Pitino Staying Put

After a few days of rumors and innuendos that led many to believe Coach Rick Pitino's days at Louisville were numbered, Card fans were given reassurance that he is staying put. No Sacramento Kings, no retirement.

Louisville SID Kenny Klein and FoxSports.com's Jeff Goodman both said yesterday that coach was neither going to coach nor interested in the Sacramento Kings opening. These are contrary to alleged confirmed reports by ESPN yesterday the said Pitino's "camp" had initiated contact with the Maloof brothers, owners of the Kings. In a release through the university, Pitino stated:

"I'm not sure how these rumors get started, but there is absolutely no truth that there has been any dialog, either directly or indirectly, with the Kings and I'm sure they would confirm that. I am not represented by an agent, I don't have a "camp," and no one representing me nor have I had any contact with the Kings. Anything else said to the contrary is false. These invalid rumors are unfair to the Kings and are misleading to the many outstanding young men we are recruiting to attend U of L. "

"I'm so proud of our players that have worked so hard to win the BIG EAST Conference regular season and tournament championships in arguably the toughest season since its inception last year. At the same time, our team has also performed very well in the classroom, earning a collective team grade point average over a 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale) during the past year. We have worked extremely hard to attract the type of players that have helped us reach the NCAA Elite Eight the past two seasons and have kept us among the top ten in the nation the last two seasons.

"I have great respect for the Kings, their ownership and (President for Basketball Operations) Geoff Petrie. However, I have been totally committed to U of L the past eight seasons and I am looking forward to the future more than ever. We are all very anxious for the start of next season and will concentrate our efforts on what we can control, not on what we can't."