Rick Pitino Releases Statement Saying He Disagrees with the NCAA's Latest Notice of Allegations

SI's Pat Forde shares more on the Rick Pitino-Louisville scandal

The biggest name involved in the NCAA allegations that were levied against Louisville this week was Rick Pitino - the former coach of the Cardinals, who is now the new head coach at Iona. 

He had been fired by Louisville after the last scandal and spent a couple of years in exile coaching professionally in Greece. The Gaels hired him at their mid-major level in early March. 

A surprise move to a lot of people, they took a risk there from a credibility standpoint. But the school said they did their due diligence on Rick Pitino and weren't worried about hiring him. Now he's facing a Level 2 allegation of violations that could at a maximum level, leave him suspended for up to a half a season, among other sanctions against him at Iona. 

We'll see how that case progresses from here. Pitino has said that he disagrees with the allegation, doesn't believe that he should be charged. But I think everybody watching on the outside thought that he would be charged with at least a level two, if not a level one allegation, and that the NCAA might have even gone light in terms of what it charged him with. 

So we'll see how good Rick Pitino's lawyer is. We'll see how much Iona is willing to put up with there. And we'll see what the NCAA can make stick in its latest go-round with Rick Pitino.