Sex scandal in US college basketball team
LOS ANGELES, United States—A former basketball coach at the University of Louisville paid for exotic dancers to perform stripteases and sex acts for some players and their guardians, ESPN reported Tuesday.
The television network’s “Outside the Lines” program carried an interview with former escort Katina Powell who alleged an assistant Lousville coach paid her $10,000 to bring dancers onto campus for players between 2010 and 2014.
Article continues after this advertisementThe coach, Andre McGee, who is currently on administrative leave from his job at Missouri-Kansas City, approached Powell about arranging “side deals” with current players, some recruits and their associates.
Those deals included stripping and performing sex acts, Powell told the program.
One Louisville player recruited by the university told ESPN one party felt “like I was in a strip club.”
Article continues after this advertisementAnother former Louisville player told ESPN that McGee had given him $1 bills to tip dancers.
Louisville head coach Rick Pitino said he was unaware of the stripping and sex parties, urging McGee to address the allegations.
“Not myself, not one player, not one trainer, not one assistant, not one person knew anything about any of this,” the Hall of Fame coach said.
“If anyone did, it would have been stopped on a dime. Not one person knew anything about it.”
Powell, 42, has written a book detailing the allegations, entitled “Breaking Cardinal Rules: Basketball and the Escort Queen.”
The book alleges nearly two dozen parties took place between 2010 and 2014 at a campus dorm.
Louisville’s athletic department declined to comment directly on “Outside the Lines,” saying in a statement it was withholding a formal response to “preserve the integrity of the review process.”