Is Georgia crazy like a Fox, or just crazy?
Mark Fox is not Mark Few. Mark Few coaches Gonzaga and would be a terrific hire for anybody. Mark Fox coached Nevada and is coming to Georgia. He’s not such a terrific hire.
It isn’t that Fox can’t coach. He won in the WAC, which is a nice mid-tier league. But the Western Athletic Conference isn’t the SEC East, where he’ll be working against Billy Donovan (two NCAA titles) and John Calipari (two Final Fours), plus the showman Bruce Pearl and the erudite Kevin Stallings and the rising star Darrin Horn.
The same Georgia that seemed to have little interest in hiring a winning coach from a mid-major with ties to both the SEC and the South just hired a winning coach from the Pacific Time Zone who has never worked east of Manhattan, Kan. Alabama was clever enough to scoop up Anthony Grant. Georgia wound up with a guy known mostly for his temper.
Given two months to search, Damon Evans found a coach who won’t sell many tickets and who’ll have to learn the names of the Atlanta AAU coaches to gain entrée to this state’s wealth of talent. The most accomplished Nevada player in Fox’s five seasons as head coach was Nick Fazekas, who’s playing with Lyon-Villeurbanne, which is based in France. Not to put too fine a point on it, but Nick Fazekas is no Derrick Favors.
Evans’ first big hire turned out small. Evans was right to aim high – Jeff Capel of Oklahoma and Mike Anderson of Missouri – but the athletics director seemed to overrate Georgia’s place in the basketball firmament. Why would a guy in a major conference who has just reached the Elite Eight leave to come work for a place where the team practices in a palace but plays in a barn? Just for money?
Plan A (Capel and Anderson) was fine in theory, but Plan B seemed haphazard. Grant was the obvious choice who, for whatever reason, was gone to Tuscaloosa before Georgia moved toward him. This leads us to believe Evans was never all that high on Grant, which leads us to ask: Why wasn’t he? What is there about Fox that makes us believe he’ll be better able to navigate the Deep South?
Much was made over Georgia’s employment of Dan Parker’s Atlanta-based search firm, and if this hire is any measure it could be time for the Bulldogs to start searching for better searchers. Three SEC schools made hires over the past seven days, and Georgia’s seems the least inspired by some distance. Calipari, Grant and … Fox?
Granted, there’s always the chance an odd hire will pan out. The Cincinnati Enquirer ran a headline after the Reds named a new manager, asking the question, “Sparky Who?” Forty-six years ago, more than a few folks thought Georgia was nuts for hiring an Auburn assistant, name of Dooley, to come coach football.
We cannot know today if the fullness of time will reveal Evans as having been crazy like … well, a fox. All we can say for certain is that the Bulldogs stepped to the plate and swung mightily and, if they’re really lucky, they’ll manage to leg out a bloop double. And if they’re unlucky, they’ll get to do this all again come 2013.
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424 comments Add your comment
brewdawg
April 2nd, 2009
10:09 pm
Yeah, I said those same comments about Evans’ overrating the position in another column. I do like this better than I liked Haith or Purnell, and who knows, maybe UGA will get lucky. But I agree, we’ll likely be doing this again soon, maybe sooner than 2013. Now lets see how the decent pieces the Dawgs do have feel about it. I at least would like to keep Thompkins.
mike
April 2nd, 2009
10:09 pm
I am sick of hearing about grant. Fox beat him head to head. UGA did not need a guy who would have bolted to UF if billy munster ever left.
Whopper Dawg
April 2nd, 2009
10:12 pm
Eh? Mr. Evans is insane. Please remove all sharp instruments from his office and home.
mike28212
April 2nd, 2009
10:12 pm
As a fan, I hope this work. I just don’t understand the hire at all. My reaction was ‘who?’. I’m anxious to read what is said at the press conference to glean some insight.
brewdawg
April 2nd, 2009
10:13 pm
Mike,
Tired of hearing about Grant? Get used to it, especially with all the comparisons that will inevitably come over the next few seasons between Fox and Grant.
IndyDawg
April 2nd, 2009
10:14 pm
It’s official Georgia Basketball is DEAD. There is nothing to make us think that we could ever get a big time coach to come to Athens. I would have felt real good about Robert Montgomery Knight.
GradyGrad96
April 2nd, 2009
10:14 pm
This alumnus is not impressed. But will reserve judgement for at least a season.
RHB
April 2nd, 2009
10:14 pm
Mark,
2013? Try 2011. This is not good for all the reasons you put forth. Horrible. Georgia fans waited 60+ days for this? HE HAS NO TIES TO THE REGION. Damon better get it together because this does not inspire confidence at all.
brewdawg
April 2nd, 2009
10:15 pm
I don’t want to come across as unsupportive of our new coach before he even starts. Welcome Coach Fox and family. Make us all look like fools for being unsure of this hire.
Paul
April 2nd, 2009
10:16 pm
Wow, welcome to Georgia, Mr. Fox.
sickofugafans
April 2nd, 2009
10:17 pm
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!! THIS is Damon Evan’s signature hire? ROFLMAO! I feel for Dustin Ware…he deserved so much better!
IndyDawg
April 2nd, 2009
10:17 pm
I love basketball but I LOVE FOOTBALL and until I see a big diffrence in basketball I will not be making the trip down 65 South to see basketball but I will be there next week for Spring Game
Chris
April 2nd, 2009
10:19 pm
I had no idea Evans was looking at this guy and I’m hesistant to support this decision. However, he did a good job at Nevada, they were always a top tier WAC team. Right now I am inclined to give Evans the benefit of the doubt and wait and see how this unfolds – I’m just hoping Thompkins stays and the rest of the young guys stick around..
I’m praying this works.
Big DAWG
April 2nd, 2009
10:20 pm
Looking forward to the Grant vs. Fox match up. I guess only time will tell. A splash would have been Knight. A coach that was just in the elite 8 was too good to be true for a non-basketball school. We have to build from the bottom up. Go DAWGS!!
rtr
April 2nd, 2009
10:21 pm
good job, uga.. good job
LOLOLOL
April 2nd, 2009
10:21 pm
what a joke of a hire…..you spend two months and this is the best you can come up with…..you actually think you’re going to compete with Kentucky…Tenn….Florida with a guy 99% of basketball fans will go……WHO????
BamaBob
April 2nd, 2009
10:23 pm
Would have been better off hiring former LSU coach John Brady.
old gold engineer
April 2nd, 2009
10:23 pm
Wasn’t this guy the coach of the team that knocked GT out of the NCAA tournament in one of their last appearances? Things aren’t looking any easier for Coach Hewitt.
Mark Bradley
April 2nd, 2009
10:23 pm
Even with hires I don’t much like, I can usually understand the rationale. But I really don’t understand this rationale.
stick jackson
April 2nd, 2009
10:24 pm
Compare the resumes, Mark. Fox has accomplished much more than Grant — more wins, more championships, more wins over high majors, more guys in the NBA. Forget Fazikas — McGee is turning heads with the Wizards.
I know the Prince of the Colonial Athletic Association has you more hot and bothered than any coach since Bobby Petrino, but there is no objective standard by which his resume is even close to Fox’s.
Ron Roberts
April 2nd, 2009
10:24 pm
Yeah, I have to admit, I’m a little mystified by this choice, myself, given that plucking a mid-tier ACC guy from Clemson or Miami or Florida State (in my opinion) would’ve been plenty of sizzle for us. Oliver Purnell, in my mind, would’ve been a good hire, when you consider the guy has a program that, much like Georgia’s, has made brief interludes with success every so often, but never seems to gain traction. Under his guidance, he has Clemson regularly competing for tournament bids and within grasp of the UNC’s and Dukes and Wake Forests’ of that basketball power-conference.
I don’t “not” like this hire; he’s known to be a fairly strong recruiter out west, and there’s no arguing his success in Nevada (Nevada??? The WAC???). C’mon, that school and that conference aren’t known for their basketball prowess until recently. It’s just that, when you compare what Kentucky did, what Alabama did, where SC is headed and where Florida already IS… it just doesn’t seem to compare.
Yeah, I would’ve preferred Grant, too, no doubt; but I think the worry with Grant was that he’d not be a Georgia “lifer” had he come and been successful. We’ve been down that road with Tubby Smith, and I think we were gu-shy for that reason. Billy Donovan’s not going to leave Florida, ti would seem, but what if…. what if Mike K hangs it up at Duke eventually and the “better offer” comes a-calling? What if Billy retired and Florida wanted him to come “home,” then?
The “always looking over your back” way of living sucks, and I think that’s why we didn’t show any interest, frankly.
Personally, I think Damon Evans’ BIGGEST mistake was making so much noise about “aiming high” and “putting priority” on this hire, then hiring a guy that the hum-drum, casual fan’s ever heard of. This could be a really great hire, but the denizens who don’t know enough are already grumbling, and that’s not good for the program in and of itself.
DaveMac007
April 2nd, 2009
10:25 pm
Explain to me why, after all the time taken, or not taken, searching for the perfect fit, that we seem to have “ended up” with Fox. He’s no Bobby Knight, Nolan Richardson, etc. Meaning, he won’t be selling any tix himself. Even if he does ok, don’t you think that he would find the same job closer to his roots in a few years? Bad move by the dawgs all around. Especially with a “search firm” heading this up?
Mark Bradley
April 2nd, 2009
10:25 pm
Fox was Trent Johnson’s assistant when Nevada lost to Georgia Tech in the Sweet 16 in 2004. Trent Johnson left after the season to go coach Stanford. He’s now at LSU.
IndyDawg
April 2nd, 2009
10:25 pm
What major recruit knows this guy? Because I sure didn’t and it doesn’t seem like anyone else did. Considering he was not on anyone’s radr to be a new coach. Do you think Arizona was looking at him? Or maybe Memphis was looking at him probably Washington State!!!
jojo sunshine
April 2nd, 2009
10:26 pm
You have got to be kidding me. What?…Why?…Why in the world would you make this guy the coach? This is the same scenario we just came out of with Coach Felton. Felton had a good winning percentage at Western Kentucky, but could not get any “real” players from his own state-Georgia. Now this hire. What?…Why? It makes no sense when you could have had the winningest men’s coach in college basketball history. You have got to be kidding me.
LOLOLOL
April 2nd, 2009
10:27 pm
Is this the worst basketball program in the SEC East? Seriously…not busting balls…but who’s worse?
willie
April 2nd, 2009
10:27 pm
This proves that nobody worth their salt would take the UGA job and you can’t blame them. UGA is a football factory, plain and simple. They care about nothing else, and everyone knows it.
mike
April 2nd, 2009
10:29 pm
brewdawg,
I will say it again. I am glad UGA did not hire a coach who would be out of town in 30 seconds if UF came calling, and why do all UGA fans seem to automatically feel UGA is a better b-ball gig than ALA and they could have gotten him here anyway? Seems to me the grant thing was media driven, grant may not have even been damons choice for unknown reasons.
Ron Roberts
April 2nd, 2009
10:29 pm
“GradyGrad”… you’re giving him ONE season? See, that’s ridiculous. It’ll take 2-3 years for anything this guy does to have a positive impact on the basketball program, pure and simple.
Here’s a name that SHOULD have been on their list….Dip Metriss, Augusta State University. Two back-to-back Final Fous ar D-2, and the guy recrutis what his program needs and plugs guys into the holes that need filling.
Having grown up in Augusta, I’ve N-E-V-E-R seen that city support that program, until now. When they were Division 1, and had home games at the August Civic Center, and would play Georgia there, I never saw support. When they were in the Big South Conference, one game shy of reaching the NCAA tournament, there was no fan support.
Dip Metriss has fan support for that program now. He’d have been a solid hire, I think.
brewdawg
April 2nd, 2009
10:30 pm
Oh yeah, and as promised, here it is: I was wrong about Billy G being our next coach. Still think it would be a better fit than Fox, but again, we shouldn’t get our pitchforks and torches ready just yet. Let’s give him a chance.
doc
April 2nd, 2009
10:31 pm
uh, before you denounce this guy and the hiring company that participated it might be emphasized that paul johnson at tech came out of the same search team. it isnt like the sec is that competitive a league for basketball historically.
as far as recruiting, the one and done guys ultimately ruin the basis of your program, unless there are five to eight mid level kind of guys to give some consistency to the team anyway that need to be coached. roy williams has a formula to get guys good enough to stay for three to four years and require seasoning before bolting. coach hewitt better hope this guy falls flat on his face or the comparison will be made quickly.
“pick against bradley” might mean this guy is a star on the rise. probably wont cost 2.3 mil either which was absurd. it was like they knew the guy wasnt going to sign. evans might look as good as wren who was lambasted for letting furcal and aj get away. good riddance.
ugadawg94
April 2nd, 2009
10:31 pm
As a season ticket holder, I would love for Fox to work out, but I see this as just another Felton. Great stats at a smaller school, with zero results when it comes to SEC play. I don’t think Fox will be able to keep players away from TN, FL, Bama or KY. I see SC and AUB with our players as well. Only hope is we can take them from Tech, but not sure I would want them anyway.
I hope in 4 or 5 years I’m wrong and we have been in the touney and getting big time players, drawing full crowds, etc. But not holding out hope for this.
In the end, all this says is no one wanted UGA and we are left with someone who will make a nice buck, then go back to the mid-majors.
Chuck Uga
April 2nd, 2009
10:32 pm
Well, this guy did study (non-staff) Roy Williams’ program at Kansas. He has won some big games in the NCAA (Mich Stae and Gonzaga) and may be able to win 18+ in the regular season. We will see, but something tells me he will be around for a while. What UGA needs is a ew arena, but that won’t happen for at least 8-10 years. If he can build a good staff and recruit, he could be very dangerous. Hopefully UGA doesn’t lose a bunch of the current players. Hey Mark , you are forgetting one 1st Round NBA draft pick (whose name escapes me) that he recruited and coached, and that is pretty darn good for a program like Nevada-Reno. As for UGA, no way was UA going to get Anderson or Capel. Again, it isn’t that attractive of a job until a new arena is built and some consistent winning takes place. Sorry, but that’s the way it is as I have followed UGA hoops since 1972. Thank God for Hugh Durham starting something respectable.
Mike In Valdosta
April 2nd, 2009
10:33 pm
As a Georgia Alum and rabid fan all I can say is thank you Mr. Fox for stepping up to the challenge. You have th opportunity of a lifetime to prove yourself and access to talent to make it happen.
Go Dawgs!
Mark Bradley
April 2nd, 2009
10:33 pm
I’ll give Damon Evans this: He shocked the world. Nobody saw this one coming.
yomamma
April 2nd, 2009
10:33 pm
Enter your comments here
BobMc
April 2nd, 2009
10:33 pm
Mark:
you say he’d have to meet all the ATL AAU coaches, but wouldn’t Mark Few have to also? You say it’s a lateral move, but why is Nevada/Reno lateral, but VCU isn’t? You question why a major conference coach would come here to coach in a “barn”, yet you criticize Evans for not hiring a major conference coach. You seem to be a little selective in your criticism. It’s obvious you prefered Grant. Since he’s off the board, who would you have hired at this point? Hindsight, a commentator’s best friend, doesn’t apply now. And if Grant was such an obvious good choice, why is Fox with an equal or maybe better coaching record a seemingly obvious bad choice to you? Are their records that much different?
Jeff
April 2nd, 2009
10:34 pm
Not excited, but better than what we were hearing earlier today with Haith or Purnell (who has never won an NCAA game). Preference would have been Tubby or The General.
LOLOLOL
April 2nd, 2009
10:34 pm
Chuck Uga….you hit the nail on the head….that barn over there is horrible…you can’t get kids to come play at a school with a great practice facility and the worst arena by far in the SEC East. They need an upgrade there….or at least a major overhaul.
Mark Bradley
April 2nd, 2009
10:34 pm
JeVale McGee was the 18th pick in the 2008 NBA draft out of Nevada. He’s with the Washington Wizards.
tdawg
April 2nd, 2009
10:34 pm
What a wac hire!! Rididculous.
IndyDawg
April 2nd, 2009
10:35 pm
This is very disapointing. I have scoured the web every day and looked at the AJC everyday hoping that I would hear the splash that would be UGA’s coach. This is what we get. I hope that it works out because I want something to talk about and brag about in Indiana after football season.
majordawg
April 2nd, 2009
10:35 pm
Took the job at Nevada in 04. Won the league four times. Recruited a McDonalds All American to NEVADA!
I don’t see any reason to doubt that this guy can coach. I’m pretty sure that’s what we were after, right? A coach? Let’s let the guy do that a couple times before we declare him dead man walking.
Check the resumes folks. This guy’s got a better one than Grant if you’ll look at it.
JT
April 2nd, 2009
10:35 pm
Mark — I get it, you are paid to offer an opinion, but is it too much to ask that it be an informed and researched opinion? If you are going to contrast Fox against Grant, did you make any effort at comparing the list of accomplishments or lack thereof? I guess it is okay to just shoot from the hip and make gut assessments — if you are just a hack blog poster, but I would hope that the columnist actually would do the homework necessary to provide informed analysis.
yomamma
April 2nd, 2009
10:36 pm
What happened to Damon’s promise to hire a big name coach from a major conference? And since Fox couldn’t even get his team into the NIT, much less the NCAA, why did he take so long to make a hire? This is embarassing.
Wynn
April 2nd, 2009
10:36 pm
Who will be the first to mention Fox and the hounds?
majordawg
April 2nd, 2009
10:36 pm
Great post, JT.
Mark Bradley
April 2nd, 2009
10:37 pm
Why would I have preferred Anthony Grant? Because he’s from Florida. Because he has worked in the SEC. Because he did great work in a mid-major conference that seems to me a more difficult place than the WAC. (Remember, George Mason is based in the Colonial.)
Why would I have preferred Anthony Grant? Because Georgia wouldn’t have had to recruit against him, and now it will.
jojo sunshine
April 2nd, 2009
10:38 pm
It is not too late. Tell this guy Fox you made a mistake and go get Brad Stevens. Stevens is one of the youngest coaches in the college basketball and his 2 year record at Butler is 56-10. He has taken Butler to the big dance both years he has coached. This would be a hire that would make sense. Anything but Purnell…never could win against good competition, Miami’s coach…choked at the end of the season – got blown out in the acc tourney by va tech – and his players looked as if they could care less, and now this guy Fox = WOW!
Spoke
April 2nd, 2009
10:39 pm
I remember the criticism when Duke hired a coach with a middling record from Army named Mike Krzyzewski. Worked out OK. (And he also has a bit of a temper.)
I like Fox. No way to tell what he’ll do in an SEC environment until he gets here, but he’s proven he’s capable of beating at least one SEC team: UGA.
majordawg
April 2nd, 2009
10:39 pm
LOLOLOL,
Wait for it. The plans for the upgrade at Stegman are approved. Not sure when the work starts, but it’ll be a nice facility. BTW, the kids that go to Duke, that’s really all about the gym, right? Kids don’t give a crap about the gym. The only thing that matters about the gym is the floor, the lights, and the hoops. The other facilities attract them. Weight rooms, meeting rooms, practice facilities, locker rooms. That’s where they spend their time.
Ron Roberts
April 2nd, 2009
10:40 pm
Honestly, how many of you “barn” squawkers have even BEEN to Stegman since, say, 1994? Please, the Coliseum is not a barn, anymore than Allen Fieldhouse or Cameron Indoor are. Stegman’s not used for the off-season rodeo or livestock shows, anymore, so stop with the “barn” references.
What Billy Donovan recruits guys to play in is no better than what we have, and he SEEMS to be doing okay with it.
Besides, the UGA Athletics Assocation master plan for Stegman is fantastic. Check it out HERE:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SO8Y3MIsoP8/SNsmVg0Sg7I/AAAAAAAAD7I/jpH9duksnZA/s1600-h/stegeman+renovation+basketball+upgrade.jpg
James
April 2nd, 2009
10:41 pm
Of course, Bradley is wrong. Fazekas is the most known but not his most accomplished player to ever play at Nevada during his tenure. Ramon Session is his best player he developed…a point guard who just dropped a triple double on the Lakers the other night. Look up the stats, he beat your coach Bradley that your so enamored with Grant this year head to head. He tied the NCAA record for most wins in a four year period tying the one and only Mark Few. He is a up and coming coach that isn’t a huge splash but he is a good coach. His tenure here will depend largely on if he can recruit the state of Georgia well. Seeing that he has recruited a five star player to NEVADA of all places and has recruited several four star players, he should be able to snag his fair share of recruits. So people are telling me they would have rather had a Purnell of Clemson who starts off fast but his teams fizzle towards to end or a Hamilton of FSU whose teams have never advanced past the first round of the tournament…i mean come on. People would rather have a Coach Knight who would probably only coach us for 3 years max and is not known as a great recruiter? Look, we couldn’t land Anderson and from looking and knowing Mark Fox’s resume…I WILL DEFINITELY TAKE HIM AND ACCEPT HIM TO THE DAWG NATION. If you win…they will come.
Chuck Uga
April 2nd, 2009
10:42 pm
Anyone who thinks the Bama job is better is a fool (unless comparing arenas). UGA has access to Atlanta…which should equal NCAA tourney appearances at least 75% of the time.
Michael Scharff
April 2nd, 2009
10:42 pm
O.k., I’m not a rabid college basketball fan. That being said, all I can say is …Huh? I will have to reserve judgement and at least give the coach the benefit of two seasons. Still, I just don’t get it.
We have money, we have the finest practice facility in the country, we have an arena that, well, doesn’t suck…and this is what Mr. Evans comes up with?
majordawg
April 2nd, 2009
10:42 pm
Mark, you’re searching for reasons to defend your love of Grant.
Compare the two resumes and tell us what’s better about Grant than Fox.
I’ve looked and I don’t see it.
Say it’s because Fox is from WAY OUT WEST…whatever. That’s geography. This guy has proven that he can recruit. Was the move from Kansas to Nevada not far enough? I think that transition suggests he can establish himself in a new area pretty well.
Drew
April 2nd, 2009
10:43 pm
Fox has coached four players that played in the NBA: Kirk Snyder, Nick Fazekas, Ramon Sessions and most recently JaValle McGee. Do you do any research at all? Seriously.
Mark Bradley
April 2nd, 2009
10:43 pm
If you’re asking if I’d rather have Mark Fox than Frank Haith, the answer’s yes. If you’re asking if I’d rather have Mark Fox than Stan Heath or Brian Gregory or Lon Kruger, the answer’s no.
Hairy Dawg
April 2nd, 2009
10:44 pm
Ramon Sessions is lighting it up for the Bucks. He also played for Fox at Nevada.
It’s a lukewarm hire, but I care more about becoming a respectable NCAA threat than swinging for the fences and coming up with nothing.
majordawg
April 2nd, 2009
10:45 pm
Guys, there is one reason Bradley wanted the Grant hire and NOT the Fox hire.
He did the homework on Grant and NOT on Fox.
Mark, Mark, Mark. Go do your homework and then you can play on the computer.
yomamma
April 2nd, 2009
10:45 pm
There was a plausible rumor that Osama Bin Laden was hiding out in Stegeman Coliseum, knowing that nobody would spot him since nobody came to the games under Felton. If Bin Laden is still there, he can relax.
Mark Bradley
April 2nd, 2009
10:46 pm
Nick Fazekas was a three-time WAC player of the year. Marcelus Kemp was not. Ramon Sessions was not. Kirk Snyder was not. JaVale McGee was not.
Grayson Dawg
April 2nd, 2009
10:46 pm
If anyone would check Fox history you will see why Damon hired him. He is a winner, a good recruiter (signed one of the best freshman last year in Babbitt), good teacher (Felton was not), and has competed against top teams. UGA missed out on Anderson, but after him who were wey going to get. Capel? no. Miller? no. Stevens? maybe, but he has only coached one year vs. Fox 5 years with 3 NCAA appearances.
I have faith Fox will improve UGA’s bball program.
SCLexDawg
April 2nd, 2009
10:47 pm
Mark know your stuff. Ramon Sessions was the best player at Neveda not Fazekas (just went triple double other night for Bucks). Arugably one of the best young true PG in NBA.
Ok now to Fox. His teams not finished worst than 2nd in WAC in 5 yrs. Beat some quality teams, KU a fog allen, at Gonzaga, played UNC tough early this yr., Beat A Grant and VCU also. He knows how to recruit also, Luke Babbit-5 star player would have started anywhere in US other than UNC. We will see…A better hire than Horne was at South Carolina! This guy can coach!
gastr1
April 2nd, 2009
10:47 pm
While all of you are laughing, you might consider actually looking up how many NBA-caliber players Fox coached at Nevada (too bad Bradley didn’t do his homework):
JaVale McGee, Washington Wizards
Ramon Sessions, Milwaukee Bucks
Kevinn Pinckney, Marcellus Kemp, and Fazekas all played in the league before going international.
In four years. How many players did Dennis Felton or Mike Anderson put in the NBA?
Thomas Gardner, Atlanta Hawks, played 1 yr for Anderson at Missouri.
majordawg
April 2nd, 2009
10:47 pm
Lon Kruger!? Are you serious?
I think Damon Evans is taking a bold step in trying to find a Mark Richt for the hoops program. I like the attempt.
Lon Kruger!? So, should we get Marion Campbell back to be our Def. Coordinator for football next year too?
Mark Bradley
April 2nd, 2009
10:48 pm
And Kirk Snyder left Nevada the same year Trent Johnson moved to Stanford. Fox was never the head coach while Snyder was playing for the Wolf Pack. (Full disclosure: I saw Snyder — and Fazekas — in that game against Tech on a Friday night in St. Louis.)
Chuck Uga
April 2nd, 2009
10:48 pm
Wynn, you are brilliant!
Also, I probably would have preferred the Xavier or Butler coach, but I’ll take Fox. Let’s give him a chance. If he can recruit Georgia, he can coach drunk and still win 19 or 20 regular season games.
Diggity Dawg
April 2nd, 2009
10:48 pm
For the last time, let’s get over this whole Stegeman “barn” thing. When the upper deck was benches, the lower deck was wooden seats, and the floor was about six feet lower and covered with dirt half the year to take advantage of the fact that the livestock exhibition hall (remember that?) was next door, THEN it was a barn. Has anyone calling it a barn actually been in the place since 1990? (Bradley, you’ve been around long enough to know better.) The lighting problems are gone. There’s a nice big scoreboard now. The end-zone bleachers are long gone. Every seat has been replaced. And there have been MANY other improvements made over the years. So the outside looks the same. So what? The biggest problem with that place, honestly, is that the half-empty season ticket section is in front of the TV cameras instead of the student section.
About the Fox hire, I was going to say that I have no idea what to say. But then ESPN News jst showed that Fox has the fourth most wins in his first five seasons as a head coach in the last 50 years. The others? Mark Few, Jamie Dixon, and Roy Williams. I don’t know that that means, frankly, but at least now I have something to say about the new coach.
Dawg Tired
April 2nd, 2009
10:49 pm
Maybe DE is sly like a fox. Only time will tell. Now I understand why he hired a search firm. You had to be searching to find this one.
Diggity Dawg
April 2nd, 2009
10:49 pm
Sorry Ron,
Didn’t mean to poach on your point. I started typing before you posted.
gastr1
April 2nd, 2009
10:51 pm
Forgot Kirk Snyder. Ok, that makes SIX NBA players in five years, and never less than 21 wins.
Not having heard of Mark Fox is Eastern-media bias, pure and simple. Those of you who don’t know the job he’d done at Nevada probably couldn’t name another coach west of the Mississippi. That’s your fault; it would seem that Evans has done a pretty good job of getting someone FAR MORE QUALIFIED than Anthony Grant.
A
April 2nd, 2009
10:51 pm
I just think the whole process was mismanaged. Damon’s boasting of making a “big splash” may come back to haunt him in much the same way as Donnan’s “I’ve been waiting 40 years to coach a team this talented” led to his downfall. We may not simply be looking for a new basketball coach in 2012, but a new new AD as well.
CurlyHeadedDevil
April 2nd, 2009
10:51 pm
I find it humorous that despite UF’s having “no dog in that fight”, UGA fans somehow see their influence even in their hiring a BB coach. Now THAT’s funny!
Bill
April 2nd, 2009
10:51 pm
Too freaking funny…whats even more funny is that some of you clowns are trying to justify what a complete joke you guys are…HAHAHAHA.
ignition
April 2nd, 2009
10:53 pm
I think this is a good hire. The man won is league 4 times in 5 years. Took his team to the NCAA’s 3 times and to the second round twice. got mcdonald all americans to go to Nevada, and to first round draft picks from his program. he is recognized as a strong recruiter and obviously has an ability to coach. if anyone knows anything about college basketball would recognize this as being a good hire. I have no problem with it at all.. time will tell if this is a great hire or not.
real
April 2nd, 2009
10:55 pm
As Dicky V says: “Robert Montgomery Knight” was the right choice for UGA. I wonder why he was never even mentioned by the “Brass” in Butts Mehre… He would have brought instant credibility to UGA and even if he coaches 3 or 4 years, a foundation would have been built. If not Knight, why not hire a coach with a strong relationship with the local AAU coaches? I am simply dumbfounded. Was it an ego thing with Damon? He paid OUR dollars out to search out this guy? WOW
gastr1
April 2nd, 2009
10:56 pm
Mark, regardless of who was POY in the WAC, you’ve got to admit that Fox has recruited better players to F-ing Nevada than Felton got to UGA, and from much farther away (McGee, for example, is from Michigan).
You’re just miffed because your preferred Flavor of the Month was not hired– he who had not recruited Maynor and had certainly coached with lesser success in a shorter stint at a similar program.
No one will give a rat’s *** about any of this if the guy goes out and wins games and doesn’t act like a Harrick.
brewdawg
April 2nd, 2009
10:56 pm
Damon Evans is doing a good to great job as AD. He’ll be at UGA for a long time. I just don’t like the way he went about this whole thing, from the beginning to the end.
yomamma
April 2nd, 2009
10:57 pm
A Bob Knight hire doesn’t look nearly as bad as it did a month ago.
A
April 2nd, 2009
10:57 pm
This was the first real test for Damon as an AD. He completely failed. Dooley left him very well positioned with coaches like Richt, Perno, etc…I am just shocked that this is the best he could do. I’d have preferred keeping Herrman, who is a terrific person and a solid coach. MAybe Fox will show some wisdom and keep ol’ Pete around.
Ron Roberts
April 2nd, 2009
10:57 pm
DiggtyDawg, no worries. Great minds think alike, man. We were on the same wavelength. I attended UGA from 1992-1996, so I was there when the most massive of the renovations of the Steg took place. I remember walking in to have a look at the place when they’d dug INTO the dirt to lower the floor, were setting the concrete the flattened endzone seats are now at, etc., it was 1993-94 I believe. New arenas don’t win conference titles or NCAA tournament bids; coaches an dplayers, do, though. This guy can certainly coach, he’s shown he can recruit. And this notion of not having worked in the south, etc., is all trivial old-school non-sense, too. This isn’t 1960 and he’s not coaching football.
Upstate Dawg
April 2nd, 2009
10:58 pm
Not exactly the splash I was hoping for but I will continue not only buying season tickets but ATTENDING the games and cheering the team. Stegeman only seats 10,500…..it is ridiculous that it’s not sold out (with UGA fans) for at least all of the SEC games. Welcome, Coach Fox!
JM
April 2nd, 2009
10:58 pm
This is a very sound hire by Evans. Fox may not be a flashy name or have been on anyone’s radar screen, but he’s a proven winner whose resume was better than all of the candidates that could have been realistically had by UGA. Plus, he’s only 40. If he pans out, he could be the basketball program’s Mark Richt.
The only knock on him I can see is he has no ties to the south, but I think that’s overrated. If he can recruit kids out west, why can’t he recruit them in the south? It may take a little time for him to get familiar with the area, but once he does I think he’s going to bring some very good talent to Athens.
Georgia Hires Nevada's Mark Fox As Next Men's Head Basketball Coach | GeorgiaBulldog.com - Georgia Bulldogs News, Discussion, Schedules & More
April 2nd, 2009
10:58 pm
[...] Is Georgia crazy like a Fox, or just crazy? – Mark Bradley/AJC Category : Basketball [...]
A
April 2nd, 2009
10:59 pm
This would have been the perfect hire to announce yesterday…April Fools Day!
gdawgs77
April 2nd, 2009
11:00 pm
MARK, I JUST DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY WOULD COULD NOT OF HIRED EITHER SEAN MILLER, BRAD STEVENS, BRAIN GREGORY OR TUBBY SMITH. ANY OF THOSE WOULD HAVE BEEN GOOD!! ESPECIALLY SEAN MILLER!!!
Ron Roberts
April 2nd, 2009
11:00 pm
gastr1 hit the nail SQUARELY on the head…that you haven’t heard of Fox has more do with EPSN whiffing on him, than his having no cache in college basketball circles.
This guy’s every BIT as good a hire as snagging Gonzaga’s, Butler’s or yes, even VCU’s guy. Any guy who can convince college kids to play basketball in Reno for a non-pedigreed program, in a conference not known for it’s basketball prowess is a coach who can recruit.
Mark Bradley
April 2nd, 2009
11:00 pm
I kept hearing — not from Damon Evans, but from some folks around him — that Georgia was looking to hire someone who’d been through the grinder of coaching (as a head coach) in a major conference. That was presumably one of the reasons they weren’t sold on Grant. But tell me where in Mark Fox’s resume that attribute lies.
Packfan34
April 2nd, 2009
11:01 pm
I have watched Coach Fox work the sidelines at Nevada for many years. First as the associate head coach under Trent Johnson, now at LSU, & then running the show. His recruiting was a major factor in the success of our mid-major program. Kirk Snyder, Nick Fazekas, Ramon Sessions, & JaVale McGee were all players that should not have ended up at a school with an enrollment of 15,000 playing in the national college sports wasteland of the WAC. Our program will sourly miss Coach Fox for his recruiting & coaching skills, but most of all we will miss him because he is a great person who cares about his players and the community in which he and his family reside! All the chatter of who is he will be answered shortly when he becomes a part of the UGA community.
Mark Bradley
April 2nd, 2009
11:02 pm
Sean Miller wouldn’t have come. Tubby Smith wouldn’t have, either. Brian Gregory might have. Brad Stevens … I don’t know.
Coyote
April 2nd, 2009
11:02 pm
Here’s what CBS had to say about Fox 2 years ago:
And isn’t it kinda hard to believe he’s still in the mountains?
Seriously, how many college basketball storylines are more surprising than Mark Fox still being in the mountains of Reno, still coaching at Nevada after compiling an 81-18 record in his first three years? Roy Hibbert still at Georgetown, perhaps. But beyond that this is the biggest shocker in the sport, particularly when considering those 81 wins tie Fox with Gonzaga’s Mark Few for most victories in Division I history through three seasons as a coach.
He has won three WAC titles.
He has been to three NCAA Tournaments.
He has received three WAC Coach of the Year awards.
All of which was supposed to lead to Fox leading a parade out of town, off to a bigger school in a bigger conference just like Billy Gillispie (from UTEP to Texas A&M to Kentucky in five years), Bill Self (from Oral Roberts to Tulsa to Illinois to Kansas in 10 years) and Thad Matta (from Butler to Xavier to Ohio State in five years) have done in recent years.
Moving up the ladder, after all, is the natural progression of things in this sport. But here we are only three months from the start of the 2007-08 season, and Fox, 38, is preparing for his fourth year at Nevada, defying the folks who predicted he’d be gone — and kindly suggested he should be gone — by now.
“Oh, tons. Hundreds,” Fox answered when asked how many friends and colleagues had encouraged him to leave Nevada after either his first, second or third season, which resulted in 25, 27 and 29 wins. “A lot of people told me to leave. But it’s not what I’ve done. So maybe I’m a bad listener.”
That’s one possibility.
Another is that the too-good-to-reject offer hasn’t quite come.
Yet another is that Fox and his wife, Cindy, are truly comfortable in Reno.
My guess is it’s a combination of all three. But either way, count Nevada as the beneficiary because the school has — with pay raises, contract extensions and facility upgrades — managed to do what Tulsa, Butler and most other non-BCS programs simply cannot, i.e., retain a rising star in the business for longer than anybody expected, and the byproduct is a sense of stability that’s resulted in recruiting successes highlighted by the commitment of Luke Babbitt, a 6-foot-8 forward who, according to Scout.com, is Nevada’s first five-star prospect and perhaps the best recruit in school history.
“We’ve been able to put (the speculation about me leaving) to bed, and hopefully we can just keep building our program to higher levels,” Fox said. “I told a kid the other day that I have a seven-year contract. I said, ‘You’ll be gone before I am.’”
Two years ago, nobody would’ve believed that.
But now it certainly seems possible.
And that’s good for Nevada.
“We feel like we can do it here,” Fox said. “There may be an extra hurdle here or there, but that’s part of the joy.”
Diggity Dawg
April 2nd, 2009
11:06 pm
Interesting post, Coyote.
yomamma
April 2nd, 2009
11:07 pm
Jirsa, Harrack, Felton. Now Fox. Anybody besides me see a troubling pattern? A succession of train wrecks.
intellibird
April 2nd, 2009
11:07 pm
Need a recruiter and coach with some energy. Felton looked too lifeless and Paul Hewitt was out-recruiting him. Maybe this fellow can handle both the recruiting and coaching responsibilities. No matter what conference he comes from, all teams have 5 men on the floor. He either can coach or he can’t. Based on this past year, it looks like Bruce Pearl and Gillispie at UK can’t coach. And they are/were highly popular hires!
Basketball Fan
April 2nd, 2009
11:09 pm
HAHAHAHAHAHA What a lousy hire. Might as well have keep Dennis Felton. AHAHAHAHAHA why even bother putting a team on the court if this is the best we can do.
Whopper Dawg
April 2nd, 2009
11:09 pm
Mark,
You are right. Grant would have been a much better hire for the reasons you list. Grant was such a perfect fit for this program in every aspect to me it was a no brainer. That miss to me, as a state of GA fan (everything but Tech) will be as big a miss as the Hawks passing on Paul. This is a huge roll of the dice when your basketball program is teetering on disaster. The risk/reward ratio is way out of kilter. From some of the information on the net, he sounds like a good coach, but way out of league and way out of geographic familiarity. We needed to start with three balls and no strikes and it looks like we are starting with two strikes. Unfortunately, it smacks of getting a coach they (Evans/Adams) think they can control.
The Whopper
Tommy
April 2nd, 2009
11:10 pm
Hope he does a great job and makes us all eat crow and if he does I’ll be the first to admit my error. However, I am not impressed with this “big name, proven winner, and someone who has done it all”. I applaud his courage to take this job at this time with the miserable job they did on this search. Did he promise to bow each time he sees Adams and salute Evans?
I am disappointed we did not hire Bob Knight, but more relieved we did not hire Purnell or Haith. Let’s get on with recruiting and hope we don’t get shut out for the year. Joel Eaves put his on the line mid sixties and did great. Hope Damon comes out as well because he certainly has it exposed now!
Jeff
April 2nd, 2009
11:11 pm
the more i read the more i kinda like, but can anyone tell me what kind of coach fox is? up tempo? run n gun? press on D? anyone know what we will be watching next year?
Coyote
April 2nd, 2009
11:12 pm
By the way gang, Arizona was looking at Fox too but tried to get Tim Floyd. No, he’s not a “big splash” hire but obviously that didn’t work out with Capel or Anderson. But Fox is the hottest mid-major guy out west and through research, they must have liked him better than the southern mid-major options.
By the way, this same search firm landed Trent Johnson for LSU. Johnson wasn’t real well known either and didn’t have a lot of ties to the south. That didn’t stop him from winning the SEC and being named coach of the year in his first season.
Finally, Billy Donovan and Bruce Pearl were relatively unknown mid-major coaches before they got their SEC gigs too. In fact, so was Tubby Smith before he landed at UGA.
In short, chill out folks. There is no guarantee this guy will be successful but this is how the next great coaches are found.