KNOXVILLE - The first time Rick Barnes grabbed a microphone Saturday afternoon, Grant Williams had just fouled out and the Tennessee men's basketball coach had to request that people in the sellout crowd of 22,237 refrain from tossing objects onto the floor as a game's worth of frustration culminated inside Thompson-Boling Arena.
A few minutes later, when Barnes grabbed the microphone for a second time, it was to celebrate a 66-61 comeback victory over Georgia that secured a Southeastern Conference regular season co-championship for the 16th-ranked Volunters.
"Not bad for a team picked to finish 13th in the SEC," Barnes said as jubilant Tennessee players around him donned hats commemorating the program's first league title since 2008.
That the achievement came against the one SEC program Barnes had yet to beat since taking over at Tennessee in 2015 and with Williams on the bench in the game's most important moments made it all the more memorable for the Vols (23-7, 13-5), who closed the game on a 9-0 run.
"We hadn't beaten them since 2014," said Williams, who had 22 points. "Think about that. We hadn't beaten the Georgia Bulldogs since 2014. To come out and do that in the most crucial point and to make a special moment, that made it even more special."
The special moment included athletic director Phillip Fulmer taking a turn with the microphone to congratulate the team and the crowd for their performances. He also suggested Barnes should be national coach of the year.
Tennessee will share the conference title with Auburn, which clinched its share by rallying to beat South Carolina 79-70 earlier Saturday. The Tigers held a head-to-head tiebreaker over the Vols after beating them 94-84 on Jan. 2, though, and will be the No. 1 seed for the SEC tournament this week in St. Louis.
Both Auburn and Tennessee have double byes in the 14-team bracket and won't play until Friday's quarterfinals, with the Vols set for a 7 p.m. tipoff.
"Everything we've done in the offseason is adding up," said Tennessee junior Admiral Schofield, who scored a game-high 23 points. "We've still got more to do. This is just one of our goals that we've set, and we reached that. It's amazing to be picked 13th and finish at the top. It's a great feeling."
After cutting down the nets in front of the student section and finally leaving the court, the Vols doused Barnes with water.
"I think it's a compliment to our players," Barnes said. "We came back from the SEC tournament last year, and we knew we had to make some changes in the program. We knew the first thing we were going to have to do was get a group of guys that was totally bought in with two feet firmly planted in the program.
"We came back, and it was the hardest spring since I've been here."
After Saturday's win, Schofield reflected on those spring workouts.
"Those 5 a.m. days of going to the track, having to run in the rain and make a mile in under six minutes," Schofield said. "Those things, it builds character. It builds toughness in players and that bond that we'd have each other's backs out there."
Schofield's fadeaway jumper with 17 seconds to play gave the Vols a 64-61 edge before Georgia's William Jackson missed a 3-pointer in the final seconds. Barnes was yelling at Tennessee's players to foul Jackson and not allow the attempt at a game-tying basket, but Barnes said later the crowd was so loud that Tennessee's players could not hear him.
"Our fans have been great all year," Barnes said. "Our fans have been great since the first that I've been here."
Tennessee's Jordan Bone iced the game with two free throws with less than a second remaining to solidify an outcome that was anything but certain for 40 minutes.
After losing their first two SEC games this season, the Vols had to rally for a championship. Saturday's game took a similar shape.
The first half was dominated by Georgia's 3-point shooting and an officiating crew of Patrick Evans, Karl Hess and Brian Shey, who stifled the pace of play with 18 foul calls and three time-consuming trips to the review monitor that produced no additional action.
The crew called 16 fouls in the game's first 15 minutes, creating a disjointed pace of play and requiring both teams to put key players on the floor with two fouls.
Between all the stops and starts, Georgia made three key runs behind a trio of hot-shooting guards and took a 42-34 lead into halftime. The Bulldogs were shooting 54 percent from the field at the break and were 7-of-12 from beyond the arc.
Georgia shot just 29 percent in the second half and scored only 19 points. Tennessee took a 55-53 lead on a Lamonte Turner 3-pointer with 6:23 remaining, the Vols' first advantage since the score was 5-4. It was one of three crucial 3-pointers in the second half by Turner, who attached his piece of the net to his SEC championship cap and wore both proudly after the game.
"We actually threw water on Coach Barnes," Turner said. "But I think I got the worst of it because I went first and I slipped and hit my knee. So I kind of got a little wet, too.
"But it was crazy, man. It was a great moment. Just proud to have won it."
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.