As Miller 's ninth season as the head coach at Arizona was about to get underway , federal prosecutors announced , on September 26 , 2017 , bribery , soliciting a bribe and wire fraud charges against assistant coach Emanuel " Book " Richardson as part of a far-reaching , college basketball-wide scandal . Perhaps in part due to the ongoing scandal , the Wildcats ranked No. 2 in the country at one point , lost three games at the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament . Arizona would eventually fire Richardson for his role in the scandal and the team would recover to lead the Pac 12 for the majority of the season . On February 24 , 2018 , Associate Head Coach Lorenzo Romar was temporarily named head coach after news broke the previous day that Miller had been caught on an FBI wiretap offering to pay players to come to Arizona . On March 1 , Miller held a joint press conference with the University denying all allegations and stating he would be retained as men 's head basketball coach . That same night , the Wildcats won their 29th regular season conference title , 16th in the Pac-12 , and secured the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament by defeating Stanford 75 – 67 . On March 10 , Arizona defeated USC to win a record seventh conference tournament title . As a result , the Wildcats received an automatic bid to their sixth straight NCAA Tournament ( 35th NCAA tournament appearance , 12th all time ) as the No. 4 seed in the South regional . The Wildcats , a trendy pick to make the Final Four and win the championship were blown out in the First Round by No. 13 seed Buffalo , losing 89 – 68
conference tournament
2018 Pac-12 Conference Men's Basketball Tournament
Arizona Wildcats men's basketball