The resignation of head of officials Ed Rush following his comments encouraging officials to target Arizona coach Sean Miller in the Pac-12 Tournament was not the end of the conference’s effort to change perceptions. They have launched an independent investigation into the officiating at the tournament.
CBS Sports is reporting that the Pac-12′s coordinator of men’s basketball officiating, Ed T. Rush, was investigated for offering financial incentives to referees for calling technical fouls on or throwing out Arizona head coach Sean Miller during Pac-12 Tournament games.
Arizona moved to 22-4 overall and played one of its better games of the season against Washington:
Arizona Coach Sean Miller
Opening statement:
I’d size the game up like this: that was as bad of an offensive first half as we’ve had all season. Along the lines of Southern Miss, because we had 12 turnovers and it’s kind of a struggle because we have individually talented guys and usually as the season grows things become easier to play together as a team. It’s not an intent issue where people don’t want to play team ball, being able to pass, being patient on possessions, taking what the defense gives, we didn’t have any of that in the first half. We were so fortunate to be down five points. And the reason why we were only down five points was because of our defense. And it was hard for them to score. We played the entire second half with only five turnovers and although it wasn’t pretty, between Solomon (Hill) and Mark (Lyons) they went a combined 0-for-8 from the three, and that’s never good for our team, but we were better. And our defense remained the same. Sometimes on the road when you can find a way and play great defense and learn, it means the world. Because you are not going to be perfect, especially in conference play. To me, this is our hardest earned victory of the season.
Arizona Head Coach Sean Miller
On Washington’s offensive rebounding:
They had 11 more shots at the basket than us. The fact that they turned the ball over six times and got twenty second shots, I think 42 points in the paint, it was clearly the difference in the game. They do that very well. It’s not as if tonight they did it against us. To me, it’s the thing they do the very best of any team in the conference and we knew that coming in. We had a lot of break downs and sometimes it’s difficult to …