Georgia assistant basketball coach Wade Mason suspended after halftime incident
Georgia men's basketball coach Tom Crean said on Saturday that the suspension of assistant coach Wade Mason was "handled correctly," but the fourth-year head coach declined to say much on the situation following the Bulldogs' 85-68 home loss to Ole Miss.
"Obviously it's an unfortunate situation that we're dealing with," Crean said. "We've tried to keep our focus on basketball but today we just didn't play very well. We had our moments, but not enough. Especially defensively."
Mason and director of player development Brian Fish were involved in a physical incident at halftime of the Bulldogs’ 85-64 loss Wednesday night at LSU, according to a source. That confirms a report from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Mason, in his first year with the program after being hired following five seasons at Stephen F. Austin, is suspended with pay.
Fish, a former head coach at Montana State, is in his third season with the Bulldogs.
Crean dodged the subject when asked if it was his decision to suspend Wade.
"I'm going to just refer everything back to the statement of the first comment," Crean said. "I hope you guys understand and we'll just leave it at that."
A scheduled Zoom press conference with coach Tom Crean on Friday afternoon was cancelled on 20 minutes notice.
The UGA Athletic Association responded on Saturday morning.
"There have been various media reports related to UGA Athletics personnel ranging from completely inaccurate to incomplete and premature," it said in a release. "The incident in question was reported properly as required by university policies and is under review. We will comment if and when appropriate.”
The Bulldogs have lost seven straight games and travel to Texas A&M on Tuesday for a 7 p.m. matchup. Georgia closes its regular season with home games against Florida and Tennessee before traveling to Missouri.
Georgia is 6-21 overall and 1-13 in the SEC.
The Bulldogs are in line to play in the opening night of the SEC tournament.