FBI Scandal News Articles Mega Thread, Post/Read All Related Articles Here

[WILD]

There is nothing new in the most recent articles from ESPN Arizona besides the call times from a phone allegedly associated with coach Miller. We all heard about the Alkins rumors as far as him being the player who allegedly received money from an agent. It's not like this hasn't happened before under Lute. Jason Terry was paid 45k by an agent and had to pay that money back. The result was Arizona had to vacant wins. Either way. There is still no proof of anything at all.

[MDcAtZ]

They even say, "The thousands of calls shed light not only on coaches at multiple schools vying for Bowen II, including Creighton, Arizona, Louisville, Oregon and DePaul" ... but no mention of how many calls between these schools and Dawkins besides Arizona and Creighton. Bet any amount Oregon called as much or more than AZ. Thousands of calls and eBSpn only highy13... yeaaaaah. That's unbiased reporting for you.

[Little George]

They even say, "The thousands of calls shed light not only on coaches at multiple schools vying for Bowen II, including Creighton, Arizona, Louisville, Oregon and DePaul" ... but no mention of how many calls between these schools and Dawkins besides Arizona and Creighton. Bet any amount Oregon called as much or more than AZ. Thousands of calls and eBSpn only highy13... yeaaaaah. That's unbiased reporting for you.

There is no honest reporting anymore. The truth means nothing in government, the press, or anything else including the court room. The supreme court nomination was a circus of idiots making up lie after lie to get their own way. It is all about money greed and power. Simply twist the story to fit your narritave no matter anything about facts.

ESPN is the scum of the sporting world.

[Little George]

The reporting of Ayton being offered to come to Arizona was actually well after his commitment to Arizona. In fact Ayton was already on campus when some of this stuff supposedly happened. The offer from Dawkins was never to get Ayton to campus at Arizona. The first try was to influence Ayton to choose Kansas. That was through money to a family friend. When they could not get him to Kansas then they were wanting to ensure he would sign with them being his agent. He was already at Arizona! So any conversation was headed by SM and never an offer from Arizona, but a walk away by SM. That story is a bust for them backed by the dates all the way.
Now they are turning it to Rawle Alkins and saying he took money? The university already did an internal investigation on him and he was cleared. Not sure why Arizona is the main target of the media, ESPN, but it becomes an easy target because the PAC is not tied to ESPN like the other big 5 conferences and the PAC does not really rep Arizona very well at all. Larry has never liked Arizona and SM so the conference does not step up to defend Arizona either. The political side of this is the in state politics of favoritism to ASU due to ASU being in Tempe and not Tucson. Arizona seems to be Arizona's second tier school when it comes in comparison to ASU.

I would never say that Arizona is without fault but until Greg took over as AD, the Athletic Department did it's best to pay it's own way. The facilities were not and still are not on par with other PAC schools which hurt us in recruiting as well. Greg tried getting us to a competitive point but also took our Athletic Department from black to red. Do we have targets on us right now? I believe we are the PAC's sacrificial lamb as they never wanted us anyway and we only were invited to the conference because the PAC wanted ASU. Larry Scott seems to have little or no love for Arizona. ESPN seems to be trying it's best to protect it's own interests by deflecting attention to Arizona and Oregon when some of their prime time schools break the rules. Like Kansas in this case and even NC state. Also the N Carolina academic scandal that was swept under the rug. The Auburn/Newton issue that was given a pass. The ESPN/NCAA love affair is evident to anyone who has eyes. The NCAA/Big 5 minus PAC love affair is also evident in the same manner. Yes, I am saying certain conferences and certain schools are protected by the NCAA! Those institutions receive special treatment and considerations.

If Arizona wants to change it's real value in the PAC it only needs to apply to another big 5 conference when expansion talks start up again. Not saying we should ever go, but in reality things will never get better until Arizona makes a stand. I do not like that conference at all but something has to change.

[g_owl$]

I read about ten lines of that new ESPN article and started laughing. They have turned this into a dead horse. They've written so many articles that no one actually gives a damn  about any of this anymore. People have already seen Sean Miller is getting any recruit he wants still so no one cares if you wanna say he got phone calls two years ago. I honestly think this scandal is pretty much over thanks to ESPNs hilariously atrocious reporting.

[Little George]

Just a little more.

The offer supposedly from Arizona to Bowen was Only from Dawkins to Bowen and there is no other verification otherwise. Why? because the agent was only using that offer as a bargaining chip to get more money from Adidas. It was never really on the table. Thus it is only hear say and unverified.
The offer to Ayton was the opposite of what the press stated. Ayton was already committed and on campus at Arizona. Dawkins was offering through SM, the money to sign with him as an agent. Not to come to Arizona. Thus YES, a discussion happened about paying Ayton. SM said no, and that any further contact would have to be through him not his assistants. No violation!
Little's family already testified that NO money was ever in play.
Book was dealing with Quinerly and was contacted several times before he was lured into the situation. The question comes up with when he was lured in it was almost a last minute entrapment for someone who was on the outside until just before everything broke. We know he kept most of the 20K but did Quinerly actually receive the 5K he is said to have received? That would make him ineligable anywhere he goes. If that is in any degree true, then his current school cannot play him. I have not heard anything about him being held out for any reason. Either way, proof does not seem to be on the table yet. Waiting for the Book trial.

Alkins? It was denied that any player on the team was paid and why every player that played last year did in fact play. If he was paid by the agent without knowledge by SM then where does that fall? However, there is no paper trail at this point and it is basically someone claiming something unsubstantiated.


If we look at it as Dawkins throwing Arizona and now Oregon's names out there just to raise the anti, then what does anyone have on Zona? Little family denied it. Ayton family denied it. Quinerly went to another school and is still eligible? Alkins played last year and must have denied it because he was allowed to play.

If Pasternack was really involved it was way before that because he was hired away in March of 2017. That does not really fit the timeline very well unless he was previously involved and then got Book involved, but that would not make sense either as he was only mentioned in the investigation once and that was for Bowen.

And still much of the press is about who? Arizona gets more press than Louisville. Kansas is already tagged and very little. Something smells very bad about this whole thing. Damn Book for getting us involved.


And yes ESPN has discredited themselves so much lately that they have lost all credibility. Thanks g_owls$

[JustCatCrazy]

Hello all. Long time lurker of all Cats sites and twitter feeds. Have followed all this ESPN stuff from the beginning. I think the focus, with how obvious the smear attempts have become, should be directed as to the reasons for the hatred towards Sean Miller by ESPN?

Clearly they are attempting to sully Miller's, and the program's, name and reputation. They want Miller's blood. They wish to have him damaged, gone, thrown out of NCAA basketball. The reports, with Schlabach leading the charge, have been discredited and now, rehashed and rebranded to once more inflict damage.

To me, Schlabach is but the attack dog, followed by Vitale and to a lesser extend, Bilas. Others on the network like Rece Davis did their damage early on, but the main players keep warming up the coals. The bigger question should be, who are the bigger players that are pulling the strings? I know enough about ESPN to believe that this is much more than a few puppet talking heads....this is deeper, as in high level executive or head coach [think Pitino] level.

The puppets are simply puppets. Who is their master? What did Miller do to deserve the wrath of the network, in spite of other news outlets tearing the ESPN reporting and writing to shreds. Hell, even our own twitter brigade has torn these puppets to shreds. However, we need to look at the reporting as not something factually true, but meant to destroy, damage and have Miller fired through incessant bad publicity and pressure.

In any real journalistic network, where accountability matters, Schlabach would have been fired months ago when his initial Ayton report was torn to shreds by the entire college basketball journalism world. The real question, though, is why was he not fired? Instead, he was allowed to linger around, after being disappeared for a bit, to the point where he was assigned to cover the recent trial. In the real world, his horrid reporting would have landed him working for the local paper of his favorite Georgia town.

The latest article by Schlabach is, as already mentioned by many, a simple rehashing of old news with little probative value. Its true purpose, however, is meant to keep the pressure mounting on Miller.  The attempt is being made to destroy the man, his program, his success, his recruiting prowess. In short, someone at ESPN or elsewhere wants him gone.

My theory is that Miller and Pitino had a nasty rivalry that intensified first when Pitino was landing Miller's recruits [through clear cheating as we all know...prostitutes, money, housing, jobs, etc...] The rivalry had only intensified with Pitino's success in landing Bowen [we know how he got the kid]. At this point, I think Miller narked on Pitino, starting a snowball effect that destroyed Pitino as we all know.

If you look at it, Pitino was a long-time favorite with the ESPN crew, especially with Vitale. If you look at Vitale, he consistently compares Pitino and Miller, defending the former and vilifying the latter. Vitale and Pitino are extremely close. Others at ESPN may be as well, leading to the hatred of Miller, if indeed he led a behind the scenes campaign to nark and damage Pitino.

Schlabach's background should be investigated further, but I believe he was tasked with destroying Miller. Someone falsely told him about Ayton and Miller [perhaps Vitale or Pitino?]. We do know, from Schlabach himself, that someone close to the investigation told him about the wiretap regarding Ayton.

Yes, Arizona means nothing to ESPN as they do not have rights like they do with the ACC, Big 12 or SEC. They can go after Arizona much more readily than Duke, UNC, Kentucky or Kansas all of which, by the way, seem much more guilty in various ways than Arizona. Could a heated rivalry between power teams over top recruits have led to this? I believe so, with Pitino and Miller battling over prized players, and Miller knowing the unethical shenanigans going on by Pitino and getting Pitino fired.

This would explain Vitale and his crazed hatred of Miller, and why ESPN does nothing to shut him up. Think about it: Vitale is left off-leash and completely irrational, to the point of senility. Schlabach is allowed to continue spewing bull manure, Bilas can chime in, and so on....the day the Ayton report came out, Rece, Bilas and others just went after Miller in a way that I had never seen on television. Yet Self is implicated much more severely, and Zion raises many issues with Duke, and crickets? Doesn't add up.

Something fishy is going on, this is clear, and it has everything to do with a very unhealthy hatred of Miller. Now, is Miller innocent? We are all smart enough to know that he isn't. No one at the top is....if you want to stay in the game you need to play by its rules, and those rules are based on greed and money. It's that simple. Having said that, there are different levels of unethical and unscrupulous. I believe Pitino was at one end, with Miller at another.

From what we know of Miller, he is a competitor and if he feels slighted, cheated on, or that the field is not fair, is he capable of destroying Pitino? I think so, especially in this highly competitive world of recruiting.

The rabbit hole goes deep with this case...question is, how deep do we dare go?

[Little George]

Welcome JustCrazyCat, interesting first post.

[WILD]

Talk about Not so late breaking news. SMH

https://twitter.com/AriA1exander/status/1057106121482297345

[Little George]

Like I posted in another thread there is something not right with this story because half the dates did not fit period and the players and families have denied all of it. The only person throwing Arizona's name around seemed to be Dawkins and his partner. It is clear that Book was working for the agent and not the agent working to get the player to Arizona. Ayton was already on campus in July. Adidas does not push players to Nike schools.