Sean Miller to stay on as Arizona Basketball Head Coach

Arizona Basketball head coach Sean Miller will not back down and is fully supported by AD Dave Heeke and President Robbins, will stay on and coach to Pac-12 Championship.

The silence has broken in Tucson and after much support from several media outlets including Zona Zealots. The ESPN report has been refuted by Arizona Basketball Head Coach Sean Miller publicly.

Arizona not only lost a huge recruit in Shareef O’Neal, but they also lost the game in Oregon costing Dusan Ristic a record for now and the school a regular season Pac-12 Championship. There is so much more that affected the program and the school from the fallout of this ESPN report including future recruitment, and a sullied name and more.

Miller’s former players such as TJ McConnell, Nick Johnson, and Kyle Fogg came out in staunch support of their beloved coach. They spoke up so the players didn’t have too. It seemed highly orchestrated, and we have to give props to the school on how they handled this.

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Former players in the NBA came out and backed coach. Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr and Lakers head coach Luke Walton, both former cats, came out in favor of changing NCAA rules.

The NCAA came out and said that it is up to the schools and that they were conducting their own investigation and rule changes would come out of it.

Media outlets not named The Arizona Daily Star, and Arizona sportswriters and blog contributors not named Greg Hansen, did not give knee-jerk reactions, followed up by false reporting and sources, came out in support of vetting the ESPN report.

ESPN issued at least two corrections/apologies. One that the erroneously said on air during an ASU game of all things, that Sean Miller was “relieved of his duties.” And second that they got the dates of the supposed or alleged (words they did not use) wiretap wrong, twice. Hansen came out on a podcast and said that he had talked to someone whose name rhymes with “look.” Then had to retract that and said he talked to someone who is close to Book Richardson.

Where is the movie maker? We are sure some film major could make a great movie out of this, so said Dan Patrick!

Dan Patrick and Andrew McLovin talking on their podcast about the legal issues ESPN may face, saying that there may be a good cause for a lawsuit.

Related Story: Dan Patrick discusses possible lawsuit for Miller/Ayton/Arizona against ESPN

The words we have all been waiting for: Miller will be turning his focus to coaching basketball.

Zona Zealots has maintained all along that ESPN had no first-hand knowledge of any conversation, but the media ran with it as fact. The report defamed Miller and his star forward Deandre Ayton. Dick Vitale, Seth Greenberg, and Jay Bilas didn’t waste one-minute backing Mark Schlabach’s claims that there was wrongdoing. Their attempts to single out Arizona amidst an ongoing FBI Investigation with “sealed” evidence including wiretapped conversations was irresponsible.

We just plain didn’t have the facts, the FBI has the facts, and those records are sealed. On top of that the FBI is required, so we hear, to let someone knows they have been caught on a wiretap. We have no idea what has transpired there, but Miller staunchly refuted he has done anything wrong.

Perhaps Washington Husky head coach Mike Hopkins statement summed up Arizona’s brass and boosters position best, putting the ESPN report in even more question asking where the facts were.

The Pac-12 Network aired Sean’s comments live. That says the Conference is backing Arizona in our eyes, why not just let the school handle it? Note, all the quotes in this post come from the Pac-12 news conference.

Miller’s comments were all written out, as well they should be, so he could say everything he needed to say and so that any lawyer could not poke holes in it.

"“Let me begin by saying I regret all the negative attention that has been focused on our program and the difficult position that this has created for President Robbins, Dave Heeke, the Arizona family, and especially our players and their families. I appreciate very much all the support I have received during this difficult time. Thank you to everybody. While I have done nothing wrong, I am responsible for our men’s basketball program and I am sickened that we are in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Contrary to what has been written this past week, we do our very best to run a clean program at the University of Arizona.”"

As far as a clean program, Miller made sure we all heard how he feels about that, “Compliance with NCAA rules is extremely important to us, and we work hard to create, maintain and monitor a culture of compliance within our program.”

Now comes the legalese, the statements that all media can quote in their newspapers, blogs, podcasts and on TV:

"“I have never, knowingly, violated NCAA rules while serving as head coach of this great program. I have never paid a recruit or prospect or their family or representative to come to Arizona. I never have and I never will. I have never arranged or directed payment or any improper benefits to a recruit or prospect or their family or representative.”"

Miller went on to say he doesn’t want to compromise the FBI Investigation, but now he cannot stay silent.

After comments about what he hasn’t done, and which ESPN has accused him of, he went on to talk about reputations, possibly setting him, Ayton and the school up for legal remedies against the false claims? “I cannot remain silent in light of media reports that have impugned the reputation of me, the university and sullied the name of a tremendous young man, Deandre Ayton,” said Miller.

Now to the ESPN stuff…

And specific to Christian Dawkins, “Let me be very very clear. I have never discussed with Christian Dawkins paying Deandre Ayton to attend the University of Arizona. In fact, I never even met or spoke to Christian Dawkins until Deandre publicly announced that he was coming to our school.”

Any reporting to the contrary is inaccurate, false, and defamatory. I am outraged by the media statements that have been made and the acceptance by many that these statements were true.

Miller said that the statements have damaged him, the university, Deandre Ayton, and his family. Miller said that the one time he was asked about getting a player paid to play at Arizona and he did not accept it.

Miller said that Robbins and Heeke carefully considered the matter and looks at the facts and that he has been transparent. He completed his statement by thanking those who supported him.

Miller will not back down, the school will not back down, the Pac-12 looks like it isn’t backing down.

Must Read: More on Arizona Basketball from ZZ..

We will see if ESPN will back down and issue an apology. It’s looking like the network and their three dues who threw Miller under the bus, Greenberg, Bilas, and Vitale, need to apologize. To be fair, Bilas backtracked a bit, asking for an overhaul of the NCAA, but Greenberg and Vitale double-downed, asking for people to wait for facts on Tom Izzo, but continued to push Robbins and Heeke to do something about Miller. It’s going to get ugly before it gets pretty. Good news is Brandon Williams is sticking with Arizona until we hear differently.