Pac-12: Why Arizona Basketball fans booed Commissioner Larry Scott

Did you see this coming? Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott was booed before presenting the Tournament Championship trophy to Arizona Basketball.

Boos for Larry Scott, surprised? Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott was booed twice during the Tournament Championship game, both at halftime and after Arizona Basketball won the chip. Wildcats fans outnumbered Trojan fans in the crowd, and it’s no secret that they have had their issues with the Pac-12. Some of the problems are conference-wide upsetting all 12 schools fans, and some are just about Arizona Basketball.

Wildcats fans are convinced that Larry Scott is not a fan of Arizona Basketball. Scott’s probably pretty happy with Arizona athletes professional accolades of late. The conference benefits from the Arizona athletes when they make headlines. Specific of late, Deandre Ayton on the front cover of Sports Illustrated and two covers with Superbowl Champ and MVP Philadelphia Eagles QB Nick Foles in the last few months.

Arizona Wildcats Basketball

Foles was in attendance in Las Vegas to cheer on and motivate his Arizona Basketball team. The Pac-12 social crew enjoyed having him around and even interviewed the former Wildcat after Arizona beat Colorado.

What most fans are mad about, and they have a point, are mainly the Pac-12 Channels, late game times, the referee play calls, and what they will never forget, the fining of Sean Miller of $25,000 for disagreeing with a referee and saying so in the hallway off the court after being slapped with a technical and ejected.

This all went down in 2013 during a UCLA tournament playoff game knocking Arizona out of the tournament. Remember the famous words that will go down in Arizona Basketball history? “He touched the ball, he touched the ball..“? After being fined, and Miller’s requests for review, it was discovered that head referee Ed Rush, has strongly suggested to his referee crew to T-up Miller and he would give them a trip as a gift. After found out, Rush said he was only joking, “Absolutely, 100 percent said in jest.” Miller was so upset. He was livid because his senior Mark Lyons wouldn’t be able to continue playing that season.

Wildcats fans called for Scott to rescind the $25,00 fine, it never happened. Scott backed Rush. At some point, Ed Rush publicly admitted that the calls against Miller, double-dribble and resulting technical, were incorrect. So Miller was right!

According to Andy Katz, Scott didn’t think it was a fireable offense to offer gifts to T-up Miller:

"Larry Scott told ESPN earlier in the week that Rush’s comments didn’t rise to the level of being a fireable offense and concluded they were made “in jest.”"

Rush resigned. But Scott couldn’t help but be kind to the exit-ing Rush:

"“I want to express my appreciation for the great contribution Ed made to basketball officiating for the Conference during his tenure, particularly in the area of training and the cultivation of new officiating talent,”"

The Pac-12 moved on to employ a “Consortium” of referee’s shared across conferences in the West. Most fans aren’t aware of this, and they still think referees are Pac-12 only referees. That’s not the case.

Skip ahead to the 2018 season. This season Arizona Basketball was hit with the FBI Investigation as was USC, and then the ESPN report debacle. Scott stood behind his schools and left the decisions up to them since his conference is engaged in the ongoing NCAA Investigation led by Condoleezza Rice. The NCAA president decided to allow schools, including Arizona, to determine what to do moving forward. Scott followed suit, and Arizona President Robbins chose to keep Sean Miller on and let Deandre Ayton play. This is probably why Sean Miller waved off fans boos because he knows Scott had Arizona’s back in this last controversy.

If you are a Wildcats fan who didn’t agree with the Mark Schlabach ESPN report, or Greg Hansen, Dick Vitale, Jay Bilas and others standing by his report calling for his firing, then Scott is on your side. Note, Hansen has since reported his regrets for leaving any doubt in the report. The key here is, whether you are upset with Larry Scott and the Pac-12 for any reason, he did not ask for Sean Miller to resign. For that reason, you should be happy.

Here is the footage from the post-game celebration. Miller is seen clapping, my have times changed, haven’t they?

The main reason fans are upset has to do with the Pac-12 Channels. It is challenging for a fan or media to watch the games because Scott never got a deal done with DIRECTV. Fans on the East coast are upset because they can’t get the channel, and because the games are on late at night.

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But fans are also upset because the Midwest East coast media don’t get to see their athletes play. Khalil Tate doesn’t get primetime national viewership and that could hinder his chances at Heisman and other awards. This goes for Arizona Basketball. How did Allonzo Trier get dropped out of contention for the Jerry West Shooting Guard award?

Although some of the Arizona Athletic games are broadcasted on Fox Sports 1 and ESPN, CBS Sports does not have access to highlight footage, so they feel they cannot report on Arizona if they don’t pay for highlights. Scott told me at Pac-12 media days that he essentially is only concerned about ratings and market share for his Pac-12 Channel.

We think the Pac-12 Channels are awesome! Love Michael Yam and Yogi Roth to name a few, but the world needs to experience this great fun the Pac-12 has to offer. Scott is still on the hot seat for not spreading Pac-12 sports nationally. It can also hurt recruiting if parents cannot watch their kids play because they live on the east coast.

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So if you wanted to understand the boos for Larry Scott, those are a few reasons. Personally, we enjoy the Pac-12, we are all passionate fans, we just want more of it, and that is sitting in Scott’s hands. Larry, it is time to make a unique deal with the behemoth that is AT&T (new owner of DIRECTV), suck it up and do something and maybe fans will him slide on the Rush stuff. Miller seems to have, and right now, it is for a good reason.