Ex-escort Katina Powell, 43, has come forward with the claim that Louisville assistant couch Andre McGee paid her $10,000 for sex parties with Louisville players and recruits, even going so far as to make an appearance on ESPN’s Outside the Lines to tell about how she had partied with “a boatload” of recruits and dancers in a dorm on the school’s campus. Powell even goes so far as to claim that head coach Rick Pitino was fully aware of the parties, according to Daily Mail:
Powell said that coach Pitino had to be aware of some of 22 shows she alleges that former staffer Andre McGee paid her $10,000 for that took place in Billy Minardi Hall from 2010-14.
The dancers at the parties included Powell, her three daughters and other women, according to the book.
McGee played for Louisville before becoming a graduate assistant coach and director of men’s basketball operations.
According to Powell, she once asked McGee whether Pitino knew about the parties.
He allegedly responded: ‘He’s Rick.
‘He knows about everything.’Powell told Outside the Lines: ‘I couldn’t make this up if I wanted to.
‘I have no reason, or have the need, to lie on anyone.
‘Everything I’m saying is 100 per cent the truth.’
Pitino, however, has stated that neither he nor his assistants were aware of the activities that Powell claims occurred, although he has stated that he was “devastated” and “disappointed” by Powell’s allegations. However, don’t make the mistake that what Powell described was a one-time affair; Powell’s daughter Lindsay also claims that she was paid $100 to have sex with former Louisville point guard Russ Smith before he made the switch to playing in the NBA:
Powell’s daughters were all at least 18 by the time they were being paid for sex and two of them spoke to ESPN about what they claim happened at the sex parties on the school’s campus.
Lindsay Powell, 24, said she was paid $100 to have sex with former Louisville point guard Russ Smith, an allegation that also appeared in her mother’s book.
Smith, who now plays in the NBA for the Memphis Grizzlies, was a member of Louisville’s 2013 NCAA championship team.Lindsay Powell said: ‘I believe that McGee came to my mom and said something to her about it, and my mom came to me and I was like ‘OK,’ and we went in another room and we had sex.’
Another daughter, 22-year-old Rod Ni Powell, said she had sex with Montrezl Harrell of the Houston Rockets at a party while he was a member of the Cardinals from 2012-15.(via)
Powell’s claims have so far led to four separate investigations, with investigations by the athletic department and the NCAA having been launched directly after Powell’s story came to light.
[H/T Daily Mail]