Bear Down Wildcats

goslingswagg wrote:I love Thieleman's ceiling as a combo forward, and think his best position long term is likely at the 4. But I can't see him getting much burn, if any, this year. A redshirt year would be great for him, although not sure if he would be open to it or not.

I agree with this. He is basically a poor man's version of Akot right now.

I do like that we seem to have a few options for a smaller 4 who can move. We haven't had that since the AG/Ashley/Rondae/SJ years.

Please enjoy this picture of Sean Miller laughing his ass off at Bill Self.

That's Arizona 3 deep for Christian Koloko in that picture.

Good to see Gainey out there on the trail with Phelps and Miller.

Chicat wrote:Please enjoy this picture of Sean Miller laughing his ass off at Bill Self.

"The water is nice and warm, isn't it, Bill?"

There for Cassius Stanley? We aren't even warm

Jefe wrote:There for Cassius Stanley? We aren't even warm

Meh, in his top six. Gotta make the effort.

YoDeFoe wrote:

Jefe wrote:There for Cassius Stanley? We aren't even warm

Meh, in his top six. Gotta make the effort.

Koloko/Stanley, 2 birds, one stone.

YoDeFoe wrote:

Jefe wrote:There for Cassius Stanley? We aren't even warm

Meh, in his top six. Gotta make the effort.

We haven't recruited Cassius in probably a year. We were there for Christian Koloko only.

I have had my doubts with Miller. Talked with many alums who feel the same. The ups and down have been crazy with him.

But for some reason after this Nico commit I have never felt stronger about his ability to lead us to a final four. It’s a bit crazy given his story but my gut (which can be wrong a lot) just tells me there is no way he doesn’t finish what he set out to do at Arizona at this point. His back has been fully against the wall but he knows he is well supported and to me will stop at nothing to get us to the mountain top.

It’s so hard for me to think he doesn’t get us there now.

And when he does, as sad as this might sound, it will be amazing and candidly a highlight of my life.

It is going to happen. I just can’t see what stops him. If he can keep going through everything that has happened and recruit at a high level still it’s only a matter of time.

Newportcat wrote:And when he does, as sad as this might sound, it will be amazing and candidly a highlight of my life.

I totally get this, Newport. And it isn't sad either. Our connections to our alma maters and certain teams are tribal. Our predilection to form these connections is attributable to evolution and culture. It's fine to call it what it is.

I'm with you: I very much want to see Sean get there. He's a good guy and has given his heart and soul to this program.

With the way this fbi trial testimony is going, it appears more and more Schlabach was a sucker who didn't know what he was talking about or have any concept of the bigger picture of what he was reporting on, what the person he said reportedly heard. Fell for what slimy agents said hook line and sinker. An agent can say anything on the phone about what Sean Miller supposedly offered. It can be completely made up. These shoe agents were out there creating a market, just tossing out this school would offer X this school Y to the parents of the recruit if their son signed here or there, all in the hopes that player would sign a shoe deal later. Book gets his nose in it for $15k payout, assistant coaches all over the country getting hand outs when the money is flowing to all these players, mostly all in the nba now. Doesn't look like there will be any direct evidence at all against Miller in the end. He just signed two of the top recruits in the country, no cheating needed.

As long as Miller sticks to what he says he is going to do, and gets better guards in here to play basketball how it's played in 2018 vs how it was played in 1988, then I'm all for him sticking around and doing what he does. But will hate it if the first game we get outrebounded by 10, he gets all exasperated on the whole death by inches crap again. Smaller guys can outhustle and outrebound a bigger guy any day of the week if they try, and score and create offense to boot.

Screw any naysayers about Miller. Long live our program and Miller. He knows the game and plays by the rules, whatever they are

TheGreatCatsby wrote:With the way this fbi trial testimony is going, it appears more and more Schlabach was a sucker who didn't know what he was talking about or have any concept of the bigger picture of what he was reporting on, what the person he said reportedly heard. Fell for what slimy agents said hook line and sinker. An agent can say anything on the phone about what Sean Miller supposedly offered. It can be completely made up. These shoe agents were out there creating a market, just tossing out this school would offer X this school Y to the parents of the recruit if their son signed here or there, all in the hopes that player would sign a shoe deal later. Book gets his nose in it for $15k payout, assistant coaches all over the country getting hand outs when the money is flowing to all these players, mostly all in the nba now. Doesn't look like there will be any direct evidence at all against Miller in the end. He just signed two of the top recruits in the country, no cheating needed.

As long as Miller sticks to what he says he is going to do, and gets better guards in here to play basketball how it's played in 2018 vs how it was played in 1988, then I'm all for him sticking around and doing what he does. But will hate it if the first game we get outrebounded by 10, he gets all exasperated on the whole death by inches crap again. Smaller guys can outhustle and outrebound a bigger guy any day of the week if they try, and score and create offense to boot.

I've always believed that Gatto/Dawkins and the other Miller dropped a fake story in Schlabach's hands knowing:

1. ESPN had just had their asses handed to them by Yahoo Sports the previous day on this story, publishing the agency's list of payments

2. Schlabach, a 2nd tier college football writer, would not have the sources available to dissuade him from running with it.

3. Back to number 1...the editorial staff had an incentive to get the story out. Yahoo was going to beat them to the punch.

So the scorched earth defense of "everyone does it" gets put into play, and why not call out the recruiter everyone loves to hate (Miller hasn't made fans among coaches) who is, to much of the nation, the most implausible of the top program recruiters? Oh, and throw the #1 player in the nation into the mix, which was CLEARLY a lie, not a mistake. Schlabach went with the lie.

I was at a high school game at GCU, just leaving actually, when I got a text from a friend with the link to the ESPN breaking story...Miller on FBI wiretap arranging to pay for Ayton. I had 1% battery...opening the story pretty much killed my phone after one read. I had a 45 minute drive home to the southeast valley, and I couldn't turn on the radio. I was devastated. And then I started thinking...how? How would Miller be stupid enough to talk with Dawkins? Just from an ego standpoint, why would Miller talk with a runner (we now know he did and it's just part of the game, but it helped seed my doubt that night)? I didn't know the exact timelines, but they seemed skewed. I thought "oh well...you don't know. He did it. It's right there", but it seemed odd.

I was up that night and into the next day watching Jason Scheer, who had taken a huge hit with his Ken N. story, dismantling the story. Others joined. It was a couple of days before SI and maybe CBS Sports also expressed doubts, then the Wildcat Mafia crushed Schlabach out of Twitter existence..

I still don't hear facts.

100% with you EV... and Chi too.

ESPN got their asses handed to them by Yahoo. ESPN was glad to post some hot air filled story about the number one recruit, a non-blue blood recruiting champ, and a conference they have no financial interest in.

I think about the Miller story like this.

It broke in February with a single source. Since then, the story has been changed 3 times. There is zero corroboration, no additional sources have come forward and other sources have refuted the story about Miller. We are 8 months after.

Draw your own conclusions.

Spaceman Spiff wrote:I think about the Miller story like this.

It broke in February with a single source. Since then, the story has been changed 3 times. There is zero corroboration, no additional sources have come forward and other sources have refuted the story about Miller. We are 8 months after.

Draw your own conclusions.

Also the author is not allowed to tweet about it, or simply won’t. Going to far as to have another sportswriter tweet the link to a semi-follow up story. And up until March, that writer was a very prolific tweeter. Since then he’s tweeted ..... 10 times? In like 200 days?

I’ve drawn my conclusion.

Look, here's the facts: Sean Miller has a dick so big, it's not even his dick. He's it's body.

Mark Schlabach was jealous, and he should be.

YoDeFoe wrote:Look, here's the facts: Sean Miller has a dick so big, it's not even his dick. He's it's body.

Mark Schlabach was jealous, and he should be.

I don't know, Schlabach seems like a pretty huge dick.

Spaceman Spiff wrote:

YoDeFoe wrote:Look, here's the facts: Sean Miller has a dick so big, it's not even his dick. He's it's body.

Mark Schlabach was jealous, and he should be.

I don't know, Schlabach seems like a pretty huge dick.

Common misconception - he's actually a gaping asshole.

YoDeFoe wrote:

Spaceman Spiff wrote:

YoDeFoe wrote:Look, here's the facts: Sean Miller has a dick so big, it's not even his dick. He's it's body.

Mark Schlabach was jealous, and he should be.

I don't know, Schlabach seems like a pretty huge dick.

Common misconception - he's actually a gaping asshole.

Ooh, close. He’s technically a seeping hemorrhoid on the lip of a gaping asshole.

Chicat wrote:

YoDeFoe wrote:

Spaceman Spiff wrote:

YoDeFoe wrote:Look, here's the facts: Sean Miller has a dick so big, it's not even his dick. He's it's body.

Mark Schlabach was jealous, and he should be.

I don't know, Schlabach seems like a pretty huge dick.

Common misconception - he's actually a gaping asshole.

Ooh, close. He’s technically a seeping hemorrhoid on the lip of a gaping asshole.

Ooh, closer. He's technically a seeping hemorrhoid on the lip of Trump's gaping asshole. Sorry, couldn't resist.

Beachcat97 wrote:

Chicat wrote:

YoDeFoe wrote:

Spaceman Spiff wrote:

YoDeFoe wrote:Look, here's the facts: Sean Miller has a dick so big, it's not even his dick. He's it's body.

Mark Schlabach was jealous, and he should be.

I don't know, Schlabach seems like a pretty huge dick.

Common misconception - he's actually a gaping asshole.

Ooh, close. He’s technically a seeping hemorrhoid on the lip of a gaping asshole.

Ooh, closer. He's technically a seeping hemorrhoid on the lip of Trump's gaping asshole. Sorry, couldn't resist.

I fucking love you fuckers. Alone, you're enough to make me feel proud to be an American.

After recent testimony, wouldn't it be funny if Schlabach's source misinterpreted the whole thing? Lots to go here, but if an Adidas exec wanted to sign Ayton to an Adidas contract when he got into the NBA, and gave Ayton's family money to get his foot in the door, not sure how the UA really has anything to do with that given that he's here for a single year and Adidas could really give a crap where he played college basketball. They just wanted him for a shoe deal.

TheGreatCatsby wrote:After recent testimony, wouldn't it be funny if Schlabach's source misinterpreted the whole thing? Lots to go here, but if an Adidas exec wanted to sign Ayton to an Adidas contract when he got into the NBA, and gave Ayton's family money to get his foot in the door, not sure how the UA really has anything to do with that given that he's here for a single year and Adidas could really give a crap where he played college basketball. They just wanted him for a shoe deal.

He didn't misinterpret it, he purposely lied about key details to Schlabach.

ChooChooCat wrote:

TheGreatCatsby wrote:After recent testimony, wouldn't it be funny if Schlabach's source misinterpreted the whole thing? Lots to go here, but if an Adidas exec wanted to sign Ayton to an Adidas contract when he got into the NBA, and gave Ayton's family money to get his foot in the door, not sure how the UA really has anything to do with that given that he's here for a single year and Adidas could really give a crap where he played college basketball. They just wanted him for a shoe deal.

He didn't misinterpret it, he purposely lied about key details to Schlabach.

And Schlabach and ESPN then ran the story without any other corroboration or investigation.

Libel per se, check. Reckless disregard of the truth, check.

ESPN should be very thankful that Miller did not get fired over the story -- I think it would have been very very expensive for ESPN had Miller been canned.

Good to see him be more “open” than he usually is. Bringing out his body guard, saying they kicked ass. Also somewhat addressing the FBI issue saying he can’t wait for the time that he can speak more on the issue. Last but not least he is getting a bit of that silver fox. I’m sure the last 12 months hasn’t helped.

jajoyce wrote:Good to see him be more “open” than he usually is. Bringing out his body guard, saying they kicked ass. Also somewhat addressing the FBI issue saying he can’t wait for the time that he can speak more on the issue. Last but not least he is getting a bit of that silver fox. I’m sure the last 12 months hasn’t helped.

Appreciated this as well.

"We know who is in our corner." I think us fans feel the same way.

jajoyce wrote:Good to see him be more “open” than he usually is. Bringing out his body guard, saying they kicked ass. Also somewhat addressing the FBI issue saying he can’t wait for the time that he can speak more on the issue. Last but not least he is getting a bit of that silver fox. I’m sure the last 12 months hasn’t helped.

I appreciated him being direct and leaving out coachspeak pregame. I hope the time comes when he directly addresses the investigation.

Spaceman Spiff wrote:

jajoyce wrote:Good to see him be more “open” than he usually is. Bringing out his body guard, saying they kicked ass. Also somewhat addressing the FBI issue saying he can’t wait for the time that he can speak more on the issue. Last but not least he is getting a bit of that silver fox. I’m sure the last 12 months hasn’t helped.

I appreciated him being direct and leaving out coachspeak pregame. I hope the time comes when he directly addresses the investigation.

Agree, Spiff. This poor man has been under an unfair cloud of suspicion only he and the FBI(probably) understand completely. I say "FBI probably" because my strong intuition is that Sean was a cooperating witness in its FBI investigation, and I suspect any potential FBI explanation or quote would be bound by their rules re cases-in-process.

The FBI, our school Administration, and the NCAA have all investigated Sean intensively and nothing whatsoever has come from it. We owe Sean Miller our complete support.

nothing to worry about. This is just to get ahead of anything if more comes out.

When he walks out during warmups?

I am hoping that when all is said and done after the other trials, the fbi comes out and says, "thank you coach Miller for your assistance in these trials, we know that you have taken a lot of heat from various media sources, but take heart as we are now investigating them for witness tampering and obstruction of justice in a federal case."

Main Event wrote:

Thanks, Main----terrific vid!! Those who spoke said a lot about their affection for our terrific CSM!

Happy Birthday Sir!

Just shows how much Miller's former players respect him. Meanwhile, ESPN's entire staff continues to take shots at him from a distance. B.S

U.P. Zona Fan wrote:I am hoping that when all is said and done after the other trials, the fbi comes out and says, "thank you coach Miller for your assistance in these trials, we know that you have taken a lot of heat from various media sources, but take heart as we are now investigating them for witness tampering and obstruction of justice in a federal case."

I'd love to see things end that way but it will never happen. As much as I believe Miller to be innocent and love him as our coach I have a bad feeling an example will be made of certain programs and Arizona is one of them. Somebody has to take the fall so ESPN can protect their interests. I can only guarantee that absolutely nothing will happen to the blue bloods. We all know that.

Captain Obvious wrote:

U.P. Zona Fan wrote:I am hoping that when all is said and done after the other trials, the fbi comes out and says, "thank you coach Miller for your assistance in these trials, we know that you have taken a lot of heat from various media sources, but take heart as we are now investigating them for witness tampering and obstruction of justice in a federal case."

I'd love to see things end that way but it will never happen. As much as I believe Miller to be innocent and love him as our coach I have a bad feeling an example will be made of certain programs and Arizona is one of them. Somebody has to take the fall so ESPN can protect their interests. I can only guarantee that absolutely nothing will happen to the blue bloods. We all know that.

The five star recruits that just signed must not feel the same way.

Ira?

So Sean refused to let anyone speak to ESPN, huh?

Savage, and I fucking love it.

As it should be.

Fuck ESPN

I like this years Sean Miller

Olsondogg wrote:I like this years Sean Miller

So amazing and so proud of him when he counted the NLI's the other day.

The cordial Sean died in Oregon last year and I hope he never comes back. Real Sean is much better

When Real Sean makes that Final Four before this decade is out, we'll be forming a swell of fans behind him leading the chant, "F-SPN!"

catgrad97 wrote:When Real Sean makes that Final Four before this decade is out, we'll be forming a swell of fans behind him leading the chant, "F-SPN!"

I pray for the day espn can not skip Arizona and has to come to Tucson for college game day

It might not ever happen but if it does beers on dirtbags on me. That will be the greatest day in Tucson ever. All of Mckale will be chanting f@ck espn

Sean Miller's best friend in the conference is Bobby Hurley which makes this so much better

PHXCATS wrote:Sean Miller's best friend in the conference is Bobby Hurley which makes this so much better

This is untrue.