ATLANTA-Georgia basketball coach Mark Fox outfoxed himself Friday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference men’s basketball tournament.
The Bulldog Nation must now wait until 6 p.m. Sunday to see if his unfortunate decision to call time out with 0.8 second left in regulation of Georgia’s eventual 65-59 overtime loss to Alabama will leave the Bulldogs out of the NCAA tournament.
With the timeout signaled roughly half a second ahead of Dustin Ware’s apparent winning shot, the bucket was waved off. The Dogs then missed a hurried shot at the horn, and the Crimson Tide outscored them 12-6 in overtime.
It was the first time Bama held the lead since the first four minutes of the opening half.
“Sure, I wish I hadn’t called it, because the ball went in,” Fox said after watching his team fall to 21-11. “But that’s a tough, tough break.”
The breaks all appeared to be going Georgia’s way through the first 12 minutes and 27 seconds of the second half. Down 48-34 at that point, Alabama appeared about to fall to 20-11 and out of contention for its own NCAA bid.
But playing its second game in a little more than 24 hours, Georgia apparently hit a wall. Over the final 7:33 of the second half, the Dogs committed four turnovers, missed four free throws – including the front ends of two one-and-ones – and also missed two field-goal tries.
“I thought for maybe the first time all year we saw some signs of fatigue in the gut of the second half,” Fox said later.
The crowd of 21,875 also saw some signs of guts from the Crimson Tide, who apparently needed at least a victory over Georgia – and perhaps a semifinal win over Kentucky this afternoon – to reach the NCAA tournament.
“The fight that our guys showed tonight was incredible,” said Bama coach Anthony Grant, who guided the Tide to an overtime victory at Tennessee earlier this season. “And I thought the win tonight came down to style of play.”
That style – forcing nine second-half Georgia turnovers and limiting the Bulldogs to no 3-pointers in the final half and overtime after surrendering three 3s in the opening half – certainly helped. But so did a late-game speech from the Tide’s Senario Hillman as Alabama started its comeback.
“He just told us to keep fighting,” said forward JaMychal Green, who led the Tide with 20 points and 13 rebounds. “He told us we didn’t keep fighting at Florida, and we didn’t want the same outcome.”
Yet no matter how stirring Bama’s comeback, had Fox not called a timeout he should have kept in his pocket, Georgia would still be playing.
“If we make a couple of free throws and handle the pressure there a little better, the outcome could have been different,” said the UGA coach. “But we didn’t do that. Now we’ll have to sit back and wait.”
Just like everyone else in need of an at-large berth to March Madness.