Son of Shaquille O’Neal Decommitting From Arizona; Where to Now?

On Saturday allegations against the Arizona basketball team and its head coach Sean Miller came to light when Miller was caught on FBI wire-tap. He was caught discussing a money transaction with Christian Dawkins, a runner for agent Andy Miller founder of ASM, in the amount of $100,000 that would ensure potential No. 1 draft pick Deandre Ayton would sign with the Wildcats.

This information, along with the dark cloud that is starting to form over Sean Miller and the Arizona basketball program, has induced a decommittment from Shaquille O'Neal's son Shareef.

Shareef O'Neal is a top-30 prospect for the class of 2018 high level high school players and had originally committed to the Arizona Wildcats last April.

Despite the Twitter grammatical errors, O'Neal announced he will not be attending Arizona come the fall. Where will he head now?

Well, Tiger fans should be getting excited because his daddy is an alumni of LSU and I'm sure Shaq would love to see his son follow in his basketball footsteps.

However, LSU has also been implicated in the latest FBI wire-tapping with former players, Tim Quarterman and Jarell Martin. Apparently both players had received payments from ASM's agent payroll.

LSU's Athletic Director Joe Alleva responded to these allegations via a statement released from LSU Communications:

“Today’s media reports are deeply disappointing to all of us who are fans of college basketball. While LSU has not been contacted by federal, league or NCAA officials, we can confirm a proactive and voluntary examination of current coaches and players was conducted by compliance officials and outside legal counsel in the Fall of 2017. That examination found the program in full compliance with NCAA, SEC and University rules and regulations. LSU will continue to monitor basketball and other athletic programs for NCAA and SEC rules compliance.”

O'Neal is ranked No. 29 in the 2018 class, he stands at 6-foot-9, and he's from the Crossroads School in California. Last spring and summer he participated on the Nike EYBL circuit as a member of the California Supreme AAU program where he averaged 13.9 points and 6.5 rebounds.

Something of note, O'Neal hadn't signed a letter of intent during the early signing period, he instead chose to sign the nonbinding financial aid papers with the University of Arizona. Based on that decision O'Neal made he won't need to be released from Arizona and is free to commit to wherever he'd like.

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