This one hits close to home. My former secretary is Dre McGee's mom. He is the former Louisville coach accused of being the mastermind of the scandal.
She and her husband raised three boys, all of whom went to church every Sunday, and were the first in her family to go to college (her husband was the first in his family to go to college). His bothers played basketball in coliege, but are engineers now, but Andre stuck with basketball. They were the kids that were never out late, because after dinner they studied. 7 nights a week they studied. Exceedingly polite, well behaved kids. Andre, the youngest, was different in that he was small, and sickly. He always had to have an oxygen tank nearby even in high school and college. Nevertheless, he had speed, passing acumen and shooting ability, and was a five star player, who was offered by Cal, UCLA and Stanford, among many others. He chose Louisville because he liked Patino, and thought their basketball style was better suited for fast, small guards. He started all four years, loved every minute of basketball and class, and wanted to continue on with the program after graduating. Instead, Patino made calls and insisted he see Europe where he spend a year playing in Germany (a NBA career was not in the cards at his height), and if he was still interested, a job would be waiting.
And it was. Andre worked himself up from grad assistant, to DOP and then to assistant, where he was head of recruiting. He left with the head assistant with Patino's blessing, and told there would always be a job if it didn't work out. But he needed to be at other places to move his career along more quickly.
So what I have read is that Patino and everyone else is dumbfounded by the accusations. The school has called in the NCAA and professional investigators. Patino acknowledges the first thing he did was call Andre and that he denied the accounts in the book. Patino is now in trouble with Louisville's attorneys for making the call, and even worse, defending Andre publicly. The allegations made by the Madame is that she was collecting around 30K a party, which was about Andre's salary when he was DOP, and there is just no way he got that kind of money on his own, even when an assistant. All money from the school's program is accounted for. Everyone connected with the program has made denials. The madame says she has e mail records. That sounds really dumb, especially for a smart kid like Andre, but e mails are certainly something that is concrete evidence if produced, and can be authenticated. Its not clear in the small community that is Louisville, what the Madame gains from the book. Not a lot people are gonna buy a book about recruits having sex with high kids or their dads. It doesn't pass the smell test with the kid I knew. Further, if you look at Louisville's recruiting, they recruit to a particular style player, rather than go after a bunch of five star guys. If you look at the years Dre was recruiting, it was 3 and 4 star players. They were a national power and really didn't need to provide extras. Its not adding-up, but I am admittedly way too close. But this is not an environment like at Oregon. Its very provincial. The affair Patino had was a huge breach of decorum, which he still apologizing for.
Thing to remember about all these scandals, I guess, is they involve real people.
