewed after the 2020-21 season. 

Mike Rutherford of CardChronicle.com reported that Luke Murray was the other Cardinals assistant who wasn't returning. 

In May, an extortion claim was filed in the United States Western District of Kentucky.

Per Dana O'Neil of The Athletic, Gaudio was alleged to have told an unidentified Louisville athletics staffer he "had videos of prospective student athletes that the basketball program had created, as well as evidence that the Cardinal graduate assistants had participated in practice."

O'Neil noted those would qualify as Level II NCAA violations. 

Louisville head coach Chris Mack issued a statement about the charge filed against Gaudio:

"The University and I were the victims of Coach Gaudio's conduct and I will continue to fully cooperate with authorities in their investigations. We take seriously any allegation of NCAA violations within our basketball program and will work within the NCAA processes to fully review the allegations."

Gaudio was an assistant on Mack's staff at Louisville for the previous three seasons. The 64-year-old worked as a television analyst for ESPN from 2011 to 2018. He was a head coach for 10 seasons at three different programs, including Army (1993-97), Loyola (1997-2000) and Wake Forest (2007-10).