Madam Claims Louisville Basketball Staff Member Paid for Escorts to Have Sex With Players and Recruits

No way!

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When talented high school basketball players visit college campuses for recruiting purposes, schools do just about everything to show those recruits a good time. We’re not just making that up, either. Jalen Rose explained what it’s really like to be recruited by a big-time college program back in 2013. He explained that schools pulled out ALL the stops during his visits, including sending him to gatherings where there were lots of beautiful women:

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With that in mind, it’s not entirely surprising to hear that the Louisville basketball program is currently investigating some crazy allegations made by a madam named Katina Powell in a new book called Breaking Cardinal Rules: Basketball and the Escort Queen.

In the book, Powell claims that she helped facilitate the basketball program and, more specifically, former Louisville graduate assistant Andre McGee with lots of women from 2012 through 2014. She writes that she used to routinely exchange text messages with McGee and arrange to have her group of escorts—which, weirdly, included her own daughters—dance for Louisville players and recruits and have sex with them. She writes that she used to send her girls to Billy Minardi Hall on the Louisville campus as well as other locations off campus to meet McGee and the players and that she was paid about $10,000 total for her services.

If what Powell writes is true, there’s a chance that the 2012-13 NCAA championship that the Louisville team won could be in jeopardy since McGee was allegedly providing recruits with “impermissible benefits” at that time. Powell does not accuse Louisville head coach Rick Pitino of being in on it, but he would obviously be affected by an investigation into any wrongdoing. Pitino spoke at a press conference this afternoon.

“To say I’m shocked, again, I’ll repeat it, it’s a mild understatement,” Pitino said. “My heart’s just taken out of my body and broken.”

The NCAA would not comment on Powell’s allegations when Yahoo! Sports reached out to them this week. However, in the book, there is a statement from Louisville that says that the school is conducting an investigation into the allegations with the help of an “outside expert.” Stay tuned for more details.

Are you surprised about any of this? If so, go watch the Jalen Rose video above again.

Send all complaints, compliments, and tips to sportstips@complex.com.

[via Yahoo! Sports]

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