Arizona basketball coach Sean Miller has been accused of facilitating payments to former player Deandre Ayton.
A massive corruption case has swept into the world of college basketball about payments to players, and Miller’s name has constantly been referenced. He hasn’t been arrested or charged with anything, and he still has his job with the Wildcats. However, his situation took a turn for the worse after a recent court hearing involving a former assistant coach. (RELATED: Sean Miller Gives Emotional Address To Arizona Fans, Declines To Comment On His Future)
Yahoo Sports reported the following Wednesday:
An FBI-intercepted phone call from June 2017 between basketball middleman Christian Dawkins and then-Arizona associate head coach Emanuel “Book” Richardson was played in federal court Wednesday morning.
On the call, Richardson tells Dawkins that Arizona head coach Sean Miller was paying, or had promised to pay, $10,000 a month for Deandre Ayton, who would go on to become the No. 1 pick in the 2018 NBA draft.
Amid the seven wiretaps played in court during the college basketball bribery trial, there were multiple inferences of Miller himself personally paying Ayton.
It’s important to remember here the NCAA doesn’t need a conviction to punish players or coaches. The organization isn’t the judicial system.
It can pretty much do whatever it wants. As of right now, nothing has happened to Miller. Nothing has happened at all, but if these wiretaps are verified as real, then he could be in some serious trouble. I’m not even against players getting paid, but you know who is?
The NCAA. The governing body of college athletics will stop at nothing to crush the idea of athletes getting paid.
For the sake of argument, let’s assume Ayton was actually paid. That’s not been proven just yet, and we might not ever know. However, if he was getting $10,000 a month to play for the Wildcats, then that’s a bargain.
He was a beast in college, and it’s the reason he was the first pick in the 2018 draft. Getting a guy like that for $10,000 a month is the definition of a steal.
Again, I’m not saying who is and isn’t guilty here, but if that number truly was Ayton’s price tag, then it’s way lower than I would have thought.
As for Miller, I have no idea what is going to happen with him. It looks like LSU’s Will Wade successfully fought the storm after allegations of paying players were brought against him.
The Arizona coach should just keep his mouth shut and not say a damn word. Let the situation play out and don’t add fuel to the fire.