Arizona is the third college to self-impose a ban on its men's basketball team for the postseason, following LSU and Auburn previously enforcing a self-imposed ban in connection to college sports corruption and recruitment.
Arizona issued the said postseason ban on Tuesday. The postseason ban will take effect right away to remind the management that they violated federal crimes.
The self-declared ban's gravity meant that the Arizona Wildcats men's basketball team would not be competing in the 2021 NCAA Basketball Tournament. Now 7th in Pac-12, Arizona holds a 7-1 record.
The school's investigation takes it back to 2017, where reports of corruption on the basketball team and recruitment team occurred.
In October, Arizona was involved in nine NCAA violations.
As per The Athletic, head coach Sean Miller was brought to trial for lacking control as the head coach. Furthermore, the college had violations involving monitoring failure and institutional control anomalies.
"The University of Arizona is self-imposing a one-year postseason ban on the UA Men's Basketball program as a proactive measure in its ongoing NCAA enforcement process," Arizona college said in a statement.
Arizona continued that their MBB staff, specifically the former members, were seen to have committed ethical misconduct. The decision will also carry the college's responsibility to the violation, where they will be held accountable for the actions.
The Wildcats' former assistant coach Emanuel "Book" Richardson was found guilty of the FBI scandal. Richardson, who had stayed with Arizona since the 2009-2010 season, was accepting $20,000 to lure Arizona players to Christian Dawkins, a sports agent, as well as to financial mentors close to him.
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Book said that Miller paid $10,000 every month to now NBA cager Deandre Ayton, a former Arizona player. The 52-year-old coach denied the allegation of paying the players.
Moreover, a case involving former Wildcats' Rawle Alkins sprouted. Also, in 2019, Arizona imposed an indefinite suspension to erstwhile assistant coach Mark Phelps due to violations linked to Shareef Oneal's academic transcripts.
"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 a PAC-12 championship," Miller spoke in a statement.
In the second week of December this year, LSU declared a self-imposed ban for the football bowl. LSU's football program faced a Level III violation after Odell Beckham Jr. handed $2,000 to four players on January 13.
Last year, former LSU football team's booster John Paul Funes was sentenced to 33 months in prison due to stealing more than $500,000 from the hospital foundation. Vadal Alexander, the team's former offensive lineman, was reported to have received $180,000 from Funes.
A month ago, Auburn joined the 'self-ban' parade for their men's basketball squad. It happened when former assistant coach Chuck Person was found guilty of bribery. It was also found out that he gave a total of $18,500 to families of two Auburn players.
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