Tuesday CARDINAL COUPLE -- What say you, Geno?

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TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE


-Geno Auriemma faces lawsuit over alleged advances.


We're used to reading about the Connecticut Huskies and Geno Auriemma when it comes to college women's basketball. They've been the most successful team in the BIG EAST since formation of the league. They're usually sitting atop the league standings when the BIG EAST Tournament rolls around. They've placed enough players in the WNBA to field a separate division fueled by just former Husky players. 

Auriemma in contemplation mode

A new headline grabber, though, is associated with the program. The UConn head coach and U.S. Women's Olympic Basketball skipper has been named in an employment discrimination suit filed by a security official for the Olympic team who claims she was removed from her assignment after she rebuffed Auriemma's advances after leaving an elevator.


Wonder if Aerosmith's "Love in an Elevator" was the background music? 


Kelley Hardwick claims that Geno followed her and another woman into an hotel elevator after leaving a hotel bar and talking to them in the lobby of the same hotel in Yekaterinburg, Russia during October 2009. 


He then, according to Hardwick, "came up behind her, took hold of her left arm, and...as she turned...he forcibly tried to kiss her on the mouth" after she left the elevator and as she was inserting her key into her hotel room door. 

Geno goes for Angel's left
arm. Note the look of surprise
on Ms. McCoughtry's face.

Hardwick claims she stopped the advances, shoving him away and saying:


"What are you doing? You better check yourself before you get hurt!" 


She then, reportedly 'grabbed his face and mushed him'.


We're not sure what mushing is, in terms of that incident. We do know that mushing is common up in the northern regions of our planet and huskies are often used on sleighs where mushing takes place. We can only assume that Hardwick tried to ride Geno down the hotel hallway, mushing his face as a means of getting him to mush? 


Somehow, that just doesn't make sense.   

The winters in Connecticut probably allow mushing
to take place. 

If there had been any BIG EAST women's basketball referees present (especially Bonita Spence or Dennis DeMayo) the whistle would have come out and Auriemma would have been called for a foul. We're guessing the scenario (if it actually happened) was that Geno was trying to prevent Hardwick from making a spin move and driving to his left. Grabbing the arm will get you a whistle every time. We briefly thought about contacting UofL Assistant SID Kim Pemberton and asking if we could talk to Shoni, Bria or any of the Lady Cards guards about avoiding grabs while playing defense. 

Shoni indicates that she may have been
grabbed on the right arm. They're always
fouling Shoni, aren't they? Call 'em, ref !!

We didn't make the call to Kim. Those girls are busy enough and so is Kim. We watched, instead, some highlights of the 2011-12 BIG EAST Tournament. Sure enough, you grab another player and you get the whistle. If the refs see it, of course. Sometimes, they don't.  


Concerning the alleged hallway incident...Auriemma denies Hardwick's claim:


"This claim is beyond false. I will defend myself to the fullest, and I'm confident that the truth will ultimately prevail. In the meantime, I remain focused on representing the United States this summer and getting our team ready to compete for the gold medal."

How you get 'beyond false' is also an area we're not clear about. It might be like the 'strenuously object' scene from the movie A Few Good Men..where Demi Moore stridently tries to block testimony. We're not sure if we want to drag her, Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson into this quite yet, though...so we'll let that go for the time being.  


So, it's a case of 'He Said, She Said' and there are no witnesses that saw the supposed hotel hallway hub-bub. 

Jimmy Cagney prefers to mush with grapefruits

We get the general 'drift' (also associated with mushing and huskies) here: 


1) Hardwick loses job. 2) Hardwick thinks Geno had something to do with it. 3) Hardwick spills the beans on a incident that may or may not have happened. 4) Geno denies. 5) Laywers get rich. 6) UConn, Geno and mushing get drug through the mud.
7) Mushing now has several definitions.


Of course, we're no strangers to coaches involved with ladies here in Louisville. Google 'Pitino and Sypher'. 

Kelley Hardwick...did she
mush or not?

If it happened, Geno needs to 'face up' ( no pun intended ) and admit it. If it didn't, Hardwick needs to recant and apologize for trying to slander one of the most successful basketball coaches of all-time. 


All of a sudden, the 2012 Summer Olympic basketball events have picked up an issue that the "talking heads" who will broadcast the events can chew on. 


We "mush on"...wondering if they have or will eventually check the hallway security cameras and see if the alleged event was recorded or not. If they have hallway security cameras in the Yekaterinburg hotel in question, of course.


They can, then, do a booth review. 


As they say in the NFL...indisputable evidence is what we're looking for here. And if the hand doesn't hit, you must acquit...


(A call to CARDINAL COUPLE legal counsel Miranda Wright got the terse reply..."Innocent until proven guilty and I'm billing you for legal advice." ) Great...


Link below for the New York Times report:


Geno
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