Watch: Sean Miller Got A Huge Ovation At Last Night's Arizona Game

Sean Miller returned to the sideline for Arizona basketball last night. He got a grand ovation when he emerged from the tunnel pregame.

Yesterday was a wild day overall for the Arizona Wildcats. First, Sean Miller gave a forceful press conference declaring his innocence.

The UA head coach blasted an unnamed ESPN for its report, refuting most of Mark Schlabach's report of what he was caught saying on FBI wiretap. ESPN stands by its reporting, but has issued multiple corrections on the timeline involved.

After the press conference, Sports Illustrateddropped a huge report casting doubt over ESPN's own reporting. Michael McCann says that superstar center Deandre Ayton is not the player that was being shopped for $100,000, something that others had posited based on the timeline questions.

According to the source, relevant FBI wiretaps in the investigation did not begin until 2017—months after five-star recruit Deandre Ayton had already committed to Arizona in Sept. 2016.

To that end, the source told SI what Miller clarified for the first time Thursday: Ayton is not the player on whose behalf former ASM Sports employee Christian Dawkins allegedly sought a payment from Miller, and Miller never pursued or made any payments to a recruit associated with Dawkins.

After his statement, ESPN's Jeff Goodman reported that Miller would go on to coach the Thursday night game against Stanford. That turned out to be the case.

As Miller emerged from the tunnel ahead of the game, he received a hero's welcome from Arizona fans. Video from the scene:

Sean Miller wasn't the only big figure back for Arizona on Thursday.

Ahead of the game, star guard Allonzo Trier was cleared to play. He missed time after testing positive for a banned substance.

Trier was out for two games: Arizona's 75-65 overtime win over Oregon State, and then the 98-93 overtime loss to Oregon. He scored 18 points and dished out four assists in last night's 75-67 win over Stanford.

Miller only missed one game, the Oregon loss. That game was played just a day after ESPN's report dropped, so it probably made sense for him to skip it given the climate, even with his rebuke of the network's report coming.

It looks like Arizona is heading into the post-season close to full-strength. Time will tell what impact this FBI story will have on the program, but for now the Wildcats are poised to make a run.