As the future of Sean Miller remains a bit up in the air at this stage, the week began with some comments about the longtime Arizona coach from UA president Robert C. Robbins on Monday. Robbins addressed Miller's status as head coach in his weekly press conference. As Bruce Pascoe of the Arizona Daily Star first reported, Robbins said this morning that Miller "is our coach" during his news conference while also getting into some of his own feelings on the IARP process that is currently ongoing for the Wildcats. Though he didn't make any mention of an extension for Miller, he did reference the UA head coach recruiting for the future.
It is my understanding that the two sides have had conversations since the end of the season and Robbins said today that he talked with Miller last week. He didn't divulge the details of that conversation, but he did reference next year when it comes to Miller.
“Coach Miller and his family and basketball program can move forward," Robbins said. "He’s out there recruiting. I think signing day is coming up soon. We’ve got a really good team. 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. It’s a constant recruiting process. He’s recruiting juniors in high school now. He’s starting to think about recruiting sophomores in high school."
Sean Miller, Archie Miller, Scott Drew and more: Who to watch on the college basketball coaching carousel
Seth Davis on what he is hearing about 20 key names to watch as the hot seat warms on certain college basketball coaches.
theathletic.com
In addition to the comments from Robbins, Seth Davis from The Athletic wrote a piece today about the coaching carousal and mentioned that a decision on Miller's future "could be made this week." Davis added in his article that the "widespread expectation around the industry is that Miller has coached his last game at Arizona."
That is in line with what I have been hearing since last week behind the scenes. Robbins' comments today point more toward the Wildcats sticking with Miller, for at least a year, but the word from different sources as of late has been that Miller will not be coming back next season. Exactly how that would come to fruition has been a bit murky, however. If the administration does hold off on signing him to an extension right now I could see a scenario where Miller simply moves on because of how difficult it would be to operate the program at that point especially from a recruiting perspective.
Robbins' comments don't point to Arizona wanting to outright fire him now. Miller has had opportunities to join NBA staffs previously in recent years so it is certainly possible that he takes that route while the NCAA case has a chance to reach some finality. For now the situation is a bit muddied, but Robbins' comments today point to Arizona at least being willing to keep Miller around through the end of his current contract.
ROBBINS' FULL COMMENTS
“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. “So, every time I try to predict when that process will end I’ve been off by a magnitude of years. So, I’m not gonna 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. 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 only the third university to go through this. 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 the final word is gonna be.
“They could also very well eliminate some of those allegations that had come forward as they look at and discuss some of the current 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 gonna be. We hope as soon as possible. That we can get past this as a university.
“Coach Miller and his family and basketball program can move forward and look forward. He’s out there recruiting. I think signing day is coming up soon. We’ve got a really good team. 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. It’s a constant recruiting process. He’s recruiting juniors in high school now. He’s starting to think about recruiting sophomores in high school.
“It’s a complex process. Even if I had any details to share with you I can’t talk about an ongoing investigation, but 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 gonna add more things to us or are they gonna hopefully take away some things? Then, once we hear from the IARP, which I unfortunately think is gonna 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.”
