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Former Louisville head coach Rick Pitino has filed lawsuits against Adidas America, Inc. and Adidas North America, Inc. claiming damages caused by the company's bribing of recruits, reports ESPN's Jay Bilas. The crux of Pitino's lawsuit is the coach's assertion that he had no knowledge of Adidas' alleged bribes, and the their corrupt activity resulted in his firing, which was made official Monday.

ick Pitino found the scandal he couldn’t survive. The Louisville coach, as well as athletic director Tom Jurich, was canned on Wednesday, according to multiple reports, one day after the corruption scandal that rocked the NCAA focused intently on Louisville. Pitino and Jurich met with Louisville officials Wednesday. According to WAVE-TV, Jurich was asked to fire Pitino and when he refused was fired himself. A news conference is scheduled for later Wednesday. The FBI investigated corruption and bribery in college sports, arresting assistants from four programs. Louisville was spotlighted by the investigation, which found a Cardinals recruit was funneled $100,000...

After a 31-point blowout at the KFC Yum! Center, Rick Pitino's postgame press conference drifted from the usual Xs and Os. . . .Everybody in this room has problems with him. And I think the only way to remedy a problem is to find a solution. The first thing I said in the show is ... call up John McCain, apologize and then publicly apologize. Because that has upset me since day one. That man was five years in solitary confinement and was beaten. He's a hero to all of us, and he needs to be apologized to first ......

President Obama welcomed the NCAA Champion Louisville Cardinals to the White House on Tuesday, praising some of the star basketball players by name, then noting that Coach Rick Pitino is the first coach in history to win a championship at two different schools. “But Coach understands he didn’t do any of this alone. As he said, ‘Players put coaches in the Hall of Fame,’” Obama said. But Pitino’s record shows that he's the one who’s made winners out of his players, not the other way around. The president has used a similar refrain—that success is always a collective achievement—in the...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP)—A Kentucky woman was convicted of extortion Thursday after she demanded millions of dollars from Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino to keep their tryst at a restaurant secret. Karen Cunagin Sypher, 50, of Louisville, was found guilty of three counts of extortion, two counts of lying to the FBI and one count of retaliating against a witness. As the jury’s verdict was read, Sypher closed her eyes, then opened them and stared at the ceiling. One of her sons sitting in the front row with other family members wept openly. The case involved a 2003 sexual encounter between...

It was a Southern whine-fest of MVP proportions this week. On Wednesday, Louisville head basketball coach had a press conference to lash out at the media's apparent spreading of "lies" about his adulterous fling several years ago with one Karen Sypher. Rick Pitino had sex with Sypher in a restaurant. After she became pregnant, she came to him asking for money for an abortion (he said it was so she could buy healh insurance). Sypher essentially continued to extort money from Pitino for several years until he 'fessed up and she was arrested. The affair was in 2003; the details...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- Louisville coach Rick Pitino said Wednesday a sex scandal involving a woman accused of trying to extort millions from him has been "pure hell" for his family, fuming that newly released video of her police interview revived her "total fabrication." Pitino spoke at a hastily called news conference hours after Louisville police released audio and video recordings of phone calls and an interview with Karen Cunagin Sypher, the woman at the heart of the scandal. Pitino has told police that he had sex with her six years ago. Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/basketball/ncaa/08/26/pitino.1.ap/index.html

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP)—Louisville men’s basketball coach Rick Pitino told police he had sex and paid for an abortion for the woman accused of trying to extort him for $10 million, a newspaper reported Tuesday. The Courier-Journal of Louisville reported on its Web site that Pitino told police he had been drinking in a Louisville restaurant and had sex with Karen Sypher in August 2003. The police report said he denied allegations by Sypher that he raped her after the restaurant closed and at another time somewhere else. He said later he gave her $3,000 for an abortion. Sypher went to...

<p>LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A newspaper is reporting that Louisville coach Rick Pitino told police he had sex and paid for an abortion for the woman accused of trying to extort him for $10 million.</p>