What’s next for Arizona and Sean Miller: In the age of reform, the NCAA hammer looms
Miller could get sanctioned severely for the actions of his former assistant
By
JON WILNER
jwilner@bayareanewsgroup.com
Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: May 6, 2019 at 7:41 am
https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/05...r-in-the-age-of-reform-the-ncaa-hammer-looms/
Sean Miller didn’t testify in the basketball corruption case in New York, and his voice was never heard. But incriminating evidence and testimony turned the Arizona coach into a major presence during the proceedings.
For the Wildcats’ basketball program specifically and the university generally,
the headlines were brutal, the optics abysmal — all in all, it was exponentially worse than a blowout loss to a No. 13 seed.
The trial is winding down, with closing arguments today followed by jury deliberation. And yet, Arizona’s problems are far from over.
Goodbye, FBI; hello, NCAA.
At some point in the near future, the governing body of college sports is expected to use information produced by the government as the basis for determining whether programs implicated in the scandal — not only Arizona but Louisville, Kansas and others — committed NCAA transgressions.
“What we’d like to do is have (information) at our disposal to make judgments about whether or not it is relevant to our rules and whether or not those rules have been violated,” Donald Remy, the NCAA’s chief legal officer,
told Yahoo in February.
As often as Miller was dragged into the muck, there remains no definitive proof that he paid former players Deandre Ayton and Rawle Alkins.
In fact, the NCAA and FBI have both investigated Miller and Arizona. In multiple trips to Tucson, they examined bank records and emails, interviewed relevant parties and found no federal crime or rule violations.
As Sports Illustrated legal analyst Michael McCann outlines in
this deep dive on the complicated legal situation facing Arizona — it’s worth reading whether or not you believe Miller or not (and especially if you don’t) — Miller was viewed on campus as a stickler for compliance.
To some extent, it might not matter.
Miller didn’t have to commit a federal crime or personally funnel money to players in order for the NCAA to impose severe sanctions on Arizona.
Sanctions that could lead to Miller’s dismissal.
Sanctions that could devastate the Wildcats’ program for years.
Sanctions that could play very well politically for NCAA president Mark Emmert.
In fact, let’s presuppose that the NCAA finds no evidence that Miller paid, or attempted to pay players.
Instead,
let’s focus on two indisputable facts:
* Miller had a relationship with Christian Dawkins, a convicted felon and spectacular representative of the mess that Emmert hopes to clean up.
* Miller’s longtime former assistant, Book Richardson, pleaded guilty to one count of felony bribery for actions taken while employed by Arizona.
Those facts would have created an ominous situation for the Wildcats in the era of NCAA enforcement that existed for a half century.
In today’s climate of reform, which grew out of the very scandal that has engulfed Arizona, Richardson’s guilt and Miller’s relationship with Dawkins could be all the fuel the NCAA requires to make an example of the Wildcats.
This isn’t academic fraud (North Carolina) or child molestation (Penn State) — cases that unfolded outside the traditional scope of NCAA authority.
This is a wheelhouse issue for Emmert and his team: An assistant coach and wanna-be agent engaging in under-the-table payments and player procurement.
The packaging might be different, but it’s old-fashioned cheating at heart.
And here is Emmert, shouting from the top row of the grandstand perched on the rooftop of NCAA headquarters, while cloaked in the rhetoric of reform, embracing Condoleezza Rice and brandishing unprecedented enforcement power designed to eradicate the filth.
(Under a relatively
new NCAA bylaw,
head coaches are held responsible for the actions of their assistants unless they can rebut the presumption of responsibility. In other words, ignorance isn’t a viable defense for rules violations.)
Are we to believe Emmert will give Arizona a pass?
The Wildcats are, in many respects, a perfect target for the NCAA at the dawn of the age of reform: They’re nationally known but not too big — they’re juicy red meat but not a true blue blood.
Imagine the anarchy that would come to recruiting if Miller isn’t sanctioned for
Richardson’s actions and
his own interactions with Dawkins.
Imagine the pushback from the membership if the NCAA doesn’t hammer Arizona.
(It would be the antithesis of Penn State: Instead of being criticized for overreach, Emmert would get slammed for doing too little.)
Would sanctions take the form of vacated wins and lost scholarships … or postseason bans?
Would Miller get hit with a five-game wrist-slap … or a one-year suspension?
The specifics of the sanctions are anyone’s guess, but the smart money is on severe.
For Emmert and his team, the politically expedient path has been paved by the evidentiary remains of convicted felons.
