Arizona’s Sean Miller gets technical for ‘he touched the ball’

Lost in the madness of UCLA’s 66-64 victory over Arizona on Friday night in a Pac-12 Conference tournament semifinal game was a blown call that led to Wildcats Coach Sean Miller getting his first technical foul of the season.

If you listened to the postgame news conference, though, Miller made sure you understood it was a missed call and that he really did nothing more than question the call. No cursing, no inappropriate comments, just a simple and loud declaration.

“He touched the ball, he touched the ball, he touched the ball,” Miller reiterated over and over in the news conference, which can be seen above.

To recap, Arizona guard Mark Lyons was driving down the lane in transition with 4:47 left in the second half of a two-point game when UCLA guard Jordan Adams got his hand on the ball, causing Lyons to grab the ball and begin dribbling again. A double-dribble call was whistled by an official and the Bruins took possession.

The play led to an animated Miller pointing out that a UCLA player had caused Lyons’ dribble to be interrupted and that it wasn’t a double dribble. A technical was quickly given and Adams made two free throws for the Bruins to tie the score, 58-58. UCLA’s Larry Drew II missed a three-point shot on the ensuing possession and Arizona reclaimed the lead moments later on a dunk by forward Solomon Hill.

UCLA pulled out the victory, although Arizona had two chances on its final possession to tie the score, missing its final two shots.

Of course, Miller catches himself at the end of his rant about the technical, going to a standard line.

“By the way, full credit given to UCLA,” Miller said, “they did a great job.”

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