Sean Miller addresses Jason Terry’s tweet that called for Arizona to ‘clean house’

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On February 23, 2018, the night ESPN reported Sean Miller had discussed paying Deandre Ayton $100,000 to join the Arizona Wildcats, UA alum Jason Terry was sickened by the state of the program.

That report, whose veracity has been shaky at best, came only a few months after former UA assistant coach Book Richardson was arrested on corruption and fraud charges in connection with the FBI investigation into college basketball recruiting.

“It’s time to clean house and bring home our bloodlines to carry on Lute’s legacy,” Terry tweeted. “We have too much pride, too much tradition to allow outsiders to tear down what we built.”

@APlayersProgram BearDown it’s time to clean house and bring home our own bloodlines to carry on Lutes Legacy. We have too much pride, too much tradition to allow outsiders to tear down what we built.

— Jason "The Jet" Terry (@jasonterry31) February 24, 2018

Fast forward two years, and Terry and Miller are on the same coaching staff, with the latter recently hiring the former as an assistant.

Miller was asked about Terry’s tweet Tuesday in a Zoom call with local media. Here is what he had to say:

“Well, there’s a lot of people who reacted to that day. There’s a long line,” Miller said. “And you know what, based on the information that they had, if you had a passion towards the program that we’re all part of now, that was a moment you remembered and you’re trying to figure it out. To Jason’s credit and I guess mine as well, (that tweet) having nothing to do with him eventually becoming an assistant coach here. We repaired that, talked about it, and had a good conversation about it. And I appreciated at that moment, just the thought that he had of reaching out and getting back on the same page and he didn’t need to explain the emotion behind what he said. I understood it, and it’s one of the things that you appreciate about our program, is that there’s people that our program matters to them.

“They want us to do well, they care a great deal about it. And when you care about something, sometimes you can become emotional. But we crossed that bridge a long, long time ago. That had obviously nothing to do with me coming his direction and eventually making him a part of our staff. I’ve gotten to know him a lot better, like you do with all these guys. They’re busy, they’re NBA players, they have their own careers. You watch them from afar and respect them a great deal. But you don’t have a whole lot of interaction. But as Jason’s career is winding down I’ve gotten the chance to really know him and I’m thrilled to add him as an assistant coach and really a big, big part of our future.”

Miller discussed Terry’s potential impact HERE.

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