Karen Sypher's trial began today

Its been 15 months since we first heard rumblings of Rick Pitino being extorted, and today seemingly marks the beginning of the end of this ordeal.

Karen Sypher's trial began today. She is being charged with three counts of extortion, two counts of lying to the FBI, and one count of retaliation on a witness. (Kentucky Sports Radio has a thorough breakdown of each side's opening argument argument.) The trial promises to be quite interesting (and x-rated), although it is far from an open-and-shut case:

OWill Karen Sypher end up having an effect on Pitino's ability to run the Louisville program?
(photo credit: Lexington Herald-Journal)

Sypher could win an acquittal — at least on the extortion charges — if she can convince the jury that she was wronged by Pitino on the night of Aug. 1, 2003, at Porcini Restaurant, and that her attempts to obtain compensation were justified.

"The defense will try to make it out to be a civil case — that Pitino harmed her, that she consulted an attorney (Kolter) and that he made a demand for her," said Louisville lawyer Mark Chandler, who defends white-collar crimes and drug cases.

Kristin Logan, another Louisville defense lawyer who specializes in white-collar crimes, said that when "an individual seeks out an attorney for help with a legal issue, one presumes that attorney will act within the bounds of law."

I'm not a legal expert. In fact, I find the nuances of legality -- the details that drive people to go to law school -- to be rather boring. Rick Pitino is not being charged with anything in this case, and the outcome itself is unlikely to effect his status as the head coach at Louisville. This case itself doesn't interest me much more than Lindsay Lohan's DUI trial.

What does interest me, however, is the reaction to the case; specifically, that of the Louisville Cardinals fan base and the kids that Pitino is recruiting.

Its not a secret that Pitino is far and away the second most popular coach in the Commonwealth right now. John Calipari is leading Kentucky's program is on the way back to where it was in the mid-to-late 90's, while Louisville is looking more and more like a Conference USA team, not the tournament's No. 1 overall seed, which they were is 2009.

How long is a diehard fanbase like that of Louisville going to stand for mediocrity, considering the man leading the program has admitted to what Pitino has admitted to? Very few coaches would be able to survive having information like this become public knowledge. Is Pitino one of that minority?

He may not be.

It was widely publicized when Pitino lost Marquis Teague to Kentucky. It didn't make as many headlines, but Pitino also lost Michael Chandler this summer. What was one of the best 2011 recruiting classes has lost much of its luster.

Having said that, Pitino still has a chance to put together a great class. Wayne Blackshear, a 6'5" two guard and consensus top 20 recruit, has remained loyal to the Cardinals. He's landed landed commitments from Zach Price, a 6'8" center, and Ryan Taylor, a 6'6" small forward, who both make appearances on top 100 lists. A recruiting class with three top 100 players, including a guy that could very well be a McDonalds all-american, is by no means a terrible class, but it is far from as good as it seemed just three months ago.

Louisville is also still in the hunt for a number of high-profile recruits. Quincy Miller, a 6'8" small forward who could very well end up the No. 1 recruit in the class of 2011, is heavily involved with Louisville, as is high school teammate Deuce Bello, a high-flying 6'3" guard considered a top 50 recruit. The two could very well end up a package deal.

The Cards are also still heavily involved with Kentucky native Chane Behanan, one of the hottest recruits of the summer, and have an outside shot at landing a couple of other fairly well-known recruits -- Johnny O'Bryant, Jabarie Hinds, Jakarr Sampson, Remy Abell, Nick Johnson.

The bottom line is this: Pitino's ability as a coach has not changed, and likely will not change. The question is whether or not he is going to be able to land the talent, size, and athleticism necessary for his system to be effective. In other words, is he going to be able to go into the living of a recruit's parents and tell them, straight-faced, that he will be able to teach their son how to become a man?

Rick Pitino has enough pull that he will be able to land some recruits based on the fact that he is Rick Pitino. But continues to lose out on the Chandler's and the Teague's -- especially if they head to Kentucky instead -- how understanding is Louisville going to be?

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Rick Pitino tapes leak, call press conference

*UPDATE (moving this to the top of the page): So I had a chance to listen to the tapes, and there isn't anything new on them. If I had to guess, the reason that Pitino called this press conference and blew his lid is because everything in the tapes comes off as fact. Most news reports on this issue have written off Karen Sypher's rape claims, discrediting the majority of her accusations. But if you haven't been following the story closely, listening to these tapes will lead you to believe that what Sypher is truth.

In all honesty, I side with Jeff Goodman here: Pitino needs to just keep his mouth shut, and let things play out in court.

Here is the video of his press conference:



Earlier today, WLKY-TV in Louisville received tapes of the recorded interviews between police an Karen Sypher (you can listen to them at The Sporting Blog).

Just hours after the tapes were released, Pitino held a press conference where he bashed the media for their coverage of the scandal. He said that his family has been through "pure hell" during this process and urged true Louisville fans to avoid watching and reading any new stories about him or Sypher.

I'm not by a computer right now, but when I get a chance to listen to the tapes tonight I will update this post with anything interesting to come out of it.

Initial thoughts: why did Pitino feel the need to call a press conference upon the release of these tapes? I wonder if there is something on them that we haven't heard about yet.

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Last Rick Pitino post, I promise

In case you haven't heard it yet, here is Rick Pitino's presser from last night.

Now that this is out, there are really only two questions left to ask: will this cost Pitino his job, and how will it affect his recruiting.

I doubt it will cost him his job. If there is anything we have learned in the last few years, its that our celebrities - in sports, in entertainment, in politics - are human too, that they make mistakes just like the rest of us. And Pitino did the best thing possible when he was caught - he came clean. Its amazing how much saying "I messed up, I'm sorry" can swing the public's perception of you.

The biggest reason I don't think Pitino should be fired is that I would probably do the same thing if I found myself in that situation. While I don't condone cheating on your spouse in the least, if I was a married public figure, got another woman pregnant, and she wanted $3,000 to take care of the baby (in one way or another), I think there is only one course of action.

Like it or not, believe in it or not, abortion was still a legal (albeit controversial) medical procedure last time I checked. If you're Louisville, are you going to fire one of the best in the business when he has committed no crime?

So let's say he keeps his job. How will this incident affect his recruiting? It won't benefit it, that's for sure. It may have already taken a toll, as Louisville lose Fab Melo, a top five recruit in the class of '10, to Syracuse (most industry sources thought the Cards were a lock).

There is something in basketball called negative recruiting (read the Parrish and Goodman articles after the jump), which is exactly what it sounds like. If I'm another coach recruiting Michael Chandler (a 6'11' rising junior and one of the top prospects in the class of '11 who committed to Pitino in January), I say things to him like "If you go to Louisville, chances are you will be playing for Ralph Willard"; or to his parents "do you really want to send your son to a coach with these morals?"

Only time will tell how much of an impact this will have.

And before I sign off on the issue, follow the jump for a last batch of columns from around the intrawebs:

Gary Parrish of CBSSports: "'d like to tell you his personal life won't come up in recruiting, but that would be a lie, because it will. Even if a prospect doesn't care, a prospect's family might. And even if a prospect's family doesn't care, opposing coaches will almost certainly try to make them care by floating theories about how Pitino's life is spiraling out of control, about how it'll lead to an early retirement, about how signing with Louisville isn't as likely to have you playing for Pitino as it is to have you playing for new assistant Ralph Willard.

In the business, it's called negative recruiting.

And it works.

So while Pitino spoke about the incident Wednesday and explained how telling the truth will help make it a part of his past, the reality is that this is very much going to be a part of his future, too. How much so remains to be determined. But when John Calipari moved down the street in April, Pitino's job immediately became more difficult, and I'm inclined to believe this latest episode is only going to make things worse."

NVR1983 from Rush the Court: "How did Pitino expect Sypher to find insurance for that sum? The answer is that it’s pretty clear that he didn’t. So, why would he lie about this, a legal, if controversial in some places, procedure? Even Red Staters in the Louisville area would be willing to forgive Pitino’s indiscretions if he continues to get to Elite Eights. So who or what exactly would Pitino be afraid of? The answer may lie in a place closer to Pitino’s heart than even basketball. . .

Pitino’s Catholic faith is well-known and while he doesn’t reach Tim Tebow levels in terms of evangelism it’s pretty clear that Catholicism is a big part of his life as he reportedly “brings along close friend and spiritual adviser, the Rev. Edward Bradley — a priest in Henderson, Ky. — on many team trips”. As most of you are probably aware, the Catholic Church has taken a fairly strong and unambiguous stance against abortion. Perhaps at this point in his life, Pitino is less concerned about keeping his coaching job and jeopardizing a future trip to Springfield than he is about being granted into admission into another rather select club.

Jeff Goodman of FOXSports: "Louisville already missed out on their top recruit for the Class of 2010 last week when Brazilian big man Fab Melo somewhat surprisingly chose Syracuse over the heavily-favored Cardinals. While Pitino may not be able to land another Samardo Samuels or a guy the caliber of Melo, there are still those whose views on Louisville in the wake of the Pitino news haven't altered a bit.

"It doesn't change anything with us," said Rod Odom Sr., whose son, Rod, is being recruited by several other Big East schools. "We sat down as a family last night and analyzed it and spoke to Rod about it."

The elder Odom told FOXSports.com that he isn't sold on the fact there was ever an abortion. The same goes for rising 6-foot-10 junior Michael Chandler, one of the elite big men in the Class of 2011, who committed to Pitino and the Cardinals back in January.

"My commitment is still strong," Chandler said on Tuesday. "It wouldn't change because of this because it's not true. This won't affect my decision at all."

While Chandler maintains that he hasn't been the target of negative recruiting, that probably will change. Many programs that will go up against Louisville in recruiting wars will likely use the uncertainty involving Pitino to their advantage.

"It just happened, so we haven't gotten any of that yet," the elder Odom said.

Just wait."

Tim Dahlberg of the AP: "Pitino wins games and lots of them. No reason to jeopardize that, especially now that archrival Kentucky has its own superstar coach.

Sure, Pitino’s contract lists moral depravity and dishonesty as possible causes for termination. But let’s get real.

Winning basketball games is a lot more important than taking the high moral ground at most universities. Besides, where is Louisville going to get another coach who can win and win big?"

Jody Demling of the Louisville C-J: "Shawn Teague, the father of University of Louisville's top Class of 2011 recruiting target - Marquis Teague - told The Courier-Journal on Wednesday night that the recent events surrounding U of L coach Rick Pitino haven't affected the recruitment of his son.

The younger Teague is considered one of the top-five prospects nationally in his class and is a point guard from Indianapolis Pike High School. The elder Teague played for Pitino at Boston University.

"It hasn't changed a thing for us," Shawn Teague said. "Of course, I want to see some things fall out a little bit more. Things happen and things can change - even with this situation - and we still have to look to see if anything is going to happen as a result of what did happen. But in terms of who Rick Pitino is and how I feel about him and how my family and Marquis feel about him, there's no change in that whatsoever."

The elder Teague said he "didn't know the extent of what happened," but added that he doesn't have "any qualms with Pitino." Continue reading...

The latest on Rick Pitino

UPDATE: Pitino spoke to the press late Wednesday, and said apologized profusely for his "indiscretion", saying that he already apologized to his family and he wants to apologize to his Louisville family. He said that he wanted to coach at Louisville for as long as they would have him.

Before I get into the bulk of this post, I feel I should mention that Pitino's lawyer has said that the $3,000 he paid out was not for an abortion, it was for Karen Sypher's health insurance. Which she needed to get the abortion.

Umm ... is there a differnce? I guess so. Its called semantics.

The bigger news, however, is that Rick Pitino has a morality clause in his contract with Louisville (Andrew Wolfson of the L'Ville CJ needs to get a raise for his work on this story). According to Wolfson, he can be fired for "moral depravity", lying to the school, or for "generating disparaging media publicity, if it is caused by his 'willful conduct that could objectively be determined to bring (the) employee into public dispute or scandal, or which tends to greatly offend the public.'"

Yikes. This could be bad.

Calipari may not be the sleaziest coach in the Commonwealth anymore.
(photo credit: ESPN)

As far as moral depravity is concerned, I don't think there is much of an argument. Cheating on your wife, getting a woman pregnant, and then paying for her abortion insurance is just about as depraved as you can be morally without catching a felony charge.

The bigger issue is "generating disparaging media publicity". Now, I'm not one for legalese, but I don't think it is a stretch to say that Pitino "willfully" paid Sypher $3,000, or that this act "brought the employee into public dispute or scandal" and "greatly offended the public", especially when the public is a state as red as Kentucky (we're talking politics here people, not UK vs. UL).

From this blogger's perspective, it seems like Louisville has every right to terminate Pitino's contract.

The question is will they (UPDATE: Louisville president James Ramsey and athletic director Tom Jurich will meet to discuss the issue).

As Gary Parrish points out, coaches have been fired for much less. Remember Larry Eustachy? He was the head coach of Iowa State that was fired after photos surfaced of him partying with some Missouri undergrads after the Cyclones game in Columbia.

Both Sypher and Pitino are going to look like morons once this blows over.
(photo credit: Deadspin)

Eustachy was canned, and all he did was pound a few with some college kids.

Pitino knocked up a woman on a restaurant table and then paid for her abortion medical care whatever.

Which seems worse to you?

So should he be fired?

Personally, I don't believe so. This is an incident from six years ago in which nobody actually got hurt (I'm operating under the reasonable assumption that Sypher is lying about being raped).

If I found myself in Pitino's shoes (I like to believe that I won't cheat on my wife, let alone knock the other woman up, but for argument's sake work with me), I can't say that I wouldn't do the same thing.
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Rick Pitino tells police he paid Karen Sypher $3,000 to get an abortion

Andrew Wolfson of the Louisville Courier-Journal penned an article that showed up on the CJ's website Tuesday evening in which he (finally) brought to light the events leading up to the extortion case involving Rick Pitino.

Are you ready?

Try to stay with me here.

Rick Pitino had sex with Karen Sypher (then Cunagin) after hours at a restaurant in 2003 with his then-assistant Vinny Tatum within earshot.

Then she claimed that she was pregnant and needed money for an abortion.

Pitino met her at Tim Sypher's house to hash out a deal. In 2004, Tim and Karen Sypher would get married. That meeting was their first.

After filing divorce papers, Karen Sypher tried to extort Pitino for $10 million. Pitino refused and pressed charges, to which Sypher responded by claiming that Pitino raped her not once, but twice.

And that doesn't come close to describing how bizarre this story is. Seriously, go read it. I don't know who comes off worse. Karen Sypher looks like an absolute nut job, but what about Pitino? Cheats on his wife with a random broad he meets at a restaurant (on the restaurant floor, nonetheless) while his assistant is present, pays her to get an abortion, and then stands by as she marries a friend and colleague. Can you get much scumbaggier than that?

I think it is clear why Richard Pitino left Louisville to join the Florida staff. Is it a conflict of interest when you find out your boss/father cheated on your mother?

It is not likely that the elder Pitino will lose his job over this incident. While showing questionable (to say the least) morals and decision making, it does not look like Pitino actually broke any laws. Saying Sypher's story lacks credibility would be the understatement of the year.

I joke about it, but this really is not a laughing matter. Especially for the Pitino family, who get to see their personal problems displayed across TV sets all over the country tomorrow morning.

But as for Rick Pitino and Karen Sypher, I have no sympathy. As they say, when you play in dirt, you get dirty.

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This has been one hell of an off-season

The NBA Draft is just 15 days away. The deadline for early entrants that haven't signed with an agent to pull out of the draft is next Monday, all of five days away.

But how much have you read about the Draft - which prospects could go where, potential trades on draft night, who is hurting/helping their stock with workouts - over the last few weeks?

Seriously, go through the archives of your favorite basketball blogs and major media outlets. How much has been written about the Draft?

Not a lot. Why?

A big reason is that this college basketball off-season has turned into a season of the OC. And I'm not talking about the first or second seasons, that were at worst watchable and at best awesome. I'm talking about the fourth season, when Marissa had been killed off and Cohen had become played out and predictable.

All kidding aside, can you remember an off-season with anywhere close to this much drama?

It started while the NCAA Tournament was still going on, when Yahoo! Sports released a report accusing UConn and hall-of-fame head coach Jim Calhoun of pretty serious recruiting violations. The report stated that, among other things, the Huskies had well surpassed the allowed number of phone calls while recruiting Nate Miles and that they knowingly used former student manager and (aspiring?) NBA agent Josh Nochimson as a go-between for Miles and Ater Majok.

A hall of famer that coaches a team that has won two titles in the last decade (and reached this season's Final Four) being accused of major recruiting violations is a big deal, and usually would be enough to keep the college hoops world talking through October.

But this year, we were just getting started.

The next saga to play out was in the state of Kentucky, where Billy Gillispie failed to get the Wildcats into the NCAA Tournament a year after being bounced in the first round. Of course, this was unacceptable in Big Blue Nation. After much speculation, Gillispie was fired by the university, but not before he was infamously chased through the UK basketball offices by a reporter.

That wouldn't be the end of Gillispie, as he sued Kentucky for $6 million for breach of contract. Kentucky counter-sued because, among other reasons, Gillispie never in fact signed a contract.

With arguably the best job in all of college basketball available, rumors began flying as to who would replace Gillispie in Lexington. It was fitting that Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart would choose John Calipari, the very man he passed over for Gillispie two years ago because of the "baggage" that Coach Cal carried (food for thought for you Kentucky fans singing Coach Cal's praises. Say Barnhart gave Cal the job in 2007 instead of Gillispie, and Cal was able to bring Derrick Rose with him to Kentucky. All this talk of NCAA sanctions would be involving your school instead of Memphis. Good decision by Barnhart? But I digress).

Cal's first order of business? Dismantle his loaded recruiting class at Memphis and redirect them to Lexington, where he has managed to put together the most talented team in the country. In his wake, however, he left Memphis a program without a star player or a legitimate head coaching candidate.

Perhaps the strangest storyline of this off-season was how much trouble Memphis and Arizona had filling their head coaching vacancies. Memphis was reportedly interested in, well, everyone - from Baylor's Scott Drew, to Missouri's Mike Anderson, to USC's Tim Floyd, and everyone in between - before finally settling on up-and-comer Josh Pastner. Arizona was rebuked by a number of candidates, including Pitt's Jamie Dixon and USC's Tim Floyd (yes, Arizona was desperate enough to offer the job to Tim Floyd, more on him in a bit), before they inked Xavier's Sean Miller ... after Miller initially rejected their offer.

Back to Cal, the most important by-product of his move to Kentucky was that, for the second time in his coaching career, he left a school with a slew of NCAA allegations hanging over their head.

Those NCAA allegations were, and still are, quite a story all by themselves. First, news broke that Derrick Rose may have been ineligible for the 2007-08 season. Why? Because someone else allegedly took his SAT's for him. Then, word came out that Rose may have had his grades changed when he was in high school. Specifically, he had a D changed to a C on the transcripts that were sent to colleges.

Of course, Coach Cal knew nothing about it (which, for you cynics, may have actually been true).

Then, word gets out that not only was Robert Dozier not allowed in Georgia because of his SAT's (apparently, after scoring a 1260 on his first test, Dozier's score was flagged, and he scored a 720 on the next attempt), but Doneal Mack was not allowed into Florida because of questions involving his SAT scores.

Could anyone on that Memphis team even spell Final Four?

Coach Cal wasn't the only coach in bluegrass country to make a splash in the national headlines. You can't forget about Rick Pitino, who called the FBI on Karen Sypher, the estranged wife of a former Pitino colleague, after she attempted to extort him out of $10 million. She was interviewed by a local TV news station, but her claims were so incredible (and, apparently, unbelievable) that journalistic integrity said they could not report them until the claims could be verified.

I would love to know what Sypher claims happened. She has since been indicted on extortion charges.

And then we have Tim Floyd. Not three months ago, Tim Floyd was living the dream. After reaching the second round of the tournament (his third straight trip to the dance), Floyd had a roster full of talent set to return and a great recruiting class set to come in.

But then everything started to unravel. First, Renardo Sidney was denied entrance into USC for a multitude of reasons, the majority of which involve Sidney possibly being ineligible for college hoops. He eventually signed with Rick Stansbury at Mississippi State.

Then, came the bombshell - Yahoo! Sports confirmed that Louis Johnson, a former associate of Guillory and Mayo, said, under oath nonetheless, that he saw Floyd hand Guillory an envelope full of benjamins. The players must have known that this was coming, because even before the May 12th article was posted online, USC was hemorraging players. Daniel Hackett, Demar Derozan, Taj Gibson (who hasn't hired an agent, but is almost guaranteed to stay in the draft at this point), and Marcus Johnson all went pro. Noel Johnson, Lamont Jones, and Solomon Hill all withdrew from their commitments/LOI's to USC.

Things were so bad at USC, that Floyd was looking at possibly having to start Percy Miller, aka Lil' Romeo, who had come to USC as a package deal to land Derozan as an under the radar prospect.

And yesterday, the icing on the cake. Floyd stepped down as head coach at USC, leaving the school, in mid-June, without a head coach and with a roster that is half-full. It may be a while before we see USC back in the dance.

I still haven't mentioned stories like Isiah Thomas' hiring at FIU, the Jeremy Tyler-Nick Calathes-Terrence Oglesby trek abroad, the fact that Lance Stephenson - a top 10 recruit, a program changing talent, and a kid that went toe-to-toe with OJ Mayo as a HS freshman - has still yet to find a program that is willing to take on his baggage, or the spat that Paul Hewitt and Steve Cohen had over the NBA's age limit.

And everyone thought Brandon Jennings going to Europe was a big deal last summer.




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Charges have been filed in the Rick Pitino extortion case

Karen Sypher, the estranged wife of Tim Sypher (the Louisville equipment manager and longtime Pitino colleague), has been charged with extortion and lying to the FBI. She wasn't just extorting Pitino; she as looking to make a fortune. From the Courier-Journal:

They discussed the possibility of a house, cars and money. The affidavit goes on to say that Tim Sypher delivered to Pitino on March 6 a written list of demands from Karen Sypher calling for college tuition for her children, two cars of her choice, a house paid off, $3,000 cash per month and a lump-sum payment of $75,000 if Pitino leaves U of L.

According to the affidavit, the note says, “If all is accepted, I will protect Rick Pitino’s name for life.”

The affidavit said she later withdrew her demands and through an attorney requested $10 million from Pitino.

We still have no idea what Sypher has on Pitino. But for $10 million, it must be pretty juicy. Speculating here, but it seems that the dirt most likely is some type of romantic relationship between Sypher and Pitino or some knowledge of a crime/NCAA violation Pitino committed. From the Strait Pinkie:

Pitino told FBI agents that he received three voice-mail messages in late February from a man who threatened to go public with criminal allegations against him. In the third message, the caller said the news media would be notified about the claims in two weeks.

Pitino told the agents he believed they stemmed from an encounter with Sypher six years earlier, after which she met Tim Sypher, the basketball team’s equipment manager, and later married him.

Whatever this ends up being, I hope it blows over soon.

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