NCAA Scandal Update

With the revelation that Arizona’s Sean Miller was wiretapped by the FBI and allegedly overheard discussing a $100,000 payment to star freshman big man Deandre Ayton.

In the Arizona Daily Star, Greg Hansen ripped Miller and urged that he never coach Arizona again.

He did sit out the Oregon game, which the Wildcats lost 98-93 in overtime.

An attorney has strongly denied that Ayton took anything and urged that his name be cleared.

Jay Bilas quickly said that he expected Miller’s career was over while his ESPN colleagues Dick Vitale and Bill Walton were much more severe.

Walton took a break from the mushroom and granola routine and expressed immense sadness and said he’d rather not even be covering the Arizona game. He went on to talk about how basketball is a huge joy in life and that this was a “complete failure of the human spirit and soul” and that he’d rather be mountain biking.

He took some consolation from the effort that the Arizona players demonstrated.

Vitale said “Sean Miller should be fired. Fired immediately.”

Well small problem there: Arizona mangled his contract and has to pay him almost his entire value if they fire him with cause. So he can milk the U for $10 million or more if they do (or when they do).

The problems didn’t stop there. Duke had a solid explanation for Wendell Carter’s name being mentioned, which brings us to another point: this was presented sensationally, grouping the trivial with the very serious. It was really handled poorly and a lot of people are probably due apologies.

At Maryland, a review is underway about Diamond Stone’s taking money from Andy Miller (small point but we’re sure there’s no relation between the two Millers here).

At Michigan State Miles Bridges was cleared but there’s a report that Andy Miller’s runner, Christian Dawkins, tried to broker a deal to get Brian Bowen to the Spartans.

Former NC State coach Mark Gottfried has been mentioned in e-mails but without any proof of misdeeds so far.

Closer to home, Coach K and Jim Boeheim both discussed reform.

And finally, a lot of coaches who are either at second-tier jobs or who just never cheated are to an extent reveling in this. We’ve seen comments from Georgia’s Mark Fox, Clemson’s Brad Brownell and Maryland’s Mark Turgeon, among others, who basically said let the chips fall where they may. They’re still living by the code, but clearly taking some pleasure in seeing some of those guys get their commeupance.

• Fair or not, Ball State coach James Whitford is getting splattered with dirt from the Arizona mess
• Every Current Player Implicated in the FBI’s College Basketball Probe
• Shaq’s son Shareef O’Neal decommits from Arizona
• Kentucky Wildcats Basketball: Potential impact of UK’s involvement
• Blackhawk, Pitt product Sean Miller implicated in NCAA scandal
• Scott Drew says Baylor not worried about NCAA scandal