- Top recruit Shareef O’Neal — son of NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal — took to Twitter to announce that he was decommitting from the University of Arizona amidst the school’s bribery scandal.
- An ESPN report alleged that Arizona head coach Sean Miller had been caught on a wire tap discussing a $100,000 payment in exchange for landing a star recruit.
- O’Neal announced on Tuesday that he would instead be playing for the UCLA Bruins at the start of next season.
The FBI probe into corruption in college basketball is already having big ramifications for the Arizona Wildcats.
On Friday, a report alleged that head coach Sean Miller had been caught on an FBI wiretap discussing the payment of $100,000 in order to secure the signing of star prospect Deandre Ayton. On Saturday, news broke that Miller would not be coaching the Wildcats in their game against Oregon.
Amidst the controversy, standout high school prospect Shareef O’Neal — son of NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal — announced that he was decommitting from Arizona and looking to other schools to spend his first, and possibly only, season of college basketball.
O’Neal first committed to the Wildcats in April 2017. According to ESPN, because O’Neal didn’t sign a letter of intent, instead sticking to non-binding financial aid papers with the school, he won’t need the school to release him before committing elsewhere.
On Tuesday, O’Neal took to social media yet again, this time to announce that he’d be taking his talents to UCLA in the fall.
“HEADING TO UCLA 💛💙” the caption read. “I know my mom is glad I’m staying home LOL.”
While O’Neal was largely able to avoid the fracas of the ongoing investigation, chances are there’s still more schools and coaches left to fall in the FBI probe, and with them, more top recruits that will be looking for new colleges. According to a report from earlier in February, the FBI has reportedly collected “4,000 intercepted calls and thousands of documents and bank records” throughout the course of their probe.
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