Pac-12 Coordinator of Officials Told Referees to Ring Up Sean Miller Before His Controversial Technical in Pac-12 Tournament

Jeff Goodman of CBS has a bombshell, reporting that the Pac-12 Coordinator of Officials Ed Rush was investigated for comments made during meetings with game referees, including the one that would give the technical to Sean Miller.

According to the report, Rush told officials that he would give them $5,000 or a trip to Cancun if they rang Sean Miller up or ran him. CBS reported the following statement from Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott:

"“Based on the review, we have concluded that while Rush made inappropriate comments that he now regrets during internal meetings that referenced rewards, he made the comments in jest and the officials in the room realized they were not serious offers,” Scott told CBSSports.com. “Following our review, we have discussed the matter with Rush, taken steps to ensure it does not happen again, and communicated our findings to all of our officials.”"

Hmmm. So a person in a superior position was joking about comments telling his employees to take adverse action against a coach, and then one does just that under very questionable circumstances (according to Miller, he did not curse or otherwise say anything other than that a UCLA player had touched the ball). Just jokes, baby! Yeah, I don’t think that should fly.

[photo via USA Today Sports Images]