Sean Miller fined $25,000 by Pac-12

Friday night’s Pac-12 Tournament game against UCLA was undoubtedly dramatic. If the game wasn’t enough, Arizona head coach Sean Miller was fined $25,000 by the Pac-12 Sunday for his confrontation with the referee during the game, and for some unknown behavior towards an unknown staff member in the hallway.

The reality is what Miller said or did is a mystery, and whom he acted out towards is unknown, but it was deemed inappropriate. Without enough knowledge, Arizona fans are going to be unhappy. There is no right or wrong answer as to whether Miller deserves this fine, but $25,000 is quite a fine.

Miller drew attention to himself in his postgame press conference after Friday’s loss to UCLA, in which he repeated what he said the the officials after a travel call – “He touched the ball.” – eight times and said that the Bruins “didn’t earn those points.”

Another instance where a coach was fined this much money is former New Jersey Nets head coach John Calipari’s insulting comments made towards a journalist, who he referred to as a “f***ing Mexican idiot”.

NASCAR racer Denny Hamlin was recently fined 25K for making comments about the new Generation 6 car after racing in Phoenix. What he actually said has not been released to the public.

So what are we supposed to believe? We saw him on the court interacting with the referee, but we did not hear what he said, and we don’t know if he was unprofessional towards a staff member or if this is a bold accusation. We may or may not hear more, but until then Arizona can choose to stand by its coach or be disappointed.

Here is Miller’s take on what led to his technical foul Friday night.