Sean Miller is one of the coaches who could be facing trouble with the NCAA due to evidence uncovered by the FBI in their corruption case.
According to ESPN’s Mark Schlabach, the FBI caught Miller on wiretap discussing a payment with Christian Dawkins for recruit DeAndre Ayton. Miller was discussing paying $100,000 to ensure Ayton would end up playing for his Arizona Wildcats.
Ayton, a freshman 7-footer from the Bahamas, did end up at Arizona and is averaging 19.6 points and 10.9 rebounds per game this season.
Arizona was already one of the programs at the forefront of the FBI case after assistant coach Emanuel “Book” Richardson was one of the four college coaches arrested as part of sweeping arrests in September. Richardson, who has since been fired, is accused of accepting $20,000 in bribes to help steer players towards Dawkins’ agency, as well as to financial advisor Munish Sood.
Miller, a three-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year, said in a statement in September that he promotes a culture of compliance with NCAA rules.
“As the head basketball coach at the University of Arizona, I recognize my responsibility is not only to establish a culture of success on the basketball court and in the classroom, but as important, to promote and reinforce a culture of compliance. To the best of my ability, I have worked to demonstrate this over the past eight years and will continue to do so as we move forward.”
Paying someone to deliver a recruit would certainly violate NCAA rules.
The report about Miller comes the same day Yahoo reported on details about the scope of information the FBI has that would impact college basketball. Several high-profile coaches, players and programs are implicated.
