There are bad days, and then there are BAD DAYS. For Arizona Head Coach, Sean Miller, a handful of other schools, and the NCAA as a whole, Friday was the latter.
The NCAA, as an organization day to day, has a lot in common with a bubble team leading up to Selection Sunday. Overall record isn’t great, not too many quality wins, and they really don’t have much control over how things go. Avoid any bad losses down the stretch, cross your fingers, and hope to somehow slip by.
There have been quite a few bad losses leading to the NIT lately….
Friday, Pat Forde and Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports published a report that took even a shot at the NIT off the table. The report, posted just after 5:30 AM, is about as bad as it gets in terms of accusations and the scope of parties implicated, and it all hit before anyone at the NCAA had even had a sip of (unfair trade) coffee.
Consisting of documents obtained in discovery during the investigation of former NBA Agent, Andy Miller and former associate, at ASM Sports, Christian Dawkins, the story linked 25 athletes spanning 20 major D1 programs. Bank records, expense reports, and balance sheets with loan repayment schedules gave detail on cash payments, travel expenses, and loans given out to high school and college athletes between 2015 and 2017.
As if the Yahoo report wasn’t enough for one day, ESPN’s Mark Schlabach, released an article late Friday night, that also exposed details surrounding the FBI’s investigation of Christian Dawkins. Rather than financial documents, Schlabach’s report stemmed from of all things, a federal wiretap. The FBI tapped 3,000 hours of conversations over two years, including several conversations between Dawkins, and Arizona Head Coach, Sean Miller.
The two can be heard discussing a $100,000 payment to Deandre Ayton to ensure his signing with Arizona. The report describes a specific conversation in which Dawkins asks Miller if he should work with (Arizona Assistant Coach) Emanuel “Book” Richardson to finalize their agreement. Miller responds telling Dawkins to deal directly with him regarding money.
It’s not all that surprising to hear that Miller, a Pennsylvania native who played college ball at Pitt, takes more of a hands-on approach than certain other coaches.
Miller’s voice and his directive regarding money eliminate the Pitino “This Is All News to Me” defense. He still has the Tour de France “Everybody Else Is Doing It” and as a last resort, Mark McGwire’s Congressional “I’m Not Here to Talk About the Past”.
Some have questioned the legitimacy of McGwire’s defense since Congressional hearings, investigations, etc. often do require witnesses and/or defendants to talk about the past. Whatever is happening at that exact moment or whatever hasn’t happened yet typically only factor into horrible Tom Cruise movies.
In response to the facts reported by Yahoo on Friday, NCAA President, Mark Emmert, offered the following thoughts:
"“These allegations, if true, point to systematic failures that must be fixed and fixed now if we want college sports in America. Simply put, people who engage in this kind of behavior have no place in college sports. They are an affront to all those who play by the rules. With these latest allegations, it’s clear this work is more important now than ever.”"
Great insight. Gotta respect the “if true” qualifier.
Just over a month ago, he touched on the current state of college basketball (in his mind) during an address at the annual NCAA Convention:
"“What we see with the FBI investigation is Exhibit A. A coach allegedly takes a bribe to steer a young man to a financial adviser who is going to bilk him out of money. It’s disgusting. It’s wrong. We know it’s not widespread like people assumed it was. But when we don’t respond appropriately, it makes everyone’s jobs harder. People don’t want words. They want to see actions.”"
Mark Emmert strikes me as a guy you cold stump with the McGwire defense. Taking a look at this list of players and teams implicated, I think he’s spot on in his “pointing to systematic failures” assessment.
Schools alleged to have given impermissible benefits/preferential treatment for players and families (including players who received $10,000 or more in benefits):
- Duke
- North Carolina
- Texas
- Kentucky
- Michigan State
- USC
- Alabama
- NC State
- Seton Hall
- LSU
- Maryland
- Washington
Schools Mentioned by Dawkins’ expense reports (seeking reimbursement for thousands of dollars he reported to have plaid to players and families):
- South Carolina
- Louisville
- Utah
- Xavier
- Wichita State
- Clemson
- Kansas
- Michigan State
- USC
- Texas
Schools that had player(s)/player’s family listed as meeting with Dawkins:
- Alabama
- Notre Dame
- Vanderbilt
- Iowa State
- Duke
- Kentucky
- North Carolina
- Creighton
- Texas
- Virginia
Schools with active players implicated:
- Alabama (Collin Sexton)
- Duke (Wendell Carter)
- Kentucky (Kevin Knox)
- Michigan State (Miles Bridges)
- South Carolina (Brian Bowen)
- Texas (Eric Davis Jr.)
- USC (Bennie Boatwright)
Schools with former players implicated:
- Clemson
- Iowa State
- Kansas
- Louisville
- LSU
- Maryland
- NC State
- North Carolina
- Notre Dame
- Seton Hall
- Utah
- Vanderbilt
- Virginia
- Washington
- Wichita State
- Xavier
- Texas
But the fact that the guy in charge said the words “we know it’s not widespread like people assumed” within the last 35 days -= not a great indication of competent leadership that’s going to fix the problem. He sounds the old guy/founder in Jurassic Park who has that little quip about Disneyland’s rough opening day when things aren’t going well. They don’t really improve from there but I won’t spoil it for you.
He’s a Michael Scott in a situation the needs a Winston Churchill.
The NCAA has not suspended or taken any action since Friday, instead letting schools decide how to handle each situation — really what you want in a governing body at a time of crisis.
Sean Miller did not coach the team’s Saturday contest with Oregon. Realistically, he probably won’t be coaching any games the rest of the season or any. Ever. The only question around Miller at this point is how long Arizona takes to cut ties.
Deandre Ayton did play against Oregon but his status for the remainder of the season is unclear — as are the 22 wins the Wildcats have assembled so far and the rest of their season if its proven that Ayton did recieve a six-figure payday for choosing to play for Arizona (Mark Emmert doesn’t think he did though).
Next: Best college basketball player from every state
Although several other players, as mentioned above, have been implicated, no other suspensions have been announced. The NCAA is really kicking back and watching this one.
There are nine other individuals who have been charged by the FBI as part of investigations surrounding the NCAA. Since we know this isn’t a widespread problem, I guess we can look forward to seeing how many it takes to cross into Emert’s “widespread” threshold.
This is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. And I guess we can’t just pretend all of this never happened?