Arizona basketball: Sean Miller calls late timeout as revenge vs. UCLA

This was about payback

When the Arizona Wildcats lost to the UCLA Bruins at home two weeks before the Pac-12 Tournament, UCLA called a late timeout after going up five with a second left.

Steve Alford said that he felt his team needed poise in that moment, which is why he called the timeout.

Well, Sean Miller got redemption, calling a timeout with 0.9 seconds left in an 86-75 victory in the Pac-12 semifinals.

That led to this super awkward handshake after the game.

The Miller - Alford handshake http://pic.twitter.com/zPBx8RpeJN

— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) March 11, 2017

Miller explained his reasoning to Ashley Adamson after the game.

“When UCLA played us in McKale, I thought they did a great job. They called a timeout with one second left just to make sure they had poise,” Miller said. “I felt like I wanted to make sure our guys had poise with one second left in this game.”

Alford obviously confronted Miller about it in the postgame handshake line, and then offered up what was said between the two coaches.

“I guess I called a timeout at their place,” Alford responded. “We made two free throws and I didn’t mean disrespect at all. It put us up five and I just wanted to set my defense because we hadn’t won there, so I didn’t want anything goofy to happen.”

“Apparently he (Miller) thought I was being disrespectful and I guess that was a way of coming back at us,” continued Alford. “But by no means did I mean any disrespect, and that’s what I told him after the game. I would never do that. I was just trying to set my defensive late in the game in a hostile environment.”

The Sean Miller grudge meter has never been higher.

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