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.