Former Louisville assistant coach Jordan Fair is back coaching in AAU

Gentry Estes | Courier Journal

Jordan Fair, a former University of Louisville assistant coach who was a part of the scandal tied to the FBI's investigation into college basketball, is back coaching.

A Wednesday night post on the Twitter feed of Team Breakdown, an AAU program in Florida that Fair had helped previously coach, said that Fair has been cleared by the NCAA and has returned to the sideline as a coach.

The team's website lists Fair as the head coach of its 17-and-under team.

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Team Breakdown is participating this week in the Under Armour Challenge tournament in Cartersville, Georgia.

Coach Jordan Fair like all of Team Breakdown coaches has been cleared by the NCAA’s own process to coach. Excited to have him back on the sideline. — Team Breakdown (@TeamBreakdown) July 12, 2018

According to the event's website, players and coaches have to register and be certified through the NCAA's Basketball Certification System.

While the NCAA itself certifies which events that college coaches can attend, it does not certify nonscholastic coaches, according to Stacey Osburn, the NCAA's media relations director.

U of L "parted ways" with Fair "without cause" in October 2017 in the wake of an FBI complaint alleging a scheme to attempt to pay recruit Brian Bowen's father $100,000 in return for the player signing with Louisville. The complaint also alleged a scheme to attempt to funnel payments to an additional Louisville recruit's family, citing a recording of a hotel room meeting in July 2017.

The FBI's complaint described a Louisville assistant coach — identified as Coach 1 — as being a part of that hotel-room meeting.

“We gotta be very low key,” Coach 1 said, according to the FBI complaint, given Louisville's NCAA infractions case relating to the previous escort scandal.

The Courier Journal has not confirmed that Fair is Coach 1, but former Louisville head coach Rick Pitino insinuated it in an Oct. 26 radio interview with WHAS 840's Terry Meiners.

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Fair "did the wrong thing by stepping in that room, and he has to speak up on that matter and not hide behind lawyers," Pitino told Meiners.

In the interview, Meiners asked Pitino why Fair would "do what they say Coach 1 did?”

"Well, I don’t have the facts to any of that, and I’m not going to hang him out to dry," Pitino said. "Whatever he did, it was a wrong move, and he needs to explain his behavior."

The FBI's investigation into college basketball is ongoing and has limited the NCAA's ability to investigate.

Pitino named Fair an assistant coach in March 2017, elevating him from "program assistant," where he helped with recruiting and scouting reports. Pitino hired him from the high school ranks, where Fair was the head coach at Oldsmar (Florida) Christian School.

In addition to coaching duties, the 28-year-old Fair has also reportedly been working as an insurance sales agent for Senior Healthcare Direct, per a bio posted on the company's website.

Reporter Jeff Greer contributed to this story.

Gentry Estes: 502-582-4205; gestes@courierjournal.com; Twitter: @Gentry_Estes. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: www.courier-journal.com/gentrye