NCAA President speaks, Sean Miller won’t coach, Deandre Ayton will play tonight vs. Oregon

What does the NCAA have to say about the FBI Investigation into college basketball corruption? A lot, but as far as action, they are doing very little if nothing.

Mark Emmert is the NCAA President. He went on CBS this morning to discuss the reports from the last 24 hours from Yahoo Sports and ESPN. The dollar figures from losses which will stem from the fallout of the investigation and rumors and reports sensationalized on social media and in the news must be swimming in Emmert’s head. He is leaving it up to the schools to allow coaches and players to continue coaching and playing NCAA basketball this season. For now anyway.

When Emmert was asked about Arizona Basketball head coach Sean Miller and his star forward Deandre Ayton, Emmert stated the following according to ESPN, “First and foremost, that’s a decision the school has to make — We’ve been in touch with every school that has a student-athlete involved.” Emmert told no NCAA process has been initiated into Arizona.

We still haven’t heard from the University of Arizona and Athletic Director Dave Heeke. Seth Greenberg on ESPN predicted Sean Miller wouldn’t coach and he was right.

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Associate Coach Lorenzo Romar will be the head coach tonight against Oregon. It’s the right move for the players. The players do not need the distraction. It will be difficult enough to win a game in Oregon without Alonzo Trier or Ira Lee, but now without Miller, and under this huge black cloud, it will be almost impossible. We are hoping that the players have stayed off of social media, and just focus on their team and the task at hand.

We all need to take a step back and focus on the players. Dusan Ristic could break an Arizona All-time team record if the Wildcats win, and that would sure be sweet and a much-needed boost for the players.

Deandre Ayton will play tonight. The Pac-12 released the University of Arizona and Millers statement:

The whole thing stinks, and Greenberg, stating he’s known Miller since he was five years old, along with Jay Bilas have tried and executed both Miller and Deandre Ayton. Both are using the word “Facts,” well one report from a colleague saying he was told about a conversation between Miller and Christian Dawkins (the agent whose records were discussed in the media yesterday) about paying a player to commit, is not necessarily a fact.

The FBI has not commented on the report by ESPN’s Mark Schlabach, but this just stinks to high heaven. Emmert is saying that the agents’ lawyer is leaking this information. Why would ESPN go with what the lawyer is telling him? Just want to make a name for himself? It’s just a bit fishy to us.

The Feds charges will stem from cross-state line transactions if proven (we say again if proven). But NCAA violations that’s something different. It’s not news that the NCAA and the Pac-12 launched their own investigations, the NCAA choosing former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to head their investigation.

Here is Mark Emmert’s full statement posted NCAA.org below:

"“These allegations, if true, point to systematic failures that must be fixed and fixed now if we want college sports in America. Simply put, people who engage in this kind of behavior have no place in college sports. They are an affront to all those who play by the rules.Following the Southern District of New York’s indictments last year, the NCAA Board of Governors and I formed the independent Commission on College Basketball, chaired by Condoleezza Rice, to provide recommendations on how to clean up the sport. With these latest allegations, it’s clear this work is more important now than ever.The Board and I are completely committed to making transformational changes to the game and ensuring all involved in college basketball do so with integrity. We also will continue to cooperate with the efforts of federal prosecutors to identify and punish the unscrupulous parties seeking to exploit the system through criminal acts.”"

So basically, and this is just speculation, the plan all along was to investigate and not come out with any results until after the NCAA Tournament. Probably make new rules, punish a few smaller schools big enough for everyone to feel that the NCAA did something and continue business as usual.

ESPN just put a kink in that plan. Emmert tried this morning to continue on with what we think was his plan all along.

Gary Parish agrees with us about paying players and players able to have representation:

"Let me make this clear: As long as the NCAA holds tight to the concept of amateurism, and denies student-athletes the ability to secure representation, or accept fair-market value, this black market that could potentially sully the names of multiple Hall of Famers, and theoretically lead to blue bloods playing with reduced rosters as early as this weekend, will never go away no matter how many smart people are placed on a committee."

Parish went on to say that Andy Miller and Christian Dawkins are not the only agents that operated this way. Arizona Basketball legend Steve Kerr agrees. Nice to be in such great company on this subject.

Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott was uncomfortable at the Pac-12 Media days when talking about what he was going to do. He followed in line with Emmert and spoke about the NCAA investigation and who was going to be on the board. No warm fuzzies from media after that speech, reporters asked each coach their thoughts.

Related Story: Pac-12 Commish addresses media regarding FBI Probe

https://twitter.com/chuckcecil26/status/967503291105001472

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From what we can tell from social media, the team is moving through their normal routine, practicing and moving through the motions. We are going to be cheering on our team and our players tonight, ALL OF THEM, because nothing has been proven and no hearing or court or jury has confirmed anything. Let’s get those Ducks! I know, we are always the optimists, but someone has to carry the torch.