Arizona Basketball full court pressed by the Media stays strong

Arizona Basketball just cannot stay out of the mouths of the media, even when the story has nothing to do with Arizona.

The Arizona Wildcats Basketball teams are used to getting full court pressed on the court. Now the national media has brought their best version of the full court press off the court.

One could argue that the national media has already caused multiple so-called “turnovers” with the firing of Book Richardson. Along with the loss of some of their top recruits heading into next year. Some might even argue all the negative attention might have been one factor that led to an early exit in March Madness.

It’s time for the national media to back off of our beloved Wildcats until we fully know the truth behind the whole recruiting scandal. Whatever happened to the saying “innocent until proven guilty”? It seems that as a basketball program we are fighting and clawing to prove that we are “Innocent”.

Just yesterday, news agencies reported new information on new charges stemming from the FBI Investigation. None of it had anything to do with Arizona Basketball yet one guy, Mike Jurecki who left a Phoenix Fox Sports 910 in May 2017, just had to talk about Arizona in relation to the new news. The report he was referring too had no Arizona related charges. The Tweet remains posted.

Arizona Wildcats Basketball

For every problem that occurs, there is always a lesson to be learned. The first lesson that we have learned is before we go rushing to be the first to break the news. It is essential to go back and double that the story has valid sources that can confirm it actually happen.

A prime example is public enemies one and two in Tucson. If you were to look up “most wanted”, you would find Dick Vitale and Mark Schlabach.

Mark Schlabach, the one who had a “source” that had access to the FBI wiretaps. He is also the same man, who had to change his story 2-3 times in order to fit his narrative.

Not long after Mark Schlabach, decided to break his news. Dick Vitale had the nerve to chime in essentially calling for the firing of Sean Miller. Fast forward to yesterday, when his beloved Kanas Jayhawks suddenly got thrown in the eye of the FBI investigation. Dick Vitale, changed his stance a bit in a way to not call attention to the Jayhawks. He also seemed to have a sudden change of heart when it came to the Arizona Basketball program or at least a repointing of his finger to Adidas.

Vitale still seems to take reports and indictments against Kansas in his latest live tweet and says that the schools and coaches reported on are innocent because they were “not involved.”

The jumping to conclusions that both Mark Schlabach and Dick Vitale were guilty of takes us to our second lesson learned. And that is how harmful rumors can be to a program, their coaches and players. Rumors can or threaten to ruin a career or reputation. The effects can even trickle all the way down to their loyal fans who have supported a program for years. In this case, a student-athlete who Is fresh out of high school and just getting his first taste of college in DeAndre Ayton.

The last lesson that we can take away from this situation is to try to be more resilient during trying times. Also, the saying “Actions speak louder than words” actually still holds true. An example of this comes from our coach Sean Miller, the players and the University of Arizona. They used their Arizona Poise and somehow carried on through it all.

Sean Miller did an excellent job with the situation and took into consideration what would be best for his team moving forward. He also had assembled a coaching staff prior to the season that helped keep the student-athletes focused on the task at hand which was playing basketball. Some wondered if he knew what was coming.

The players took advantage of what seemed to be the world crashing down around them to band together and survive through adversity. They also found the true meaning of what it means to be a family. Can we thank the media? In this case, the team broke the press or made it through when the media circled their wagon.

Finally, the University of Arizona took “BearDown” to heart and backed their basketball program. Even when the easy choice was to turn and run away in order to avoid the wave of criticism that was about to occur. President Robbins and AD Dave Heeke hung with their guy. That says a lot about the trust all around.

This whole FBI investigation that was brought to light through the national media has to bring major concerns to those who are die-hard college basketball fans. Why is Arizona being targeted? How do Dick Vitale and Mark Schlabach not serve any penalties for reporting false information? How did Seth Greenberg interview Ayton when he won an award and neither of them seemed phased? What is ESPN gaining by trying to take out Arizona Basketball?

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For every finger that is pointed, there is always four pointed right back at the accuser. It’s time to widen the investigation and not only focus on the coaches and their schools but look into the media members who are constantly reporting the fake news. Or change the rules in the NBA and NCAA, and just move forward.