Reactions to the Sypher verdict: What is the next step for Rick Pitino?

Yesterday, Karen Sypher was found guilty on all six counts in the trial of her attempted extortion of Rick Pitino. Most estimates I have seen say that she could very well spend seven or eight years behind bars. While this won't knock the Pitino story out of my consciousness, it will knock it off of the front page.

So where does Louisville go from here? Athletic director Tom Jurich has already pledged his support for Pitino. Recruiting obviously hasn't been hurt. So what's the next step?

(Anyone with a good link, please send it my way, either via twitter or email at contactBIAH AT gmail DOT com.)


Jeff Goodman: Pitino has nowhere to go. He is stuck in Louisville. Pitino can't return to the NBA because, well, his track record in that league doesn’t justify a third go-around. His last hurrah was a 3½-year, near-catastrophe in Boston. Even the Sacramento Kings weren’t interested a year or so ago. And even worse: The guy that won a national title with Kentucky in 1996 and has taken three different programs to the Final Four couldn't land another big-time job in the college ranks these days. So he will, in all likelihood, ride it out and conclude his career in Louisville.

Jeff Eisenberg: we won't truly be able to evaluate how Pitino stands until we see how his tarnished image impacts his ability to recruit. Despite a middling 2009-10 season, modest expectations for next year and the specter of John Calipari's Kentucky Wildcats down the road, Pitino actually seemed to be on the verge of reeling in a fantastic class prior to the start of the trial. Elite shooting guard Wayne Blackshear had already committed to Louisville, while fellow top prospects Quincy Miller, Josiah Turner and Deuce Bello were all listing Louisville among their leaders. The lingering question now is whether an adulterer whose sexual stamina has been ridiculed on national TV by Jay Leno can still sell his program to 17-year-old recruits and their parents. Getting back to winning at Louisville is the only way Pitino will put this scandal behind him, so that means an influx of new talent is an absolute must.

Rush the Court: Jurich and Pitino also know that there’s one thing that repairs almost any puncture to a coach’s or player’s public image — winning. Rick Pitino’s relationship with the rest of the world is that he’s a basketball coach, and if he continues to do that well, that’s all people will care about and all they’ll remember. Galleries were applauding Tiger Woods less than six months after his amazing-athlete-next-door image was carpet bombed, and they were doing it because he was fulfilling the only real obligation he had with them — the providing of entertainment in the form of top-level golf. That’s why the 2010-2011 edition of the Louisville Cardinals — to borrow one of Pitino’s superlatives — is the most important team he’ll ever coach. Winning is the ultimate salve. If he can use these tough times to help galvanize his players behind him and produce his best Cardinal team yet, despite all of the taunts and sneers he’s going too have to endure from opposing fans in the upcoming season, he could very well be the one laughing last. Karen Sypher was revealed to have said, "If I'm going down, I’m taking Pitino with me." Well, she's going down (stop laughing). What happens on the basketball court will determine whether or not she was successful in that evil mission.

Eric Crawford: What he has done in two stints in this state is to build up huge reserves of good will on and off the court. Sypher was unable to get at Pitino's bank accounts, but she put a world of hurt on those other accounts. So what does he do to rebuild them and repair the damage? Some never will be repaired. The rest will require three things: humility, time and victories.

Gary Parrish: I think we'll all agree, when we look back in 10 years, that Kentucky's John Calipari did more to hurt Rick Pitino's recruiting than Karen Sypher ever dreamed. Sypher is the worst thing to happen to Pitino's personal life, but Calipari is the worst thing to happen to Pitino's career because having to work 80 miles from Coach One-and-Done is damn-near impossible. Calipari is at the bigger program, he has all the momentum, and elite prospects with a desire to get to the NBA quickly -- i.e., the overwhelming majority of elite prospects -- genuinely do want to play for him.

Matt Jones: It took two statements from Rick Pitino to guarantee that the Sypher trial will live with him forever. Had Rick never told us that it only took him "less than 15 seconds" to be with a woman and that he completed his act "down my leg", the entire trial would have likely remained a local story, with very little long-term ramifications. However those two lines turned the affair from a "hard to cover" sports story to a national punchline. The phrase "less than 15 seconds" will be used for years for jokes about Pitino that will not only show up in opposing teams’ arenas, but on sports shows, blogs, etc. It didn't have to be like that…he could have avoided the comment because he wasn't asked directly about the amount of time the sexual encounter ended up taking. But he volunteered the information and from now on, "Quicky Ricky", "Ricky Three Pumps", "Gone in 15 Seconds", "Sticky Ricky", etc will follow Pitino everywhere he goes.