Rick Barnes expresses confidence in SEC office regarding Anthony Jordan incident

Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes, right, shouts instructions to his players in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2019, in Baton Rouge, La. (AP Photo/Bill Feig)
Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes, right, shouts instructions to his players in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2019, in Baton Rouge, La. (AP Photo/Bill Feig)

KNOXVILLE - Tennessee men's basketball coach Rick Barnes wasn't happy about some of the officiating decisions late in the overtime loss at LSU on Saturday.

But he's far more concerned about some of his players' late-game decisions.

Late Sunday afternoon, a Facebook picture surfaced of Anthony Jordan, one of three officials who called the Tennessee-LSU game, holding an LSU shirt with the caption "Geaux Tigers." The picture was from Sept. 4, 2014, and has since been deleted.

Barnes said Monday that he's aware of the photo and has been in contact with the Southeastern Conference's offices about it as well as "everything that's happened" in regard to the end of the LSU game, won 82-80 by the Tigers on a pair of free throws with 0.6 second remaining in overtime.

"All I can tell you is I have trust and faith in the SEC office," Barnes said. "I know they'll do their due diligence. They'll look at it and handle it the way it should be handled. I've been in contact with them, I appreciate them and how they talked to me and what we talked about. I have full confidence they'll do the right thing. They understand the situation, and they're as upset about it as we are.

"They'll handle it, and we've got to get ready to play another game."

Monday afternoon, the SEC league office addressed the situation.

"Anthony Jordan, the official in this social media post, has communicated to us that while traveling in Spain five years ago he saw the T-shirt from an SEC team for sale in a store," SEC director of communications Craig Pinkerton said in a released statement. "He took a picture and posted that picture to be seen by friends via his social media account. He said it was his intent to make a light-hearted social media post about having seen the T-shirt in another country and not to express affinity for a particular school.

"Jordan has officiated at a high level in the SEC for 19 years, including 11 assignments in NCAA postseason tournaments.

"We do not find this social media post to be acceptable with our expectations and will proceed accordingly, while also acknowledging Mr. Jordan has a lengthy track record as a fair and impartial basketball official."

Barnes wasn't happy with some of his team's decision-making, allowing the Vols to give up a nine-point lead with 6:44 remaining in the second half, which led to the controversial ending to the contest.

He pointed to a number of plays, including a Jordan Bone intentional foul and a ball that Grant Williams threw back into play while falling out of bounds that went right to a LSU player for a basket.

"You're up nine on the road," Barnes said. "You expect the other team to make a push. You expect a possession game here or there, and we gave them four points and a free throw. At the end we didn't defend the ball well; we made a couple of stops we really had to. I don't think it's anything I'm alarmed about, other than wanting to win every game. When you don't execute the way you need to, you learn from it, you look for things you can continue to do to get better.

"We know we're going to be in games like this the rest of the way, and we have to do a better job of it, obviously."

The Vols (24-3, 12-2) fell to seventh in the latest Associated Press poll after the loss to LSU, their second in three games. They play at Ole Miss (19-8, 9-5) on Wednesday.

Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.

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