Miller once again does it again!

[Russ Smith]

The only truth we know is that there’s no proof anyone from Arizona paid a recruit or their family. It’s certainly possible Book is lying is something but I think it’s more likely he never really “played ball” and just took guilty plea because the bribery charges were proven.

Right and I agree there's no proof. I just don't see why the judge wouldn't be hauling him back into court now asking him ok which is true, what you said under oath, or what you said to that reporter. They completely contradict each other and it's apparent from what the judge said and the sentencing that he believed him. The government wanted 18 to 24 months, the sentencing guidelines were consistent with that, the judge gave him 3 months. He cited his lack of a criminal record, long career in coaching, and testimonials submitted on his behalf as grounds for the light sentence. So literally hours after that sentence Book contradicts what he said under oath. If I were the judge i would be wondering right now why did I give him a light sentence he's either lying now, or lied under oath.

Maybe the legal counsel was just being cautious or trying to play up the we were a victim angle here, maybe they really aren't facing major sanctions but if everything that Book said today is true I can't see why the would be. at worst they could get Miller for failure to monitor or lack of IC. Book says he has no knowledge of Miller paying recruits. Book says he himself never paid recruits. Pasternack left before he could act on the plan to break rules, and UA is in the process of firing Phelps for alleged rule breaking.

Just seems like a whole lot of contradictory information.

 

[TJ]

FYI in the statement from UA's legal counsel he says Arizona is now facing the prospect of "significant NCAA sanctions" and that the NCAA investigation is just now getting underway. The 2nd part contradicts what Scheer has been screaming for months, that they already investigated Arizona and found nothing. The first part if they were the victim, no players were actually paid, and everything was just being discussed but didn't actually happen, what would the signficant sanctions be for? I can understand Book getting a show cause, he should, he clearly tried to break the rules repeatedly. Pasternack might get whacked and Phelps too.

But if Book is telling the truth about what he did and didn't do why would Arizona get significant sanctions?

Scheer has never said that they found nothing. He's specifically said in the cases of Alkins and Ayton that the FBI never found proof of payment.

 

[Russ Smith]

Scheer has never said that they found nothing. He's specifically said in the cases of Alkins and Ayton that the FBI never found proof of payment.

he has said on Twitter they found nothing and cleared both. He said both the FBI and the NCAA had investigated and cleared them. I actually know someone who questioned him on that in Twitter and he said the fact the NCAA let them both play is the proof.

BTW just to be clear, when I say Book was under oath that's somewhat incorrect, Book was talking to the FBI as part of a plea deal with the Feds. So you can't lie to them, but he was not on trial with a judge and jury there being sworn in under oath. I consider it the same, but to be totally accurate I guess it's not really under oath.

So it IS possible when the FBI asked him is what you said on tape true he said no, I lied I never paid anybody. But we don't know that to be true either.

 

[Russ Smith]

Jordan Brown to Arizona

 

[TJ]

Could be a bittersweet situation.
Nice to get JB, but it could come at the expense of a big time contributor....

 

[1Sun]

Could be a bittersweet situation.
Nice to get JB, but it could come at the expense of a big time contributor....

Who?

 

[GatorAZ]

Could be a bittersweet situation.
Nice to get JB, but it could come at the expense of a big time contributor....

If it’s B-Will why would Brown impact a guard or is it something else? That would hurt considering his commitment was huge for Miller.

 

[1Sun]

If it’s B-Will why would Brown impact a guard or is it something else? That would hurt considering his commitment was huge for Miller.

Why can't it be Dylan Smith? Problem solved for everyone.

 

[TJ]

If it’s B-Will why would Brown impact a guard or is it something else? That would hurt considering his commitment was huge for Miller.

One of the rumors floating around is that B-Will’s knee hasn’t fully healed and that he may be a no-go for next year or may have to medically retire from basketball.

Another idea that’s floated around message boards is purging Koloko from the recruiting class, which to me would be a complete dick move unless Koloko wants to leave.

But much to everyone’s chagrin, Dylan Smith will be back, for whatever reason.

 

[Russ Smith]

If it’s B-Will why would Brown impact a guard or is it something else? That would hurt considering his commitment was huge for Miller.

That would be bizarre if it's him. Longtime Arizona kid, stayed through the FBI stuff, team is going to be loaded this year. Just Mannion coming in can't be enough for him to leave?

 

[GatorAZ]

That would be bizarre if it's him. Longtime Arizona kid, stayed through the FBI stuff, team is going to be loaded this year. Just Mannion coming in can't be enough for him to leave?

As TJ said it could be his knee which caused him to miss time last year plus his Sr season in HS. I remember his family going to great lengths to keep the specific injury from going public.

Tbh I don’t remember being that high on Jordan Brown but you got to think one of Zeke or Brown pans out. People can say what they want about Miller but he really gets after it and probably embracing the villain role. It is probably getting to P12 coaches.

 

[Russ Smith]

CBS has a story up quoting VP of Regulatory Affairs for the NCAA, Stan Wilcox. He doesn't name teams but says 6 teams will be getting notices of allegations from the NCAA over the next few months, 2 of them in July. Based on how it's worded it would seem apparent one of the 6 is Arizona and 1 of the first 2 might be them too.

he also says
"Those top coaches that were mentioned in the trials where the information shows what was being said was a violation of NCAA rules, yes. They will be all part of these notices of allegations," Wilcox said.

The NCAA had held off on investigations, he said, at the request of the government until the trials were concluded.

"So now that's it over, we're going to be moving forward with a number of Level I cases that will help people realize that, 'Yeah, the enforcement staff was in a position to move forward,'" Wilcox said.

Clearly one of those is Miller. Doesn't mean he's going to get a show cause as some are speculating but it does mean the NCAA is going to work the way they usually work, here are the allegations prove yourself innocent. The article implies the NCAA does NOT yet have access to info from the FBI that was not presented in the trials. Clear they want it.

Scheer says the NCAA should get ready to get sued if they do this because they're using "unproven wiretaps."

 

[TJ]

If the NCAA overreaches here, it’s getting sued. I think Arizona would accept a short suspension for Sean Miller without a fight. Anything beyond that and this thing is going to court

 

[Lefty]

If the NCAA overreaches here, it’s getting sued. I think Arizona would accept a short suspension for Sean Miller without a fight. Anything beyond that and this thing is going to court

The UofA did not have any eligibility issues. The NCAA cleared Ayton and Rawlie.

 

[Russ Smith]

The UofA did not have any eligibility issues. The NCAA cleared Ayton and Rawlie.

They cleared Derrick Rose and OJ Mayo too. The information the NCAA had at the time they cleared them is not the information that was brought up in court later. The NCAA has very clear rules if we get new information later we reserve the right to rule players ineligible that were ruled eligible earlier.

 

[Russ Smith]

If the NCAA overreaches here, it’s getting sued. I think Arizona would accept a short suspension for Sean Miller without a fight. Anything beyond that and this thing is going to court

You have to define overreach though. The NCAA is a member institution, if you don't want to follow their rules you can leave the NCAA. They are not a court of law, they don't have the burden of proof in cases, the one being accused has the burden to prove they're not guilty. The NCAA has no subpoena power so they flip the burden of proof to cover that.

the story also says there are several other schools the NCAA is lookign into based on other info.

 

[GatorAZ]

They cleared Derrick Rose and OJ Mayo too. The information the NCAA had at the time they cleared them is not the information that was brought up in court later. The NCAA has very clear rules if we get new information later we reserve the right to rule players ineligible that were ruled eligible earlier.

Did they ever prove someone else took his SAT’s or did he just refuse to cooperate with the investigation? I wonder if his score was too high that tipped them off lol.

 

[TJ]

You have to define overreach though. The NCAA is a member institution, if you don't want to follow their rules you can leave the NCAA. They are not a court of law, they don't have the burden of proof in cases, the one being accused has the burden to prove they're not guilty. The NCAA has no subpoena power so they flip the burden of proof to cover that.

the story also says there are several other schools the NCAA is lookign into based on other info.

So Arizona should just bend over and take whatever the NCAA gives them? They're not held hostage by the NCAA. And if what you say is true, then UCLA should be thoroughly investigated and sanctioned simply for Alford having a conversation with Dawkins.

If Miller is able to prove compliance and that Book went rogue, there's no reason that the NCAA should levy substantial penalties against Arizona. The beauty of having this go through the courts and a thorough investigation is that most of the proof is already presented.

The FBI and judges labeling Arizona as a "victim" carries weight here. The NCAA has enough motivation to act emotionally and overreach here based on how embarrassed they are, but the schools are pretty pissed by the negative publicity and will fight anything overly punitive

 

[Russ Smith]

Did they ever prove someone else took his SAT’s or did he just refuse to cooperate with the investigation? I wonder if his score was too high that tipped them off lol.

The Rose case was fascinating. The ETS initially ruled he had issues with his test because he didn't take it locally, like Mayo he went somewhere else, it turned out lots of high profile athletes had done it and ETS got suspicious. They couldn't prove anything so ETS cleared Rose and the NCAA did too and notified Memphis. Then a few months later someone tipped off the NCAA that someone had hacked the grades at Simeon HS and changed the grades for Rose and other athletes to allow them to be NCAA eligible, and then changed them back. The tipster also told them Rose had not taken his test, a teammate had. The NCAA then sent Memphis and Rose letters of inquiry that required signatures(certified). His mom signed for the one at home, Memphis signed for the one that went to them. Memphis played him in the NCAA tourney of course got all the way to the final. Then later Memphis claimed they never got the letter and his mom claimed the same thing, even though both had signed for it. The letter had said if they didn't respond by a certain date he was ineligible, they didn't so he was. Then Rose refused to cooperate to try and clear himself, told the NCAA to talk to Calipari, and the NCAA went as far as telling one of his HS teammates if you don't tell us what happened we will rule you ineligible. To me THAT is overreach, but with Rose I don't think it was it was very clear he wasn't academically eligible and that people had helped him cheat to get into Memphis.

In the Arizona case the assumption is they're talking about Ayton and or Alkins. The story says the NCAA can't use the allegations against Zion because they're hearsay they weren't entered as evidence they were just said by someone in court with nothing to support it. The Ayton stuff is entered as evidence, it's literally on wiretaps. So the NCAA won't consider it hearsay they will consider it an allegation Arizona has to defend. At this point I have no idea what happened before and what will happen now but based on the wording in the story my guess is the 2 schools that will get allegations by early July are Arizona and Louisville. Kansas would be my 3rd choice only because the NCAA said we can't use the Zion allegations.

Obviously Arizona is going to appeal not accept so they won't go on probation in July, they will get a hearing etc and that's where the NCAA normally bogs down.

 

[Russ Smith]

So Arizona should just bend over and take whatever the NCAA gives them? They're not held hostage by the NCAA. And if what you say is true, then UCLA should be thoroughly investigated and sanctioned simply for Alford having a conversation with Dawkins.

If Miller is able to prove compliance and that Book went rogue, there's no reason that the NCAA should levy substantial penalties against Arizona. The beauty of having this go through the courts and a thorough investigation is that most of the proof is already presented.

The FBI and judges labeling Arizona as a "victim" carries weight here. The NCAA has enough motivation to act emotionally and overreach here based on how embarrassed they are, but the schools are pretty pissed by the negative publicity and will fight anything overly punitive

No they will appeal it and get a hearing Arizona is not going to accept the penalties that are given to them initially. And yes I think if the NCAA decides that anybody who talked to Dawkins committed a violation they should cite them all. They won't because most of those conversations aren't on tape and they clearly said yesterday hearsay even that came up in court is not something they can use unless they get actual support of it(from the government).

The victim thing is part of the legal case it has nothing to do with NCAA rules. You're literally saying Arizona will get off because they were victimized when one of their 3 coaches who violated NCAA rules, got caught violating NCAA rules and it cost them a recruiting class. For the legal case that worked, for the NCAA case they don't care if Arizona lost recruits due to Book's actions, they care did Book violate NCAA rules(it appears so) and should Miller have been aware what was going on.

I don't think Miller is going to get a show cause(mentioned in the story as possible punishment) the only way he could is if the NCAA says Ayton and or Alkins were ineligible, they were because you were paying them as stated by Book Richardson. If the NCAA does that, then yes he'll get a show cause, my guess is the NCAA won't think they have enough proof to hammer him that hard. If they go down they were ineligible and you were involved angle then Miller, not Arizona, will sue them just like Tark did ages ago.

 

[Russ Smith]

I looked at the Bear Down site right now over and over people are saying well we don't have any eligibility issues so we're good right. Then someone posted a list of schools who did, USC and Melton, etc. Either I'm completely missing the point of that article or what they were saying is kids who MIGHT not have been eligible but were played. Melton is the exact opposite, as is Hernandez at Miami, preston at KU etc. Kansas suspended DeSousa as soon as his name came up the question is would they be liable for playing him before his name came up, that's not clear. But putting out a list of kids that other schools suspended is the exact opposite of what I think the NCAA means. They mean kids like Ayton and Alkins who were played AFTER it was made known they might have eligibility concerns. one guy actually said he thought Bowen was going to get Louisville in trouble over eligibilty, why, he never played for them as soon as the case broke they ruled him not eligible. They broke rules recruiting him yes but once that became clear they suspended him.

I haven't read that board in awhile but my take is whoever is telling people we have no issues with that is missing the boat. That was my point all along by playing kids that might not be eligible Arizona was taking a risk that no other school was taking.

FYI, CBS amended the original story and removed the part about only schools with eligibility concerns would be impacted, it says right at the bottom of the story now that was in the original story but has been removed.

 

[TJ]

Terry just decommitted to play G-League or in the pros. Likely Wasnt going to qualify academically, per Gershon.

 

[Lefty]

Terry just decommitted to play G-League or in the pros. Likely Wasnt going to qualify academically, per Gershon.

Scheer is saying that Miller has already has begun to get someone to replace Terry. He even mentioned it could be a player who re-classifies. Jason said Miller will not wait long to offer.

 

[1Sun]

Scheer is saying that Miller has already has begun to get someone to replace Terry. He even mentioned it could be a player who re-classifies. Jason said Miller will not wait long to offer.

So someone else is still leaving?

 

[GatorAZ]

We got Ferg’d!