Louisville Cardinals Basketball

Brian Bowen Jr.'s lawsuit against Adidas was dismissed by a federal judge in South Carolina on Wednesday. 

Per ESPN's Mark Schlabach, United States district judge Joseph F. Anderson wrote in a ruling that the court doesn't doubt Bowen's "life was upended by the revelation of payments to his father and the University of Louisville's decision to withhold him from NCAA competition," however, the arguments presented were "not relevant to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act's ("RICO") statutory standing requirements."

Bowen filed a lawsuit in November 2018 against seven defendants, including Adidas, implicated in the bribery scandal involving the University of Louisville. 

Adidas director of global marketing James Gatto, Adidas consultant Merl Code and client recruiter/runner Christian Dawkins, who were all convicted in the case, were also named in the lawsuit. 

Bowen claimed that the plaintiffs in the lawsuit derailed his NBA career when they promised to pay his father $100,000 if he committed to play basketball at Louisville.

Schlabach reported earlier this month that Adidas filed a cross-complaint against Brian Bowen Sr., former Adidas consultant T.J. Gassnola and financial planner Munish Sood, alleging they conspired with some of its employees to "misappropriate the apparel company's money to pay players' families to steer them toward Adidas-sponsored schools."

Bowen was suspended from all team activities at Louisville in Sept. 2017. He initially planned to enter the 2018 NBA draft, but withdrew from the draft in order to potentially pursue a G League contract or play overseas. 

In August 2018, Bowen signed with the Sydney Kings of the National Basketball League in Australia. The 22-year-old spent one year overseas before returning to the United States. 

Bowen spent most of the past two seasons with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in the G League after signing a two-way contract with the Indiana Pacers.  He has appeared in 12 NBA games since the start of the 2019-20 season. 

The Pacers waived Bowen in April. 

Former Louisville assistant coach Dino Gaudio is facing federal charges of extortion.

Following the end of the 2020-21 season, Louisville declined to renew the contracts of Gaudio and Luke Murray. According to Hayley Minogue of WHAS11 News in Louisville, Kentucky, Gaudio allegedly demanded a payment from the school in exchange for keeping quiet about possible NCAA violations:

WLKY's Andrew Chernoff shared a copy of the filing by U.S. Attorney Michael Bennett:

According to Bennett, Gaudio allegedly threatened to expose details about how Louisville produced videos for recruiting targets and used graduate assistants in practices. Gaudio also allegedly sent one of the offending videos to a member of the Cardinals staff.

Louisville said in a statement it "cannot comment further due to the ongoing federal investigation and the NCAA process." The school added it's cooperating with federal authorities and the NCAA.

Head coach Chris Mack added he's "grateful for the professionalism of members of law enforcement and the United States Attorney's Office." Mack added he and Louisville were "victims" in Gaudio's scheme.

WDRB's Rick Bozich wrote in April the explanation for Gaudio and Murray's departures remained a bit of a mystery. That was a month after Kentucky Sports Radio's Matt Jones reported there was "lots of turmoil right now behind the scenes" in the program in the immediate aftermath of their departures.

The narrative around Gaudio will undoubtedly take a different turn.

Mack assumed his current role in 2018 while Louisville was still dealing with the fallout from multiple scandals during the tenure of Rick Pitino.

Pitino was suspended in June 2017 after a former director of basketball operations arranged for escorts at parties for some members of the team and prospective recruits. He was fired that October after the university became ensnared in the FBI's investigation into corruption in college basketball.

Last May, the NCAA sent a notice of allegations to Louisville about a Level I violation regarding the recruitment of Brian Bowen II. The notice also included three Level II violations. 

While the alleged violations Gaudio referenced don't appear to be too serious in nature, the Cardinals once again find themselves at the center of off-court drama.

Chris Mack was in quite the celebratory mood after his team defeated John Calipari's Kentucky Wildcats on Dec. 26, but the Louisville Cardinals men's basketball head coach apologized for his actions after video of him enjoying the win went public.

As Shannon Russell of the Louisville Courier Journal noted, video of Mack and former Louisville and Buffalo Bills football player Eric Wood celebrating the win went viral when Wood said Kentucky's success against the Cardinals was over now that former associate head coach Kenny Payne had moved to the New York Knicks staff.

Mack said the video was a "joke" and revealed he called Calipari to apologize, per 247Sports. 

The Louisville coach also said his counterpart was "gracious as always" and offered some advice.

Prior to Louisville's win in December, Calipari was 11-2 in the rivalry showdowns since becoming the Kentucky head coach. The win was also Mack's first in the rivalry after he lost the first two attempts.

That Mack was so excited about the win is no surprise. After all, the Wildcats have controlled the state with Calipari at the helm, and it is up to Mack to try to turn things around as he attempts to build a consistent championship contender.

As for Wood, he played for the Bills from 2009 through 2017 and was a Pro Bowler in 2015.

Things are not looking as great for the Cardinals now as they were following that win. They played their first game since Feb. 1 on Saturday and proceeded to lose to North Carolina by 45 points. A few more performances like that down the stretch of the season would put Louisville (11-5) in a precarious position on the bubble.

Kentucky isn't even on the bubble at 8-13, although it notched an impressive victory over Tennessee on Saturday.

As for the December game, three Louisville free throws in the final minute were the difference in a 62-59 victory. If Wood is to be believed in the video, it was the start of an era of dominance for the Cardinals in the Bluegrass State.

If recent history is to be believed, it probably wasn't.

Louisville head coach Chris Mack told reporters on Thursday that 90 percent of his players have already had COVID-19 and since recovered.

Mack said he didn't believe the high rate of positive tests came from his players being irresponsible: 

"Again, who knows how it was contracted, but I know it wasn't because of our guys' foolishness, or breaking curfew, or anything like that. By and large, our guys have done a great job. Knock on wood, 90 percent of our team's had it, and recovered thankfully. Unless something crazy would happen, I think the better part of the team has already had it, and doesn't have to worry about it from here on out."

Louisville and NC State postponed their scheduled game on Wednesday. 

"The postponement follows positive tests, subsequent quarantining, and contact tracing within the Louisville men's basketball team," the ACC said in a statement. 

After two weeks out of action, Louisville is set to return to the court for an ACC/Big Ten Challenge matchup against Wisconsin on Saturday, Dec. 19 at noon ET. 

Mack explained why Louisville had to postpone the NC State game despite resuming practice this week:

"We decided that we just simply couldn't play the game against NC State. We didn't have enough available players. So, I think when people say, 'Well why? Why not? You resumed practice?' Doesn't mean all your individuals are back to practice. It just means the ones that are back were determined to be not direct contacts and had enough negative tests in order to return to the court. So, we didn't return as a whole unit when we began practicing this past Saturday. We're still in the process of getting players back at various stages, I'll leave it at that."

Mack said the game against the Wolfpack will be rescheduled because it is a conference game.

"We have plenty of time, we're in the middle of December," Mack said. "I'm sure there are going to be cancellations and postponements as we move throughout the conference season. ...  I'm sure our administrations are doing everything they can to figure out the date."

The No. 23 Cardinals have played four games this season and are undefeated, with wins over Evansville, Seton Hall, Prairie View A&M and Western Kentucky. 

Utah Jazz star Donovan Mitchell is using sales from his exclusive D.O.N. Issue #2 x Louisville sneaker to help fund initiatives at his alma mater, Louisville.  

According to John Karman III of UL News, all proceeds from the shoe sales up to $200,000 will go to scholarships and other initiatives in a program deemed "A Shoe for Change."

The shoes will be for sale Thursday for $100 each.

Mitchell is working with adidas and the university's Office of Diversity and Equity to determine which programs deserve additional funding.

The NBA All-Star discussed why this is an important program for him:

"With my mom being a teacher and based on the values she taught me from a young age, I have always understood the importance of education, which is why adidas and I worked with my alma mater, the University of Louisville, to ensure proceeds from the Louisville colorway of D.O.N. Issue #2 would fund scholarships to support Black students. I am passionate about giving back, so having the opportunity to support the Louisville community, a place that helped shape me, is really special and it’s great my friend and champion for equality, Angel McCoughtry, is supporting these efforts as well.'

Both the men's and women's basketball teams will wear Mitchell's shoes in their upcoming games, with Las Vegas Aces star and fellow Louisville alum Angel McCoughtry also supporting the efforts.

The NCAA enforcement staff said Louisville "knew or should have known that Adidas was its booster" after the school was hit with a notice of allegations accusing it of recruiting violations after an Adidas employee and consultant reportedly offered Brian Bowen II's father $100,000 if the recruit would join the Cardinals basketball program in 2017, per Mark Schlabach of ESPN. 

Louisville had responded to that notice of allegations by claiming that Adidas and its employees didn't represent the school, and that the school was a victim of rogue actions. 

The NCAA wasn't buying Louisville's claims, however: 

"It should have been very clear to Louisville that if Adidas employees offered or arranged to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars for a prospect to enroll based on his basketball ability, something not available to the general student population or compliant schools, this conduct would be an NCAA violation attributable to the institution."

The NCAA enforcement team added:

"Adidas' financial contributions to the institution's athletics programs were large, formal and well-known by the institution and its athletics department administration. It is not a violation of NCAA rules for a corporate entity to be a representative of an institution's athletics interests. However, an institution is responsible for NCAA rules violations committed by one of its representatives."

Three men—former Adidas employee James Gatto, aspiring business manager Christian Dawkins and consultant Merl Code—were federally indicted for conspiring to make a $25,000 payment to Bowen's father as a part of the $100,000 bribe. 

"This offer and $25,000 payment were designed to give Louisville an advantage over compliant programs," the NCAA wrote. "They were intended to provide a recruiting and competitive edge to Louisville not available to other programs."

Louisville was hit with a Level I violation and three Level II for various recruiting infractions under former head coach Rick Pitino, who is now the head coach at Iona. NCAA enforcement said Pitino "failed to promote an atmosphere for compliance."

After Louisville head coach Chris Mack shared his reservations about hosting the first part of his team's rivalry series with Kentucky in an arena with no fans when there may be spectators at Kentucky a year from now, Mack called out Wildcats coach John Calipari in a Twitter video to say the game is on.

Mack's two-minute video was posted after Calipari told reporters Tuesday that the Wildcats would "plug in another team" if the Cardinals elected not to play.

However, Calipari changed his tune after Mack posted his video:

In the video, Mack accused Calipari of canceling a Dec. 12 agreement because Kentucky was scheduled to return from London six days earlier. The trip was canceled, but the Wildcats scheduled Notre Dame on Dec. 12, according to Mack.

"I don't want to stand in the way of college basketball's best rivalry," Mack said. "Whatever is most convenient for Coach Cal, we'll do it. See ya in the Yum Center."

Mack also said a home football game for Louisville against Kentucky was moved to next season.

Louisville made its formal response to the NCAA's notice of allegations, disputing whether its men's basketball program was guilty of violations laid out by the organization. 

The Associated Press reported Louisville is contending it can't be held accountable for the actions of people implicated in the FBI's investigation into college basketball corruption because those guilty weren't officially acting on behalf of the school.

"This argument is as novel as it is wrong," Louisville wrote. "Even if an institution has some responsibility for the conduct of its suppliers, that responsibility plainly does not extend to acts of fraud perpetrated against the institution itself."

In May, the NCAA alleged Louisville had committed a Level I violation stemming from the recruitment of Brian Bowen II. The NCAA's Notice of Allegations also outlined Level II violations as well, including one for former head coach Rick Pitino for "failing to adequately monitor the recruitment of an incoming, high-profile student-athlete."

The Courier-Journal reported in September 2017 Bowen committed to the Cardinals after Adidas executives conspired to funnel $100,000 to his family. Brian Bowen Sr. testified to corroborate the claims in October 2018, adding that he had been told of other offers from Arizona, Oklahoma State, Texas and Creighton.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York summed up the general thrust of the scheme:

Christian Dawkins, Adidas executive James Gatto and former Adidas consultant Merl Code conspired to get top recruits to Adidas-sponsored schools. Dawkins would then represent the players when they entered the professional ranks.

Louisville attempted to distance itself from Gatto and Code in its response to the allegations:

"The enforcement staff's remaining allegations lack factual support and overread the relevant Bylaws and rest on the erroneous contention that the conspirators were representatives of the University’s athletics interests.

"For these reasons and others set forth, the panel should reject the enforcement staff’s dramatically overbroad theory, and classify this case as involving a Level II-Mitigated violation."

Dawkins was sentenced in October 2019 to one year and one day in prison for each bribery charge for which he was convicted. Gatto and Code also were found guilty and sentenced to nine and six months, respectively.

The FBI investigation brought swift fallout for the Cardinals, who fired Pitino, athletic director Tom Jurich and assistant coach Kenny Johnson in the immediate aftermath. Iona hired Pitino in March.

Bowen never played a game for the Cardinals, either, heading instead to Australia's National Basketball League before signing with the Indiana Pacers.

According to the AP, the NCAA has until Nov. 15 to respond to Louisville's most recent filing. 

University of Louisville director of men's basketball operations Kahil Fennell was one of more than 30 people arrested Saturday night in Louisville amid protests over the death of Breonna Taylor, according to Lucas Aulbach of the Courier-Journal.

Fennell's arrest report stated he violated the city's curfew order and was officially booked at 8:58 p.m. local time. Per Danielle Lerner of The Athletic, the time of the arrest occurred at 8 p.m. The mayor's executive order created a curfew for all citizens that begins at 9 p.m.

Louisville men's basketball coach Chris Mack said in a statement he was aware of the arrest.

"I stand by Kahil," Mack said.

Others surrounding the program have offered support for the staffer:

Fennell is going into his third season on the Cardinals staff after working his way up from junior varsity high school coach in 2014-15. He was an assistant at Portland State before coming to Louisville.

His arrest came during protests that have occurred in cities throughout the country over the past week. Many are in response to the death of George Floyd, an unarmed African American who died while in police custody in Minneapolis. Taylor was shot and killed in March by three police officers in Louisville, spurring more protests within the city.

Mack released a statement Sunday morning on the recent issues.

"Who could watch George Floyd die on the street and not think 'What in the hell is wrong with people?' I just can't comprehend that kind of treatment to anyone," the head coach wrote. "It feels like our country is going backwards."

The University of Louisville has received a Level I Notice of Violations from the NCAA for infractions that transpired under former coach Rick Pitino, who was given a Level II notice.

Pat Forde of Yahoo Sports originally reported the findings.

The Level I violation is considered the most serious by NCAA standards. It's unclear what the NCAA report will say, but it is likely the school will face a postseason ban based on official penalty guidelines.

Louisville is considered a repeat offender, which will likely increase the school's punishment.

Pitino, who was recently hired as the head basketball coach at Iona, will likely be given a show-cause penalty, face a suspension and have limitations placed on his recruiting. The show-cause penalty is given to ensure the punishments stay in place for any future jobs Pitino may take.

Pitino was specifically cited for failing to "promote an environment of compliance."

Here is the release's description of the Level I notice:

"A Level I allegation that an improper recruiting offer, and subsequent extra benefits to the family of an enrolled student athlete; and a recruiting inducement to a prospective student-athlete’s non-scholastic coach/trainer, were provided by certain individuals, purportedly identified and defined by the NCAA as 'representatives of the university’s athletics interests', none of whom had traditional connections to the University beyond their affiliation with Adidas or professional athlete management entities, as well as by a former assistant coach and a former associate head coach."

Pitino responded to the notice with a statement, saying he "firmly" disagreed with the allegation:

The NCAA's investigation centers on pay-for-play allegations that involve Louisville and Adidas executives, specifically in regard to former Cardinals player Brian Bowen. Former assistant coach Kenny Johnson is accused of paying Bowen's father $1,300 to secure his commitment, and assistant Jordan Fair is accused of paying $900 to another recruit.

Louisville was one of several schools implicated in an FBI investigation into college basketball corruption. The school fired Pitino for cause in 2017.