The Wildcats are under fire. This investigation comes right before March Madness, the 2018 NCAA tournament. The scandal reaches far and wide, including coaches, sports agents, shoe companies, AAU circuits, the players and even their families.
It all started in September of last year when Louisville coach Rick Pitino was fired. An FBI investigation and various federal documents reveal that Adidas had funneled around $100,000 to 5 star forward Brian Bowen, at the request of Pitino. Bowen denies having any knowledge of the payment and has since de-committed from Louisville and has instead opted to sign with the smaller South Carolina Gamecocks.
The federal government originally charged 10 people with various crimes, including mass corruption, bribery, and wire fraud. All have been linked by the FBI in some way to many of the top 11 college basketball programs in the country, including No. 1 Virginia and No. 2 Michigan State.
Fast forward to 2018, the FBI’s new investigation star Arizona head coach Sean Miller and ESPN’s #1 center DeAndre Ayton. Miller was allegedly caught using wiretaps to broker a deal involving Ayton’s commitment to Arizona. There are two questions surrounding Miller that I keep going back to:
- Why would the head coach of Arizona handle the dirty business himself and not have an assistant serve as his fall guy?
- If the FBI had stone-cold proof that Miller offered a $100,000 bribe to land a five-star recruit, why wasn’t Miller arrested along with the rest of the guys whom the FBI arrested in September?
Arizona is no stranger to controversy and corruption. In October of last year, five-star point guard Jahvon Quinerly de-committed from Arizona and hired a lawyer amid FBI investigations.
Quinerly later ended up committing to Villanova three weeks ago. Five-star power forward Shareef O’ Neal (son of Hall of Famer Shaq) stepped away from the Wildcats just last week and verbally committed to their Division I rival, UCLA.
As news trickles out about college basketball recruiting tactics that are possibly eligibility violations but are not necessarily crimes, it's worth remembering the FBI should have better things to do than honor the NCAA's ignoble cause.
