As speculation heats up about Sean Miller’s future with the Arizona Wildcats, president Robert C. Robbins told reporters Monday at his weekly press briefing that “Coach Miller is our coach.”
The response was elicited when KGUN9’s Craig Smith asked Robbins about the Notice of Allegations that the school released last week, which detailed five Level I allegations against the UA men’s basketball program.
Here is Robbins’ full quote about that and the Independent Accountability Resolution Process that is going to settle the matter once and for all (though who knows when).
“We released that Notice of Allegations from the NCAA and we actually selected to go through the IARP, and that process is ongoing,” Robbins said. “And every time I’ve tried to predict when that process will end, I’ve been off by a magnitude of years. So I’m not going to get into predicting when that might be over. We’re hoping as soon as possible so that we can move forward. Coach Miller is our coach. We’re working with him about remaining our coach, obviously, and we’re very eager to find out of all of those allegations. We’ll have our opportunity to address those, but we have not heard from the IARP. So the IARP is going through this process, they will be the final word, there’s no appeal process with the IARP. But we will have a chance to address the new notice of allegations that will come from the IARP. I think we’re the only the third university to go through this. And at least I’m not familiar with the other two, I think it’s LSU and Kansas, that they’ve received any word back from the IARP and they were ahead of us in this whole process.
“So it’s an ongoing investigation. They have the ability to go back and reinvestigate this case. They could have new findings and we just have to wait and find out what what the final word is going to be. They could also very well eliminate some of those allegations that had come forward as they look at and discuss some of the things that are in the current notice of allegations. They could be reduced. So we have to wait, I’m not sure what the timing is going to be. We hope as soon as possible that we can get past this as a university, and Coach Miller and his family and the basketball program can move forward.”
If Miller is going to remain Arizona’s coach, a contract extension—even one that is only backed by a minuscule buyout—is paramount so he can recruit without having to explain to prospects why the school is not committed to him long term. As Stadium reporter Jeff Goodman explained, letting Miller coach on an expiring contract is the worst thing Arizona can do.
Miller’s staff has been active on the trail lately anyway, recently reaching out to transfers and recruits as young as the 2024 class.
“He’s out there recruiting. I think signing day is coming up soon. We’ve got a really good team,” Robbins said. “They’re young, but good. And we’re eager to move forward and get the final chapter of this now-almost four-year saga over. But Coach Miller is our coach. I talked to him last week and we want to move forward to continue to make progress and keep our team together, give him the ability to go out and recruit players and plan for next year. We’re going to be playing basketball in six months. It’s hard to believe but it’s a constant recruiting process. I mean, he’s recruiting juniors in high school now. He’s starting to think about recruiting sophomores in high school. So it’s a complex process and even if I had any details to share with you, I can’t talk about an ongoing investigation. I just don’t have any.
“We haven’t heard from the IARP. I’m eagerly awaiting them to tell us how they view what the NCAA has done to this point. And are they going to add more things to us? Are they going to hopefully take away some things? And then once we hear from the IARP, which I unfortunately think is going to be weeks, if not months away, then we can move forward with responding to these new allegations and finally find out what is the final verdict in this very long, very taxing complex and very sad chapter in the history of the University of Arizona.”
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