Washington, D.C. — Dennis Felton said he wasn't sure how much longer he was going to be Georgia's basketball coach until after his team won the SEC tournament last weekend in Atlanta.

Only then, while the team was still celebrating one of the unlikeliest of championships of all time, did he get the face-to-face vote of confidence from athletics director Damon Evans that he'd been hoping for.

"He grabbed me as soon as the game was over while we were celebrating," Felton said Tuesday after the Bulldogs' practice at the Verizon Center. The team will face No. 3 seed Xavier here on Thursday. "I can't remember specifically what he said but, generally, it was how happy he was, how pleased he was, how much of a great accomplishment he believed [winning the SEC tournament] was for our team and that he really, really wanted me to be our coach.

"Of course we spent a little more time together on the trip here."

Before that, it appeared that Felton's future was twisting in the wind. That's not entirely true.

Toward the end of the season, as the Bulldogs were dropping 11 of their last 13 regular-season games, Evans was asked several times whether Felton's job was in jeopardy. Evans would say that the program was going to be "evaluated in totality" at the end of the season.

But Evans said on Wednesday that he and Felton had been talking. They met on at least two occasions to discuss the importance of the remainder of the season, including a week before the SEC tournament.

"I believe in keeping lines of communication open with our coaches," Evans said. "Dennis and I, of course, talked some throughout the season. I'll leave the conversations we had between Dennis and I."

Said Felton: "There were no meetings to tell me win this or you're done. Damon briefly said something to the extent of, 'just finish as strong as you can. The final stretch of the season is very important to all of us,' that sort of thing."

So, knowing that his future was seemingly still being decided Felton guided the Bulldogs through the SEC tournament. That made the accomplishment of going from worst to first and winning four games in three days with a tornado in between even more remarkable.

"I'm not so naïve to think I can't get fired," Felton said. "With all the speculation swirling around you definitely think about it. You start thinking about what-ifs. But I never walked onto the court thinking about it. I was always walked onto the court singularly focused on what we needed to get done. ..."

Felton said he appreciated Evans determination to wait until after the season to make any decisions.

"Way, way too often in sports now people blow up their whole operation by not having enough patience," Felton said. "It's been really prevalent in professional sports for a long time but, unfortunately, it's leaked into college sports."

Felton compared his situation to those that at one time faced North Carolina's Dean Smith, Duke's Mike Krzyzewski and Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots. All faced the prospect of being fired.

"I'm not putting myself in their categories but some of the most celebrated coaches on the planet were about to get fired," Felton said. "Someone thought that might have been the answer. That's why I think patience is an important value when you're wanting to building something special."