NCAA President Mark Emmert on Friday issued a statement on "potential rules violations" committed by 20 D-I basketball programs and more than 25 players detailed in a Yahoo Sports report. Emmert said, “These allegations, if true, point to systematic failures that must be fixed and fixed now if we want college sports in America. Simply put, people who engage in this kind of behavior have no place in college sports" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 2/23). Emmert said, "Nobody was shocked that these things occurred. The magnitude of them, I think, is surprising to a lot of folks" ("Inside College Basketball," CBS, 2/24). The Yahoo Sports and ESPN reports on the potential violations were the "most significant revelation to date from an ongoing FBI probe into corruption in college basketball" (WASHINGTON POST, 2/24).
Arizona men's basketball coach Sean Miller yesterday said he "will be vindicated" after reports surfaced that the FBI "intercepted telephone conversations where he talked about paying $100,000 to ensure" C DeAndre Ayton signed with the team. Associate head coach Lorenzo Romar last night "took over coaching duties as Arizona faced Oregon." The school and Miller had "agreed on the decision that he would not coach Saturday's game" (AZCENTRAL.com, 2/24). Miller "addressed his team" late yesterday morning and Ayton was "not made available to the media after" the game (ESPN.com, 2/25). The Arizona Board of Regents yesterday met in an emergency executive session to "receive legal advice regarding the issue and plans to reconvene for updates and legal advice in the coming days" (ESPN.com, 2/24).
