Rick Pitino has again decided to speak out publicly to defend his name, and has once more insisted that he will eventually be vindicated. 

The disgraced Hall of Famer, who was fired from the University of Louisville last fall, went on the Dan Patrick Show on Thursday to defend not just himself but another coach caught up in the FBI's investigation -- Miami's Jim Larranaga. 

"A lot of good things are gonna come out for me in this lawsuit," Pitino said. "The facts are gonna come out."

Unprompted, Pitino -- who now lives in South Florida -- stuck up for Larranaga. Miami was one of the schools investigated by the FBI. No Hurricane coaches have been charged, however, and no players missed games due to fallout from any external or internal investigations. 

"I know from the bottom of my heart that Jim Larranaga is innocent," Pitino said. "I know that. I don't know about the other people involved, I don't have any information, but I know Jim Larranaga's innocent. In my eyes, in my heart. But I would tell you that 90 percent of college basketball is clean, and I would've said that when I first started, 40 years ago. Ninety percent." 

While plenty could laugh at Pitino's "90 percent" number, I can tell you some in the business would agree with him on that number, There are 351 schools in Division I so Pitino would be claiming that 316 schools are clean, leaving 35 to be not so clean. (Plenty others would claim that 90 percent is way too high, too.) 

Here's part of Pitino's segment:

"I think in two years everything will come out and they'll say, 'Man, that guy was really railroaded out of this business,'" Pitino said. "And then nobody will care. It will last a day and nobody will care."

Pitino admitted that if he was viewing the situation from afar -- if everything that's been attached to Pitino was attached to someone else -- that he wouldn't believe that coach was innocent. So he's at least showing some self-awareness. He knows his reputation is tarnished forever. 

The interview was revealing, if nothing else, as to where Pitino is at this point and how he tried to get a college job in recent weeks. Pitino denied any contact between him and the University of Rhode Island; prior to hiring David Cox on Wednesday, URI disputed a report that stated Pitino was up for the Rams' job. But, according to Pitino, one school did inquire heavily enough to the point where he went and did an in-person interview. It went far enough to the point where Pitino supplied documents to support his innocence at Louisville. 

"I've only been contacted by one school," Pitino said, indicating said school wasn't Rhode Island. "It was a nice situation, and we talked and I met with them, but it did not fit for me and it did not fit for them. You know what I realized, Dan, is it's probably not going to work for me in college basketball. Because one of the schools was very interested in me called me and said, 'Look, Coach, you showed us everything that you have.' From a factual standpoint, all of the evidence I gave The Washington Post, and they said, 'We believe in you wholeheartedly. The problem is we called the NCAA, and the NCAA said we cannot investigate anybody. Any school, any person. We can't tell you if they're innocent or guilty because the FBI has told us not to investigate until their case is closed. So, that's just the way it is. ... It's going to take years for all of this to shake out."

Here's that portion of the interview: