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  • Steve Masiello Loses South Florida Deal

    Steve Masiello Loses South Florida Deal

    After finding “previously undetected discrepancy in his background check,” University of South Florida officials were prompted to end a contract with Manhattan coach Steve Masiello late Tuesday night. USF had paid a Texas-based search firm called Eastman & Beaudine $60,000 to find a replacement for coach Stan Heath, and the company found that Masiello had falsified a credential on his résumé.

    Masiello had claimed he’d graduated from Kentucky in 2000, but in actuality, he doesn’t have a degree. It was reported that Masiello had actually signed a 5-year contract with the USF Bulls worth at least $5 million, early Tuesday. Masiello had previously worked as an assistant under coach Rick Pitino at Louisville, and received praise from Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich upon the news of his Florida hire.

    While at Manhattan, Masiello led the team to its first NCAA tournament since 2004:

    Jurich had told the Tampa Tribune that “Stevie can do whatever he wants to. He’s just terrific. He’s a rising star in this business.” Then Masiello’s background check came in.

    Perplexed fans took to Twitter:

    As of writing, Masiello hasn’t yet formally resigned from Manhattan, and is presently on leave. South Florida is back in the hunt for Coach Heath’s permanent replacement.

    Louisville Coach Rick Pitino told ESPN, “If it’s accurate, I’m shocked by it. I had no idea. I left the previous year, and he was on track to graduate.” Louisville AD Jurich added, “I knew Rick was comfortable with him. He played for Rick, and Rick knew all about his background.” It’s now clear how the formality of completing a communications degree would affect one’s basketball coaching ability.

    Masiello played for Kentucky as a walk-on under coaches Pitino and Tubby Smith from 1996 to 2000.

    Image via YouTube

  • Kevin Ware Returns To Play With Louisville

    Anyone who was watching that emotional game that Louisville played against Duke during the NCAA tournament will surely remember the horrific injury that was suffered by Louisville’s Kevin Ware. His dramatic injury resulted in a broken leg in one of the most gruesome injuries to witness in the sport, as we all watched him go down in pain.

    To many people’s surprise, he made a return to the court last night and helped Louisville in their exhibition game. The cardinals played Pikeville in their first game, a contest that they were easily able to win with a final score of 90-61.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUAMGrWiV6w

    It had been decided that he would play in their season opener against the College of Charleston, but yesterday’s game was uncertain. Louisville fans will certainly be happy to see their star player back on the court, and support him on a team that just won the national championship.

    Kevin Ware finished with 6 points and 4 rebounds in that 10 minutes that he played during the game. It must have been wild for him to be back on the court after 220 days, and he told ESPN that “It was great. I’ve never felt like that before. I’ve been waiting for that moment.”

    Ware entered the game late in the second half, and was not expecting to enter at that time too, which made him a bit nervous. He was cleared to practice with full contact on Sunday, but was not expected to play in Wedenesday’s game. Speaking on the decision to play him, Louisville’s coach Rick Pitino said “I wanted to get him some minutes just to get him over the jitters in case I need to use him against Charleston.”

    Coming off of a national championship victory, the Louisville Cardinals are ranked #3, Ware joins his fellow players in a quest for another successful season. They are now a part of the American Athletic Conference after the Big East was stripped apart in order to begin the 2013 season.

    Kevin Ware is hoping to be able to return to the same type of player that he was before the injury, but that is still to be determined. His whole family is planning to attend the season opener in Louisville, and will undoubtedly be a special moment for the star player.

    Image via Youtube

  • Rick Pitino is Told He Stinks During an Interview

    You’d think that getting inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame would buy you at least a month before getting heckled in an interview, but that isn’t the case for Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino.

    During an interview on a local Boston radio station on Thursday, radio show host Fred Toucher had one thing to say to Pitino: “You stink!” Listen here.

    Fred: We are joined by Rick Pitino, former coach of the Celtics, current coach of the Louisville Cardinals who won the national championship. Rick Pitino, hello!

    Pitino: Morning, guys.

    Fred: You stink. You ruined the Celtics.

    As soon as Toucher delivered his heart-warming message to Pitino, he hung up on the coach without giving him an opportunity to respond (although it’s likely that Pitino would have hung up himself after getting past the initial shock). It’s not like anyone keeps a record on radio interview lengths, but if they did, that would definitely go down in the books as the shortest radio interview ever.

    While there are some basketball fans out there who probably got a chuckle out of the interview, it’s pretty sad that the station wasted their time and Pitino’s with this. Pitino has been busy promoting his new book, “One-Day Contract,” plus the coach of the 2013 NCAA Tournament winners has been on the road recruiting.

    And just in case anyone is wondering, Pitino hasn’t coached for the Boston Celtics since 2001. Pitino didn’t have a successful run there, true, but the Celtics have won an NBA Championship and several division titles since Pitino’s departure.

    Some Twitter users think people are making too big of a deal over the radio host’s comments, but most people agree that it was a classless move. What do you think? Add your comments below.

    Image via YouTube