Deandre Ayton, Arizona Suffer OT Loss to Oregon Without Sean Miller Amid Probe

The Arizona Wildcats lost in overtime to the Oregon Ducks on Saturday night, 98-93, despite 28 points, 18 rebounds and four blocks from superstar freshman DeAndre Ayton.

The loss came with head coach Sean Miller absent amid an FBI investigation into the coach after "FBI wiretaps intercepted telephone conversations [between Miller] and Christian Dawkins, a key figure in the FBI's investigation into college basketball corruption, in which Miller discussed paying $100,000" to guarantee that Ayton joined the Wildcats, per Mark Schlabach of ESPN.com.

The school cited the "best interests of the University and the basketball program" in its decision to keep Miller out of Saturday's game, per Schlabach.

However, Ayton—considered one of the top prospects, if not the top player overall, in the 2018 NBA draft class—was cleared to play and dominated. He couldn't do enough to lead the Wildcats to a win, however, as Elijah Brown (30 points) and MiKyle McIntosh (20 points, five rebounds, four steals) were superb for the Ducks.

With associate head coach Lorenzo Romar serving as head coach Saturday, the Wildcats came out strong. They led by as many as 12 in the first half and 43-37 at halftime, but Oregon roared back.

Ayton, who was unstoppable for much of the game, went scoreless over the final 11.5 minutes, though the Wildcats didn't play through him down the stretch: 

All things considered, however, Ayton handled himself well. Arizona senior guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright agreed, per the Associated Press: "I think he's handled it like a professional. I think the last 24 hours has been quite difficult for him, but he's handled it like a professional, and it's really good to see."

The FBI probe has left the future for both Miller and Ayton cloudy.

"We have to wait and see," Romar said of the situation after the overtime loss. "We dealt with it the way we dealt with it tonight, and tomorrow we'll see what happens."

It's been a tumultuous week in general for Arizona basketball, as guard Allonzo Trier was also out of action Saturday after the NCAA ruled him ineligible for testing positive for a banned substance, per Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com. Arizona is appealing the NCAA's decision, citing a "minuscule" amount of the substance in Trier's system.

"The amount detected was minuscule by scientific standards and appears to be a remnant of a substance, which the NCAA agreed, Allonzo had unknowingly ingested in 2016," the school said in a statement.

Trier was ineligible to play last season until Jan. 20, 2017, after testing positive for the substance.