Arizona reportedly had Eric Musselman on its short list to replace Sean Miller, who was fired last week.
Musselman never interviewed.
There were probably several reasons, starting with the fact he and his wife Danyelle are happy in Northwest Arkansas and Musselman has a great relationship with Hunter Yurachek.
Yurachek loves all sports, but he played college basketball and will always have a passion for the sport he knows inside and out.
Two days after Musselman signed a five-year, $20 million deal with the Razorbacks, Arizona hired Gonzaga assistant Tommy Lloyd to replace Sean Miller. Damon Stoudamire, Josh Pastner and a few other names were also mentioned as candidates for the job.
The problem is that most likely Arizona is headed to the NCAA penalty box.
The FBI and the NCAA have been investigating several schools, including Arizona, LSU, Auburn, Kansas and Louisville, who fired Rick Pitino, for illegal payments by a shoe company to recruits. Exactly why the process is taking so long might have to do with legal teams hired by certain coaches.
In the old days, when the NCAA had an active investigation team this whole thing would have been settled in a few months.
More than likely Arizona saw what was coming and fired Miller in hopes of getting a break on NCAA probation.