Remember that agonizing Elite Eight game between Duke and Louisville, when Duke just couldn’t stop Russ Smith from penetrating to the hoop over and over again?

         Well, now we know why Louisville got so many great recruits for that and other teams. Outside the Lines, after interviewing players  recruits, and the escorts,  has now reported that the players, recruits, and their fathers were indeed treated not only to strip shows but to sexual favors from the girls. Two of the girls did on camera interviews naming Smith and Montrezl Harrell as the players who paid them for sex.

        Soon to be ex –head coach Rick Pitino has done a good job channeling Sgt Schultz (“I know nothing, nothing”)  but given that this went on for 4 years, and in the players’ dorm, he was either willfully blind, or grossly negligence. I think it is fair to say that, at a minimum, Pitino “failed to encourage an atmosphere of compliance,” the NCAA violation that sunk Coach Boeheim and Coach Brown. Those wins are HEREBY VACATED.

     And since Duke would have easily beaten the two chumps Louisville played in the Final Four, 1Rob and I have decided to declare Duke the 2013 NCAA champion.  

      Any objection from anybody

I thought one of the most interesting parts of the story was that the madam was pimping out her own daughters.  That puts a new spin on the term "keeping it in the family!"

Duke is the LAST team in the world to ever complain about not having top quality recruits and a competitive disadvantage on the court. EVERY game they play, they have superior talent. Coach K hasn't had to recruit players in 20 years. All the top players want to go to Duke... he simply selects the best talent that fits his coaching style. Not a knock against Coach K; he deserves all the accolades. He built the program from nothing.  But you can't take away Louisville's victory over Duke on the grounds they only got their talent b/c they offered sexual favors to recruits. Wouldn't matter. Nobody ever has better talent than Duke. Period. And besides, Louisville had to overcome the gruesome in game leg injury to Kevin Ware...proves they were mentally tough. They were the better team that day.  

Pitino should be (and will be) punished. He is the head basketball coach and the proverbial buck stops with him. Yes, he lost "institutional control" (whatever the heck that means) and has to go down with the ship.

Well, why were at it, let's take away Louisville's 1986 Championship Final's win over Duke.  I am sure Pervis Ellison was recruited simply because Crum provided him with an escort...  How a team with Johnny Dawkins, Mark Alarie, Tommy Amaker, Danny Ferry, Billy King, Quinn Snyder lost is still a mystery.....

cannot get its own top recruits – although the overachieving 2013 team only had only one first round NBA pick– but that the Louisville team was built in gross violation of NCAA rules (as well as the criminal law for matter).  You can’t pay the top players to play for you and you certainly can’t offer them sexual favors either.  So all those wins are going to be vacated.

       And the most damning aspects of this scandal have yet to be revealed. First, follow the money- who provided that $10,000 that Andre McGee used to pay hookers? Probably a Louisville booster rather than a coach, but who the hell knows. He is in A LOT of trouble for promoting prostitution for which there is no statute of limitation.

        Second, forget about the girls being underage.  The recruits certainly were (although 16 is the age of consent in Kentucky, I’m guessing the recruits were underage in the law of their states). Providing hookers to kids IS UNBELIEVABLE- everyone involved in this part of the scandal is in a HEAP of trouble. And Rick “but I didn’t know” Pitino is going to have face some pretty angry mothers who sent their kids to him for recruiting visits and trusted him to provide a safe environment for their kids instead of hookers and strippers.

      No way Pitino survives this. If he has any dignity – and I fear he lost it all when he was screwing the wife assistance coach in that bar – he will resign. He has already made a fool of himself by giving that press conference and saying that no player, coach, or recruit knew about this when we now know the truth was otherwise

His point was that the reason Louisville had great players on that team (mentioning Russ Smith by name) was that they agreed to go to the Ville only because they were provided escorts and other sexual favors.  My point being that the players on the floor for Louisville that day were STILL not in the same class of caliber of recruits as the players on the floor that day for Duke. Louisville still beat them by 22 points despite the horrific injury of one of its players.

From a sheer basketball perspective, it doesn't matter if Louisville had given those guys 1,000,000 each... the caliber of the Duke team was still superior to that of Louisville's.

Of course from an ethical standpoint, the shit will hit the proverbial fan. Who the heck knows if wins will be vacated, coaches fired, harsh penalties levied to the program. Time will tell.

You want to compare any Duke team to any Louisville team over the past 30 years?? I'll guarantee you that Duke has superior collegiate players and mainly A+ recruits.... I guess the Ville wasn't offering high enough sexual compensation to get the best of the best.  

NBA talent??? Please. Can you name the last even good Louisville pro?? They are lousy.  You have to go back to Darrell Griffith to find the last decent Louisville pro and all the way back to Wes Unseld to find the last great Louisville pro.  Duke has lottery picks every year.

So please stop with this crazy talk.
They were buying pussy for the players.
We buy pussy too because we are men!

Dieng, Harrel, Smith, and Silva were all drafted by the NBA with Dieng taken ahead of Plumlee in the first round. Behanan and Blackshear were high 4 star recruits. Only Plumlee and Kelly were drafted for Duke. Cook and Curry were also 4 star recruits who did not get drafted and Sulaimon  is a late second rounder at best if he plays well for Maryland.

Now this may be your personal opinion-

 
"My point being that the players on the floor for Louisville that day were STILL not in the same class of caliber of recruits as the players on the floor that day for Duke"

but you can’t support it objectively.  

       You are right that injury played a role – but the injuries to Curry who no lateral movement and Kelly – rather than Ware- a deep bench player. The Cards just played so much better in the second half. Duke did beat them in the fall of that year.

       Over the long term, of course, you are correct- Duke’s talent in most years is far superior to Louisville. But not in 2013, the year we are talking about

for the part about providing hookers to high school students, providing hookers to college students, violating the federal Mann Act and the Travel Act, violating state law against promoting prostitution, coaching a college basketball team,  inviting recruits to visit campus, and violating NCAA regulations.

       But I quibble. Glad to see you have such a good grip on this matter