5 possible replacements for Rick Pitino at Louisville

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 09: Head Coach Rick Pitino of the Louisville Cardinals directs his team against the Duke Blue Devils during the quarterfinals of the ACC Basketball Tournament at Barclays Center on March 9, 2017 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Lance King/Getty Images) /

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Rick Pitino is out, officially or otherwise, as Louisville men’s basketball coach. Here are five candidates to replace him.

The specific wording for his dismissal comes down to how it’s laid out in his contract, but Rick Pitino is surely out as men’s basketball coach at Louisville as the FBI continues its investigation into a wide-ranging bribery scandal. He has professed his innocence or ignorance, but another scandal in his program brought things to a point of no return and athletic director Tom Jurich also paid the price by being placed on “administrative leave.”

Louisville would be a very appealing job if all things were equal. But the FBI’s ongoing hammer and a possible looming NCAA punishment creates a big cloud of uncertainty, and it will take a unique candidate to willingly embrace that uncertainty right now.

With the short-term somewhat in mind, but mostly a look beyond this coming season, here are five candidates to replace Pitino at Louisville.

5. David Padgett

As an assistant under Pitino, Padgett’s role in the current situation is not clear. But he has reportedly taken over the day-to-day operations of the program, which makes him the top candidate to at least officially be named Louisville’s interim head coach for the 2017-18 season.

Padgett played for Pitino at Louisville for three seasons, before transitioning to coaching and eventually coming back to work under Pitino in 2014. The current group of players may push for Padgett to be their coach, now and down the road, and if he is not implicated in the bribery scandal he has to be a candidate.