Log in

Arizona's Miller out against Oregon following wiretap report

Arizona's Sean Miller will not coach against Oregon Saturday night, a day after ESPN reported through anonymous sources that he was heard on an FBI wiretap discussing a $100,000 payment to current …

You must be a member to read this story.

Join our family of readers for as little as $5 per month and support local, unbiased journalism.


Already have an account? Log in to continue.

Current print subscribers can create a free account by clicking here

Otherwise, follow the link below to join.

To Our Valued Readers –

Visitors to our website will be limited to five stories per month unless they opt to subscribe. The five stories do not include our exclusive content written by our journalists.

For $6.99, less than 20 cents a day, digital subscribers will receive unlimited access to YourValley.net, including exclusive content from our newsroom and access to our Daily Independent e-edition.

Our commitment to balanced, fair reporting and local coverage provides insight and perspective not found anywhere else.

Your financial commitment will help to preserve the kind of honest journalism produced by our reporters and editors. We trust you agree that independent journalism is an essential component of our democracy. Please click here to subscribe.

Sincerely,
Charlene Bisson, Publisher, Independent Newsmedia

Please log in to continue

Log in
I am anchor

Arizona's Miller out against Oregon following wiretap report

Posted
Arizona's Sean Miller will not coach against Oregon Saturday night, a day after ESPN reported through anonymous sources that he was heard on an FBI wiretap discussing a $100,000 payment to current Wildcats freshman Deandre Ayton. The school said Ayton will be eligible to play against the Ducks and associate head coach Lorenzo Romar will lead the No. 14 Wildcats. Arizona also will be without preseason All-American guard Allonzo Trier, who tested positive for the same banned substance that cost him 19 games last season. Trier and Ayton are Arizona's top two scorers. "I believe it is in the best interest of our team that I not coach the game tonight," Miller said in a statement. "I continue to fully support the University's efforts to fully investigate this matter and am confident that I will be vindicated. For now, my thoughts are with our team. They are a great group of young men that will support each other and continue their pursuit of winning a Pac-12 championship." The school did not specify why Miller won't coach against Oregon or if he will sit out any other games. ESPN reported Friday night, citing sources familiar with government evidence, that Miller was heard on a wiretap discussing a $100,000 payment to Ayton to sign with the school. ESPN did not say its reporter heard the audio directly. Arizona was caught up in the first round of the corruption scandal in September. Assistant coach Emanuel Richardson was among 10 people arrested as part of a federal probe alleging bribes and kickbacks were being used to influence star players' choices of schools, shoe sponsors, agents and other services like tailors and financial managers. Payments of up to $150,000, supplied by Adidas, were promised to at least three top high school recruits to attend two schools sponsored by the shoe company, according to federal prosecutors. Richardson was arrested along with assistant coaches from Southern California, Auburn and Oklahoma State. Shaquille O'Neal's son, Shareef, announced Saturday on Twitter that he is opening up his recruitment, citing the problems at Arizona. O'Neal is one of the nation's top high school recruits and previously committed to Arizona. "At this time I'm am opening up my recruitment due to the current events with the UofA Bball team," O'Neal tweeted. "I would like to thank all the coaches for recruiting me. At the time my family and I think it's in my best interest to look at other options to assure my play in the NCAA next year." Trier was declared ineligible this week after a trace amount of a banned substance was discovered during a drug test late last month. The school said it believes the substance Trier unknowingly ingested a year ago, and said the NCAA agreed. Trier did not play in Arizona's 75-65 win over Oregon State on Thursday. ___ For more AP college basketball coverage: http://collegebasketball.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP_Top25


Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Share with others