What do University of Louisville basketball and Trinity basketball have in common? Aside from former Trinity and current UL basketball star Ray Spalding, nothing.

Over the past couple of years Louisville athletics have been synonymous with scandals.

It all started with the 2013 NCAA championship when the Cards won it all, but that championship won’t stay with the university or the city. The NCAA has ruled that the championship will be taken away because Louisville allegedly used female escorts to recruit players for the team. For those allegations, the team imposed a self-ban from the 2016 NCAA tournament. Since then the FBI uncovered a scandal in which Louisville is accused of using adidas shoe money to entice a recruit. Following the recent allegations, Athletics Director Tom Jurich and basketball head coach Rick Pitino were fired and replaced by Vince Tyra (1984 Trinity alum) and David Padgett, respectively. 

People have varied reactions to these events. Some feel betrayed, some feel like Louisville had it coming, and some just don’t care. The Louisville fans, as you can imagine, feel betrayed and sad that these scandals will hurt not just the school but also the city itself.

Trinity junior Dominic Repp said, “It’s sad that right now when people think of Louisville, they think of what is going on with the scandals and all.”

Most of the blame, especially in the latest scandal, fell on Pitino, whom Jurich has defended.

Repp said, “If what they are saying is true, then I believe that he (Pitino) deserved to be fired.”

The future of Cardinal basketball for Louisville fans is, despite currently being 15-4 and 5-1 in the ACC, is still up in the air, but some believe the aftermath of the scandals won’t last forever.

Repp stated, “I know we can bounce back; just give us some time.”

On the other side of the coin, some University of Kentucky fans are almost happy about the scandals.

Junior Grant Brown said Louisville “had it coming.”

This kind of reaction is to be expected from a school’s greatest rival. Some Kentucky fans are especially happy because this heals a sore wound, the loss of their old coach, Rick Pitino, who coached the Wildcats in the ’90s before leaving to coach in the NBA and then UL in 2001.

Brown said, “Pitino is a traitor, and I am not surprised by these scandals under his coaching.”

The scandals have had more of an impact on some than others.

Trinity junior Trenton Alsip said, “I’ve heard about the scandals and couldn’t care less.”

To those who are not college basketball enthusiasts, the bad part about this scandal rests on the fact that the city has gotten a bad reputation form the incidents.

Alsip said, “It’s bad for the reputation of the city, and this is what we will be known for.”

Overall, the consensus seems to be that Pitino messed up and deserved to be fired. The future of the program is still in the air —  some looking for a comeback while others believe Louisville is trending downwards. Whatever the case, we will just have to wait.

Junior Dominic Repp talks about the UL basketball scandals………..video by Ethan Vanlandingham