Georgia at Texas A&M

WHERE: Reed Arena, College Station, Texas

WHEN: Tuesday, 7 p.m.

RECORDS: Georgia 10-13, 1-9; Texas A&M 9-13, 2-8

TV/RADIO: SEC Network (Dave Neal, Andy Kennedy); Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (Scott Howard, Chuck Dowdle, Tony Schiavone); XM - 750

Georgia coach Tom Crean issues an apology Monday for comments he made about his players following Saturday’s 80-64 loss to Ole Miss.

“It’s been weighing on my mind, as I’d guess you can probably imagine. When I saw my comments, I was trying to get our players to understand that you can’t let frustration set in,” Crean said. “I always preach that, and I always try to be very cognizant of that. Yet I think in the losing of that game, I let [down] those lettermen, and our fans in general, because I didn’t think we played with the spirit and the passion that we need to. I look back at those comments where it looked like I was blaming the players; that was never my intent. That was never my intent to do that.”

After the loss to Ole Miss, Crean drew considerable criticism when he seemed to blame his players, stating “It’s all on me, because I’m the one who decided to keep these guys.”

His public apology came one day after holding a team meeting to apologize to his players and give them an opportunity to speak in order to clear the air.

"I usually start out by saying what I tell them all the time, that I believe in them, and if I didn’t believe in them, then they wouldn’t be here--but I do,” he said. “I didn’t say that, and that was a mistake. But I am definitely sorry, to them, and I have apologized to them. We talked about a lot of things, but I definitely apologized to them for that and anybody else who that offended, because it was definitely not the intent.”

Junior Jordan Harris said every member of the team spoke up during the session.

“It was very important. There’s a lot of ways you could have taken his comments,” Harris said. “Me personally, I really didn’t take it no kind of way, I kind of knew what he said, but the team meeting was helping for everybody. We all got a clear understanding for us to be on the same page. Every team has conflict. We’ve just become more of a family.”

Sophomore Nicolas Claxton agreed.

“For sure. I feel we may be even closer now, because you know, sometimes when you have adversity, it just brings teams closer together,” Claxton said. “We talked about everything, how the season’s been going, and the things we can do to become better.”

Crean also apologized to Bulldog fans.

“The intent of the way we have to play with a level of spirit and passion and toughness, that’s a high demand every day. When it didn’t happen the way I like to see it happen I think I let it get to me a little bit,” Crean said. “I can’t do that, because it’s not accurate. It’s not a reflection of how I feel about that, it’s not a reflection on how I feel about us.

I should have never ever let that enter my mind.”