Sean Miller, agent discussed paying Deandre Ayton $100K to play at Arizona, report says

FBI wiretaps recorded Arizona Wildcats coach Sean Miller and a sports agent discussing the price of landing star Deandre Ayton, according to an ESPN report published late Friday night. 

FBI wiretaps show Arizona head coach Sean Miller discussed paying $100,000 to ensure star freshman Deandre Ayton signed with the Wildcats, according to sources. https://t.co/7WXkogJpDa

— ESPN (@espn) February 24, 2018

FBI sources told ESPN that Miller, 49, and agent Christian Dawkins discussed a $100,000 payment to land Ayton, now a UA freshman and once one of the nation's top high school players. The story did not say whether Ayton received any money, but the 7-foot-1-inch Bahamian ended up choosing Arizona over Kentucky and Kansas. Players from both those schools were named in a Yahoo Sports report about bribery earlier Friday. 

ESPN reported that Miller, Dawkins and former UA assistant coach Emanuel "Book" Richardson were all involved in dialogue regarding what it would take to land Ayton. Miller told the agent to deal with him directly on money matters, according to ESPN.

Richardson was arrested on federal bribery and fraud charges on Sept. 26, when the federal investigation into college basketball became public. The UA fired him last month.

Meanwhile, more details about the investigation continued to unfold via Yahoo Sports reports Friday. The federal investigation has focused both on payments from shoe companies to players via coaches — for the purpose of later securing those players to sign shoe contracts — and payments from agents to players via coaches for the purpose of later securing the players for professional representation.

Former UA associate head coach Joe Pasternack was mentioned heavily in a chain of emails between former agent Christian Dawkins and his boss, Andy Miller, discussing recruits, according to the Yahoo report.

Dawkins mentioned to Andy Miller that Arizona wanted five-star recruit Brian Bowen, saying "I can't promise that this kid they want (Bowen) is going to Arizona, but Joe told me verbatim that he will help us get all the Arizona players so put his feet to the fire." 

Pasternack is now the head coach at UC Santa Barbara. He helped recruit Ayton, and remains close to former Wildcat Lauri Markkanen. Markkanen, now with the Chicago Bulls, visited Pasternack and his team when he was in Los Angeles last week for the NBA All-Star Game. 

As the UA moved to fire Richardson, university president Robert C. Robbins and athletic director Dave Heeke offered Sean Miller unwavering support. 

“Sean always runs a program of high integrity and honesty and we’re always supportive of that,” Heeke said during an impromptu press conference on Oct. 5 at McKale Center. "This program always been one of high integrity, solid structure. We’ve done things the right way and it's important to support this program and these coaches. We have always been a program about doing things the right way and we will continue to be a program about doing it the right way.”

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In Miller's first public statement, he said he was "devastated" to learn of the allegations against Richardson.

“I have expressed to both Dr. Robbins and our Athletic Director Dave Heeke that I fully support the University’s efforts to fully investigate these allegations," Miller said. "As the head basketball coach at the University of Arizona, I recognize my responsibility is not only to establish a culture of success on the basketball court and in the classroom, but as important, to promote and reinforce a culture of compliance. To the best of my ability, I have worked to demonstrate this over the past eight years and will continue to do so as we move forward.”

It's unclear if Friday's reports have changed the dynamic between Robbins, Heeke and Miller.  Athletic department officials have not returned multiple messages seeking comment. Miller was uncharacteristically brusque with reporters following Thursday's overtime win over Oregon State. Miller would not answer questions about Allonzo Trier, who has been ruled ineligible after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug. 

Several former UA players expressed dissatisfaction Friday night via Twitter.

Former Arizona Wildcat Jason Terry, now a guard with the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks, tweeted that it is "time to clean house and bring home our own bloodlines" to carry on former coach Lute Olson's legacy. 

"We have too much pride, too much tradition to allow outsiders to tear down what we built," he said, referring to Miller.  

Golden State Warriors forward Andre Iguodala, another ex-Cat, tweeted this: 

But Book got the cuffs...

— Andre Iguodala (@andre) February 24, 2018

Former UA walk-on guard Trey Mason, who played under Miller until he left the team in 2016, tweeted that he "can't wait for Arizona athletics to get rid of this cancer and get back on its feet. This city deserves it." 

The 14th-ranked Wildcats will face Oregon at 8:15 p.m. Saturday.