In October 2015, Yahoo! Sports reported that the University of Louisville was investigating allegations made by Katina Powell, who described herself as a madam. Powell alleged that she had been paid several thousand dollars from 2010 to 2014 to provide women to dance for and have sex with Cardinals players and recruits. Many of the alleged parties took place at Minardi Hall, the men's basketball dormitory; others took place at off-campus locations. The allegations came out in advance of the release of Breaking Cardinal Rules: Basketball and the Escort Queen, a book written by Powell and Indianapolis-based investigative journalist Dick Cady. In the book, Powell named Andre McGee, a former Cardinals assistant and in 2015 the team's director of operations, as having paid her for these services.
Andre McGee
McGee graduated from Canyon Springs High School in Moreno Valley, California in 2005. McGee enrolled at Louisville in the fall of 2005 where he played for the Cardinals until he graduated in 2010. As the starting point guard his senior year in 2009, he led the Cardinals to the Big Eastregular season and tournament championships, earning the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament and advancing to the Elite Eight. He also helped U of L to the Elite Eight in 2008 and started 57 career games for the Cardinals. After his playing career at Louisville, McGee served as a program assistant and Director of Basketball Operations under Rick Pitino from 2010 to 2014. It was during this time that McGee committed NCAA violations by acquiring and paying for striptease dances and sexual acts for prospective players and players on his current roster. The violations occurred from December 2010 until June 2014.
Findings
The NCAA found the University of Louisville's head coach, Rick Pitino, guilty of a Level I charge. The NCAA Bylaws 11.1.2.1 and 11.1.1.1page:19; require the Head Coach to monitor all recruiting activities to ensure that they are complied with. Pitino failed to monitor that Operations Director Andre McGee complied with the NCAA rules, when Pitino gave McGee recruiting responsibilities. The NCAA found the University of Louisville's Basketball Operations Director McGee engaged in unethical conduct and failed to cooperate when he refused to participate in interviews or provide relevant information to the enforcement staff during the investigation, which constituted violations of NCAA Bylaws 10.01.1, 10.1, 19.2.3, and 10.1-.page:16
Penalties
Though Pitino was set to be suspended for the first five games of the ACC season in 2017–18, Louisville fired him before the season started. The program also had 123 wins from December 2010 to April 2014 vacated, including the 2012 Final Four and the 2013 national championship. The Cardinals were the first to have a men's basketball national title vacated by the NCAA. They will also face a monetary fine for money the university made from advertisements during the Final Fours and National Championship. The University filed an appeal, but the NCAA upheld the findings and punishments on February 20, 2018. On September 30, 2019, a group of players on the 2012–13 team who were not involved in the rules violations settled a lawsuit they had filed against the NCAA. Most of the settlement was confidential, but one portion was authorized to be revealed—while Louisville's team records remained vacated, all honors and statistics for these players were restored. Most notably, Luke Hancock, a plaintiff in the suit, was once again officially recognized as the Most Outstanding Player of the 2013 Final Four.
