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Report: Rick Pitino tells coaching staff he’ll be fired at Louisville this morning

ESPN’s Michael Eaves says Pitino knows it’s coming.

North Carolina v Louisville Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Yesterday seemed to be just the start of a wild day in college basketball. Today’s only perhaps going to be wilder as things shake out from the FBI’s probe into corruption in college basketball.

ESPN’s Michael Eaves reports this morning that Rick Pitino has told his team and players that he’ll be fired this morning as Louisville’s head basketball coach. Here’s the full report.

Louisville head basketball coach Rick Pitino has told members of his coaching staff that he expects to lose his job over allegations the Cardinals basketball program is involved in a federal investigation into fraud and corruption in college basketball recruiting.

A source told ESPN's Michael Eaves that Pitino "knows it's coming" after a staff meeting of the basketball coaches Wednesday morning in Louisville.

On Tuesday, federal prosecutors in New York announced charges of fraud and corruption against 10 people involved in college basketball, including four assistant coaches -- Auburn's Chuck Person, Oklahoma State's Lamont Evans, Arizona's Emanuel "Book" Richardson and USC's Tony Bland.

The FBI probe focused on coaches being paid tens of thousands of dollars to steer NBA-bound players toward sports agents, financial advisers and apparel companies.

Federal criminal complaints accuse at least one coach at a "public research university located in Kentucky" -- identified as Louisville -- of taking part in a scheme to funnel about $100,000 from Adidas to an All-American high school player whom the Cardinals were recruiting.

Tuesday night, Pitino released a prepared statement saying the allegations "come as a complete shock to me" and saying he knew nothing about them.

We’ll talk more about what this means for Indiana, former Hoosier assistant Kenny Johnson, Romeo Langford, and more in the coming days. For now, one of college basketball’s biggest figures seems to be no more. It’ll be easy to slap Pitino with the label of villain, but it’s much more complicated than that

We’ll update this story as it develops.