Rick Pitino’s time at Louisville is done, but the school may still suffer from the myriad alleged actions by his staff. (AP)

NEW YORK – On June 15, 2017, the NCAA hammered the University of Louisville with major rules violations after players and recruits were found to have received sexual favors in the team dorm from prostitutes hired by a men’s basketball staff member.

Penalties included the vacating of 123 victories, including the 2013 national title, a five-game suspension for head coach Rick Pitino and four years of probation.

On Aug. 23, 2017, just nine weeks later, Louisville associate head coach Kenny Johnson parked his car in front of the Galt House, the famed downtown hotel. That’s where Brian Bowen Sr., the father of incoming Cardinal five-star freshman Brian “Tugs” Bowen, was staying in a $2,300-a-month apartment.

Tuesday, during a federal fraud trial here in Manhattan, Bowen Sr. testified he climbed into Johnson’s car and the assistant coach handed over $1,300 in cash.

With that alleged clandestine transaction comes the obvious question: Will the NCAA investigate Bowen’s claim and if proven as true as his being under oath implies, label Louisville men’s basketball as a repeat violator of major rules and hit it with the death penalty?

The testimony that has emerged from the trial of Adidas executives Jim Gatto and Merl Code, and runner and would-be agent Christian Dawkins this week has not be kind to Louisville. When 10 men were originally arrested a little over a year ago following a lengthy FBI investigation into the sport, one of the casualties was Pitino, who was fired by the Cardinals.

At the time, however, the allegations were that Gatto, Code and Dawkins arranged for Adidas to funnel $100,000 to Bowen Sr. in exchange for his son playing for Louisville, an Adidas-sponsored school. Pitino and others noted they had no knowledge of the deal and thus far nothing has emerged at trial to suggest they did – at least not directly.

“He does know something,” Code is heard saying on wiretap when discussing Pitino with Dawkins. “He doesn’t know everything … plausible deniability.”

With that kind of separation from the payment, Louisville and Pitino, one could argue that they were even a victim of Gatto, et al, and they would have never approved any such rule breaking, especially while on probation.

Now, though?

What happens if the second in command of the basketball team personally handed over cash to the father of an incoming freshman, all while he is staying at a hotel/apartment complex that would raise red flags as the housing choice for nearly anyone, let alone a former police officer living off disability.

This also seems to further decimate the government’s theory in why it brought this case to trial – that Louisville is a victim here, just a cute and cuddly basketball team trying to strictly follow NCAA amateurism guidelines and thus disgusted that anyone would pay money to a recruit or player.

“Would you agree this act by the head associate coach at the University of Louisville, Kenny Johnson, paying you cash [would have] affected Tugs’ eligibility the exact same way [as] what Christian Dawkins did?” Dawkins attorney, Steve Haney, asked Bowen Sr. during cross examination.

“Yes,” Bowen Sr. answered. “Both violations.”

Johnson and the school have the right to refute Bowen’s allegations, and it will be interesting to see if they do and how they attempt to accomplish it. However, Bowen’s full story sounds convincing.

View photos Brian Bowen Sr. took the stand in federal court on Tuesday in the first of three college basketball corruption cases. Federal prosecutors argued that the signing of his son was the result of a payoff to Bowen Sr. (AP) More

Text messages and FBI-intercepted phone calls between Bowen and Dawkins reveal that Dawkins told, and Bowen believed, that Johnson would provide $2,000 a month in cash to help pay for Bowen Sr.’s apartment in Louisville.

“Christian basically told me Kenny was supposed to be getting me some money,” Bowen Sr. testified.

On June 26, Bowen and Johnson connected via text message and set up a meeting at a Shell gas station in downtown Louisville.

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