Pitino settles with Louisville

A fiercely competitive coach on the court, Rick Pitino didn’t want to fight in one anymore.

So the University of Louisville Athletic Assn. and Pitino settled lawsuits stemming from his departure from the school, with the former men’s basketball coach’s personnel file changing his termination to a resignation. He received no money in the settlement.

Pitino sued the ULAA for more than $38.7 million in November 2017, accusing it of breaching its contract by firing him for cause the previous month in the wake of a federal bribery investigation of college basketball. Louisville countersued, seeking monetary damages for vacated games and bonuses. The agreement comes a week after representatives for the association and Pitino held settlement talks at the federal courthouse that included the coach.

In a statement issued Wednesday through lawyer Steve Pence, Pitino said he was moving on “to a new chapter in my life.”

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