McGarity speaks to SEC about calls in UGA-Tennessee game

Georgia athletics director Greg McGarity said Wednesday that he has forwarded concerns to the SEC over several calls in Tuesday night’s men’s basketball game against Tennessee.

McGarity said he was following a standard practice with the SEC, which isn’t meant as an official protest, but to allow the league to know of a school’s concerns.

“I can’t really point towards one thing,” McGarity said when asked what specific calls he included in his message. “You have several things that you may bring to the their attention. The SEC reviews it, and it’s dealt with internally.”

This was the first time this season McGarity has forwarded concerns to the SEC office. He added that he wasn’t aware if head coach Mark Fox had done so after previous games.

Two non-calls by the officiating crew proved critical in Tennessee’s 59-57 victory:

- The game-winning basket, by Brian Williams, came after Williams reached over Georgia’s Chris Barnes for the rebound. Williams told reporters afterwards he was “surprised” a foul wasn’t called.

- A few minutes earlier, the shot clock appeared to run out before Tennessee got up a shot that tied the game at 57.

McGarity did not think any malfunction with the system at Stegeman Coliseum could be attributed to the officials not seeing the shot clock expire.

“One could argue the horn could have been louder,” he said. “But as loud as it gets in that arena … There were no arena deficiencies that aided in that decision.”