Rick Barnes says SEC immediately reached out to say the Buzz Williams timeout was 'not handled the right way'

The situation had been handled by the Southeastern Conference before Rick Barnes was even on the plane for Tennessee’s flight home Saturday night, after the 85-69 loss to Texas A&M at Reed Arena in College Station. 

Barnes said Tuesday afternoon he had already received a text from Mike Eades, the Southeastern Conference’s coordinator of men’s basketball officials, saying the officiating crew working the Tennessee-Texas A&M game had not correctly handled Buzz Williams running onto the floor to call a timeout in the second half.

“I can assure you it had been addressed long before I even talked about it,” Barnes told reporters during Tuesday’s media availability. “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 was asked if he had reached out to the league about the situation, but he said Eades contacted him first. 

“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.”

‘You can’t go out on the court. I mean everybody knows that. And you just can’t do it.’

Williams ran to the middle of the court frantically waving his arms and jumping up and down to get a timeout called with six minutes left in the second half. He received only a coaches box warning from the officiating crew made up of Pat Adams, Wil Howard and Brian Dorsey.

Tennessee got a 3-pointer from Zakai Zeigler to cut the Texas A&M lead down to 12 points — the Aggies led by as many as 22 earlier in the half — then Texas A&M’s Jace Carter answered with a 3-pointer of his own.

That’s when Williams signaled timeout, eventually running to the middle of the court to get the timeout called.

“Coaches can’t do that,” Barnes said. “I mean, we know it. The box is there and I don’t have a problem with coaches, (with the) game going on, walking down closer to mid court, trying to get his team to his attention. I don’t think any coach has a problem with that. But you can’t go out on the court. I mean everybody knows that. And you just can’t do it.”

Barnes on Monday night during his weekly appearance on The Vol Network’s Vol Calls said what Williams did was a “ridiculous play” and a “blatant technical” that “absolutely, 100%” should have been called a technical.

Up Next: No. 9 Tennessee at Arkansas, Wednesday, 9 p.m. ET, ESPN2

Williams ran between players from both teams on his way to the center circle. Tennessee sophomore power forward Tobe Awaka nearly collided with Williams before moving out of his path.

Barnes joked during his radio appearance Monday night that he was installing a new drill in practice, working on players running into any coaches that run on the floor to call a timeout. 

“It can’t happen,” Barnes said. “I mean the most important thing is player safety. And when people are on the floor that’s not supposed to be (there), a coach, anyone, you can’t do that. And obviously it wasn’t handled the right way by the officials.”

Barnes took a timeout of his own with 11 seconds left in the game, despite Tennessee trailing by 17 points at the time, to continue his conversation with Adams, the official he had argued with after Williams ran on the floor.

Barnes said the only explanation he got from Adams was that “he was going to handle it.”

“But he didn’t handle it the right way,” Barnes said. “I mean, officials are just like players and coaches. We all make mistakes and afterwards, you’d like to think that officials not just in that game, but officials around the country learn from it. 

“It can’t happen. You can’t ever let somebody run out on the floor while the game’s going on.”