The lead game in the Midwest bracket has #1 seed Louisville (29-5) playing the winner of the play-in game between North Carolina A&T and Liberty to determine the #16 seed..
No matter who wins the play-in game, they face an uphill battle. Louisville’s roster is one of the best Rick Pitino’s has recruited while at the school.
My pick will not surprise anyone.
Who do you think will win? We help you out.
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The University of Arkansas fired Bobby Petrino this afternoon. They stated that he “knowingly misled the school and engaged in reckless behavior with a 25-year old employee. This probably wouldn’t be an issue if he wasn’t the head football coach. The 51-year old was injured in a motorcycle accident and he lied about the presence of Jessica Dorrell, who was also on the motorcycle too. Dorrell was just hired a few weeks ago by Petrino. It is unknown if there was a “casting couch” situation, but this situation doesn’t stop the rumors. Should the University of Arkansas live under a different set of rules than Bill Clinton, who is the former Governor of Arkansas. Shouldn’t that state be lenient with this kind of activity?
Mr. Petrino should have known that if he went all “Ruff Ryderz” with his side-piece, he was begging for trouble. He was coming off a few successful seasons and was entrenched in his job. He was becoming an iconic figure in Arkansas. If he notched a few more bowl game victories, he would have surpassed Nolan Richardson in status. It is hard to believe that Arkansas went ahead with the firing of Petrino.
I was shocked by the news of the firing, because football money is a huge part of a university’s sports department’s revenue. Then the news came out about a clause that would free them from Petrino’s contract of roughly $3.53 million a year. If he “engaged in conduct that was clearly contrary to the character and responsibilities of a person occupying the position of head football coach or which negatively or adversely affects the reputation of the (university’s) athletics programs in any way,” he’d be canned. I understand the seriousness of this issue, but as Louisville did with Rick Pitino’s affair, I thought that they would sweep it under the rug.
When the University of Arkansas hired Bobby Petrino, he was the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons. The season wasn’t quite over yet and the next thing you know, he’s leading the Razorbacks in a “Woo Pig Sooie” chant. He quit on his team and left to take a job in the NCAA, a place where he knew how to win. It’s hard to look over the fact that he backtracked from a commitment and retreat with his tail between his legs.
I can’t deny that Petrino is a great college football coach. He’s helped direct two schools into premiere bowl games and he’s orchestrated a great offense at each school. He’ll get another job very soon and I don’t think he should have been fired. I respect Arkansas for making a moral decision, which is lacking in NCAA sports, but it was a dumb decision. He wasn’t drunk behind the wheel, in which many college coaches have been arrested for (Bob Huggins, Billy Gillispie, etc), but the university deemed this worse than endangering the innocent lives of others. Let this be a warning to any future coach at Arkansas, if you’re seeing a 25-year old on the down-low, get a designated driver.
Rick Pitino has found himself in some hot water, boiling hot water. A few months ago, Karen Cunagin Sypher tried to extort $10 million from Rick Pitino and she was charged with a crime. In the process of investigating her, the police department interviewed Pitino and he sang like a cardinal.Apparently he did have an affair with her in 2003, even allegedly having sex at a bar. He then tried to shut her up by paying her $3,000 to get an abortion. It is pretty easy to imagine the backlash that he is about to receive, since he coaches in the Big East, but the university lies within SEC/Big Ten country, aka The Bible Belt.
Cunagin Sypher, who claimed that Pitino sexually assualted her, tried to extort money from Pitino. First she allegedly ask for $3,000 a month, but increased all the way up to paying for her kid’s tuition, two cars, house paid off, and $10 million. I thinks she missed a few steps in there. Pitino has been married since 1993 and I would assume that he wanted to keep this quiet. When Cunagin Sypher wanted to talk to Pitino back in 2003, they actually met at a strength and conditioning coach’s house. She didn’t know that person at the time, but she would later marry him. Really?! I think that is the strangest part of the whole story. They met because Pitino had an affair with her and in the process of trying to cover it up, they fell in love? Sounds like a really bad movie pitch.
I’m a Kentucky Wildcats basketball fan, I’m still a big Pitino fan, even though he’s coaching at Louisville. I’m far enough away from that area that I’ve never really had any beef with the Lou, my beef mostly lies with Indiana University. That’s beside the point, Pitino is going to get grilled when he plays out of conference games in the South.I can only imagine the type of security that they will need to confiscate signs when they playing UK.
Pitino is a grown man and is capable of mistakes. Everyone should know that who watched him coach the Celtics and aptly signed guys like Walter McCardy and Ron Mercer hoping that they would lead them to an NBA Championship. This will blow over once the news cycle ends, but he probably needs to come out and apologize and be done with it.
Here is my solution to the problem. Louisville get with the University of Florida and get Tim Tebow to go counsel Pitino, like Tony Dungy is counseling Michael Vick. I think it would be a good PR move, even though outrageous, it would work.
