Ben Howland is the fourth consecutive UCLA coach to be fired (Jim Cowsert/USA Today Sports)

With their pending hires, UCLA and USC will join traditional lower-division Pac-12 program Washington State with the most permanent basketball coaches since the conference became the Pac-10 in 1978.

They will each have hired eight different permanent coaches, double the amount of Arizona, which was bolstered by Lute Olson’s 24 years as head coach.

Former UCLA great Bill Walton said Monday night during ESPN’s broadcast of the Mercer-BYU NIT game that the Trojans and Bruins are the flagship programs of the conference. The Pac-12 is actually better off not following their practice of hiring and firing coaches.

The Bruins have fired their last four coaches, including Ben Howland on Sunday after his 10-year run. USC has fired three of its last four coaches, including former UA assistant and interim head coach Kevin O’Neill on Jan. 14. The one USC coach who was not fired in that span — Tim Floyd — resigned under pressure in 2009 amid alleged NCAA violations.

While the USC and UCLA coaching carousel continues to spin, Stanford is holding on — for now — to Johnny Dawkins, who has not taken the Cardinal to the NCAA tournament in his five years at Palo Alto. Stanford remains the only program since the Pac-10 formed in 1978 to not fire a basketball coach, although the Cardinal forced Dick DiBiaso to resign in 1981.

All of the other original Pac-10 teams — Colorado and Utah excluded — have fired at least one coach in the last 35 years.

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TV replays shows UCLA guard Jordan Adams touching the ball and making contact with Mark Lyons’ forearm (YouTube video, at 20:50 mark, click on picture to access video)

The Pac-12 announced Sunday it has reprimanded and fined Arizona coach Sean Miller $25,000 for incidents after the Wildcats’ 66-64 loss to UCLA in the semifinals of the Pac-12 tournament.

Miller allegedly confronted a game official on the floor at the MGM Grand Garden Arena immediately after the game. He also allegedly confronted a conference staff member in the hallway of the arena.

Miller was angered by a call made by referee Michael Reed, who whistled UA guard Mark Lyons for a double-dribble violation with 4:37 remaining in the game. A ref away from the play, Michael Irving, whistled Miller for a technical foul after Miller claimed that UCLA guard Jordan Adams touched the ball, forcing Lyons to drop it.

“The conference has a formal system of evaluation and feedback in place for coaches to express concern about officiating,” Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott stated in a press release. ”Coaches play a significant role in the overall officiating program and are expected to address concerns through the structure provided.

“Threatening, intimidating and unprofessional conduct will not be tolerated.”

Pac-12 officials are graded on game performance. Future assignments are based on this grading structure as well as coach feedback, the conference explained in its release. The Pac-12 stated in its release that it has warned Miller about inappropriate postgame conduct toward officials.

“Even in tense and trying moments following a game, we expect Pac-12 coaches to conduct themselves in a professional manner,” Scott stated in the release. “Our coaches represent their teams, their universities and our conference. We expect them to set an example for our student athletes and to meet the highest standard of sportsmanship and behavior on and off the court.”

This is the first time Miller, 44, has been reprimanded by a conference. He is in his fourth season at Arizona after coaching Xavier for five seasons.

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This is an example of what you will find at Javier Morales’ Web site: WILDABOUTAZCATS.net

The Class of 2011 recruiting year was unlike most in the Arizona-Arizona State basketball rivalry, dating all the way back to 1978 when Pueblo High School star Lafayette “Fat” Lever decided to attend ASU instead of going to Colorado or San Diego State.

Lafayette Lever signed with ASU out of Pueblo without much recruiting resistance from Arizona’s Fred Snowden

Nick Johnson and Jahii Carson, each top-flight recruits from the Phoenix area, were both recruited by Arizona. Carson, from Mesa High School, made that recruiting year unique by committing to ASU on Aug. 20, 2010. Since Lute Olson came to Tucson in 1983, the Wildcats generally have signed the top recruits from the Valley of the Sun.

Johnson, who attended Gilbert Highland for two years before transferring to Henderson (Nev.) Findlay Prep as a junior, verbally committed to Arizona two days before Carson announced his decision. The Wildcats recruited Carson during the 2010 AAU summer tournaments, but coach Sean Miller had his sights on Josiah Turner at point guard in that recruiting class.

Carson did not want to wait for Turner to decide (Turner eventually committed to Arizona on Sept. 18, 2010). Carson became Herb Sendek’s most substantial recruit from Arizona. Corey Hawkins, the state’s career leading scorer from Goodyear Estrella Foothills, is nowhere close in talent. He is now with UC-Davis after one season with the Sun Devils.

Carson is the Sun Devils’ most touted in-state recruit since Lever graduated from Pueblo in 1978 and played for Ned Wulk‘s talent-laden teams at ASU.

Former ASU forward Chad Prewitt, a Phoenix Greenway product, excelled with the Sun Devils, earning All-Pac-10 honors as a senior in 2001-02. When Prewitt graduated from Greenway in 1998, however, Olson picked up the top recruit in the state — Richard Jefferson from Phoenix Moon Valley.

When Lever signed with ASU in 1978, the Sun Devils’ program was more appealing than Arizona’s because Fred Snowden started to decline after coaching the Wildcats to the 1976 Elite Eight. Wulk’s teams featured the likes of Lever, Lionel Hollins, Byron Scott, Mark Landsberger, Alton Lister, Kurt Nimphius and Sam Williams in the mid-1970s to the early 1980s.

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