Sources: Louisville Basketball Avoids Major NCAA Penalties

The full sanctions are set to be released Thursday morning.

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Louisville men’s basketball will avoid major sanctions after an NCAA probe into the program stemming from a 2017 FBI investigation into corruption in college basketball, sources tell Sports Illustrated‘s Pat Forde. They confirm a report by CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander outlining a fairly minor set of sanctions for the Cardinals program.

Louisville avoids a postseason ban, and former coaches Rick Pitino—now at Iona—and Chris Mack both avoid NCAA penalties. The program will pay a $5,000 fine and take a minor reduction in available recruiting days, as well as two years of probation.

A pair of former Louisville assistants have been hit with penalties. Kenny Johnson, now at Rhode Island, will serve a two-year show-cause penalty that keeps him from recruiting for two years. Jordan Fair, now at Oldsmar Christian School in Florida, also has a two-year show-cause penalty.

According to Norlander, the Independent Accountability Review Process (IARP) board determined that Louisville had only committed one Level I violation, along with some more minor Level III violations, leading to a fairly lenient sentence.

After the 2017 scandal broke, Louisville fired Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino and longtime athletic director Tom Jurich. There were some concerns that Pitino could be in NCAA jeopardy at Iona upon today’s release, but it appears that the Gaels coach is in the clear.

The full NCAA penalties are set to be released at 10 a.m. ET.

More CBB Coverage:

• SI’s Expert Picks for Men’s Final Four, Champ and More
• Kansas Finally Does the Bare Minimum With Self’s Meager Suspension
• Report: Gonzaga Interested in Joining Big 12 Conference
• Louisville Report: Payne on Louisville’s Loss to Lenoir-Rhyne: ‘We Needed This Whooping’ 

For more Louisville coverage, go to Louisville Report.