A disastrous college basketball season for the Georgia Bulldogs (6-20; 1-12 in SEC play) has reached a new level of embarrassment after assistant coach Wade Mason got into a physical altercation with director of player personnel Brian Fish during halftime of Georgia’s 85-64 loss at LSU on Wednesday. Mason has been suspended indefinitely for the incident, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Additionally, Georgia head coach Tom Crean reportedly could be fired for cause due to failing to report the physical altercation involving two of his staff members.
Graham Coffey of SB Nation’s Dawg Sports reports that Crean’s firing “could be imminent” after he failed to report the physical altercation, and Georgia university officials are looking into firing Crean for cause, which would allow the university to fire Crean without having to pay his $3.6 million buyout.
News of the incident was reported to HR by someone other than Crean, which is a violation of his contract and could allow Georgia to fire Crean without having to pay his buyout of $3.6 million. Sources told DawgSports that the university was building Crean’s firing packet as of 9:00 EST on Friday night.
This could also just be a convenient way for Georgia to get out of a contract — that pays Crean $3.2 million annually — with the head coach of a 6-20 team. Crean is in his fourth season with Georgia and has produced a winning record just one time (14-12 in 2020-21). His best SEC record was 7-11 (also in 2020-21). And things have *really* gone downhill in year four.
Crean, 55, coached at Indiana for nine seasons before joining Georgia, and he reached the Sweet Sixteen three times (with four NCAA Tournament trips). That’s after he also spent nine seasons at Marquette, where he reached the Final Four once to highlight five NCAA Tournament berths with the Golden Eagles. But the Georgia tenure has been a disaster for Crean, and it appears that tenure will end in ugly fashion to really cap things off.
Here’s a sampling of the reaction to the Crean news:
https://twitter.com/UGAHoopsBlog/status/1494865557836992523
https://twitter.com/jontweetssports/status/1494867541990195203
[Photo Credit: Big Ten Network]
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.