Pitino sex scandal bound to affect recruiting

Late Tuesday night, the news broke out of Kentucky that Louisville hoops coach Rick Pitino had admitted to having an affair.

But not just any affair.




According to a report in The Courier-Journal, Pitino and Karen Sypher had sex at a table in an upscale Louisville restaurant in August of 2003 (while one of Pitino's assistants was apparently lying on the restaurant floor nearby). Two weeks later, Sypher told Pitino she was pregnant and planned to have an abortion but didn't have any health insurance. According to Pitino's lawyer, the Louisville coach then gave Sypher $3,000 in order to pay for her insurance.

Almost six years later, the case became public when Pitino announced in April that someone had tried to extort him. Sypher surrendered to authorities a few days later after being named in a criminal complaint. She currently faces federal charges of lying to the FBI and attempting to extort $10 million from Pitino.

Then in July, Sypher told police that Pitino had forced himself on her, both during that initial encounter at the restaurant, then again several weeks later. Pitino has denied that claim, and Kentucky authorities have said there is not enough evidence to prosecute.

But the bottom line is that this is a mess that won't just impact Pitino and his personal life. It's going to have an effect on the Louisville program as well as Sypher's federal trial may well drag out into the start of the college basketball season.