ESPN: Arizona Coach Sean Miller Discussed $100k Payment to Recruit On Wiretap
According to this report, Arizona head coach Sean Miller was caught on wiretaps discussing a $100,000 payment to secure the recruitment of top prospect Deandre Ayton, who does indeed play for Arizona this year.
If this is true, this is the first huuuuge revelation from the case.
Worth noting: This alone checks basically every box of details that the leaks described would come out in the case: Lottery pick, big-time coach, top NCAA seed, etc. So this could, theoretically, be the biggest story that will be discovered.
But nobody believes this is all that there is. We may not get all the details we deserve, but something is happening, and Miller is done if this is true. And there's no reason to believe it's not true.
The question is, how many more people does this investigation catch.
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:39 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:19 PM ^
He/she was implying that this probably has been going on for a while and Arizona has not performed well historically in the tournament under Miller. I highly doubt Ayton is the first player paid by Miller....
February 24th, 2018 at 12:15 AM ^
Don't worry. You'll hear that soon enough... "I was weak.. it only happened the one time, I swear. That player didn't mean anything to me... Won't you please give me another chance?"
February 24th, 2018 at 9:05 AM ^
if it were just Arizona paying players that much, but I doubt that this stops with them or even a few teams given the fact that teams like Alabama were involved. I'd expect most schools are involved somehow and maybe even Michigan prior to Beilein (post fab five).
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:37 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:40 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:39 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:40 PM ^
20 or 30. I'm sure someone has a screen shot of it.
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:39 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:45 PM ^
Well, there's a chance.
But aren't we pretty sure that they're just making a run for broke knowing that the house of cards is collapsing next year? Tom Izzo is the captain of a ship that he just carelessly ran over a reef, gunning the engine to try to beach it on shore before it sinks. You go all in, hope you win, stall long enough to hang a banner in Breslin before it's time to take it down, and enjoy six months of winning something.
February 24th, 2018 at 12:22 AM ^
It really depends upon how much they expect the punishment to differ between "knowingly" playing an ineligible player and "unknowingly" playing an ineligible player.
Louisville reaped the rewards of their didn't-actually-happen title. So did USC football. The fact that they had to take down the banners doesn't matter to them -- in and of itself -- in the least.
Personally, I expect that the only teams that will delcare their players ineligible immediately are the ones like SDSU that pay no real penalty for doing so. (Sadly, Pope would have been recruited by... yeah, you guys all know. :( ) Everyone else is going to figure that there are so many schools involved, and it'll take so long for the cases to come to conclusion, and the NCAA is so weak anyway, that they may as well take their shot and see what happens.
Heck, maybe they're hoping that winning a basketball title buys them immunity like it did for UNC...
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:42 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:42 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:45 PM ^
it's gonna be tough on many coaches to focus on practice in the coming days/weeks. advantage JB and michigan.
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:42 PM ^
The talk around town this weekend is going to be gloomy ...
The departure of Rodriguez was met with a shrug. But basketball is a whole different thing here in Tucson.
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:43 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:44 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:46 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:49 PM ^
Interesting question. Maybe there's just someone who enjoys the impact this revelations will have. The FBI hasn't had exactly covered itself in glory in the last two years keeping secrets, after all. But I suppose it's possible they want to drum out some more dirt by getting things moving aboveboard. Prompt some panic amongst suspected-but-not-caught coaches or agents, see if they can catch them covering their tracks or something.
Or it might just be a guy who has access to this stuff and happens to be a fan of Arizona State.
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:08 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:18 PM ^
February 24th, 2018 at 12:28 AM ^
Most leaks come from the weaker side, which, in a federal case, is usually the defense. This is not to say that all federal defendants are guilty, but the US Attorney's office has a conviction rate above 90% for a reason -- they have massive resources at their disposal and all the time in the world.
Especially in white collar crime, the FBI / DOJ rarely make arrests until they've had plenty of time to build their case.
So, I agree -- this is probably information that's come out of the discovery process from one of the current defendants.
Athough, whoever leaked this information isn't a particularly good leaker. If you want to drop a bombshell, you don't do it at 9 PM on a Friday night; you wait until Sunday night or Monday morning when you can capture the news cycle. This almost makes me think that there are two competing leakers -- maybe one of the accused leaked the names earlier today, and another accused felt pressure to get their information out while it was still valuable...
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:44 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:45 PM ^
Well, for a time, if the blog was to be believed, four Sean Millers were caught on four different wiretaps talking about a sum total of $400,000 for four Deandre Aytons.
I think I've fixed the potential confusion though. For now. Unless there is another Deandre Ayton out there that another Sean Miller might want.
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:45 PM ^
whoops...
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:46 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:46 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:48 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:04 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:49 PM ^
Did they wiretap Miller, or did they wiretap Dawkins?
If they wiretapped Dawkins, how many other coaches do they have talking to him about paying for Ayton? How many other deals did Dawkins make like this that were recorded?
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:55 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:52 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:53 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:57 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:56 PM ^
Is anyone surprised by Sean Miller getting busted? I thought it was common knowledge he was dirty, or at the very least played really close to the line.
Anyway, yet another reminder that John Beilein is a great coach AND not someone who would be dumb enough to get caught on tape trying to bribe a kid for $100k.
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:01 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:01 PM ^
This is a criminal conspiracy. Players (some are minors at the time) are being pushed by "influencers" who they trust against their own interests. They sign with agencies with higher fees/less credentials. They sign less lucrative endorsement deals. All so that a cabal of corrupt adults can make a good amount of money.
I support paying players a (at least near) market rate. Even so, all involved in these conspiracies (even coaches) deserve the harshest NCAA and legal punishments. State AGs should file class action lawsuits to try and get some money back from these frauds, both for the players and the universities who paid "coaches" whose real skill was funneling money.
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:04 PM ^
Given how much the players are used in the system, it certainly puts into a favorable light their decision to take cash given how much is being exchanged above their heads anyway.
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:05 PM ^
In One Shining Moment, the Feds tapped your line.
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) February 24, 2018
In One Shining Moment, you knew .. you’d serve jail time.
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:21 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:07 PM ^
I doubt it happens, but I think this is the perfect time.
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:25 PM ^
February 24th, 2018 at 1:27 AM ^
February 24th, 2018 at 2:18 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:12 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:27 PM ^
This is from the new Yahoo story that broke late tonight. https://sports.yahoo.com/black-market-diaries-emails-hoops-corruption-case-detail-inner-workings-sports-underbelly-030605930.html
Dawkins, 24, provides a roadmap for the quid-pro-quo relationship between the agent world and college coaches. He dangles a high school prospect – five-star recruit Brian Bowen – as potential trade bait for schools to steer their best players to ASM Sports. On the same July day, Dawkins wrote to Miller that he connected with two Big Ten assistants, Dwayne Stephens of Michigan State and Chuck Martin, formerly of Indiana.
The email recounts the interactions from Dawkins’ perspective:
“Dwayne Stephens – Trying to close the deal on Brian Bowen for Michigan State. Trying to do a trade deal for (Spartans) Gary Harris, Miles Bridges, etc”
“Chuck Martin – Trying to close the deal on Brian Bowen for Indiana. I told him if we can work together and if he can push for us to get (Hoosiers) Thomas Bryant and OG Anunoby two projected first rounders from IU this year we can work something out.”
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:13 PM ^
As an oldrtimer here.... and a few contributor.... the NCAA will do nothing over all.... there is nothing they can do anymore.... take away banner... OMG.... NCAA is a joke