Rick Barnes: SEC admits error in referee handling of Buzz Williams running on the floor timeout during play vs. Tennessee

Texas A&M head coach Buzz Williams caused a bit of a stir during the second half of Saturday’s win over Tennessee.

After Aggies guard Jace Carter made a 3-pointer to give Texas A&M a 69-54 lead with about six minutes remaining, Williams wanted a timeout.

However, the officials didn’t see Williams, leading to him running out onto the court to get their attention. He was near half court when a timeout was finally given.

ESPN analyst Jimmy Dykes criticized the officials following the play because he felt like Buzz Williams should have been assessed a technical foul. Instead, Texas A&M simply got a bench warning.

Apparently the SEC agreed with Dykes that the situation wasn’t handled correctly. Vols head coach Rick Barnes said Tuesday that he quickly heard from the SEC regarding the incident.

“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 added that he heard from the SEC about Buzz Williams running out onto the court, before he even had to reach out to the league.

“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.”

Texas A&M went on to earn an 85-69 win over the Vols.

Rick Barnes: SEC is the best basketball league in the country and it’s not close

While Rick Barnes was not pleased with Buzz Williams running onto the court, he did praise the Texas A&M team following the game.

Barnes was asked after the game if he believes Texas A&M is an NCAA Tournament team. He didn’t hold back as far as his thoughts on the Aggies and the SEC as a whole.

“There’s no doubt,” Rick Barnes said. “I think we’ve got, right now, 10 or 11 teams that, when it’s all said and done, are NCAA teams. I think we’ve got the best basketball league in the country, and I don’t think it’s close.”

ESPN’s Joe Lunardi currently has nine SEC teams in the NCAA Tournament in his latest Bracketology, which is tied with the Big 12 for the most in the country.

Barnes feels that at least that many teams should go to the Big Dance.

It’s been an interesting year in the SEC thus far. Alabama and South Carolina are tied atop the SEC standings at 9-2, while Auburn is a game back at 8-3. Barnes’ Tennessee squad is 1.5 games behind the Crimson Tide and Gamecocks with about a month left in the regular season.

“I don’t care what anybody says, right now, the SEC is the best basketball league in the country,” Barnes said. “And every league’s tough. It is. Every league is tough. But there’s a case for nine or 10 teams right now. And there’s a lot of basketball left to play. It’ll work out. It’ll show itself in the end. But there’s no doubt right now that that’s where my thoughts are with this league. I think it’s that good.”