The Arizona Wildcats surged out of the gate in 2020. The Wildcats just beat Colorado and sit at 7-1 with high hopes for the season. Can the Wildcats make their way back to the Pac-12 title? Can they make it back to the Big Dance? All those questions are now worthless. Arizona announced today that they issued a self-imposed postseason ban for one year.
Arizona Wildcats Self-Impose Postseason Ban
It has been widely publicized that the Arizona men’s basketball program was under investigation by the FBI. Additionally, the school released a statement on Tuesday morning in regards to those ongoing allegations.
“The NCAA’s investigation revealed that certain former members of the men’s basketball staff displayed serious lapses in judgment,” per Bruce Pascoe of the Arizona Daily Star.
The Wildcats have been under the microscope for years. First, in 2017, four assistant coaches were charged and arrested after the U.S. Attorney’s Office investigated the team. In addition, Emmanuel “Book” Richardson pleaded guilty to $20,000 in bribes and in turn, spent three months in federal prison.
Albeit, Wildcats head coach, Sean Miller, is also on thin ice. Miller was reported of paying star center Deandre Ayton $10,000 to sign with the program. Federal prosecutors even got their hands on an intercepted phone call and the school suspended Miller back in 2018.
Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated reported back in late October that Arizona was alleged to have nine charges of misconduct.
Certainly, the saga in Arizona has been ongoing for years, and with the ban, the Wildcats will remain focused on the conference title.
“I understand and fully support the university’s decision to self-impose a one-year postseason ban on our men’s basketball program. Our team will remain united and aggressively compete to win the Pac-12 championship,” Sean Miller mentioned on Tuesday.
Sean Miller and the Arizona Wildcats Future
However, despite the school’s self-imposed ban, the NCAA can still hand down further and more severe punishment, and that will almost certainly be the case. Expect that punishment to be harsher than the self-imposed postseason ban by Arizona.
Is this the end of the road for Sean Miller? Perhaps. Moreover, this is not a good look for a program that has been premier for over a decade. As a result, there will be no dancing in March for the Wildcats this season. However, the punishment is far from over.
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