Not a good week (ahem) for Louisville and Rick Pitino.
Just two weeks ago, the Orange and Cardinals were the final two for one of the top big men in the country, Fab Melo.
Fab eventually decided on Syracuse and spoke glowingly about Jim Boeheim and the coaching staff (listen to Fab’s coach Adam Ross on an exclusive FizzCast).
But when Pitino got caught in a bizarre and ugly love tryst this week and began attempting to claw his way out publicly, you couldn’t help but wonder if Fab was alerted to this just ten days ago.
Imagine how Fab, Ross and the rest of Fab’s family might feel if they had committed to Louisville to play for Pitino and then watched their new head coach wriggle at the mercy of media crush when Slick Rick admitted to infidelity?
Here is Karen Sypher, Pitino’s love (sexual) interest,¬†“who at the time was divorced from a previous marriage, went on to claim that her subsequent marriage to Tim Sypher (Pitino’s equipment manager) was all part of an elaborate plot Pitino used to keep the incident private. ‘The feds bugged my house and put surveillance everywhere with Tim’s help,’ said Sypher, who is currently going through a divorce. ‘I now think my husband was paid to marry me.'”
Louisville has already said it will stand by Pitino, so it looks unlikely he’ll be going anywhere.
But could this hinder Pitino’s recruiting touch? At least in the short-term, yes.
But who knows what kids and family’s prioritize these days.
Playing time. ESPN games. A path to the NBA. Maybe some of them want a coach with solid morals and a clean rap sheet. Maybe not.
The Teflon Rick survives another one, although he may have lost a recruiting war to SU in the process.
