Arizona basketball coach Sean Miller talked with a runner for a sports agent about making a $100,000 payment for Deandre Ayton to play.
Arizona basketball coach Sean Miller talked about making a $100,000 payment for Deandre Ayton to play for the Wildcats, according to government sources cited in an ESPN report published Friday night.
Miller was caught having the discussion in a recorded conversation with a runner for a sports agent, ESPN reported .
The conversation is evidence in the FBI’s ongoing probe into NCAA basketball recruiting, which has already ensnared former Arizona assistant Emanuel ‚Book‘ Richardson .
READ THE ESPN REPORT: FBI wiretaps show Miller discussed $100,000 payment to land recruit
Richardson was arrested in late September, when the FBI probe was first revealed, and later fired from the university.
Federal documents revealed that a payment of at least $15,000 was made to Richardson from a financial adviser and business manager so they could eventually work with a “Player 5” once he turned pro.
Former Arizona commit Jahvon Quinerly’s family hired a lawyer after speculation that he was the „Player 5“ named.
Quinnerly decommitted from Arizona three weeks after the scandal was revealed and recently committed to Villanova .
An azcentral sports report last year detailed several ways the FBI’s NCAA-recruiting probe could ensnare Miller. The story identified the reasons for which the Arizona Board of Regents could fire Miller without paying the remainder of his five-year, $2.6 million annual contract. Among the reasons listed in Miller’s contract were „substantial and repeated violations of NCAA policies.“
The University of Arizona did not immediately reply to a request for comment Friday night.
The 49-year-old coach has said very little about the FBI investigation publicly when questioned by reporters, but Miller released a statement in early October that read, in part:
„As the head basketball coach at the University of Arizona, I recognize my responsibility is not only to establish a culture of success on the basketball court and in the classroom, but as important, to promote and reinforce a culture of compliance; To the best of my ability, I have worked to demonstrate this over the past 8 years and will continue to do so as we move forward.”
No timetable for what’s next in the FBI’s case have been outlined, but information about what the government has collected has started to leak out at an increasing rate in recent weeks. Court dates are scheduled for next year.
SEAN MILLER: UA coach’s comments (or no-comments) on FBI investigation into NCAA recruiting
UA IN NCAA SCANDAL: How the FBI taped, tracked and arrested Wildcats assistant Book Richardson
The report was the latest in a series of developments regarding the ongoing FBI investigation into NCAA basketball recruiting.
Yahoo Sports published a series of reports this week that indicated the FBI had extensive records that implicated some of the nation’s most storied college basketball programs.
The Yahoo report focused on documents seized by the government from sports agent Andy Miller’s office, who is at the center of the FBI investigation of corruption in college basketball. Miller’s runner was named in the ESPN report.
And earlier Friday, another Yahoo Sports report ID’d Phoenix Suns‘ rookie Josh Jackson in a story about players named in a ledger that agents kept which had been uncovered as part of the FBI probe.
Jackson’s mother, Apple Jones, received $2,700, which included a $1,700 advance on Feb. 1,2016, according to the report. Jackson committed to Kansas on April 11 of that year.
Jackson said he had only been made aware of the story following the Suns‘ shootaround Friday.
„I can’t really talk about nothing I don’t really know about,“ Jackson said. „I’m going to look into it a little more, obviously, but at the moment, I don’t really have any information.“
UA IN NCAA PROBE: Has slow burn of FBI college recruiting probe put a chill into Arizona Wildcats program?
COLLEGE BASKETBALL SCANDAL: Suns‘ Josh Jackson doesn’t ‚recall‘ being approached by agents
RELATED: FBI investigation into Book Richardson could lead to NCAA probe of Wildcats
