Rick Pitino: 'I never believed (Brian) Bowen was taking anything'

Tim Sullivan | Courier Journal

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Despite a text message that reads like an accusation, Rick Pitino says he never believed DePaul University had the means to spend $200,000 to attract Brian Bowen and, furthermore, that the five-star recruit was not a good enough prospect to justify such an offer.

Documents filed Wednesday in Pitino’s wrongful termination suit against the University of Louisville Athletic Association include a text message Pitino sent former assistant coach Kenny Johnson on the eve of Bowen’s June 3, 2017 commitment to U of L.

“DePaul trying to pay Bowen 200 k to come there,” it read. “Crazy world!”

To read that remark as a declaration places Pitino in an awkward position. It amounts to an accusation that a rival school was attempting to lure a coveted recruit with a bribe. It also indicates a greater awareness of corruption in Bowen’s recruiting than Pitino has previously acknowledged.

Speaking on Thursday to the Courier Journal, Pitino characterized the text message as a bit of gossip he did not believe, communicated to him by an individual he declined to name with a long-standing grudge against DePaul.

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“I said to Kenny Johnson on the phone: ‘I don’t believe a word of it. Where would DePaul get $200,000 to pay Brian Bowen?’" Pitino said. “There’s no truth to what this guy said. He’s a nobody in the business. He hates DePaul, this guy. ...

“There was no merit behind the thing. That’s why I never brought it to anybody. I get 20-30 text messages: ‘I heard UCLA is giving this. I heard Kansas is giving this.’ There’s no facts. I really didn’t think twice about it.”

Among the arguments that ULAA lawyers have advanced in justifying Pitino’s “for cause” firing was that he had failed to report compliance concerns arising from Bowen’s recruitment, including the involvement of former agent Christian Dawkins and Adidas executive Jim Gatto and the alleged bribe cited in his text message.

While Pitino on Thursday continued to claim Bowen “100 percent fell into my lap,” an FBI investigation found evidence of a $100,000 scheme in which Adidas attempted to pay to steer the player to one of its affiliated schools. U of L placed Pitino on administrative leave on Sept. 27, 2017, a day after the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York disclosed preliminary findings of the FBI investigation.

“I never believed Bowen was taking anything for a second,” Pitino said Thursday. “It never crossed my mind because I didn’t think he was a great basketball player. I didn’t think he was (Indiana recruit) Romeo Langford.

“He had size. He could pass it. He could shoot it. But he wasn’t a freak athlete. He wasn’t a Donovan Mitchell, who blew you away. ... Could he have started for us? Yeah, he could have, ‘cause we needed a two-guard. But if you told me DePaul was offering him ($200,000), I wouldn’t believe that for a second.”

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ULAA’s attorneys cite Pitino's text messages among indications, “a reasonable factfinder could conclude that Pitino was aware of red flags regarding Dawkins’ and Gatto’s involvement in the Bowen recruitment, but that he intentionally failed to disclose those concerns to compliance staff rather than risk Bowen choosing a different school.”

A month before Bowen’s commitment, neither Louisville nor DePaul were considered likely destinations. His short list reportedly consisted of Arizona, Creighton and Michigan State. But DePaul ’s pursuit of the player sparked a story by USA TODAY after the school hired his high school coach, Shane Heirman, as an assistant.

Tim Anderson, who coached Bowen’s AAU team, joined the DePaul staff last August. Former DePaul associate head coach Rick Carter disputed that those hirings indicated anything improper.

“I think people might have gotten some bad info and passed it along to their boss,” Carter wrote on Twitter. “No money was ever offered. We were hiring a staff that all had connections to Bowen. HS Coach, AAU Coach and obviously I had connections to past teams. People shouldn’t believe what they read.”

DePaul's formal statement said the school "will not tolerate deviation" from the conduct standards of its athletics department. "To date, neither the NCAA nor federal prosecutors have contacted us about this matter.," the statement said. "We will, of course, fully cooperate if contacted in the future by the NCAA or federal law enforcement.”

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Tim Sullivan: 502-582-4650, tsullivan@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @TimSullivan714. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: www.courier-journal.com/tims