Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Dick Cady and escort Katina Powell have written an expose of recruiting tactics used in the basketball program at University of Louisville, based on Powell’s experience providing sexual services at the school.
Their new book “Breaking Cardinal Rules: Basketball and the Escort Queen” explores the length that a storied basketball program will go to secure the nation’s top high school basketball talent.
“I looked in those young faces, and their eyes reflected their fear and loss of innocence. (We’ve) done so many recruits, it is sickening,” Powell lamented.
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Katina Powell |
Escorting, dancing and sex was Powell’s occupation. She ran the business with a troupe of strippers, including her own daughters.
Powell kept five journals with details of her escort escapades, sexual encounters, murdered relatives and activities at the University of Louisville. Most of the U of L services she provided took place in the men’s dormitory where basketball players reside.
She claims her main contact and the man who paid for her services–the school’s former director of basketball operations and former graduate assistant, Andre McGee–kept Powell and her girls busy from 2010 to 2014. She claims most of the sexing went down at Billy Minardi Hall, which was named after Rick Pitino’s brother, who died in the 9/11 terror attacks.
She has hundreds of text exchanges with him to set up her services as well as pictures of her girls with players and recruits.
Powell does not present a sympathetic character. Her life is full of contradictions. She has no remorse for her life or the choices she has made. Her story is true, and “Breaking Cardinal Rules” goes into firsthand and graphic detail.
“This story needs to be told,” says publisher Patricia Keiffner.
Thanks to the book, Andre McGee, who is currently a coach at Missouri-Kansas City, has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation by U of L. Here are some rules Powell offered up in the book: