Report says Louisville AD was fired when he refused to fire Rick Pitino

Tom Jurich.Timothy D. Easley/AP

University of Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich and men’s basketball coach Rick Pitino have reportedly been fired one day after the FBI arrested 10 people on charges of corruption and fraud in college basketball bribery scandal.

According to Kent Taylor of WAVE-TV, Jurich was told to fire Pitino. When Jurich refused, he too was fired.

According to one report, Pitino had told his staff that he expected to be fired over the scandal. On Tuesday, Pitino released a statement saying he was “shocked” by the allegations.

Louisville announced that it would be holding a press conference at 1 pm ET on Wednesday which many expect to be the official announcement of Pitino and Jurich’s firings.

According to an undercover agent working with the investigation, anexecutive at Adidasand several other defendantsallegedly funneled $100,000to the family of a high-school basketball player to persuade the player to sign with an unnamed public research university in Kentucky. The complaint doesn’t name the university, but, based on details provided, it was almost certainly the University of Louisville.