Arizona Basketball: ESPN reporter Mark Schlabach’s impact on Wildcat basketball

Ever since the report by ESPN’s Mark Schlabach came out on February 23, 2018, Arizona Basketball has never been the same.

February 23, 2018, a day Arizona Basketball fans will not forget. It was on that day that ESPN reporter Mark Schlabach put out a report claiming from multiple sources that Sean Miller was heard on tape with Christian Dawkins discussing a payment of $100,000 to recruit Deandre Ayton. That tape still has yet to be brought forth.

Since that all went down, the Wildcat basketball program has been impacted on many levels. Recruiting, being in the national spotlight for the wrong reason and having to build the program back up. It is important to remember here that when Schlabach published this infamous report, it was just a day prior that Yahoo Sports put out a report indicating six schools and players that were part of the already on-going FBI Investigation. Arizona was not one of those schools mentioned.

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Shortly after this report came out, impacts were felt immediately. Shareef O’Neal, son of Shaquille O’Neal, decommitted from Arizona, who went on to commit to UCLA. The other top incoming commit Arizona had aquired, Brandon Williams, decommitted shortly after as well. He ended up coming back to play for Miller and the Wildcats.

Other top recruits who had been considering Arizona, decided not to leaving the program with just one top incoming freshman for the 2018-19 season. The Wildcats would go on to have a season most fans would like to forget.  They loss in the first round of the Pac-12 tournament and didn’t play in the NIT or NCAA Tournament.

The overall image of Arizona basketball was impacted the most. Many members of the media have continued to go after Miller and Arizona, even though there has yet to be any proof that Miller paid Ayton or any other players to play for him. Arizona basketball has been portrayed as one of those schools that pays players to play for Arizona, which is 100% false. There been no actual physical evidence that supports that.

After the completion of the 2018-19 season, Miller has been in rebuild mode. He has gone on to prove all doubters and ESPN wrong with his ability to recruit. The Wildcats have one of the top classes for the 2019-2020. All that may be for nothing as the NCAA is soon going to be sending out Level 1 violations to six schools, including two high profile schools in July. Possible implications would be a postseason ban or even scholarship reductions.

Many believe Arizona could be one of those schools due to Miller being responsible for former assistant coach Book Richardson’s actions per NCAA bylaw 11.1.1. Even though Richardson pleaded guilty to accepting $20,000, that money was never used to steer players to Arizona. Will the NCAA look at the big picture and see that it had nothing to do with Arizona or not? We will all just have to wait and see what happens.

An apology. That is something we can hope for from ESPN and Mark Schlabach, but the likelihood of that happening at this point is slim. Even if they do apologize, it’s too late. The damage has been done. All that can be done is to move on and for Arizona Basketball to get back to it’s winning ways. Bear Down, Arizona!