Rick Pitino, Louisville basketball might part ways

Rick Pitino could be coaching his final home game as the Louisville Cardinals basketball coach on Tuesday.

Pitino has a top 25 team again but the Cardinal will not go to the postseason because of a self-imposed ban in response to allegations of sexual misconduct involving recruits and female escorts. Pitino maintains he was not aware of the dorm-room pay-for-sex activity but the strain of the investigation is undeniable, he told ESPN. Is it to the point that Pitino might be better moving to his next coaching stop?

Pitino said late North Carolina State coach Jim Valvano once told him to never let scrutiny of his program impact his health.

"Jimmy said that NCAA investigation broke down his immune system," Pitino recalled. "I told people that I was so saddened by what happened here, that I wasn't sleeping, that it had taken a big toll on me. ... But I said, 'I'm not going to let this thing get me sick,' and it hasn't gotten me sick.

"This team rejuvenated me in a great way, because I have awesome guys who are playing for nothing still giving me incredible effort each night. I'll step away from the game after the season and say, 'Are you having fun?' I'll look at it and do some thinking and then let the chips fall where they may."

Pitino is in his 15th season at Louisville and at age 63, said he still has the desire to coach. His good friend and Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich has not indicted Pitino. However, he hasn't let him off the hook entirely, either.

Parting with Pitino would have a lasting impact for the program, which has a top-15 recruiting class coming in and only three seniors leaving Tuesday night after the regular-season finale.

Pitino has 10 years left on his current contract and a total salary of more than $47.5 million according to the USA Today salary database for college coaches.

Pressure appears to be real around Pitino these days. He argued with fans at Miami on Saturday and earlier this season was reprimanded for an apparent obscene gesture to Kentucky fans.

Yet to be heard from is former Louisville director of basketball operations Andre McGee, implored by Pitino to come forward when allegations from escort Katina Powell became public with the release of "Breaking Cardinal Rules," a book chronicling the bad behavior involving Pitino's own recruits.

Pitino called for McGee to come forward and clear the air in September, when he was placed on leave from his assistant coach job at Missouri-Kansas City. McGee faces legal recourse in the recruit incidents.

"I'll ask myself after the season," Pitino told ESPN, "if Louisville is a better place with Rick Pitino as coach, and if the answer is yes, I'll do what I've done for 15 years and come back and fight for a championship, and that's what I plan on doing. But if the time comes that I feel Louisville is better off without me, I'm without ego now. I'd recommend this job to everybody. The town is great, the AD is off-the-charts fantastic and loyal, and I have a super team coming back. But if I think Louisville will be better off without me, anything's possible."