Feb 24, 2018 5 min read

I’ve always rooted for Sean Miller. I was impressed with him the first time I met him when he showed up to play basketball at Pitt 30 years ago.

He was amazingly well-spoken and mature for a freshman and handled the media like a pro. Nobody who dealt with him at Pitt was surprised when he became a coach.

He’s the kind of a guy you’d like to see have success.

It’s beginning to look like he’s a cheater.

Yahoo Sports reported Miller, now coaching at University of Arizona, is heard on an FBI wiretap talking about a $100,000 payment to a high school recruit.

The FBI recorded more than 3,000 hours of Christian Dawkins’ telephone conversations during an investigation into corruption in college basketball. Dawkins was a runner for NBA agent Andy Miller, who has been accused of making large payments to high school players and/or their families.

Miller, according to a report by ESPN, is heard on the tapes discussing the $100,000 payment to Deandre Ayton, a 7-1 center, who was one of the most highly recruited players last year.

Miller tells Dawkins to deal with his assistant, Emanuel “Book” Richardson, when it comes time to finalize the deal.

Richardson was one of four assistant coaches arrested by the FBI in September following a two-year investigation into bribes and other corruption in college basketball.

Miller said, at the time, he was unaware of any cheating by his assistants. Only the naïve, the clueless and Miller’s bosses at Arizona believed that. Richardson was fired in January.

Ayton is averaging 19.6 points and 10.9 rebounds per game for Arizona and will probably be one of the first two players taken in the NBA draft.

It’s hard to see how Miller survives this. If ESPN’s report of what’s on the tape is true, then Miller is a cheater and a liar.

That, of course, doesn’t make him the only guy swimming in the college basketball cesspool.

And it is a cesspool.

Miller has been around long enough to know the guys he’s been trying to beat have been paying players. Do you think he was surprised when he heard coach Rick Pitino was bringing strippers and prostitutes in to help with recruiting at Louisville?

Pitino was fired and the NCAA officially vacated Louisville’s 2013 national championship Friday.

Most of the people involved in college basketball, including the media, have been saying for a while this is the classic tip of the iceberg. Players from Alabama, Duke, North Carolina, Creighton, South Carolina, Utah, Xavier and Clemson have been illegally compensated.

How about a reported $73,500 to former North Carolina State guard Dennis Smith?

And $36,500 in loans to former Kentucky center Bam Adebayo?

Duke guard Wendel Carter showed up on one of Hutchinson’s expense reports. He allegedly bought lunch for Carter and the player’s mom when Carter was a junior in high school.

Would you be shocked to find out Carter and his mom ended up getting more than lunch?

Do you think Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski is squeaky clean?

The sainted Dean Smith at North Carolina had no idea some of his players could barely read.

How many of the top-20 teams in the upcoming NCAA tournament would you bet on having obeyed all the rules?

How much do you want to bet a huge portion of the sports media will look at what the FBI found and say it’s just more proof college basketball players should be paid?

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