Arizona's last-second timeout was Sean Miller's revenge on UCLA
LAS VEGAS — Parker Jackson-Cartwright tried in vain to hide his laughter when he swore there was no message behind Arizona’s last-second timeout.
“I don’t know, I’m just out there playing,” he said, chuckling.
Allonzo Trier flashed an unmistakable smirk when asked if the timeout was something that the Wildcats had planned to do if they were winning.
“Ummm, no comment,” he said after a long pause.
Only Arizona coach Sean Miller managed to keep a straight face when he insisted the timeout was not retaliation for a similarly gratuitous one UCLA coach Steve Alford took last month in the dying seconds of the Bruins’ victory in Tucson.
“He said he wanted to set his defense,” Miller deadpanned. “I appreciate him saying that. I didn’t mean any disrespect either. I wanted to set up my inbound play.”
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Of course no amount of deception could hide the real reason behind the bizarre way Friday night’s Pac-12 semifinal ended. When Miller theatrically signaled for a timeout with 0.9 seconds to go in Arizona’s 86-75 victory over UCLA, it was his way of sticking it to Alford, of getting back at the man he felt had been intentionally disrespectful to Arizona only two weeks earlier.
Arizona’s timeout may have been petty and unnecessary, but Miller and his players enjoyed every second of it, laughing, clapping and cheering in their huddle as UCLA players milled around their own bench and stared in stunned disbelief.
Alford briefly confronted Miller in the postgame handshake line, but he had cooled down by the time he spoke with reporters outside the UCLA locker room 20 minutes later. Asked about the timeout he had called on Feb. 25 in Tucson with the Bruins leading by 5 and 1.2 seconds left in the game, Alford insisted he “didn’t mean any disrespect at all.”
“I just wanted to set my defense because we hadn’t won there and I didn’t want anything goofy to happen,” the UCLA coach said. “Apparently, [Miller] thought I was being disrespectful and that was a way of coming back at us. I by no means meant any disrespect and that’s what I told him after the game.”
The most talked about timeout of March will only heighten the hostility between two longtime rivals who battle over conference titles during the season and the West Coast’s premier recruits during the offseason. They split their two regular season matchups this year, paving the way for Friday’s high-stakes rubber match with a spot in Saturday night’s Pac-12 title game on the line.
It was Arizona that earned bragging rights thanks to a smothering team-wide defensive effort and the torrid shooting of its two top players. Trier and Lauri Markkanen combined for 49 points as the Wildcats extended a six-point halftime lead to as many as 15 en route to earning a crack at top-seeded Oregon on Saturday night.
At no point this season has Arizona had Trier and Markkanen clicking at the same time, but the Wildcats offered a scary glimpse of what that looks like.
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Trier, who was suspended for the first 19 games of the season, has shaken off the rust enough to score 19 or more points in each of his past six games. He was so effective attacking the rim, getting to the foul line or knocking down threes against UCLA that he needed only eight shots to get to 20 points.
Markkanen, who endured a February shooting slump that coincided with Trier’s return to form, has regained his hot hand in Las Vegas. The 7-foot Finnish freshman torched the Bruins for 29 points, knocking down four 3-pointers while also showcasing his ability to score in the paint and at the rim.
“They can’t guard both of us at the same time when we’re in actions together,” Trier said. “I’m just driving and finding him. When I’m playing like I’m playing now, it makes it easier on Lauri. It takes the pressure off him. It allows him to get easier shots and he doesn’t have to force things.”
Just as impressive as the performance of Trier and Markannen was the way that Arizona was able to shut down the nation’s most prolific offense. UCLA shot below 40 percent from the field as Trier and Kadeem Allen harassed Lonzo Ball into 4 turnovers and limited Bryce Alford to 2-for-12 shooting from the field.
While Arizona’s victory kept it in the hunt for a top-two seed in the NCAA tournament and a spot in the geographically friendly West region, that was not what was most important to many of the Wildcats after Friday night’s game. They reveled in defeating the UCLA team that beat them on senior night in Tucson just a couple weeks earlier.
Allen, the lone senior on Arizona’s roster, said UCLA’s needless late timeout was the worst moment of that Feb. 25 loss. His teammates dedicated Friday’s rematch to avenging that outcome for him.
“Senior night when they called timeout and the fans were leaving, I felt disrespected, the team felt disrespected, the coach felt disrespected,” Allen said. “It hurt, but tonight that pain has gone away.”
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
