Are UGA fans happy with Mark Fox?
Georgia hired a new basketball coach Thursday.
It wasn’t Clemson’s Oliver Purnell or Miami’s Frank Haith, or even Bobby Knight.
Instead, the Bulldogs’ new coach is Nevada’s Mark Fox.
Was this the splash you were hoping for?
Fox, 40, has had success. He took over at Nevada in 2004, after current LSU coach Trent Johnson left to take over at Stanford. He led the Wolf Pack to three NCAA tournaments, the last in 2007, and advanced to the second round twice.
But, with Missouri’s Mike Anderson and Oklahoma’s Jeff Capel being mentioned as early top candidates, Fox is a surprise.
So, what do you think of UGA’s move? Would you have been happier with Purnell or Heath?
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
116 comments Add your comment
Big Robert
April 3rd, 2009
1:18 am
As a Wolfpack fan, I hope you Bulldog fans realize what a great coach you are getting. Coach Fox can coach and recruit, so expect to see UGA in the NCAA tourney for alot of years.
BeachGaBulldog
April 3rd, 2009
1:33 am
I knew the search committee would screw this up! This is unbelievable. God, I dread next season. %&*^**^****!!!!!!!!
FLDAWG
April 3rd, 2009
1:41 am
The search committee did its job and identified potential coaches for the job. I imagine that Capel, Anderson, Grant and Fox were on that list. Grant was taken, Anderson declined (maybe Capel as well) and DE moved on to Fox. He was obviously on DE radar as he moved quickly to hire him after Anderson declined. If Grant is as good as many of us think, then we will all regret not moving more quickly for him. However, it seems that Fox is of equal caliber as Grant and I hope he is the real deal as Big Robert suggests. Good hire Damon, maybe not the big splash you wanted but, hey it may turn out to be a perfect 10 in the years to come. GO DAWGS!!!
bill
April 3rd, 2009
1:43 am
Fox’s career started out well, but it looks like he is on the downslide now. He hasn’t even made the NIT in the last two years, and is 0 for 2 in the “CBI” tournament, whatever that is.
Coon-Dawg
April 3rd, 2009
2:30 am
Fox recruited better than us and beat us twice. Reno is not Athens or Atlanta. Nevada had a better team than we did. Plain and simple !!! Let’s see what this “PROVEN WINNER” can do. Look what Utah did to Alabama in football … You never know ? Go Dawgs !
Coon-Dawg
April 3rd, 2009
2:41 am
BTW – Gnat’s landing … I realize you feel pain and your jealous of UGA ; But your embarrassing yourself dude ! Just be grateful you got a great coach in Paul Johnson and try to relax a little. You might find that your not such a nerd after all.
gasportsfan
April 3rd, 2009
2:46 am
I for one will reserve judgement until i see what he can do. Remember people were saying the same thing about Mike Smith of the Falcons and we saw how that turned out.
gasportsfan
April 3rd, 2009
2:47 am
Enter your comments here
bigdaddyreno
April 3rd, 2009
10:02 am
You are getting a really good coach. Nevada has had an excellent record which would have been better with NCAA appearances the last two years if the program didn’t lose a player each year to early NBA departures. This year Nevada started 2 Freshmen, 2 Sophomores and a senior and still finished 2nd in the WAC. As far as recruiting, especially the people with the Black comments Nevada had 3 white guys, 1 a McDonald’s All American who started this year as a Freshman and was in the top five in many categories of all Division 1 schools in the country, 1 who seldom played and 1 who virtually never played so there is no race issues with Fox either in playing or recruiting.
Georgia should be happy and give Fox a chance, he’ll coach and recruit no worries. Just a side note that Roy Williams the coach from North Carolina signed a three game series (home, away and home) with one game left next year. He was quoted as saying the reason he did this was because of the respect he had for Fox and his coaching.
John Catron
April 3rd, 2009
11:59 am
Somebody asked about offense. Coach Fox’s offense consisted of giving his McDonald All-Americans the ball at the top of the key–that’s it–see what they could create. Despite top recuits, he was consistently outcoached by coaches in WAC like Utah State’s Stew Morrell, who plays players that were recruited no where else.
WolfPackFan
April 3rd, 2009
5:59 pm
As a lifelong Reno resident and Nevada fan, I want to tell UGA fans that they are getting a great coach. It has been a real pleasure watching him here. He will win you some games. As a recruiter he was able to get alot of players to come to Northern Nevada that probably were out of our league. With an SEC budget and access to the talent that will get him he will do awesome. We will miss him much here, and you guys should welcome him and his family warmly.
WolfPackFan
April 3rd, 2009
6:07 pm
If you want to know if he can recruit local talent. The 2 all-time leading scorers in the state of Nevada high school basketball are playing for us right now and they could have both gone to just about anyplace they wanted. In fact Luke Babbitt had already given a verbal to Ohio State before he changed his mind to stay here in Reno and play for Coach Fox.
Trembling Leaves
April 4th, 2009
6:12 pm
What can you expect from Coach Fox?
He will develop his team on defense first and gets his teams playing good half court man to man he almost never presses or play zones. Fox tends to recruit long lean shot blockers not lane cloggers and they block a lot of shots. Fox will ride the refs a little too much for my taste and his signature move is the Jacket toss. when he dies this you know he is pissed.
Most important Fox recruits quality kids and truly emphasizes education he also will hold his players accountable for their actions when they don’t take care of business off court. Most of his players have been nice young men that we have been proud to have in our community.
good luck Bulldogs!
UGA_2001
April 16th, 2009
12:29 am
Fox is a solid coach. Give him a chance. And yes, there are successful white coaches out there.
And thanks once again for all the haters out there trashing UGA. It is good to know you care.
Will
May 13th, 2009
10:35 am
If we want a powerhouse basketball team to compliment what we have in our footyball program, we have to hire top talent. This was NOT a good choice. We should’ve hired proven winners like Bobby Knight or that hot-shot coach that’s been winning Division II titles in North Carolina, I believe it is. We’ve got to show that we’re serious about winning in basketball. Our recent hiring choice will not encourage truly great coaches to want to coach at Georgia. Sorry!
Jdwkvxzh
June 22nd, 2009
3:38 pm
9ah6zf comment6 ,