Louisville names Tyra as acting athletic director
LOUISVILLE, KY. » Vince Tyra hopes to add some continuity to an unstable situation, no matter how long — or brief — his time is as Louisville’s acting athletic director.
The university foundation board member Tuesday was named the acting replacement for athletic director Tom Jurich, who is on paid administrative leave as the school addresses its involvement in a federal bribery investigation of men’s basketball recruits.
University interim President Greg Postel announced Tyra’s hiring nearly a week after Postel placed Jurich and basketball coach Rick Pitino on administrative leave following the school’s acknowledgement of inclusion in the federal probe .
“Whether you want to call it acting or interim, that’s something for Greg,” Tyra said. “I’m just taking it as I’m filling the role for now until we find out what the long-term fix is.”
Jurich is on paid leave and his status will be reviewed at the Oct. 18 trustee meeting. Pitino is on unpaid leave, and the athletic board voted Monday to proceed with firing him after 16 seasons as Cardinals coach.
Tyra joined the University of Louisville Foundation, a fundraising arm of the school, as a board member in February. The Louisville native and businessman is the son of Cardinals basketball great Charlie Tyra and played baseball at rival Kentucky.
Postel praised Tyra’s business experience and his success in restoring donor confidence as finance chairman of the Foundation. The president believes he will succeed with athletics.
“I am confident that Vince will have the ability to work with me, our coaches, our athletics staff and our athletes to promote stability, to promote confidence in our programs and to ensure to ensure the success of our athletic endeavors,” Postel said.
Tyra’s immediate priority is meeting with Louisville student-athletes and coaches including interim men’s basketball coach David Padgett, who was named as Pitino’s replacement on Friday. The new AD also planned to contact Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner John Swofford.
“Those athletes need to understand there needs to be continuity here,” said Tyra, adding that he and Jurich have similar philosophies and passion when it comes to athletics.
He added that he didn’t know about the extent of the federal complaint against Louisville but planned to learn more in his new job. He also planned to learn more about the school’s sponsorship extension with Adidas.
Postel criticized Jurich in his disciplinary letter to the AD for failing to update the athletic board about that extension. He also called “unacceptable” the level of misconduct and alleged criminal activity, as well as the negative attention brought to Louisville.
Arizona’s Miller breaks silence
TUCSON, ARIZ. » Arizona coach Sean Miller has finally spoken about the federal case involving one of his assistant coaches.
Miller issued a statement through the school saying he was devastated by the arrest of assistant coach Emanuel Richardson on bribery charges last week.
Miller said he recognizes it’s his responsibility as head coach to “establish a culture of success on the basketball court and in the classroom, but as important, to promote and reinforce a culture of compliance. To the best of my ability, I have worked to demonstrate this over the past 8 years and will continue to do so as we move forward.”
Richardson was one of 10 people, including four assistant coaches, arrested on Sept. 26 after being accused of accepting bribes and paying players.
Ref sues Kentucky media company
OMAHA, NEB. » A college basketball referee filed a federal lawsuit against a Kentucky media company, accusing it of creating conditions that led to the harassment of him and his family after he worked an NCAA Tournament game between Kentucky and North Carolina in March.
In his suit, John Higgins blamed Kentucky Sports Radio for helping incite death threats that frightened him and his family and defamatory messages on social media and in phone messages that disrupted his roofing business in suburban Omaha. The harassment came after Higgins worked Kentucky’s loss to the eventual champion Tar Heels in a regional final.
Kentucky coach John Calipari was critical of the officiating in his postgame comments, a theme that was picked up on by commentators for Kentucky Sports Radio after the game.