Felton secures job with big win

ATLANTA — Georgia athletic director Damon Evans found Dennis Felton in the middle of a celebration on the Georgia Tech floor and embraced him.

It was a scene few could imagine five days ago, when Evans refused to announce a decision concerning Felton’s job status. Taking a break from rejoicing in Georgia’s SEC championship Sunday at Alexander Memorial Coliseum, Felton admitted he didn’t know how to react.

“It was difficult to deal with,” Felton said. “It’s the first time in my life I had been in that position. I always pride myself in keeping my composure and staying poised. It’s difficult when you can’t really answer the questions because you don’t have an answer. It’s especially difficult because I always felt like I was doing a good job and doing the right things to buiid Georgia basketball into a success.

“It was hard for me to defend myself when I was proud of the job I was doing.”

Felton doesn’t need to defend himself any longer. Evans said Felton would return next season as head coach after getting Georgia into the NCAA tournament with a 66-57 win over Arkansas.

“He deserves to be our coach with what he’s done,” Evans said. “He’s shown us he can coach basketball at a high level and he can do it in a lot of different phases. The phases he showed this week were pulling the team together, rallying the troops and getting the fans to believe.

“Dennis is the basketball coach at the University of Georgia, and he will be the basketball coach at the University of Georgia.”

Felton stomped, kicked, swayed and willed Georgia to victory Sunday, looking like he was playing defense on the sideline along with his team. He embraced players, pumped his fist and showed more compassion following mistakes than usual over the past four days.

“I saw a team really jell,” Evans said. “It looked like they were having more fun. They looked as if something just clicked. I thought our coach was a little bit more relaxed. Dennis is an intense person, but he somehow found the button to push in these kids and they started really, really believing. When they came in this tournament, he had them jacked up and ready.”

Arkansas coach John Pelphrey, without any prompting, heaped praise upon Felton. He said Georgia’s SEC tournament run was a culmination of Felton’s work throughout the season, not just a lucky four-day stretch.

“Dennis Felton deserves a lot of credit for the way they’ve practiced and prepared all season long,” Pelphrey said. “They deserve everything they’ve got.

“I’m not surprised. I didn’t know if they were going to get away from Mississippi or not. But those next two matchups were good for them. Georgia is a tough, physical basketball team. They don’t always shoot it from the 3-point line like everybody else, and they may not be as fast or athletic as everybody else. But every single night, they’re going to be tough and they’re going to be physical.”

And on Sunday, they were champions.

“I feel good about the kind of stamp this puts on our program with our existing players, our returning players and, obviously, it makes things a little easier moving forward with prospects we’re recruiting,” Felton said. “It’s certainly a boost.”