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It’s déjà vu all over again for Pitino

Image (1) g-spt-090811-pitino-827p.h2.jpg for post 127

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Last August was fairly miserable for Rick Pitino. Not sure this August will be much better.

Louisville’s coach ran the gamut in stories public figures would rather avoid: He revealed he was the target of extortion, which later involved the FBI. He made a public apology for his infidelity with a woman named Karen Cunagin Sypher, though he would later castigate critics for focusing on what he termed “that indiscretion six years ago.”

More details and more stories leaked the rest of the month, including allegations of sexual assault, that Pitino reportedly paid an aide to marry Sypher, that he was told by the school’s president to apologize, and that the ordeal was “pure hell” for his family. (There’s a full recap of every allegation from both sides here.)

Not a good month.

And here we are, nearly a year later, and because of Sypher’s extortion that began Monday, we’ll be hearing all of it again. For example, Sypher’s attorney made a quoteworthy statement during his opening statement on Monday, saying that because she challenged Pitino, she had “to be destroyed” and discredited.

Even if that’s the only new tidbit that pops up, another summer of this can’t help Pitino’s image. It just reminds everyone of what went down and will certainly continue to impact his recruiting.

Not that I feel badly for Pitino. This is a mess of his making. But I’m sure he’s just assume it all went away rather than be brought up again.

Because it’s not going away anytime soon.

Mike Miller’s also on Twitter @BeyndArcMMiller, usually talkin’ hoops. Click here for more.