Pitino-Louisville Feud Suddenly Gets More Interesting

As we reported the other day, Rick Pitino is promising a tell-all book this fall.

Things between Pitino and his former employers at Louisville are not getting any better and Louisville seems ready to tell a bit too.

In the latest installment of Screw You! No! Screw You! Louisville accuses Pitino of knowing that Brian Bowen was (allegedly) on the market and also that he worked with Christian Dawkins, the runner and would-be agent at the heart of the FBI scandal.

Pitino denies it even though a text he sent to an assistant said that “DePaul trying to pay Bowen 200 K to come there. Crazy world.”

He further said that “I never believed Bowen was taking anything for a second. It never crossed my mind because I didn’t think he was a great basketball player. I didn’t think he was (Indiana recruit) Romeo Langford. He had size. He could pass it. He could shoot it. But he wasn’t a freak athlete. He wasn’t a Donovan Mitchell, who blew you away. ... Could he have started for us? Yeah, he could have, ‘cause we needed a two-guard. But if you told me DePaul was offering him ($200,000), I wouldn’t believe that for a second.”

If it is true, that of course would likely implicate former DePaul coach Dave Leitao and his staff. The normal thing is for head coaches to deny any knowledge of such activities and to fire the assistant, who follows the code and says nothing.

We’re not sure this could be proven if it is true, but it’s hard to imagine that an assistant could move $200,000 around without the head coach knowing anything. A basketball program is fairly small and intimate.

But if it does turn out to be true there could be serious charges to follow including possibly tax evasion, conspiracy, fraud and bribery.

• DePaul offered recruit $200,000, court records claim