As the University of Arizona basketball program slogs through a difficult season on the court, the school appears to soon be facing uncomfortable questions on the future of embattled coach Sean Miller. Sources told Yahoo Sports that Arizona is one of the schools tied to the federal basketball scandal where a formal NCAA inquiry has begun.

While Arizona has the country’s No. 1 recruiting class for next season, there’s a series of looming issues both with the federal probe and the ongoing NCAA investigation into the school that complicate Miller’s future there.

The issues begin with the upcoming trial of Christian Dawkins, the former agency employee who claimed deep ties to the Arizona program. There’s also potential NCAA fallout from the recent felony plea in federal court by former Arizona assistant coach Emanuel “Book” Richardson, which amplifies the question of how the NCAA will handle Miller’s responsibility for the actions in his program.

While there’s nearly a dozen schools expected to face some degree of NCAA scrutiny in the wake of the federal basketball investigation, Miller and Arizona are dealing with a confluence of complications that cast a shroud over Miller’s future there.

The thorniest of those issues appears to be the upcoming trial of Dawkins, which is scheduled for April. Dawkins is a former low-level runner for once-powerful NBA agent Andy Miller. Dawkins has already been found guilty in the first federal basketball corruption trial.

Dawkins’ lawyer, Steve Haney, told Yahoo Sports that his client has little desire to follow the path of the three assistant coaches, including Richardson, who’ve recently entered a plea deal. “We have no intention of pleading,” Haney told Yahoo Sports. “And we believe, factually, the indictment is incorrect and we intend to prove it at trial.”

There’s a strong expectation that Miller will be subpoenaed to appear at the trial, potentially within the next month. He could be one of many coaches, as all the coaches who were captured on wiretap with Dawkins are at risk of a subpoena. Part of the defense’s theory is expected to be based on showing Dawkins wasn’t bribing coaches. “My obligation here is to defend my client,” Haney said in a phone interview, “not protect coaches who violated NCAA rules.”

Haney has already taken Dawkins to trial once, back in October at the first of the three trials tied to the corruption investigation. Another appearance is expected because Dawkins was already found guilty of multiple felonies at that October trial, and he faces likely jail time. That makes him pleading out less likely in this trial.

View photos In this Oct. 1, 2018, file photo, former sports agent Christian Dawkins arrives at federal court in New York. (AP) More

Miller and Richardson were in frequent communication with Dawkins, according to multiple sources, which means there’s a likelihood that wiretaps of conversations between them could be played at the trial. Dawkins famously once boasted he attended Arizona practices “like I’m on the team.” In documents viewed by Yahoo Sports in February 2018, Dawkins was also in frequent contact with then-Arizona assistant Joe Pasternack, who is now the head coach at UC Santa Barbara, to broker deals to recruit players from Arizona to his agency. Dawkins wrote at one point to a colleague: “Joe told me verbatim he will help us get all the Arizona players, so put his feet to the fire.”

Coaches testifying in federal court looms as a potential spectacle that would make administrative officials at any university nervous. (LSU coach Will Wade was on a wiretap conversation with Dawkins discussing a player’s recruitment.) Considering all of the controversy and allegations that emerged throughout the trial regarding Arizona’s high-profile recruits and players, especially 2018 No. 1 pick DeAndre Ayton, it strains credulity to believe that none received extra benefits.

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