Tom Crean, rips officials for controversial technical at end of Georgia-Mississippi State game

The Georgia Bulldogs lost a hard-fought home game to the Mississippi State Bulldogs on Wednesday night, falling 68-67 in controversial fashion.

At the heart of the controversy was a technical foul called on the Georgia crowd with .5 seconds left and MSU G Quinndary Weatherspoon at the free throw line. That’s when a fan threw a stuffed animal onto the court, drawing the technical.

After the game, Georgia coach Tom Crean said the decision by the officials to call a technical without giving a warning made “zero sense” to him:

Tom Crean on technical called with 0.5 seconds left after object thrown on floor by fan: “I’ve never seen that, not without a warning or an explanation.”

— Marc Weiszer (@marcweiszer) February 21, 2019

Tom Crean sounds thoroughly confused about why the technical was called. Said he believed the officials had to know who threw the object in order to call a tech: "It makes zero sense to me."

— Seth Emerson (@SethWEmerson) February 21, 2019

Crean’s point is that a Mississippi State fan could have thrown the stuffed animal, and with no warnings having been given during the game, he didn’t think a technical should have been given immediately.

Mississippi State coach Ben Howland also weighed in, comparing it to a situation when he was an assistant at UC-Santa Barbara:

Mississippi State head coach Ben Howland said the only thing he remembers similar to this game was when he was an assistant coach at UC-Santa Barbara, the fans threw tortillas on the court. It was quickly outlawed.

— Michael Hebert (@md_hebert55) February 21, 2019

Who knows what would have happened if the technical was never called? Mississippi State will be happy to get out of Athens with a win, though.