NCAA Launches Investigation of Arizona Men's Basketball Program
By Liam McKeone
Much has been revealed during the college basketball corruption trial currently ongoing in New York. Sean Miller, head coach of Arizona’s men’s basketball, has been a name brought up regularly during the proceedings, and it seems unlikely that he’ll survive for much longer. Now, the program will have to pay the price for his transgressions.
A university spokesperson confirmed to the Arizona Daily Star yesterday that an NCAA investigation into the men’s basketball program at Arizona is underway. This comes as a surprise to nobody. It’s likely this is only the first of many investigations the NCAA will undertake in its quest to rid college sports of the corruption that appears to have been running rampant throughout the country.
Evidence from a wiretapped phone call between Miller and a former assistant appears to implicate Miller in a scheme to pay former Arizona star DeAndre Ayton $10,000 a month while he was playing for the Wildcats. It seems highly likely at this point that Miller will be the first to go, but a purge on a larger scale may be underway following the sanctions that the NCAA will likely put on Arizona following the investigation.
Arizona is one of the biggest basketball powerhouses in the country, regularly landing top recruits over the last decade. We may not see the Wildcats reach those heights again for quite some time.