Javier Morales is a former first-place award winner in the Arizona Press Club’s Metro Sports Reporting category. Please visit his Web site at WILDABOUTAZCATS.net

Arizona freshman guard Josiah turner has been disciplined three times this season by head coach Sean Miller (US Presswire/Jason O. Watson)

Twice suspended and three times disciplined, and Josiah Turner‘s freshman season is not even over yet, or is it?

His season may be over because Arizona coach Sean Miller suspended him indefinitely, according to the school. The Wildcats play today in the Pac-12 tournament against UCLA in Los Angeles. If they lose, they are likely bound for the NIT. An indifferent Arizona team might only last one game in that secondary tournament.

My hope is that Miller stand firm with this indefinite suspension and prevent Turner from returning this season. Turner should not return until it becomes obvious and sincere that the young man is remorseful and ready to grow up. Miller should not open the door for Turner simply because he needs the highly-touted point guard for victories on the court.

If Miller caves in and thinks of wins more than setting the right example, it will fall in line with the mentality that has allowed Turner and many other players to become wayward. It’s that AAU mentality of caring only about a player’s raw skills rather than the makeup of the player’s character. Some of its coaches are viewed as street agents.

“College sports are no longer for pleasure; it’s a business that must meet the supply and demand of the high rollers and overzealous benefactors who have no idea of the pressure of the student-athlete,” high school counselor Julius Holt, a football letterman at Arizona from 1981-83, commented on my personal Facebook site last night.

“(That) is a shame because the innocence and purity of college athletics is no longer present. Athletes are considered great way too early and some haven’t even proven that they’re good, but we praise them as a star.”

The Catch-22 of these AAU summer leagues is that while they prepare the athlete for the rigors of travel and playing against top-notch opposition, they also create self-centered players who think they can play in the NBA after only one college season. An education to them is far from a priority.

These players behave the same as before they came to college — they do not grow up — because they were successful before with these bad personal habits. They think they can ask, “If it’s worked before, why can’t it now? I’ll be gone before too long any way.”

We have seen college basketball erode because of this mentality. Look at the number of suspensions and dismissals of some of the players this season.

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A look at what to expect Saturday afternoon at McKale Center between the basketball version of “Duel in the Desert” (more info to come at our partner site, WILDABOUTAZCATS.COM):

ASU senior guard Ty Abbott will attempt Saturday to go 4-0 against Arizona at McKale Center during his career (US Presswire photo/Jason O. Watson)

Matchups (Tipoff 12:30 p.m., Tucson time)

PERIMETER

ARIZONA STATE

What’s going right: Returning All-Pac-10 performer Ty Abbott, a senior who will try to go 4-0 in his career at McKale Center, is making 47.4 percent of his three-pointers in Pac-10 games this seaon (9 of 19). When Abbott
scores in double digits, ASU is 42-17 (.712) including 30-14 (.682) in the past three seasons.
What’s going wrong: Normally an efficient perimeter shooter, senior Rihards Kuksiks is making only 25 percent of his threes in the Pac-10 (4 of 16).

ARIZONA

What’s going right: Arizona sophomore wing player Solomon Hill is quietly having a decent shooting season. He is making 50 percent of his threes (10 of 20), including four of his five tries in Pac-10 play. Overall, Hill is second behind Derrick Williams by shooting 54.1 percent from the field (46 of 85). Now …
What’s going wrong: If only Hill would look for his shot more. Hard to believe: Although Hill has played 84 more minutes than Jamelle Horne, Hill has attempted one less field goal than the senior forward. Arizona has only 14 regular-season games left, which means Lamont “MoMo” Jones and Kyle Fogg have to show some improvement now before it gets too late. They combine for only for only 4-of-15 shooting from three-point range and have 15 assists with 17 turnovers in Pac-10 play.
Who has the edge? Based on career production, Abbott and Kuksiks get the nod here. Steady playmaker Jamelle McMillan (groin strain) also looks like a probable starter after missing ASU’s last three games. ASU is 51-23 with McMillan the last three seasons and 6-5 without him. Former walk-on Marcus Jackson kept everything under control in the Sun Devils’ win over Tulsa on Wednesday as ASU committed a season-low seven turnovers. If there was a time for Fogg, Jones and Hill to make a statement, this game is it against the more experienced Sun Devils.

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John Miller, father of UA head coach Sean Miller and assistant coach Archie Miller, coached at Blackhawk High School in Pennsylvania for 29 years

Chuck Noll coached the Pittsburgh Steelers for 24 years, winning four Super Bowls in the process

While reading about past Pac-10 basketball media days — yes, the season can’t come soon enough — I stumbled upon quotes from every Pac-10 coach gloating about their team heading into the new millennium (Nov. 1, 2000).

That’s only 10 years ago. Number of coaches still coaching at the same school: Zero.

Quick, anyone remember who Washington State’s coach was in 2000? If you answered Paul Graham, take a bow and then ask yourself why you remember that.

Arizona’s Lute Olson was the dean of the coaches at the time, entering his 17th season — a model of longevity and consistency. His team would qualify for its fourth Final Four in what was an emotional roller coaster of a season. Two months after Olson took part in the Pac-10 media day, his wife of 47 years, Bobbi Olson, died of ovarian cancer.

Olson is now three years removed from coaching Arizona’s program. Three other coaches, including Sean Miller currently, have coached the Wildcats for at least one season since Olson’s career effectively ended after the 2006-07 season.

Cal’s veteran coach Mike Montgomery is still in the league; he was in his 14th year as head coach at Stanford in 2000-01. The second-longest tenured coach behind Olson that season, Montgomery was coming off a Naismith and Basketball Times Coach of the Year selection.

Other conference coaches in the league at the 2000 Pac-10 media day: Bob Bender of Washington, Ritchie McKay of Oregon State, Ben Braun of Cal, Henry Bibby of USC, Rob Evans of ASU, Steve Lavin of UCLA, and Ernie Kent of Oregon. All goners from the Pac-10.

Only Braun (third year at Rice) and Lavin (first year at St. John’s after trying broadcasting) are head coaches today.

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