UMKC’s Andre McGee, center of Louisville sex parties controversy, resigns

The first comments from Andre McGee, the former Louisville assistant who has been alleged to have arranged sex with escorts for basketball recruits there, have come in a letter of resignation at UMKC.

McGee, who has been on the UMKC staff since 2014, was put on administrative leave on Oct. 2, and his resignation was announced by the university on Friday.

“The university deserves a full time assistant coach and I am not able to provide that to the basketball team while the false allegations against me are being investigated,” McGee wrote in a letter to UMKC Director of Athletics Carla Wilson.

The NCAA, Louisville and UMKC are investigating the allegations detailed in a book, “Breaking Cardinal Rules: Basketball and the Escort Queen,” published this month by former escort Katina Powell.

Powell wrote that nearly two dozen stripping and sex parties occurred at Louisville’s on-campus dorm for athletes and other students from 2010 to 2014 and that McGee supplied cash for “side deals,” with the escorts that included sex with some recruits, guardians who accompanied them on visit and some Louisville players.

Louisville head coach Rick Pitino has implored his former coach to tell the truth.

“I don't know if any of this is true or not,” Pitino told ESPN earlier this week. "There's only one person who knows the truth and he needs to come out and tell the truth to his teammates, to the University of Louisville, to his fans and to his coaches that have taught him to do the right thing for years and allowed him to be part of something special here.

“He's the only one with any answers. Whether it's true or not, I don't know. ... Everything else is absurd. I don't care about the legal issues. If he's done something wrong, he has to own up to it and do his penance.”

This story was originally published October 23, 2015 at 12:42 PM with the headline "UMKC’s Andre McGee, center of Louisville sex parties controversy, resigns."