Arizona Wildcats Basketball

Arizona will have to play its final two games of the conference season without Chase Jeter.   

The Wildcats announced they were suspending the senior center for the remainder of the Pac-12 season due to an undisclosed violation of team rules. The suspension means Jeter will be ineligible to play on Senior Night against Washington at McKale Memorial Center on March 7.

Chase Jeter is suspended the final two regular season games for a violation of team rules.

— Arizona Basketball (@ArizonaMBB) March 6, 2020

Jeter is averaging 6.8 points, 4.3 rebounds and 16.8 minutes in 21 contests this year. 

According to ESPN's Joe Lunardi, the Wildcats (19-10, 9-7 Pac-12) are projected to enter the NCAA tournament as a No. 6 seed in the South region.

That may change if the Wildcats aren't able to hold serve against Washington and Washington State to close out the regular season. Equally pressing is the fact that Arizona is still playing for seeding in the Pac-12 tournament, which is likely to affect where the selection committee places it once the NCAA tournament begins. 

The Wildcats have defeated both the Cougars and Huskies on the road this season, but losing at home to either of the conference's lesser teams—especially since Arizona is just 1-4 against ranked opponents—would surely hurt their standing on Selection Sunday. 

Jeter has played 99 games over his collegiate career, but he has yet to recapture the success he found as a junior when he averaged 10.9 points and 6.6 rebounds.

He transferred from Duke after his sophomore season and sat out during the 2017-18 campaign while an Arizona team featuring Deandre Ayton, Allonzo Trier and Rawle Alkins won the Pac-12's regular-season championship, as well as the conference tournament. However, the fourth-seeded Wildcats fell in the first round of the NCAA tournament, losing 89-68 to a surging Buffalo team.

While Jeter won't be able to start on Senior Night, he'll have plenty of time to give a formal goodbye to Arizona should it continue to advance through March. 

Nico Mannion gets noticed a lot. This past summer, a couple of months before he left for college, he and his parents went to Hawaii for vacation. One afternoon, he and his mother were strolling along the shoreline, talking about how life was changing, when they noticed something unusual. A 10-year-old boy sprang out of the ocean, snagged his phone off his towel and sprinted toward them to ask for a picture with Nico. The next day, two children made their parents wait in the hotel lobby—in Hawaii, with the beach thisclose—for three hours so they could ask for his autograph.

Nico says yes to almost every request. His parents were both professional athletes, and they taught him that he had two choices as his fame grew: Be the kind of player kids feel comfortable approaching, or be an ass. But even they couldn't have anticipated the kind of attention their son would receive.

It's not just that Nico is the star of Arizona's strong freshman class, or that he's already averaging 15.3 points and 5.8 assists for the undefeated No. 12 Wildcats, or even that he's a potential top-10 pick in the 2020 NBA draft.

It's that he really doesn't look like he could be any of those things. He's "shouldn't you be wearing some more sunscreen?" pale and "shouldn't you be drinking another protein shake?" skinny. And his signature red hair springs from the top of his head like a well-watered Chia Pet. The fact that he stands out, even among elite basketball prospects, has made him an internet obsession, with 400,000 Instagram followers and counting.

His fame is only going to grow from here. A few weeks after he got back from Hawaii, he was walking around the mall with some friends. They weren't shopping. They just wanted to spend time together before scattering to schools across the country. So when Nico saw a group of kids coming for him, he decided to duck them. He bolted behind a support beam and then squatted behind a table. But he still heard: "Hey Nico! What's up?"

To his horror, he turned and saw a group of eight police officers eating lunch. One of them wanted a picture. "I was like, 'Dang, that's not good,'" Nico says now. "They know exactly who I am. If I do anything wrong, I'm screwed. It was an eye-opener. It wasn't just kids that knew who I was. It was the general public. And it won't be long before even more people know who I am."

---

Before Nico Mannion was a viral sensation, before he was born or his parents had even met, his father was making the Mannion name known. As a senior in 1983, Pace Mannion led the 10th-seeded Utah Utes to an unlikely Sweet 16 run out of a regional in Boise, Idaho. Eighteen hundred miles to the southeast, a group of Rice students crowded around the television in their Texas dorm to watch the NCAA tournament. They became fixated on a 6'7" guard with floppy red hair. That day, they formed the Pace Mannion Fan Club.

When Pace turned pro, the club's members would come to watch him play whenever his teams were in town to face the Houston Rockets. Pace played for six seasons in the NBA and primarily came off the bench, but that never slowed the students' enthusiasm. They would chant, "Pace! Pace! He's our Mannion!" and wear green T-shirts with his face on them. The group began with just a dozen or so students but swelled into more than 100 within a couple of years.

"We weren't spoofing him," says Neil Liss, the president of the long-since-disbanded fan club. "We were authentic. He was this super-skilled guy, but he was an underdog who came off the bench. And he was kind of gawky and odd. There's no logical explanation for it, but we genuinely loved him and were excited to watch him play."

People have been excited to watch Pace's son play since he was in eighth grade. Before then, Nico says, "I wasn't very good, if I'm being honest. I was scoring on the wrong hoop." Indeed, in one of his first competitive basketball games, Nico checked in off the bench, caught a pass and heard the parents cheering, "Go, Nico, go!" as he sprinted toward the rim for a layup. It was only after he scored that realized they were actually yelling, "No, Nico, no!" He'd run to the wrong basket.

But he grew up around the game and learned from its greats. Nico was born in Italy because Pace played there professionally and stayed there when he met and married professional volleyball player Gaia Bianchi. When the family returned to the United States, Pace got a gig doing pre- and postgame analysis for Utah Jazz broadcasts. Nico would shoot around on the studio set hoop and single out Jazz players to talk to before games. After games, even though Pace worked for the home team, Nico would have no problem approaching an opponent and asking for an autograph.

In 2008, when Nico was seven, he made Pace wait an hour after the Jazz lost Game 6 of the Western Conference Semifinals to the Lakers so that he could meet Kobe Bryant. Pace had played with Bryant's dad in Italy, and he told Nico to get his attention by talking to him in Italian. "Kobe took time out of his day to come talk to a little kid," Nico says. "He took 10 minutes, and he made my year." To this day, Nico has signed and framed jerseys from Bryant, Steve Nash, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James on the wall above his bed.

Pace was Nico's coach when they lived in Utah, but he retired from that title when they moved to Arizona. Nico was 12 at the time, and Pace says he "wanted to be Nico's dad and not his coach." Pace used to tell Nico that, because of the way he looked, he had five minutes to surprise opponents. Nico would smile when he saw the opposing team's worst player ask his coach to defend him. In Arizona, it wasn't long before he stopped surprising people.

In his first viral highlight, Nico, then a rising ninth grader, dunked for the first time in a live game, going over a kid who was about half a foot taller than him. The clip prompted Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott to follow Nico on Instagram—along with a few thousand others. Later, Kevin Durant was recorded watching a Nico mixtape. "Oh yeah, I done seen players like him before, having long careers," Durant said as he watched Nico drain a three. And then, a moment later, when Nico assaulted the rim with a slam: "Oh! I ain't seen that, though."

It's the incongruity between the way Nico, who's 6'3" and 190 pounds, looks and the way he plays that never ceases to surprise newcomers to his game. "He's white and he's got red hair," Pace says. "… There aren't too many guys like that with his skill set. Not even in the NBA. … That's what's drawn people to Nico."

When Nico's Pinnacle High School team would visit rivals, fans would hold up signs that read "Nico Mannion listens to Nickelback" or "Nico Mannion sleeps with a nightlight." Once, the entire student section brought carrots with them to taunt their redheaded foe. "Not like baby carrots," Nico says. "Real big ones." But Nico had a double-double by the end of the third quarter, and the carrots ended up on the floor beneath the bleachers. By the age of 15, he had been featured in a lengthy profile by Sports Illustrated and had received countless college scholarship offers—including from Arizona.

But before he could jump to the next level, he had to return home.

---

The hardest moment of Nico Mannion's young basketball life happened in Colorado Springs. He had just finished his freshman season at Pinnacle, averaging 20.2 points a game and being named a MaxPreps first-team freshman All-American. His next goal was to qualify for the 2017 FIBA Under-16 Americas Championship with Team USA. For all attention that AAU offers, USA Basketball is a much more serious operation, and its camps are a chance for prospects to put themselves ahead of their peers. Nico thought it might be his last chance to surprise people.

For the first couple of days at the camp, Nico got to show off the skills that were making him a coveted college prospect. He is a strong finisher at the rim, given his slight frame, and he has the kind of basketball IQ you'd expect to see from the son of a pro. He's flashy but still a facilitator, and he can change speeds with ease. But after the first couple of rounds of cuts, Team USA coaches switched him off the ball. He didn't feel like he played his best basketball, but he still felt confident he would make the team.

That night, USA Basketball Assistant Director Samson Kayode called the kids into a recreation room where he would announce the final cut. Crowded onto a couch with teammates, Nico heard Samson say the first name. He was safe. The second. He was still safe. The third. He felt sure he'd made the team. And then he heard the fourth cut: "Nico Mannion."

He hustled back to his dorm room and threw his gear in his bag. He called his parents, pissed. He asked them to come pick him up. And then he called his trainer and told him to meet him at the gym in Arizona as soon as possible. Two days later, they were back at work. "It was probably the toughest thing Nico went through in basketball," Pace says. "Someone told him he wasn't good enough to play. It was also probably the best thing to happen to him. It lit a fire under him."

When he returned home, Nico heard from the Italian Basketball Federation. They knew he was a dual citizen, and they wanted to know: Would he come play for Italy at the FIBA U16 European Championship instead? He would. And in seven games that summer, Mannion averaged a tournament-high 19.9 points, to go along with 4.0 assists and 3.0 steals per game. Two summers later, after leading Pinnacle to an Arizona 6A state championship, he turned down a chance to return to Team USA and instead made his debut for the Italian national team at age 17.

A couple of months later, in September 2018, Nico surprised people with another commitment. Although he held offers from Duke and Villanova and just about every other college in the country, Nico only held one in-home visit in the fall before making his decision. Sean Miller and then-assistant coach Mark Phelps drove to Phoenix and showed Nico a slideshow with Arizona greats and then told him how he could be the Wildcats' next star freshman. The next day, Nico drove his parents to the airport for a vacation in Mexico. By the time Pace and Gaia landed and got to baggage claim, Nico had called to tell them he was ready to commit.

Even as scandals swirled around Arizona—the firing of Phelps or the release of the transcripts from the trial of former assistant coach Emanuel "Book" Richardson in the college basketball recruiting scandal—Nico didn't waver. When bad news stories were about to break, an Arizona coach would call the Mannions and explain their side. Nico's friends would pester him with questions, but he felt at home—literally—in Arizona.

"Everyone was like, 'Why don't you go to Duke? Why don't you go to Villanova?' Nico says. "Duke was the main one. But everything I wanted was in Arizona. There's no reason to go all the way across the country when I have everything I need and want two hours away."

It helped that one of his AAU teammates, Australian wing Josh Green, committed to being part of Arizona's class. They were among the most lethal backcourts in grassroots basketball over the past three seasons, and that connection has proved fruitful so far this season too. Mannion and Green are Arizona's second- and third-leading scorers, respectively, behind fellow freshman Zeke Nnaji. "There's no other college backcourt where the 1- and the 2-guards have played with each other for four years," he says.

In April, the pair teamed up again for the Nike Hoop Summit. Because Nico had chosen to play with Italy, he was a member of the World Team, facing off against the U.S. team that had cut him a few years before. He finished with five assists, five rebounds and 28 points on 12 shots.

"I saw the coach that cut me sitting on the bench," he says. "That was definitely part of the motivation. I really believed I should have made that team. The fact that I didn't shocked me. I thought to myself, I guess I have to do more. It still motivates me. All those kids on the team, they're still succeeding. I won't stop till I've proven to myself that I belong with them."

---

On an early October afternoon, Nico Mannion walked to the McKale Center to get taped for practice. Outside the arena, high school swimmers scurried around him, dripping wet and dancing to Lizzo. They were in town for a competition that could help them become college athletes, and they were a little too absorbed in their own world to notice Nico. Already, it's hard for him to cut across campus without being stopped, but on this day he smiled as he reached the mirrored glass door without interruption. He paused for a second to check his hair and then walked inside.

"People used to call me Red," he says, "but that wasn't too creative. I don't feel strongly about any of the nicknames. I'd rather people call me Nico. The people close to me all call me Nico. The nicknames are all social media. I don't really care for them. They're not a big deal to me."

But Miller knows the nicknames and the attention can add weight to what can already be a challenging transition to college. "He's not like the other star freshmen we've had," Miller says, "but he could be as good—or better—than them. Some of the players we've had who have had great freshman years didn't really look like freshmen physically. Stanley Johnson was 240 pounds when he showed up. Deandre Ayton could bench 185 pounds 19 times. Aaron Gordon was Superman. That's not why Nico is good. Nico is good because of how he understands the game and because of the number of ways he can affect it. He could go down as one of the great point guards in Arizona history."

Through November, Nico and the Wildcats have cruised. After failing to make the NCAA tournament for the first time in six years last season, Arizona is pummeling opponents by an average of 22.3 points. Nico boasts an offensive rating of 126.6 while shooting 52.2 percent from the field, 43.2 percent from three and 77.8 percent from the free-throw line. And he is still throwing down brutal dunks.

NICO MANNION 💥💥 https://t.co/2wDeL1CfWR

— Arizona in the NBA 😼 (@ArizonaNBA) November 22, 2019

Although he is still seen as the second or third point guard in the 2020 draft class, behind LaMelo Ball and North Carolina's Cole Anthony, Mannion isn't far behind. That's part of why he chose the Wildcats—to learn under one of the best point guard teachers in the college game, someone who starred at the position himself.

Back on that early October day, Miller spent more time instructing Nico in practice than any other player. And when Nico would sub out of a drill, he'd stand behind Miller, like a shadow, as the coach described what he saw as plays unfolded. Near the end of practice, Miller kneeled on the baseline and watched Nico bring the ball up the floor. When Nico crossed half court but failed to signal the play, Miller blew his whistle. He stood and took two steps toward his star freshman.

"Nico!" he shouted. "You're the point guard! Everyone is looking to you! You've got to step up!"

Former Arizona assistant men's basketball coach Emanuel "Book" Richardson admitted to undercover federal agents that he sent $40,000 to a "high school coach" of ex-Arizona guard Rawle Alkins to alter his high-school transcript, therefore making him eligible to play for the Wildcats in the 2016-17 season. 

Pat Forde, Pete Thamel and Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports broke the news about the Wildcats, who are the subject of an FBI probe and NCAA investigation amid allegations that players were paid to attend and play for Arizona.

Alkins played two seasons in Tuscon before entering the 2018 NBA draft. He was not selected but signed a two-way contract with the Chicago Bulls.

Per Forde, Thamel and Wetzel, information on how Richardson procured the money is not clear in the 1,500-word conversation transcript. The ex-coach did, however, reference financially supporting recruits.

"So, again, is it something different each year?" Richardson said. "It is. Like I said, $40,000 to do that was totally extreme. If I had the chance to do it all over again, I would not do it. I'd try to barter something. I'd give blood. I'd give semen, something."

Richardson is currently serving a three-month sentence at the federal correctional institute in Otisville, New York on a federal funds bribery charge unrelated to the events outlined the transcript, per Yahoo Sports.

Moving forward, the question now is whether Arizona will face punishment given the significant allegations against the men's hoops program. Yahoo Sports provided more insight:

"Academic fraud and payments to a player’s family are potential Level I infractions, the most serious on the NCAA’s scale of violations. Court testimony and evidence already implicated Arizona in numerous other potential violations, with the future of the program and the college coaching career of Sean Miller hanging in the balance as the NCAA follows up in the wake of the federal investigation. Miller has maintained he had no knowledge of or involvement in any potential violations within his program."

Arizona will open its season against Division II Chico State on Nov. 1.

Brandon Williams won't take the court in the 2019-20 for the Arizona Wildcats, as Stadium's Jeff Goodman reported Wednesday that the sophomore guard will miss the entire upcoming basketball season after undergoing knee surgery.

"Brandon Williams ... was set to take a big jump this year—even with Josh Green and Nico Mannion coming in," Goodman added. "This is a big blow to Arizona and its hopes to compete for a Pac-12 title this season." 

Williams averaged 11.4 points, 3.4 assists and 2.8 rebounds across 26 games (21 starts) for the Wildcats last season.

However, Williams struggled with right knee pain toward the end of January and missed six games in February because of it.

When discussing the situation in February, head coach Sean Miller said on his radio show (h/t Tucson.com) he wasn't sure if the injury was related to Williams' congenital issue in his right knee.

Bruce Pascoe of the Arizona Daily Star wrote about Williams' knee woes dating back to high school:

"After starting to experience pain with the knee before his junior season in 2016-17, Williams had surgery in January 2017 to correct a congenital issue in which bone beneath the cartilage of a joint dies due to lack of blood flow. The issue, known as osteochondritis dissecans, sometimes results in bone and cartilage breaking free and causing pain or restricted motion.

"Williams rehabbed the knee for over 10 months, then finished his high school senior season without issue but has twice run into trouble with the knee this season: On Jan. 14 he bruised it in practice and was limited against Baylor the next day, Miller said, while he then experienced issues after the UA’s game at UCLA on Jan. 26."

The Athletic's Sam Vecenie reported Wednesday the "question is long-term as much as short-term" as this marks the second time in four years Williams will miss a full season.

The Wildcats have freshmen Green and Mannion coming in to help with depth at guard, as Goodman mentioned, but Williams was the team's second-leading scorer last season behind Brandon Randolph, who declared for the 2019 NBA draft. 

Terry Armstrong, one of the top basketball prospects in the class of 2019, will play next season for the South East Melbourne Phoenix of the National Basketball League in Australia, according to Jonathan Givony of ESPN and Olgun Uluc of Fox Sports.

Per Uluc, Phoenix general manager Tommy Greer expressed enthusiasm about the addition of Armstrong:

"We are very excited to have a player of Terry's quality join the Phoenix for our first year in the NBL. It was important for us to identify a Next Star who could come in and contribute straight away but would also fit our no-nonsense culture. Just as exciting he was in a position to choose where he wanted to play and he chose us, which is a big vote of confidence in the culture we are building within our organisation and team."

Armstrong will join fellow top prospects like RJ Hampton (the No. 5 prospect in the class of 2019, per 247Sports.com's composite rankings) and LaMelo Ball (No. 22) in the NBL next season.

"RJ and LaMelo are two of the most highly rated players in our class," Armstrong told Givony. "The NBL will give all of us the top exposure we seek to fulfill our ultimate dream, which is to play in the NBA."

Armstrong also noted the NBL and the Phoenix offered a developmental plan that appealed to him.

"Head coach Simon Mitchell and general manager Tommy Greer laid out a very detailed plan on how I will develop as a player and as a young man," he said. "There is a strong emphasis on strength and conditioning as is evident on the hiring of the strength and development coach from Melbourne United."

Armstrong, a 6'6" shooting guard from Scottsdale, Arizona, is a 4-star prospect and the No. 2 player from the state of Arizona, the No. 8 shooting guard nationally and the No. 61 player overall in 247Sports' composite rankings.

Jerry Meyer of 247Sports broke down his game: "Great size and strength for a shooting guard. Not a quick-twitch, explosive athlete but a powerful athlete. Handles ball well and can score in a variety of ways. Likes to shoot a fadeaway off one foot. Has size to guard up a position or two. Projects as a steady rebounder. Could develop into an NBA player."

Armstrong was previously committed to the Arizona Wildcats but reversed course in June, instead choosing to turn pro.

Players in the NBL's Next Stars program are developed for at least one year with the goal of getting drafted into the NBA. NBL owner and executive chairman Larry Kestelman explained the initiative:

"The NBL provides strong visibility back to the US. Our league is closest to the NBA in terms of style of play and game day presentation. We will work to build a program to provide the right access to NBA teams and scouts alike.

"While they are in the NBL we will work with the players to help them develop an acute understanding of the life of a professional basketballer on and off the court and ensure they are equipped to make the transition to their professional careers."

For Armstrong, the hope will be improving his draft stock and making some money in the process. As more players eschew college basketball for paid opportunities overseas, his decision to sign with the NBL doesn't come as a major surprise.

On Wednesday, Arizona commit Terry Armstrong became the latest prep star to turn down college, as he'll reportedly head overseas or play in the G League as a professional next season.

Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports reported the news, while Corey Evans of Rivals noted there may have been questions about his academic eligibility that led to this decision.

Armstrong joins R.J. Hampton, Kenyon Martin Jr. and LaMelo Ball as members of the 2019 class to choose pro basketball over playing in college. Ball, like Armstrong, had eligibility issues, while Hampton and Martin did not have questions about their standing with the NCAA.

The news runs contrary to Armstrong's previous comments. After speculation that he was decommitting from Arizona, Armstrong posted a tweet that said "I never left" to reaffirm his commitment to the Wildcats.

That tweet has since been deleted.

Armstrong is the nation's No. 60 overall recruit and the seventh-ranked shooting guard in the 2019 class, per 247Sports. Listed at 6'6" and 185 pounds, Armstrong went to Bella Vista Prep in Scottsdale, Arizona. 

Arizona coach Sean Miller praised Armstrong's toughness in November:

"Terry brings a kind of toughness to our program that all of us would love to have as coaches. He also has great size for a wing and guard. It's not that he has one thing that he does well, it's the versatility I think that jumps off the page when you watch him. He's in a program right now (Bella Vista Prep in Scottsdale) that's playing against the best competition in America at the high school level. I'm anxious for him to have a great senior year. I think he'll be able to come in and affect our program right away."

Armstrong's decommitment is the latest blow for an Arizona program that remains embroiled in controversy. Miller was named in the pay-for-play FBI investigation, which saw former Arizona assistant Book Richardson sentenced to three months in prison.

As for Armstrong, he was not considered a one-and-done prospect type, so he'll have to impress on the pro level to get the attention of NBA scouts. His best bet may be the G League, which will keep him stateside and allow him to be in front of NBA front offices. 

Former 5-star recruit Jordan Brown is leaving Nevada and will continue his college basketball career at Arizona.

Brown announced his decision via Twitter on Friday:

pic.twitter.com/kH7paRf46F

— Jordan Brown (@JIBrown21) June 7, 2019

Brown was one of the top recruits in the class of 2018. According to 247Sports, he was the top-ranked prospect in the state of California and the 19th-ranked overall recruit in his class.

The 6'11", 210-pound forward averaged 3.0 points and 2.1 rebounds in 10.1 minutes per game as a freshman for the Wolf Pack in 2018-19.

When former Nevada head coach Eric Musselman left for Arkansas in April, Brown opted to enter the transfer portal. His dad, Dion, told Nevada Sports Network that Jordan was looking for "trust" at his next school.

Arizona had been in the mix prior to Brown initially committing to Nevada coming out of high school. However, as he told 247Sports' Evan Daniels in May 2018, he felt "really comfortable" with the Wolf Pack. Ultimately, though, he has decided a change was in his best interest.

Former McDonalds All-American Jordan Brown commits to Arizona. Can say that as recently as last week the Nevada coaching staff thought they were in position to get him back. Now he's headed to Tucson. Btw, Arizona practice squad with Brown + Jemarl Baker will be STACKED next year https://t.co/lRSCAih9h7

— Aaron Torres (@Aaron_Torres) June 7, 2019

Brown told Daniels on Friday that Wildcats coach Sean Miller heavily influenced his decision to move on to Tucson:

"We really just talked about, we have both faced adversity and having expectations of things we should accomplish. Just knowing that we both have things that we want to accomplish I feel like really complements each other, having a player and a coach that have expectations they want to reach.

"The freedom that he gives the bigs, I feel like I can help that out, by being able to spread the floor more and handle it away from the post and also doing damage in the post and just be a big presence for them."

The Wildcats beat out a number of schools for Brown's services, per the New York Times' Adam Zagoria:

Nevada transfer and former @McDAAG Jordan Brown is considering Arizona, Kentucky, Miami, Wake, Arizona State, Louisiana Lafayette, St Mary’s, California, Oregon, Baylor, LSU, Pitt, Ohio State, his dad tells me.

— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) April 26, 2019

While Brown will have to sit out the 2019-20 season, he will still have three years of eligibility remaining.

Former Arizona Wildcats assistant Book Richardson was sentenced to three months in prison and two years of probation after pleading guilty on a federal funds bribery charge, per Matt Norlander of CBS Sports and Adam Zagoria of the New York Times. 

"I do believe this is a serious crime," U.S. District Court judge Edgardo Ramos said during his ruling, per Bruce Pascoe of the Arizona Daily Star. "It went beyond violating NCAA rules... It wasn't a one-off. It wasn't a one-and-only thing. It took place over several months. At one point it was Mr. Richardson who initiated (payment of) a bribe."

Judge Ramos also spoke about Arizona in his ruling.

"I do believe that the University of Arizona was victimized by the crime," Ramos said. "It caused several athletes to decommit from the University [leading to] an additional [NCAA] investigation that may have some implications for the University."

Richardson had four other charges dropped as a part of his plea agreement. According to Pascoe, "Prosecutors wrote that Richardson abused his role by taking $20,000 over two separate payments and appeared to be already acting to steer UA players toward a new agency run by [Christian] Dawkins and [Munish] Sood."

Dawkins, an aspiring agent, was already convicted on charges of bribery and conspiracy to commit bribery.

In a statement following his sentencing, Richardson apologized to the school and said he made a mistake and his conduct wasn't "natural and normal."

"And again any student-athlete that I hurt, any student-athlete I put in a bad way, I apologize sincerely," he added. "And I'm always going to be their coach, I'm always going to be their uncle and to some of them I'll be their dad. And unfortunately this happened and hopefully we can build something positive from it."

Richardson's ruling came a day after former USC assistant coach Tony Bland was sentenced to two years of probation on a bribery charge, avoiding prison time.

The Arizona Wildcats confirmed the NCAA is investigating the basketball program, according to the Arizona Daily Star's Bruce Pascoe.

Yahoo Sports first reported in February the NCAA was looking into the school after Christian Dawkins implicated the Wildcats in the FBI's case regarding corruption in college basketball.

A jury found Dawkins and two others guilty of conspiring to funnel money to the families of high school recruits in order for them to commit to Adidas-endorsed schools and sign with specified agents and financial planners. 

Emanuel "Book" Richardson, a former Arizona assistant coach, agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors after they alleged he received at least $20,000 as part of the scheme.

According to ESPN.com's Mark Schlabach, FBI wiretaps captured Dawkins and business partner Munish Sood discussing the recruitment of Deandre Ayton and the steps required to get his signature once his college career was over.

During the trial, Sood testified the group was making payments to Richardson in order "to influence Wildcats players and recruits to sign with their firm."

Prosecutors also played the recording of a conversation between Dawkins and Richardson in which Richardson alleged Arizona head coach Sean Miller was paying Ayton $10,000 a month during his Wildcats tenure, per Schlabach and Jeff Borzello.

Schlabach had reported in February 2018 the FBI had wiretaps of Miller and Dawkins allegedly talking about a $100,000 payment for the purpose of securing Ayton's commitment. Miller subsequently denied the allegation.

On Wednesday, federal prosecutors played for jurors a wiretap recording of former Arizona men's basketball assistant coach Emanuel "Book" Richardson alleging to Christian Dawkins that the team's head coach, Sean Miller, was paying former Wildcats and current Phoenix Suns center Deandre Ayton $10,000 per month during his time at the school, per Mark Schlabach and Jeff Borzello of ESPN.com.

The conversation went as follows:

Richardson: "Sean's got to get the (expletive) out the way and let us work."

Dawkins: 'We'll see how Sean plays it out."

Richardson: "You know what he bought per month?"

Dawkins: "What he do?"

Richardson: "I told you—10."

Dawkins: "He's putting up some real money for them (expletive). He told me he's getting killed."

Richardson: "But that's his fault."

Former financial adviser Marty Blazer told the government that Miller told Richardson in June 2017, referencing payments to Ayton, "I'm taking care of everything myself. I wanna bring you in. I'll turn everything over to you."

Seven different wiretap recordings were played for the jury, per Pete Thamel and Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports, with multiple references made on those tapes to Miller paying players, including Ayton and Rawle Alkins.

Dawkins, who was opening a sports management agency and has been charged with bribing college coaches, allegedly worked with Richardson to steer potential pro players to his agency. In exchange, Richardson received money from Dawkins, most notably to convince Ayton, Alkins and Allonzo Trier to work with Dawkins when they turned pro.

Per ESPN's report, "Munish Sood, a business partner of Dawkins, pleaded guilty to three felony counts related to the case and testified that Richardson accepted a $5,000 bribe during an initial meeting in New York on June 20, 2017" in exchange for steering that trio to Dawkins' agency.

Richardson also allegedly asked Dawkins and Sood for $15,000 in an effort to bring recruit Jahvon Quinerly to Arizona, with Richardson planning to pay his mother three $5,000 installments and $10,000 of his own money.

Quinerly ultimately chose Villanova over Arizona.