Arizona Basketball: Should Sean Miller be held accountable?

The federal college basketball bribery trial is over and the NCAA investigation into Arizona Basketball and Coach Sean Miller is on-going, but the real question is should Miller be held accountable.

Should Arizona basketball head coach Sean Miller be held accountable? Many would say yes, but there are those who would say no. There is still no proof he actually did anything wrong, but three of his former assistant coaches have been in the news. Book Richardson who pleaded guilty to bribery, Mark Phelps who has been placed on leave administrative leave due to an unresolved NCAA matter and Joe Pasternick linked to the federal investigation into college bribery. Per NCAA bylaws it indicates that a the head coach is responsible for his assistants actions, unless he can rebut the presumption of responsibility.

Depending on the evidence the NCAA is able to gather from the FBI, which as of right now isn’t much as the feds aren’t handing over all the evidence the NCAA is requesting, will ultimately determine how severe a punishment Coach Miller receives. Even if the NCAA is not able to collect actual proof that shows Miller committed acts of bribery, as a head coach he is held responsible for those under him.

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There is no way he can rebut this type of responsibility. He is the head coach of a major Division I school and with that comes the accountability for everyone’s actions, players and coaches. For those who feel Miller shouldn’t be held accountable, need to understand the bigger picture.

If the NCAA didn’t punish Miller and the basketball program at all, that would be sending the wrong message to all of college basketball. That message being head coaches wouldn’t be punished for violations by assistant coaches.

As much as Wildcat fans don’t want to hear this, the best thing that can happen is that NCAA declares that Miller is held accountable as head coach and face punishment. That will then provide some type of closure to all of this, which many agree is needed.

There are also those feel that Miller should be held accountable and be let go because of the negative publicity this program has received and that he hasn’t taken a team to the final four and won a championship. The university, the boosters, President Robbins, AD Dave Heeke have continued through all of this to show their support for Coach Miller.

More then likely Miller will face some type of NCAA sanction. Maybe suspended? Maybe have to vacate wins from the 2017-18 season? Ban from post season? Who knows at this point? Will be interesting to see how the NCAA decides to handle this. As always, Bear Down, Arizona!