Sean Miller may have only one year left on his contract, but his boss made it clear Monday he wants him to stick around and keep coaching the Wildcats in 2021-22.

During a weekly news conference that mostly concerns COVID-19 issues, UA president Robert Robbins said he met with Miller last week and wanted to β€œcontinue to make progress and keep our team together” while the school awaits a resolution to its still-pending NCAA infractions case.

Robbins did not say if he would move to extend Miller’s contract, which would make the Wildcats’ recruiting and retention easier, but he is not expected to while the Independent Accountability Resolution Process is still handling UA’s case.

An extension would have to be approved by the Arizona Board of Regents at a time when Miller’s program is facing multiple allegations of academic misconduct and improper recruiting.

Arizona could vacate as many as 50 wins, including two Pac-12 titles, and Sean Miller's win count may go down to 252 if NCAA's allegations against the program are found to be true by the IARP. Miller is in the final year of his contract with Arizona.

β€œI’m not sure what the timing is going to be but we hope as soon as possible that we can get past this as a university, that coach Miller, his family and his basketball program can move forward,” Robbins said. β€œYou know, he’s out there recruiting. I think signing day is coming up soon. We’ve got a really good team. They’re young.

β€œAnd 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.”

Arizona’s issues began in September 2017, when FBI’s investigation into college basketball became public, but the NCAA investigation into Arizona didn’t begin until 2019 after the ensuing federal proceedings took place.

The NCAA’s investigation ended in October 2020, when it issued a Notice of Allegations to Arizona, but the process was further drawn out when Arizona requested it move off the NCAA’s standard resolution track to the IARP, which is mostly made up of investigators, attorneys and executives not involved in NCAA sports.

Arizona’s case was accepted in December, and Robbins said he still hasn’t heard from it. The IARP already had cases from four other schools when Arizona’s was accepted and it has not finished one yet.

A new alternative to the NCAA’s standard resolution track that was created from a recommendation by a commission that reviewed college sports in the wake of the FBI investigation, the IARP first takes an accepted case into its system and assigns a β€œComplex Case Unit” of independent investigators and attorneys.

The CCU can then accept the NCAA’s Notice of Allegations fully, add or subtract allegations, or rip it up and start completely over.

Even though the IARP’s final decision does not allow for an appeal, it will give UA due process beforehand.

β€œWe’re very eager to find out all of those allegations,” Robbins said. β€œWe have not heard from the IARP and there’s no appeals process, but we will have a chance to address the new notice of allegations that will come from the IARP.

β€œIt’s an ongoing investigation. They have the ability to go back and re-investigate this case and they could have new findings and we just have to wait and find out what the final word is gonna be. They could also eliminate some of those allegations ... that came in the current (NCAA-produced) notice of allegations. They could be reduced.”

Arizona refused to release the NCAA’s Notice of Allegations for four months before a court ordered it to do so last week. The Wildcats were charged with five Level I (most serious) violations, along with three Level II (including two involving the UA swimming and diving program) and one Level III violation.

Robbins and UA athletic director Dave Heeke were also listed under aggravating factors for having β€œcompromised the integrity of the investigation.”

The NCAA said on or about Oct. 1, 2017 β€” about a week after Richardson was arrested and the FBI made public its investigation into college basketball β€” that Heeke and his head of compliance discussed and drafted β€œtalking points related to the external and NCAA investigations that demonstrated from the outset a lack of commitment to cooperation and acceptance of responsibility.”

In addition, the NCAA alleged that on May 20, 2019, that UA’s outside counsel and UA’s head of compliance β€” at Robbins’ direction β€” conducted an unrecorded interview with Richardson without first notifying the NCAA enforcement staff β€œdespite being engaged in a collaborative investigation and knowing Richardson was a key individual the enforcement staff wanted to interview.”

Those allegations were among the 10 β€œaggravating factors” listed that could push UA’s case into the most serious Level I aggravated category, in which the Wildcats would be facing a postseason ban between two to five years if the charges hold up. A standard Level I case would merit only a 1-2 year ban, which is consistent with Arizona’s self-imposed one-year ban this season.

Stu Brown, an Atlanta-based attorney who represents schools with NCAA cases, said the NCAA enforcement staff clearly presented the case as Level I aggravated, noting that β€œthe enforcement staff has also promoted the narrative of UA being institutionally uncooperative, or even somewhat deceptive, during the investigation.”

There is no time limit for the CCU, other than the rough β€œcase management plan” that is agreed on at the outset. Once the CCU is done, the case moves to the IARP Independent Resolution Panel and a hearing is set. The resolution panel is made up of 15 people with legal, higher education and/or sports backgrounds, with five of them assigned to any one case.

β€œEvery case is going to be different,” said Naima Stevenson Starks, the NCAA’s VP for hearing operations. β€œHaving that case management plan as opposed to boxing anything into legislative timelines is a real reflection that this process is different.”

Meanwhile, Miller is heading into a spring signing period that begins on April 14 searching for one or two players, depending on how many losses the Wildcats have, and a summer recruiting period when he will be chasing high school players in the classes of 2022, 2023 and 2024.

Miller may not need many players in the short term because many of his current ones are expected to stick around for a year or two. But with his contract expiring in May 2022, he could face a challenge telling high school players he’ll be around to coach them in 2022-23 or 2023-24.

Robbins indicated he wants to help Miller get it done anyway.

β€œWe want to move forward, continue to make progress and keep our team together, give him the ability to go out and recruit players and plan for next year,” Robbins said. β€œWe’re gonna be playing basketball in six months. It’s hard to believe. But it’s a constant recruiting process. He’s recruiting high school juniors now and he’s starting to think about recruiting sophomores in high school.

β€œSo it’s a complex process. Once we hear from the IARP, which unfortunately I think is going to be many 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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