Texas A&M Aggies men's basketball coach Buzz Williams called an unusual timeout during his team's win over then-No. 6 Tennessee on Saturday. After A&M went up by 15 points with six minutes left in the contest, Williams wanted a timeout.
The officials didn't see him from the coach's box, so he ran onto the court to get their attention and made it almost to half-court before they saw him.
The ESPN broadcast immediately called Williams out and criticized the officials for not issuing a technical foul on the Aggies coach. Instead, A&M only received a bench warning.
Volunteers head coach Rick Barnes agreed with the broadcast, and on Tuesday reported that the SEC did too,
“I can assure you it’s been addressed, long before I even talked about it,” Barnes said, according to Volquest. “I have so much respect for our conference and Mike Eades, who’s in charge of officiating. I can assure you he took care of it, probably before we walked off the court.”
Barnes said he heard from the SEC before he could even reach out.
“They reached out first,” Barnes said. “And like I said, I appreciate, again, before I even got to the plane I’d gotten a text saying that it was not handled the right way.”
The Aggies got the 85-69 win, but the officials got the call wrong. Up by 15, it's impossible to know if the game would've gone differently if the call had been made properly.
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