The jokes abound regarding randy University of Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino. There's the one about him calling a restaurant and asking for a table for two. At which point, the maitre d' inquires: "Would you like silverware with that?"
As well as: Rick Pitino never orders the table d'hote; only the table that's hot.
Then there's his latest self-improvement book: "Success is a Choice -- and so's Sex."
The real joke, of course, is that the only action Louisville has taken against coach Pitino is to insist he apologize. Consider that the University of Alabama, that paragon of intercollegiate integrity, fired football coach Mike Price for frolicking in a topless bar in Pensacola, Fla., and then allowing a woman (not his wife) to run up $1,000 in room-service charges. Come to think of it, I wonder what the tab came to the night of Ricky's restaurant rendevous?
Price was fired for behavior that brought "public disrepute, contempt, scandal, or ridicule, or that reflects unfavorably upon the reputation or the high moral or ethical standards of the University."
So much for the "reputation, high moral, and ethical standards of the University" of the 'Ville.
Iowa State fired basketball coach Larry Eustachy after he partied with sorority girls. Of course, he never won a national championship, like Ricky P. Has athletics at Louisville ever been about anything other than winning -- especially against Kentucky (who Pitino has a 3-5 mark against)?
It's great that Louisville's Catholics are willing to forgive Pitino for his past transgressions. But will they forgive him if he loses to the Wildcats?
(Contact Jim Donaldson at donaldsonj(at)projo.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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