Former Celtic Coach Fired By Louisville After Scandal

According to multiple reports, Rick Pitino, who had an unsuccessful stint as the head coach of the Boston Celtics in the 1990s, has been fired by the University of Louisville after he had been implicated in a federal investigation into fraud and corruption in college basketball recruiting.

According to ESPN, Joon H. Kim of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, announced yesterday that his office was filing federal corruption charges against assistant basketball coaches at Arizona, Auburn, Oklahoma State and USC.

According to the charges, the coaches allegedly accepted cash to ensure that top basketball prospects toward specific agents and financial advisors. The ESPN report said the coaches face charges of bribery conspiracy, solicitation of bribes, honest services fraud conspiracy, honest service fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and Travel Act conspiracy, and they face up to 80 years in prison if convicted.

Additionally, the University of Louisville program was implicated in the investigation. The charges said that an official with Adidas paid a recruit $100,000 to attend the university.

Pitino, who led Louisville to the NCAA national championship in 2013, posted a 102-146 record as Celtic coach from 1997-2001.