LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Fans of University of Louisville athletics are sounding off on local sports talk shows. Callers shared their fatigue and frustration about the latest scandal to rock the school. They also wanted the opportunity to do vent.
Tuesday, in a federal indictment, acting United States Attorney Michael Bennett said Guadio tried to "extort money and other things of value" from the University of Louisville in exchange for not releasing information about alleged recruiting violations by the university to the National College Athletic Association (NCAA). The indictment doesn't specify the “other things of value” he was requesting. Gaudio claims in the indictment the school violated NCAA rules in its production of basketball recruiting videos for prospective student-athletes and its use of graduate assistants during practices.
“You know there’s really not much you can say. Just you know we have to wait and find out what’s going to happen,” said one caller who phoned into The Deener Show on ESPN 680.
Andy Sweeney, the host of "The Take with Andy Sweeney" said the Dino Gaudio story has been the big topic of discussion.
“Instead of discussing the team on the floor and these sorts of things. You’re discussing potential NCAA things and discussing extortion with another basketball coach. It’s not things people want to hear,” said Sweeney.
Sweeney used words like fatigued and frustrated when fans of Louisville athletics learned of the Gaudio story.
“On Monday, Chris Mack had a press conference that gave a lot of positivity of what was going on at UofL and then boom here it comes on Tuesday, Dino Gaudio allegedly extorting UofL it’s just the soap opera that never ends.”
Former UofL basketball Coach Dino Gaudio is federally charged with extortion. Sweeney said is just adding more pages to a book that’s been full scandals for Louisville athletics. He compares it to a never-ending saga.
“When the headlines are former UofL coach, the Feds are going after him for extortion we know it’s going to go into they had Rick Pitino, Booby Petrino, Bobby Petrino 2.0, and they had the issue with Tom Jurich,” said Sweeney.
Sweeney believes the heavy majority of Louisville fans who have been calling in support Chris Mack and Athletics Director Vince Tyra. But Cardinal fans don’t want to endure the potential violations from the NCAA.
“When you connect NCAA violations to this extortion, it makes you nervous because you’ve been through this for seemingly year after year,” said Sweeney. “I think the new regime here is getting a fair shake to figure all of this out but fans aren’t happy. They shouldn’t be happy and just blindly believe what is done and that’s what is worrisome here."