Fish And Chipps: Ignorance is no defense for Rick Pitino, college athletics

I’m just a 21-year-old college kid, so what do I really know right?

Believe it or not, I’ve made some mistakes in my life and each time I’ve had to try to defend myself.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my mistakes, it’s that claiming ignorance is a terrible defense.

In almost every case, it just makes you look even guiltier. And that’s generally how it works in society — ignorance is no defense.

Unless, of course, you’re a 63-year-old big-time college basketball coach like the University of Louisville’s Rick Pitino, who seems to get away with claiming ignorance because he wins a lot of basketball games, generates millions of dollars in revenue for his university and lets everyone in suits and ties sleep pretty at night.

Pitino and his basketball program are currently surrounded by a dark cloud as an ESPN Outside The Lines investigation reported last week that between 2010 and 2014, former Louisville graduate assistant Andre McGee arranged and paid for parties inside a campus dorm with strippers, sex and alcohol provided for recruits, guardians that accompanied them on visits and some Louisville basketball players.

In a new book titled, “Breaking Cardinal Rules: Basketball and the Escort Queen,” former self-described escort Katina Powell claims that McGee paid her $10,000 over four years and hosted the recruiting parties inside Billy Minardi Hall — a Louisville campus dorm named after Pitino’s late brother-in-law — that included “side deals” for recruits, guardians and Louisville players to have sex with the strippers.

One former recruit told Outside The Lines that McGee “would give us the money, just the recruits. A bunch of us were sitting there while they danced. Then the players left, and the recruits chose which one [of the dancers] they wanted.”

Pitino has emphatically denied having any knowledge of the parties, and has continually deflected any wrongdoing toward McGee, who last week resigned as an assistant coach at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

“I don’t know if any of this is true or not,” Pitino told ESPN’s Dana O’Neil and Yahoo! Sports. “There’s only one person who knows the truth, and he needs to come out and tell the truth to his teammates, to the University of Louisville, to his fans and to his coaches that have taught him to do the right thing for years and allowed him to be part of something special here.”

Amid the ongoing scandal, Pitino has not once admitted the simple fact that as the de facto leader of the Louisville basketball program, he has a level of responsibility for everything that is conducted under his program, including alleged “sex parties” that happened inside a campus dorm.

“Not myself, not one player, not one trainer, not one assistant, not one person knew anything about any of this,” Pitino added to ESPN. “If anyone did, it would have been stopped on a dime. Not one person knew anything about it.”

This is where it all really hits me. The ignorance is just too blatant to miss.

Why is Pitino’s position different than any CEO whose company is involved in alleged scandals? Why can Pitino claim ignorance when we demand resignations from high-ranking officials and when it’s the people below them that are often involved in suspect activity?

As Pitino’s latest scandal begins to unravel, one thing keeps popping up in my mind.

And no, it’s not strippers, sex, alcohol or money. It’s institutional failure.

Pitino might be telling the truth. He might not have had any knowledge of McGee’s parties inside the dorm.

But to not claim responsibility for your program’s institutional failure is a prime example of what’s wrong with college athletics — money and winning cure everything.

This scandal isn’t shocking, just disappointing. In the underworld of college athletics, shady things happen behind closed doors that no one wants to talk or know about. But it’s disappointing to see the university stand behind Pitino and pretend like the head basketball coach has no responsibility to be held accountable for his program, the culture created within it and the people he hires to execute it.

As I’ve learned more about this scandal, what’s really infuriated me is how some media critics want to give Pitino a free pass and blame this scandal on Powell and the sexual drive of young men.

If you think this scandal is about underage drinking and sex on campus then you’re not looking at it in the right context. This scandal is about institutional failure and how college coaches choose to swipe left and isolate themselves from the “behind-the-scenes” recruiting tactics of major college programs.

It’s not Pitino’s job to monitor the sexual activity of his basketball players and potential recruits. But turning the other cheek and choosing to blame this scandal on everyone else for the lack of institutional control inside his own basketball program shows what kind of leader Pintio really is: a horrible one.

You don’t need me to tell you that underage drinking and sex are two very common acts on college campuses, but if no one’s going to criticize Pitino for the scandal itself, can we at least acknowledge the fact that Pitino put McGee in a position of power to make these kinds of decisions?

The sad truth about this scandal is that by the time the Cardinals’ first game rolls around on Nov. 13, we’ll have already forgotten about it and moved onto something fresher.

But Pitino’s ability to claim ignorance and pretend like this scandal has nothing to do with him shows just how much institutional failure is present at Louisville and how much the school is condoning it. We scorn and criticize strippers, prostitutes and young men for partaking in this type of behavior — which isn’t all that uncommon on college campuses — but we place no responsibility on the people who are supposed to be “properly” overseeing the program?

I don’t get it. But hey, what do I know? I’m just a 21-year-old college kid who got in trouble a few times and tried to claim ignorance.