Sean Miller avoids punishment in IARP ruling; Arizona assistants get show-cause penalties | College Football Enquirer
Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel, and Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde and Ross Dellenger discuss the IARP’s announcement that Xavier head basketball coach Sean Miller will not face punishment for his involvement in a recruiting scandal at Arizona, but multiple former Arizona assistants will receive show-cause penalties.
Video Transcript
PAT FORDE: The thing that just killed me listening to this IARP thing and the previous IARP things is they so fundamentally don't understand the sport. It's like no. They all knew it was happening because that's how you got players.
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DAN WETZEL: Arizona basketball-- it's all Book Richardson's fault, Pat. Sean Miller knew nothing about anything. He had a quote, unquote, "book of truth." You hear about this?
PAT FORDE: I almost expired when I heard about the book of truth. I really did.
DAN WETZEL: He's writing in his journal all the good things he did and all the compliance. Didn't mention other things, as you smartly pointed out, when Christian Dawkins talked to him on the phone about $150,000 payment, he didn't put that in the book of truth.
PAT FORDE: That, somehow, [INAUDIBLE].
DAN WETZEL: Didn't tell anybody until later. The text messages from the rest of the college, people like, why are you-- why do you not-- why are you skeptical of this? I'm like, every college basketball coach in America is like, what?
PAT FORDE: My phone has been blowing up for, like, 12 hours-- actually, longer than that.
DAN WETZEL: None are going to say it on the record, though. That's the problem.
PAT FORDE: Yeah, no, it is. But coaches, administrators, everybody like, are you kidding me? And here we are. I got on the conference call, the NCAA, the IARP conference call. There were two people that asked questions on the conference call. So our industry has completely lost interest in it, OK?
DAN WETZEL: Yeah.
PAT FORDE: Completely. But my question was simply, how can you say he promoted an atmosphere of compliance and monitored his staff when he has two assistants committing all these violations? It wasn't just one here, one there. It was, like, five different violations, two academic fraud cases, two transcripts. Money here, money there, and say that he promoted an atmosphere of compliance.
If you remember, back in 2012, that was the thing-- we're no longer going to let the head coaches get away with this because they always get away with it. And the assistant coaches always take the fall. So we're going to create this new head coach responsibility rule.
But there was, as usual, a loophole. And the coaches and their agents and their lawyers smartly charged through. And it's like, eh, just have a meeting and say you talked about compliance. Do this and that. And there you go.
That's your atmosphere of compliance. The thing that just killed me listening to this IARP thing and all-- and the previous IARP things is they so fundamentally don't understand the sport, that they approach it as, well, the coach didn't want these things to happen. And so they definitely had to happen quietly and secretively.
And they would never discuss-- and the countenance, having something like this happen, it's like, no, they all knew it was happening because that's how you got players. It's unbelievable. Like, this fundamental lack of an understanding that this is how the sport has worked for decades, and the coaches knew it. And they were part of it. Unbelievable.
DAN WETZEL: I got mad respect for Sean Miller. Straight gangster.
PAT FORDE: He is that.
DAN WETZEL: Christian Dawkins called him a gangster in "The Scheme" on HBO, and it's true. He's sitting there, Xavier, like what? No, I got the book-- the book of truth.
PAT FORDE: Book of truth.
DAN WETZEL: It was a great point. Christian Dawkins called him up on a wiretap conversation, asked for $150,000 for-- was talking about $150,000 for a payment. Miller told "People" he had reason to be suspicious of Dawkins and decided to distance himself at that point. But it did not go in his book of truth.
PAT FORDE: No, no.
DAN WETZEL: Whatever-- good for Sean, terrible for Book. So, you know, this guy got put in prison, is a felon, and apparently it was all his idea.
PAT FORDE: Mm-hmm. 100%.
DAN WETZEL: Quite a system. Quite a system.