Basketball

Arizona basketball coach search to supplant Sean Miller a ‘debacle’, Wildcats legend says

A few previous Arizona standouts champions said something regarding the Arizona coaching search on Instagram on Monday.

One of them was disparaging of the university’s attempts to replace Sean Miller, who was terminated a week ago after 12 seasons as head coach.

Previous Wildcats star Richard Jefferson, who currently works for ESPN, held an Instagram Live before a game he was working and was exceptionally gruff in his appraisal of Arizona’s mentor search.

“No, I will not throw my hat into the Arizona coaching search,” Jefferson said in response to a question. “That’s already a debacle.”

Previous Arizona star Gilbert Arenas later joined Jefferson on record and shared his contemplations on the pursuit.

His pick? Previous Arizona star Damon Stoudamire.

“He’s been coaching for a while now,” Arenas said. “He’s established himself. You know, he’s turned a whole program around where he went. I mean, he has the credentials.”

One mentor that has obviously not dazzled Arenas? Gonzaga partner Tommy Lloyd, who Arenas wouldn’t name.

“An assistant coach doesn’t have credentials,” Arenas said.

Jefferson at that point interfered with: “You’re discussing Tommy Lloyd?”

Arenas’ response: “I don’t even want to say his name because he doesn’t deserve it. You are an assistant coach, OK. You assist.”

Fields wasn’t finished.

When asked by Jefferson for a greater amount of his musings about Lloyd, Arenas answered: “What did they (Gonzaga) do? They had an AAU schedule, they didn’t play anybody. And when they did play someone they got their a– handed to them and as an assistant coach you should have said, ‘Listen, our offense is not working today, maybe we should just play them one on one because we have a number three pick in this draft. Let him get busy since he’s actually not getting any shots.'”

During the video, Arenas provided his request for inclination for who should get the work at Arizona.

You may see a subject of his decisions being previous Arizona players.

“Damon (Stoudamire) one, I can’t go Josh (Pastner) because Josh has a job. I like Miles Simon, he’s been around.”

Arenas isn’t the primary Arizona player to give some blowback about Lloyd, generally thought to be the leader for the position, getting the job.

A.J. Bramlett shared his thoughts regarding the matter in a progression of tweets a week ago, requiring the inclusion of previous parts in the pursuit.

His tweets came because of a report from PlayersProgramU.com that Lloyd had consented to turn into the mentor at Arizona.

“This can’t be true,” Bramlett tweeted. “The damage done from this kind of decision without feedback from the alumni will kill the support from all of us. One of the most valuable assets we have is our history and it needs to be the first thing considered.”