Georgia’s hiring of Fox quick, unexpected
Well, that one came out of left field, at least for me it did.
I didn’t start getting strong indications about Nevada’s Mark Fox until late in the afternoon Thursday and I initially discounted them. As the night wore on, it grew more and more plausible and the pieces started coming together. It took a while to get the hire confirmed but, once I looked into just who this guy was it started to make a little more sense. Now whether he’ll make a good fit for Georgia, I’ll let Mark Bradley and our other columnists opine on that. All I can say for now is what everybody else is saying – “didn’t see that one coming.”
It appears Fox is at least the fifth person approached about the job, or at least among five. Georgia is known to have had extensive talks with Missouri coach Mike Anderson before he Anderson decided to remain with the Tigers, who offered him a new seven-year contract at $1.6 million a season. The Bulldogs or their representatives also had preliminary discussions with Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel, Clemson coach Oliver Purnell and Miami coach Frank Haith. None, it appears, were interviewed.
Here’s a few facts on Fox:
- He was 123-43 in five seasons at Nevada and never won fewer than 21 games there. He went 29-5 in 2006-07.
- Nevada competes in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) and Fox’s teams won the league four of his five seasons. They finished second to Utah State this past season.
- The Wolf Pack[cq] played in the NCAA Tournament three straight seasons but not the past two. They reached the second round in 2005 and 2007.
- Fox’s teams played Georgia’s twice, winning both times. Nevada beat the Bulldogs 58-47 in Athens on Nov. 26, 2004 and 68-62 on Dec. 21, 2005.
That’s the gist of it. But we definitely want to know what you guys think.
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156 comments Add your comment
theSECisfootball
April 3rd, 2009
1:20 pm
What a freakin’ joke. Nice effort there AD. Couldn’t get anyone with ties to the south or top level coach to look at the pathetic UGA basketball program. It is what it is. What times kick off for the UGA-OSU game. Who is this clown? I certainly wouldn’t want my contribution dollars going to the fat pay check he will be getting. See ya later after three years Mr. Fox.
David
April 3rd, 2009
1:33 pm
Michael Adams is the reason why no big coach would come to UGA. I wouldn’t either if I were.
David
April 3rd, 2009
1:35 pm
And FED’d up, Dooley aint coming back and he aint the answer. He hired Jirsa.
Pete
April 3rd, 2009
1:42 pm
No too happy about this hire but I trust Evans and his decision. We’ll see what happens. We can’t go backwards that’s for sure.
BadgerDawg
April 3rd, 2009
1:43 pm
Yes. However, “no explanation” was a lot better than yours. What you said would be equivalent to someone leaving Clemson for UGA in football so they didn’t have to play Tech every year.
Also, Tech guy, if you “own” the state in bball that just shows how pathetic things are right now. You are the biggest midget.
Dawg Tired
April 3rd, 2009
2:14 pm
Randy – Folks in Arizona 9I went to high school there tell me that Fox was a potentially popular choice for the University of Arizona job. Today’s Arizona Republic reports the Georgia hire as taking away one of UA’s potential hires for their BB vacancy. I think folks around here are so provincial that they think someone without SEC contacts is a wacko choice. Not necessarily true. Mike Fox can coach. Can he recruit in this area? Don’t know the answer to that – and neither do you.
Only time will tell whether this was a good hire, but I said early on on these blogs that UGA would not be able to get Anderson or Capel. While I have been critical of the search process several times on these blogs, I must admit that this hire caught me off guard and is actually a better hire than I expected – primarily because I never thought that DE would be creative enough to go west of the Mississippi and actually find a relatively young coach who is an excellent floor coach, has been a very good recruiter, is smarter than most, and won’t be chasing the cheerleaders around campus.
Now will we be willing to give him the 4-5 years it will take to clean up the mess we currently have? That’s the real question. Fortunately the idiocy often reflected on these blogs is not reflective of the thinking of those actually in charge. Of course, it also is comforting that those spewing the idiocy are normally not in charge of anything.
JD
April 3rd, 2009
2:17 pm
Ask yourselves this question: What big name coach from a major conference was going to come to Georgia? I don’t think that anyone can honestly answer that question. Sure Anthony Grant was there for the taking, but I said this before that not entertaining the idea of at least talking to him BEFORE he was approached by Alabama was a BAD idea (one of the worst ideas in the long, sad history of bad ideas) that would bite Georgia in the butt. Lo and behold I was right.
You’re all up in arms right now because you wanted to make a big splash with this coaching hire and, from what you’ve perceived (because the guy wasn’t on YOUR radar and he’s not SOUTHERN or anything) this is going to be nothing more than another disaster like Felton. Do you honestly KNOW that this is going to be a bad hire? I mean, eight or so years ago Georgia took a chance on an offensive coordinator from Florida State who had NO head coaching experience and look how that’s turned out.
I know a coaching record in a lower-tiered conference like the WAC isn’t blowing anyone’s skirt up, and contrary to what you believe Coach Fox is actually a good coach. In researching Coach Fox’s achievements at Nevada, I went back and looked at Trent Johnson’s record (since everyone’s not sure about how to take this hire and he was Fox’s predecessor at Nevada). In the first four years as coach of Nevada, Johnson compiled a record of 54-65 before going 25-9 in his final year at Nevada before going to coach at Stanford. Afterwards, Coach Fox won 21 or more games in the five years as the head coach of the Wolfpack succeeding Trent Johnson. Now, I’m no genius but numbers don’t lie. If Fox is such a terrible coach (even if he did have Johnson’s players which, by the way, FOX helped recruit) then why is it that he has a better five-year record (the same time span that Trent Johnson had as coach at Nevada)?
The glaring fact is this: people with an interest in Georgia basketball (the die-hard fan that has an emotional attachment to the university and it’s athletics) are upset because they see Kentucky get Calipari and Alabama get the guy that they want. I sympathize with you, but there’s a guy in Durham that was a little known coach from Army who didn’t have any ties to the SOUTH whose name you couldn’t spell let alone pronounce and he’s turned out to be pretty good. Don’t judge this hire because it’s a guy who doesn’t have ties to the region or no one knows who he is. You should be judging him by his performance as a coach and how he gets his players to buy into his style of play as well as how consistently he wins. Again, I know you can’t judge that by looking at his record in the WAC (four of the past five regular season WAC champions, made the tournament in 3 of those 5 years) as it’s not a power basketball conference, but the guy must be doing something right. Those are the kinds of results a ‘rebuilding’ program like Georgia (Harrick’s regime has done more damage than you will possibly admit) needs.
ReunionDawg
April 3rd, 2009
2:21 pm
Fox is a fine hire. He will take the program in a new direction. He has won more conference titles and been to the Big Dance more than Felton had prior to coming to UGA. He is definitely a step up. If he can get into the Atlanta recruiting base we should be fine. it is going to be a tough 2 yrs.but he knows that. I just hope we as fans can be patient.
Good Luck Coach Fox!!!
freshd
April 3rd, 2009
2:22 pm
Since Fox coached at Nevada, is he gonna run the “pistol” offence at UGA or better yet, since the football team is losing their 2 big guns, will he teach Richt the “Pistol. Lord knows they’re not gonna have many bullets next year.
Gary
April 3rd, 2009
2:23 pm
Yeah and people criticized Adams and Dooley for hiring Mark Richt too. Give this guy a chance. He has a proven track record and not a one and done like Dennis Felton was.
freshd
April 3rd, 2009
2:37 pm
Look on the bright side, I see his wife Cindy was an associate AD at Nevada. You might be getting 2 for 1. You better watch your back Damon. Boss Hogg might throw you under the bus.
KYBulldog
April 3rd, 2009
2:45 pm
Fox is going to find out that he is nothing but a hoe working at the Gem Saloon.
JD
April 3rd, 2009
2:51 pm
Just doing the reading on some of the coaches that Georgia could have possibly pursued: Jeff Capel is looking at signing a 7-year extension w/ Oklahoma (despite rumors that Blake Griffin may turn pro this year), again, Kentucky got Calipari, and Memphis is looking at Scott Drew. All of the other coaches that would have been interesting fits for the program, Sean Miller for one, are staying w/ their current universities.
That’s an indicator of where Georgia’s basketball program is right now. None of the ‘higher profile’ coaches that people may have wanted for this program ARE NOT coming here to a rebuilding effort. I like the idea that Coach Fox is willing to accept the challenge of turning Georgia into a national power.
Oh, and for those of you so concerned w/ regional boundaries think about this; Trent Johnson, in his first year as head coach at LSU, went 27-8 this season and won the SEC West. He’s from CALIFORNIA and hadn’t coached in the SOUTH before becoming LSU’s coach.
big dawg
April 3rd, 2009
2:58 pm
how often are “the experts” right on anything in sports,,,rarely!!!!! and especially the folks in the media!! ever thought that the guy doing the hiring knows something that the experts/media doesn’t know about???
obviously WAY to early to tell if this is a good hire, but maybe, just maybe, this guy knows how to coach basketball..there’s way more to it than running and jumping.. let’s see what he can do first.
Coach Fox
April 3rd, 2009
3:03 pm
I am happy to be the UGA basketball coach!
From my perspective this is a win-win situation. Georgia is a hotbed of recruiting bball talent, I’m getting paid more, and there is no where for “y’all” to go but up. So quit your bitching and I’ll see what I can do to turn this sh*t mixer around.
Coach Fox
YoungDawg
April 3rd, 2009
3:50 pm
OK still not happy how this went down but I’ll support Coach Fox & the team. If he can’t coach it’s on Damon & not Fox! Evans now needs some good PR so maybe we’ll see movement on facilities soon. If Coach Fox had been at a school in the east then maybe we’d understand this move better. I wonder how AZ fans would have felt if he got that job.
puppydawg
April 3rd, 2009
4:04 pm
Shame on all of you naysayers, especially those of you that call yourselves members of the Bulldawg Nation. I, for one, am willing to give Coach Fox the benefit of the doubt until he gives us a reason to do otherwise. It seems to me that all of you “experts’ that can predict the future should be buying lottery tickets. If this hire has ruined your life, you are welcome to jump off the bandwagon at anytime.
Coach Fox
April 3rd, 2009
4:33 pm
Right on, puppydawg.
Now give me the names of all the local coaches and their best players, I’ve got recruiting to do.
GO DAWGS!
Steve
April 3rd, 2009
4:37 pm
Badgerdawg – I get your point, but after North Carolina and Duke, who else was there every year in the ACC? Maryland? Clemson, Fla State, Ga Tech? But in the SEC east you had Donavan, Tubby, Pearl, and Stallings – just saying the SEC East is (and was) better than most ACC folks give them credit for. 3 National Champions in 9 years from the SEC East – did the entire ACC have that many in that time frame?
On to Coach Fox, after a day to let it digest, think this could be an awesome hire. Wish he had one more season under his belt – would have liked to have seen if his Nevada teams were on the way down, and he was winning with Richardsons guys, or if he was just experiencing a couple of down years on the way to building a solid program.
The SEC East will be a beast next year – Florida, Kentucky, Vandy and Tenn. return everybody! Don’t judge the guy on next year, but on year after next when some of these guys in the East turn pro.
AltamahaDawg
April 3rd, 2009
5:30 pm
Personally, I think it was a good hire. As a fan and Alum, I dont feel “promised” anything from anyone in the admin. Other than to make a hire that doesnt bring shame to UGA. Short of that, I will leave it to the professional to figure out who knows how to coach. And I assume they would hire the best posible candidate. I think they did. I really think that even mentioning some big name coaches was simply an attempt for the Admin to say, we are serious, to try to force feed some credibility to the UGA job. You “claim” it should be attractive to (blank) so that it actually will be to (lesser blanks)Who did you fellow really think we were going to hire here? huh? What the hell are you mad about?
It was said in another blog. UGA does NOT have its Billy Donavan out there right now. UGA wasn’t going to get its Billy Donavan right now. UGA needed to find its Lon Kruger.
BTW check out Billy Donavan’s resume’ before UF hired him.
George Holman
April 3rd, 2009
6:12 pm
I am from Reno, and I can tell you all that Georgia is getting a great coach and someone who will represent the university with class. We are all sorry to lose him at UR.
Steve
April 3rd, 2009
7:11 pm
Ooops! In the above post, the ACC did in fact have 3 Nat’l champions in that 9 year time span, but the SEC East had 4 in 11 years.
Dawgdad
April 3rd, 2009
7:37 pm
Lets all welcome Coach Fox, maybe he will bring Luther and Dabber with him from Minnesota State.
Dawg Tired
April 3rd, 2009
9:21 pm
Luther is a whole lot funnier than anyone we’ve got. Some humor would be good.
Steve
April 3rd, 2009
10:29 pm
Liking this hire more all the time – and the cupboard is not bare!!! If no more guys leave, and we keep Miller and Mayfield that is.
JT from Reno
April 3rd, 2009
10:45 pm
Thanks for taking this guy! I live in Reno and though he did have a couple good recruits (Javale McGee, Luke Babbit, Armon Johnson) the first 3 years of his Nevada career was Trent Johnson’s (LSU) draft class! Fox’s last two seasons, we PAID to get into the CBI and LOST both times in the FIRST round! Hahahahahahaha! SUCKERS!
puppydawg
April 3rd, 2009
11:31 pm
JT, sounds like your whine was made with sour grapes.
hoopsfan
April 3rd, 2009
11:53 pm
Someone mentioned that Coach Fox’s wife was from Augusta…not so. Worked with both of them at the University of Washington. Cindy hails from the state of Washington.
Nev. BBfan
April 4th, 2009
12:35 am
Wow, I thought the bandwagon fans here in Reno were bad. We can’t hold a candle to you Dawgs. First things first. He can recruit. #23 recruiting class in the country for last years incoming freshmen. One of those a McDonald’s all American and freshman of the year in the WAC. He has had the last two WAC freshmen of the year, both his recruits. He draws from all over the country. Texas, Carolina, Washington, he will draw good talent. One remark I saw was that his player was arrested the other day. That was Trent Johnson’s player. Fox was the assistant for the sweet sixteen team. He took over when Johnson went to Stanford after one winning season. You will be entertained, he puts on quite the show when things aren’t going good. The crowds cheer when he takes his coat off and tosses it into the crowd. You have a great coach and a great recruiter. Good luck to you and your program. You have also just created a huge rivalry with LSU. Two former Nevada winning coaches. It will be fun to watch.
JT from Reno
April 4th, 2009
12:37 am
You shall see, puppy. No really though, he will be missed, his replacement isn’t half the coach he was. He just got more credit than he deserved seeing that his first 3 years was Trent Johnson’s recruiting class. Good luck ya’ll!
ReturnofChuckyKnapp
April 4th, 2009
1:05 am
Maybe that executive search firm could give UGA a two-for-one deal and find a replacement for Adams. Can’t wait to read the new book “Between the Hedges”. Adams has run off decent folks and made a UGA degree a joke (insert lame Techie joke here). Knapp spent his tenure cleaning up the earlier mess and now the Adams crowd sullies the arches more than anything Fred/Vince and Jan could manage–at least that was limited to athletics. I am not giving a cent to UGA until the Bible thumping, hairshirt wearing Tartuffe Adams is gone.
ReturnofChuckyKnapp
April 4th, 2009
1:08 am
Doh! Make that the new book “Behind the Hedges”! Darn UGA journalism degree screws up my writing.
grich
April 4th, 2009
9:32 am
What is there NOT to be excited about. He is a winner…regardless of at what level. Whether or not he can recruit in state, I will give you two words: Mark Richt. When one brings a combination of passion for the game and the institution, compassion for the difficulty of the everchanging life of today’s student-athlete with solid, tactical X’s & O’s…that coach has the formula for a solid program.
Pizel
April 4th, 2009
9:54 am
This guy can coach that is the bottom line! My only concern is can he recruit Atlanta? We all know that Atlanta is a hotbed of basketball talent. If he can pull some of those kids, winner winner chicken dinner!
lawzoo
April 4th, 2009
11:59 am
Does this definiitly mean that Capel is NOT coming?
BLACK AND RED DAWG
April 4th, 2009
6:50 pm
I personally don’t care if he recruits in state. I want him to recruit good players and coach them up, unlike that coach of that yellow jacket school. The key is getting the players that you need and coaching them up to there potential. That’s how you win Titles!! SEC OR NCAA IT DOESN’T MATTER BE RELIVANT COME MARCH!! ” IF HE BUILDS IT THEY WILL COME”.
shane#1
April 4th, 2009
8:32 pm
What about Roy Williams, Coach K, and Rick Petino? Did they even ask those guys? I wanted Bobby Knight, but Coach Fox, welcome aboard! I will reserve judgement untill I see how the Dogs play next year because I know nothing about Coach Fox.
BuLLdawg
April 5th, 2009
6:58 am
Tech has NEVER been as good as UGA in Baseball.
David Perno, arguably, is the Best Baseball Coach in The SEC. At 25-4, he now has 276 Wins 188 Losses and a Tie, putting him Number 25 All-Time on the SEC Baseball Coach Wins’ List after now 7 and a 1/2 years. This gives him a Winning Percentage of .5946. Considering the strength of schedule he plays, this also is very good.
Roy Umstattd, UGA Coach 1976-1980, is Number 40 with 130 Wins.
W.P. White, UGA Coach 1921-1933, is Number 30 with 134 Wins.
David Perno is Number 25 with 276 Wins.
Big Jim Whately, UGA Coach 1950, 1952-1975, is Number 20 with 334 Wins.
Steve Webber, UGA 1981-1996, is Number 11 with 500 Wins.
Of course, Ron Polk, UGA Coach 2000-2001, is Number 1 with 1,218 Wins (including at Mississippi State before being elected into The Collegiate Baseball Hall of Fame.)
Easton bats seem to be helping this season.
It made no sense to make us just only use Nike bats because they are our Sponsor.
The 5th largest Crowd in Foley Field History watched a great game yesterday against LSU, shown on Comcast Sports South Channel 45 yesterday and listed on 499 as HDTV, but I couldn’t get it except on 45.
We are Defending SEC Champions in Baseball, and last year went 10-4 after The SEC Tournament, in NCAA Regional, Super-Regional and College World Series play. We graduated 3 of the 9 Position Players off last year’s team who played in the College World Series National Championship Game, and we graduated 6 of the 19 Pitchers.
LSU had gone 6-3 in Postseason Play last season, and figured to be a National Title Contender this season.
So, it is not surprising that 4,092 fans showed up to Foley Field to watch us beat LSU 10-8 yesterday with the rubber game today at noon. LSU counters with their ACE, Louis Coleman today.
SEC teams have played in the College World Series 23 of the Last 24 Years.
The SEC had 1 million 600 hundred thousand fans to our Baseball Games last year, double the fans of the next nearest Conference.
The SEC has sent 36 teams to the College World Series, with Georgia having been 5 times, second only to LSU.
Of the last 19 College World Series, The SEC has Won 6 College World Series and been runner-up 4 times, including Georgia in both categories.
The SEC, since expanding to 12 teams in 1990, has played in 44 percent of all College World Series Games Played, 114 games of the 270 played.
The SEC is 4,545 Wins 1,743 losses and 4 ties against non-conference opponents since 1990, a 72 percent winning percentage.
Half, 6, of The SEC teams this season are ranked in the Baseball Polls, with Georgia Number 1 in the USA Today/ESPN, Number 1 in Collegiate Baseball, Number 1 in the NCBWA, and Number 6 in Baseball America. LSU is Number 2 in one poll and Number 5 in all the other College Baseball Polls.
Georgia is Number 1 in The SEC in ERA today and Number 2 in hitting. We are 11th in fielding percentage. We face the Number 1 Pitcher in The SEC today.
BuLLdawg
April 5th, 2009
8:07 am
If he puts pressure on the dingbat Athletics Director to build us a Gym, I don’t care how he does in winning, recruiting in-state, recruiting out-of-state, against LSU, or anything else.
We are not in the mix in this sport, men’s basketball and chose who we chose, because Mark Fox wanted to come here.
We remain not in the mix in this one sport, with 11 National Coaches of The Year at UGA in the other sports.
We will not be in the mix after he leaves, unless he forces our A.D. to build us a Gym, which is costing us in recruiting in both men’s and women’s basketball.
Is Mark Fox going to be better than Paul Hewitt, with Paul Hewitt’s Losing Record to UGA ?
I think that is obvious.
This is a football school who backs winning programs in all sports.
Will we back men’s basketball at UGA ?
Sure we will.
Now, can the AJ-C “sports-writers” shut up about coaching search for a basketball coach who will NOT have a gym to play in ? Good Lord, this is getting old to hear that Chipper Towers states now today that it was quick. For 3 months now, all this newspaper has done is to write about this coaching search.
Can move on now please ?
Columbus Dawg
April 5th, 2009
8:15 am
We have all waited for spring ball to begin, you would think we could have a football blog up!
RedGADawg
April 5th, 2009
9:53 am
Good news is that when Coach Fox creates a winning program for the DAWGS with his Hounds we will not have to worry that some other program will buy his talent due to UGA Atheletics not having the dough to pay a top tier coach, all other programs are very successful at UGA, annually a TOP 10 for Athletic Director’s Throphy and we don’t offer many of the sports that other schools get points for ie: wrestling, mens -lacrosse, gymnastics and volleyball and there are women’s sports also -lacrosse and field hockey. Soooooooooooo!!!!!! Let’s put on our Rally Caps and help Coach Fox fire up the faithful he can be as successful as Richt, Perno and all the other great coaches at UGA!
The King
April 5th, 2009
10:44 am
Well surly not what we were looking for as we were promised a big name . But us Dawg fans know Adams seldom speaks the truth and is not at Georgia for the Athletics program. Damon Evans who knows? he seems to be alot like Peanut or Walter , Bubba J or Ahkmed the dead Assasin only instead of Jeff Dunham pulling the strings it is Adams …
No doubt we are a football school and he do well with baseball and gymnastics . There is nothing wrong with trying to do well in all sports and I hope we reach this level. As for Fox I’m not saying it is what I wanted to see but it could be worse the guy has passion for the game . Lets hope he can hold onto his players better then Felton did and win alot more. Felton stood in and endured the hole the Harricks put us in he did his job ,I guess. I think we all knew his days were limited from the begiing he never really stood a chance with all the sanctions. His lack of being able to hold onto his players was the nail in a coffin that had been made when he was hired. He was brought in to clean up the program and he did that. Now it will be up to Fox to move us to the next level. I like what I have heard about Fox and think he may be able to make Georgia more competitive he will certainly give us all he has. I hope he does hire a strong recruiter from the South. And when the wins start coming so will the better athletes … Till then it will be up to Fox to get the most out of what he has and he seems to have a record for doing just that.
AltamahaDawg
April 5th, 2009
2:29 pm
Were we promised a “big name”? I don’t remember that actualy happening.
Pitbull
April 5th, 2009
4:18 pm
Lets just calm down and give Coach Fox a chance to prove himself on the court. He has a history of managing bb teams to win and there is no reason to believe he will not continue to do so. In a few years we may be fighting to keep him and not losing him like Tubby.
The tech jerks on this blog that are dissing our hire are just cowards who are scared that UGA has made a good hire and that they are going to have to keep going onto the court and losing with Hewitt.
Bahahahahahahahaha yourself, jerk.
AltamahaDawg
April 5th, 2009
4:37 pm
Munzi in the jumbo package, anyone?
Fools Gold
April 5th, 2009
9:28 pm
It is so comical when bloggers like Bulldawg spew gaudy stats to prove a point. The Fact is UGA has only 1 National Championship in baseball. It holds true in the big sport called football. None in ..ahem ..basketball. LSU has shown again who is King in SEC baseball. Last UGA Choked in baseball. This year is more of the same. This program is just a mirror image of Clemson…. Starts out strong but fades away… in other words its Fools Gold!
Chuck Uga
April 5th, 2009
10:58 pm
What I think is that we got a prettry decent coach. Remember we are talking about a program that has historically been a JOKE. With all credit due to Durham, Tubby and even Harrick, we’ve never been able to keep a consistent program going. Hopefully Fox can RECRUIT talent from Georgia and keep it from Bama, Florida and Kentucky. If he can, he will be very successful. My prediction is all the fools who post on here that he is a joke will continue to be the fools they are while this guy succeeds. UGA will be in the NCAA tourney in 2011 if not next year.
Chuck Uga
April 5th, 2009
11:05 pm
Fools Gold…your name is appropriate. This blog is about our new backetball coac, not about LSU baseball. We’ll see who wins the SEC baseball title soon enough.
Don
April 6th, 2009
8:06 am
Great move! A good chance to “grow” a great coach instead of trying to buy one.
robodawg
April 6th, 2009
10:05 am
For those doubting his coaching credentials, just look at what Fox’s former boss at Nevada, and still his best friend, has done at LSU. Every hire is a risk but Fox has proven he can recruit (at NEVADA), develop players (put some in the NBA) and manage a game. Looks to me like a solid hire. Before long I expect we’ll be exciting to watch again.