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Louisville asks Rick Pitino to admit Christian Dawkins was at practice nine days before arrest

Louisville v Syracuse

SYRACUSE, NY - FEBRUARY 13: Head coach Rick Pitino of the Louisville Cardinals looks on against the Syracuse Orange during the second half at the Carrier Dome on February 13, 2017 in Syracuse, New York. Louisville defeated Syracuse 76-72 in overtime. (Photo by Rich Barnes/Getty Images)

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Rick Pitino’s lawsuit against the University of Louisville is already producing fireworks.

Lawyers for the school filed in federal court 53 requests for admission on Monday, and one of them, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal, was a request for Pitino to admit that he had allowed Christian Dawkins to attend a practice nine days before Dawkins was arrested by the FBI.

Dawkins is the man at the center of the FBI’s investigation into corruption in college basketball. He was a runner for ex-NBA agent Andy Miller that played a major part in facilitating $100,000 to the family of Louisville recruit Brian Bowen in a series of payments. Those allegations are what eventually led to Pitino being fired and spawned his lawsuit to recover the money that he was owed in his contract.

If true, this would be the second time that Dawkins, who is from the same hometown as Bowen and who ran an AAU program that Bowen was a part of early on in his high school career, visited the Louisville campus. One of those instances was in late-May of 2017, right around the time that the deal to get Bowen to Louisville was being done. Bowen committed to Louisville on June 3rd of that year.

According to the Courier-Journal, it is that visit that justified Pitino being fired with cause as he did not alert the school’s compliance office that someone that worked as an agent would be on campus.