Rick Pitino: 'We should be penalized, but not this team'

Following Louisville's 79-47 triumph over Boston College, Rick Pitino continued to field questions over the school's escort scandal.

But instead of showing any sign of weakness, he stood his ground in very Rick Pitino fashion, supporting the university, but bashing a "broken" system for punishing the players who had nothing to do with the escort scandal.

"We should be penalized, no question about it. But not this team," he told reporters. "I believe we should be hit with a heavy, heavy financial fine. ... Where you really hit a university is their wallet. Where you really hurt a coach is his wallet."

Last year, a self-described former escort named Katina Powell published a book alleging that former staffer Andre McGee hired dancers to strip and have sex with recruits at an on-campus dorm in order to coerce them to attend Louisville.

On Friday, the university self-imposed a one-year ban from the postseason, effective this year. At the presser, Pitino made graduate transfers Damion Lee and Trey Lewis the focal point of why he disagreed with the punishment, although he accepted it.

But in his postgame talk, Pitino reiterated that athletic director Tom Jurich made the final call, not school president James Ramsey.

"Let me say this, the system is broken," Pitino said. "Please, nobody blame Dr. Ramsey. Tom Jurich made this decision.

"(Ramsey has) taken enough heat from enough places. He's done a lot for our university. He doesn't deserve this."

Pitino also showed support for his AD. He went as far as saying that had Jurich been involved in the school's internal investigation, the matter would have been addressed much earlier.

"If Tom had been in on the (investigation) meetings, this would've happened a month and a half ago," Pitino said.