It Didn't Stay in Vegas for Louisville

Louisville's new assistant coach, Walter McCarty only recently left the NBA lifestyle for coaching. Old habits die hard. That or he was showing a couple of the kids at Louisville what the future could hold.

At LAX nightclub (Luxor) on Wednesday: Former NBA pro Walter McCarty and members of the Louisville Cardinals basketball team, toasting shots of Patron tequila and glasses of Veuve Clicquot champagne after their win over UNLV.

The Cardinals were in Las Vegas last week, for one of the many holiday tournaments happening around Thanksgiving. The Cardinals were upset the next night by BYU.

Apparently that story wasn't well received by Louisville's Athletic Department.

They were pissed and complained. Quite a bit it would seem. To the point where they were demanding a retraction to the story. All the same they did concede that McCarty was at the club, but he was alone and just had a drink. After all, that is why people go to popular, loud, crowded night clubs. They go solo to have a single drink before calling it a night.

Kenny Klein, the school's sports information director, called it a "completely erroneous report" and added, "we have people crying for lawsuits."
...
"Bottom line, I know they got cameras all over those casinos and pictures don't lie. I guarantee you that there's none of our players in that casino at that time," Klein said Friday.

He's right about photos not lying. We checked and found Louisville player Juan Palacios among the photos posted on the local nightclub Web site, Napkinnights.com.

Our sources say McCarty and Palacios were in the LAX nightclub's VIP section early Thursday with several male friends, including a young white man who appeared to be a seven-footer. Palacios, 22, is injured and has not played this year. ...

A bottle of $400 Patron was charged to an Eric Scott's credit card, I'm told, and a bottle of Veuve Clicquot, which goes for about $300, was paid for in cash.

Oops. Apparently Napkinnights is about showing the hot nightlife in clubs all over the country (here's the photo album from the club and night in question, and I think this is the photo). Eric Scott is the Director of Basketball Operations at Louisville and also happens to be the the older brother of Louisville junior guard Will Scott. The 7-foot, young white man would almost certainly have to be the also injured David Padgett.

In the face of that evidence, the Louisville Athletic Department has revised its position.

Klein told The Courier-Journal yesterday that Palacios was indeed at the club. But he said Palacios, 22, was under different curfew restrictions than the rest of the players because he is injured and inactive. Palacios injured his right knee in preseason practice and has not played this season.

Klein also said Palacios is very religious and doesn't drink alcohol. Klein said Palacios told him he was not drinking at LAX.
Klein said he wasn't sure if Padgett, 22, was at LAX that night.

Not a big issue to me since both Padgett and Palacios were legal. But the Louisville Athletic Department might want to either verify facts or be sure there is no contradictory evidence before issuing denials and silly legal threats.

Oh, and Rick Pitino might want to remind McCarty he's a coach not a player any longer. Even with the players of legal age and injured, he is not their buddy. He's a coach and supposedly the adult.