Guilty Until Proven Innocent

I've alluded to Sean Miller's situation over the past week, always with sadness.  Those of us who live here and follow our University's sports teams as if they were our own have a soft spot in our hearts for the basketball coach.  He's a family man, a coach descended from a coach, a point guard who trained point guards.  His over-active sweat glands were testimony to his passion.  He loved us and we loved him.

Could he have been unaware of Book Richardson's folly?  That was as close as most of us allowed ourselves to get.  He couldn't possibly be guilty.

And then YAHOO! and ESPN revealed that the FBI had a tape of Sean Miller, $100,000, and an unnamed player. 

Suddenly, Sean was off the bench for the Oregon game.  I am certain that I will be vindicated was all we got.

Though he wasn't mentioned, the media assumed that De'Andre Ayton was the player in play; the fact that he was allowed to take the court had everyone musing.   Then it came out that the other infractions in the YAHOO! and ESPN reports were for half a lunch check for a player's mother and another, random, $40 mistake.  The $40 was paid to a charity this week; the player's mom has yet to be heard from.  All of a sudden, the charges seem more hype than substance.

Now there are reports that the tape is from 2016, not 2017, and that Sean Miller refused the money, said he'd never take money, and the (unnamed) player never played at Arizona.

I'm smelling a Tempest in a Teapot.  My guess is that the AZ Board of Regents agrees with me.  Sean Miller will be coaching his team, at home, tonight.

For tonight, at least, I'm going to feel good about it all.