Former Louisville Recruit Says Allegations of Escorts True

Yesterday Ohio State confirmed that the NCAA had met and talked to freshman point guard JaQuan Lyle about allegations that he took part in a scandal involving the University of Louisville and paid escorts.

IBJ Book Publishing, which published Powell’s expose, provided Yahoo Sports with some text messages it had that purportedly were discussions between Powell and Louisville director of basketball operations Andre McGee.

Ohio State’s JaQuan Lyle was mentioned in the book, as the author claims that she took four escorts to “do a show” for Lyle when he was a recruit. Sports. “We’ve been told, and are pretty confident, this is not something we need to worry about”.

Lyle ended up committing to Louisville just a few weeks after his recruiting trip but then ended up de-committing before joining Ohio State. After not being able to enroll in 2014, he committed to Ohio State as a part of this year’s recruiting class. LSU freshman Antonio Blakeney has been interviewed as well.

Gary Parrish of CBS News broke the story that Lyle confirmed that something related to the content of the book “Breaking Cardinal Rules” did happen while he visited the university. One source said that, “he told the truth, he had to tell them or he was going to get hit with the amateurism issue on benefits”.

Cardinals coach Rick Pitino has strongly denied Powell’s claim that he knew about McGee’s alleged misdeeds. Powell claimed that Pitino did but offered no proof beyond her recollection of a conversation with McGee.

Now it seems that Louisville is forced into a place where they will have to admit to the allegations and work with the NCAA on how to move forward.