In yet another turn away from the floor for Arizona, the university has decided to terminate assistant coach Mark Phelps it announced in statement Wednesday evening. Phelps has been placed on suspension with pay in the interim for what Alabama-based attorney Donald Maurice Jackson called an "unresolved NCAA matter" involving the longest-tenured current UA assistant coach.

The NCAA reportedly is still collecting information involving the matter, but UA decided not to wait out that process. Instead it made the move to relieve the assistant coach of his duties prior to the findings from the investigation into the claims being released.

Stadium's Jeff Goodman is reporting the investigation is involves a fraudulent online class and one-time commit Shareef O'Neal who ended up decommitting from the Wildcats before eventually deciding to play at UCLA.

“The University of Arizona has initiated the process to terminate Assistant Men’s Basketball Coach Mark Phelps’ employment with the University," a statement from UA that was released Wednesday evening said. "During this process, Phelps has been placed on suspension with pay in accordance with University policy."

Phelps will be the second UA assistant coach to be fired from the school since 2017 with the other being former assistant Emanuel "Book" Richardson who recently pled guilty to federal funds bribery in the FBI's case centered around college basketball.

In its statement, the university specified that this decision regarding Phelps is not related to the situation with Richardson or the NCAA's investigation into the program stemming from the FBI's case.

"This personnel action is not related to the federal criminal proceedings in New York or the NCAA’s review of the facts underlying the allegations of unlawful conduct," the statement said.

Arizona athletic director Dave Heeke also released a statement regarding the decision on Phelps.

“The University of Arizona is committed to the highest standards of integrity and ethical conduct and our commitment to those principles is unwavering. The decision to remove Coach Phelps immediately is a direct result of that commitment. We strive to compete within the rules of the NCAA and the PAC-12 Conference, and we will continue to cooperate fully with the NCAA. Coach [Sean] Miller fully supports this decision, which we agree is in the best interests of our men’s basketball program and the University.”

Phelps has been an assistant coach with the Wildcats since June 2015. He was previously an assistant coach at both Marquette and Missouri. Prior to that he was the head coach at Drake University in Iowa from 2009-13.

This is not the first time Phelps has had off-the-court issues as he was previously suspended at the beginning of the 2017-18 season for five days without pay for what was called a violation of NCAA rules by the university. He missed two games and returned to the bench Nov. 15 to continue with his duties under Miller.

It was reported earlier in the week by Yahoo! Sports that the NCAA's investigation into the program stemming from Richardson's arrest and subsequent guilty plea was underway.

We will continue to update this story with any further developments.