Is Hiring Rick Pitino During The #MeToo Era A Good Idea For UNLV Athletics?

Here are the confirmed facts: UNLV's Men's basketball team is 15-11 this season, in the midst of a modest three-game winning streak, and sitting in fifth place in the Mountain West for the first time this late in the season since 2014. Marvin Menzies is the head coach, in the third year of a five-year deal. UNLV's roster consists of just three upperclassmen, including two seniors. UNR is ranked in the Top 10 and is on the verge of winning the conference title. While these are all confirmed facts, new and unconfirmed rumors are starting to boil over again that UNLV has a backroom deal in place to hire controversial coach Rick Pitino once it fires Menzies at season's end. One of the most successful college coaches of this era, Pitino is arguably the most controversial. Despite three major scandals — two of which involved either paid escorts for recruits or secret medical procedures for the coach's mistress — during his final 10 years at Louisville and a fourth back in 1974 with Hawaii, the 66-year-old New Yorker is still on the preferred list of many UNLV fans. Making matters more complicated, the rumored future partnership has Pitino allegedly engaging in substantial talks with UNLV athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois and UNLV president Marta Meana as well as the rumored potential donor, Elaine Wynn, ex-wife of former local hotel mogul, Steve Wynn. In the current #MeToo/women's empowerment era, it is hard to make sense of why three extremely powerful and respected women would reach out to a coach who has so much "specific" baggage.

Of course Rick Pitino is an excellent coach. There is no debate to that question, despite concerns as to how he recruited his athletes in the past.

But, with a coach currently under contract, it seems like quite a stretch this is actually happening. This is by no means a criticism of the multiple outlets who reported these negotiations. It just doesn't seem to make sense all three powerful women would gravitate to someone with Pitino's particular past. Twitter accounts @VitalVegas and @LasVegasLocally have both reported the Pitino negotiations at some point since New Years Eve. Both are extremely credible accounts, and have a strong reputation, especially amongst well-know PR companies here in Las Vegas. No reason to doubt the credibility of their posts. https://twitter.com/VitalVegas/status/1079911015486124033 https://twitter.com/LasVegasLocally/status/1097618521977085952 From there, rumors eventually broke regarding Elaine Wynn being the anonymous booster/donor the last few days from another Twitter account, this time for the local KDWN-720 radio show, The Vegas Take. https://twitter.com/TheVegasTake/status/1097755981381914624 The rumors created a ton of chatter on social media, all while UNLV was wrapping up its 10-point win at Wyoming. Many fans seemed to be on board, with finances and baggage secondary to winning at all costs. Others were very vocal with their concerns and blatant distaste for Pitino and his past. https://twitter.com/BParry19/status/1098120890603102208 https://twitter.com/CoachCrowley47/status/1098258569986682880 https://twitter.com/daoilderrick/status/1098119518398939136 https://twitter.com/JakeRunyon/status/1098117883920449536 https://twitter.com/lasvegaspen/status/1097681697791913984 https://twitter.com/1puttpastor/status/1098079294239199232

Three strong women and a disgraced coaching legend

Rumors of infidelity cost Elaine Wynn her marriage and a sexual harassment scandal cost her husband, Steve Wynn, his entire $18 billion dollar empire. Wynn Resort's largest shareholder even won controlling interesting in Wynn Resorts and voting rights that she had signed away during their 2010 divorce agreement. In recent years, Wynn has made news for her statement-making philanthropy (she once pledged $1 million to Planned Parenthood) and her efforts to establish herself as a major player in the art world. She also serves on the board of trustees of the Elaine P. Wynn & Family Foundation and as the chair of the UNLV Foundation. Wynn even served on the executive board of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education. Reed-Francois is the first Hispanic female and woman of color athletics director at the FBS level. According to UNLV's web site, "In late 2017, Reed-Francois oversaw the consolidation of the Athletics Department’s operations with that of the Thomas & Mack Center and negotiated the new $28 million Fertitta Football Complex...Reed-Francois was also instrumental in successfully negotiating the Joint Use Agreement with the NFL’s Oakland Raiders for UNLV’s use in the new $1.8 billion Las Vegas Stadium and, over the past year, 70 percent of the department’s new hires have been people of color or women, while 63 percent are former student-athletes." Prior to being named UNLV's interim president, Meana published groundbreaking research that has reshaped clinical approaches to women’s health and human sexuality. During her tenure as acting president, UNLV achieved an important designation when the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education designated UNLV an R1 research university, which is the top tier. Needless to say, all three are strong and intuitive female leaders within the Las Vegas community. Pitino was finally fired by Louisville after his third scandal since 2009, the 2017 "Pay-for-Play Scandal." The longtime college coach had his 2013 National Championship and 2012 Final Four appearances both vacated, marking the first time in NCAA history a coach ever had a men's basketball title erased. The school still, two years later, hasn't been cleared by the NCAA amidst the FBI's investigation into Pitino's coaching staff. Rumors also have swirled Pitino could be looking at a show-cause penalty, which transfers his punishment to wherever he is hired after being found guilty.

The Scandals of Rick Pitino

The 1974 Air Fare Scandal

The 1987 NABC Coach of the Year's first major scandal took place in 1974 as an assistant with the University of Hawaii. A 1977 NCAA report linked him to eight different violations, including paying for round-trip airfare for one of his players and distributing McDonald's coupons to the team.

 "I didn't make any mistakes," said Pitino after hawaii was placed on two years probation. "I don't care what anybody says."

The 2009 Extortion Scandal

In 2009, Pitino revealed he was the victim of an extortion attempt by Karen Cunagin Sypher. During the ensuing investigation, he also admitted that he had a sexual encounter with a woman in 2003 and even paid for her abortion after she became pregnant. Within months, Cunagin Sypher married Pitino's strength and conditioning coach, Tim Sypher, who brought Pitino the written list of demands from his wife, including college tuition for her children, two cars, money to pay off her house and $3,000 per month. She later demanded cars, tuition for her children and $10 million. Later, according to the New York Times, when police interviewed Pitino — who was married with five children at the time — he revealed he gave the woman $3,000 to have an abortion.

The convicted extorter even rolled out unfounded sexual assault accusations at Pitino, about two months after she was indicted and eventually convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison for extortion and lying to the FBI.

The 2015 University of Louisville basketball sex scandal

Escort Katina Powell alleged that a number of dancers had been brought onto Louisville's campus to strip and have sex with players and recruits between 2010 and 2014. In 2016, Louisville self-imposed a postseason ban on its men's basketball team after an NCAA investigation confirmed the allegations. Pitino later said he was shocked by the self-imposed penalty, because he was unaware of what was happening at the time. The NCAA suspended him for the first five games of the 2017-18 ACC season for failure to monitor his program. After an NCAA invesstigation, Louisville was forced to vacate 123 wins, which accounted for every game it won from 2011-12 to 2014-15. It was also stripped of its NCAA tournament appearances during that period, including its 2012 and 2013 trips to the Final Four and the 2013 national championship. It also forfeited roughly $600,000 in tournament payouts. Pitino was later quoted as saying Powell "seems to want to portray herself as a shrewd survivor, proud she has figured out a way to get paid — by providing sex and strippers and pimping other women — and spend her days high on pot." Again, Pitino denied any knowledge of these accusations under his watchful eye.

"I was enraged just by the fact that (pitino assistant) Andre (Mcgee) had admitted he knew the woman making these outrageous charges."

Coach 2 in the FBI 'pay for play' investigation

Allegations once again surfaced back in 2017 that Louisville was under investigation by the FBI as a result of "pay for play" allegations. While the criminal complaint did not mention specific names, Pitino was revealed by law enforcement to be "Coach 2" on FBI wiretaps. According to the FBI allegations, top recruit Brian Bowen was paid $100,000 by Adidas employee Jim Gatto to commit to Louisville and then sign with Adidas upon turning pro. Pitino and athletic director Tom Jurich were placed on unpaid administrative leave in late September, bringing an end to a 16-season tenure for the head coach. Pitino's camp fought the decision.

According to law enforcement, one of the convicted parties, Gatto, had two conversations tied to a phone number used by Coach 2. The complaint also says Gatto had a third conversation tied to the same number in early June. Gatto, former Adidas consultant Merl Code and Christian Dawkins, an NBA agent's assistant, were all found guilty on felony charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud after a three-week criminal trial back in late October.

"These allegations come as a complete shock to me. If true, I agree with the U.S. Attorney's Office that these third-party schemes, initiated by a few bad actors, operated to commit a fraud on the impacted universities and their basketball programs, including the University of Louisville."

So what now? Should Pitino get the chance to redeem himself?

I have no issue with Rick Pitino as a basketball coach on the court. The man is phenomenal but, with the current #MeToo movement in full swing and plenty of moments where Pitino hasn't always been the perfect gentleman to members of the opposite sex, it doesn't seem like a decision that should be made. With three extremely powerful women in charge, the world will be watching how they handle this moment. Countless aspiring young women will look to how this triad handles the ordeal as they define their own world view down the line. If they ignore the track record and play to the perceived mob, it may leave a lot of questions. Does Rick Pitino deserve a fifth chance? I guess so. Should he be working with college kids? I don't know. I try to think if I'd want to send my kids to play for him or if I would ever allow my daughter near any of his players. Tough questions indeed. While UNLV's basketball program hasn't been remotely what it once was in 1992, many believe Pitino will be the perfect choice to get them back to the Golden Era of Rebel basketball. Maybe he is. Maybe he'll get that shot, but in this world of #MeToo and women's empowerment, Pitino is a bad look for a world constantly looking for strong women to take the lead in a society dominated by toxic masculinity for far too long. However the season shakes out for UNLV hoops and these three strong local women, the decision will be up to them, not the testosterone-driven social media ADs crying out that  Pitino should or should not become the next UNLV basketball coach, including me. Clear heads must truly prevail, and this is much deeper than just wins and losses for a program that hasn't been truly relevant since 1992, ironically the year Bill Clinton was elected president. There is no doubt in my mind this whole decision needs a woman's touch, and — if so — we truly are in good hands.