Pitino implores fans to stop bashing University President
On the way into the KFC Yum! Center Saturday, fans could see a large banner that read 'Ramsey is a Coward' posted on a local tavern.
The banner was in reference to University President James Ramsey who announced a post-season ban for the 2015-16 season Friday. Ramsey was joined on the stage Friday by athletic director Tom Jurich, basketball coach Rick Pitino and special investigator Chuck Smrt.
After Saturday's 32-point win over Boston College, Pitino stepped to the podium and made clear that fans who are mad at Ramsey have misplaced their anger.
"Please, nobody blame Dr. Ramsey," Pitino said.
Pitino explained that his boss, Jurich, made the ultimate call on the post-season ban.
"Tom made this decision, not Dr. Ramsey," Pitino explained. "Dr. Ramsey had to OK it, if Dr. Ramsey didn't want to okay it, he could have vetoed it. But Tom made the decision. Tom is the best athletic director in all of athletics."
Pitino and Jurich made clear on Friday that they were not part of the investigation process. Jurich said he was made aware that rules were broken on Thursday and immediately spoke with Ramsey about implementing punishment.
Pitino said, "Now, the mistake was not made with Tom making the decision, we've all got to live by that because we all love the man, we respect the man. The mistake was made by not having Tom Jurich on the committee. You don't go into war without your general. And they made a mistake in not having him on this committee. Rather than pinpoint who is to blame, we don't want to do that, it is a mistake.
"Now some committees don't have the AD but in this case you needed the AD. So, if Tom Jurich would have known of what the meeting's going on, this would have happened a month and a half ago, because he said if we have a problem, if we have violated rules, we will own up to it and address it immediately. He said that. And he addressed it the first time he knew it."
Pitino said he will continue to support Dr. Ramsey and Jurich.
"We are going to support Tom and his decision and we are going to support Dr. Ramsey for okaying his decision," Pitino said. "I never go against Tom because if he came to me and tried to say 'Coach what do you think, maybe you should come out of the matchup zone,' I would tell him where to go, but in this regard, he is the general. He's the brightest guy in the room."
After answering more questions about basketball, Pitino closed with a statement about the investigation which included the following:
"My faith is in Tom Jurich. He is a great AD. Did he hurt us? More than you could ever imagine. Are our fans suffering along with our players? More than anything. But we've got to trust our leader. he leads us into good times, he leads us in the bad tims. We've got to trust out leader. Dr. Ramsey is taking a lot of heat right now. Please don't give him the heat. He's taken enough heat from enough places. He doesn't need this heat. Because he's done a lot of great things for our university, a lot of tremendous things for our university. Just getting off that highway, driving down that street and seeing the way campus looks right now, and all the things he's done for our university... Please. He doesn't deserve this. Thank you."