After numerous false starts, it looks as if Georgia finally has its next head basketball coach.
Georgia has hired Nevada’s Mark Fox to replace Dennis Felton, who was fired in January after nearly six years with the team. An official announcement will be made Friday at 11 a.m., according to a release by Georgia’s athletics department.
Fox has been the head coach of the Nevada Wolfpack for the past five seasons, where he has amassed a 123-43 record, including three trips to the NCAA tournament.
Fox has won at least 20 games in each of his five seasons at Nevada, a feat that has not been accomplished at Georgia since the 2001-02 season.
Prior to taking over at Nevada, he served as an assistant with Kansas State, Washington and worked under current LSU coach Trent Johnson with the Wolfpack.
The school began the search for its next head coach just days after Felton was fired, hiring the Parker Executive Search Firm to lead the search – the same group that identified Johnson for the LSU job a year ago.
The hiring of Fox comes after several high-profile misses, including a reported offer of more than $2 million to Mike Anderson earlier this week. Anderson chose to remain at his current position at Missouri, however, after negotiating a new contract there.
Fox will have his work cut out for him next season, as Georgia returns just one senior – Albert Jackson – and lost two other regular contributors to transfers last month.
MARK FOX BIO
Born: 1/13/1969
College: Garden City (Kansas) Community College, Eastern New Mexico
Coaching career: Assistant at Washington (1991-93), Kansas State (1994-2000) and Nevada (2000-2004). Head coach at Nevada (2004-2009).
Career record: 123-43.
NCAA Tournament appearances: 2005 (lost in second round); 2006 (lost in first round), 2007 (lost in second round).
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Done Deal: UGA to Hire Fox
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4 comments:
Ummm...ok.
Very suprising. DH, you said not to be surprised if it was out of left field.
Just read his bio on the Nevase Wolfpack site, as impressive as you would expect.
He may turn out great, but until his first game, I bet fans will be disappointed.
Seems like a real basketball junkie gym-rat. Studied under Roy Williams while getting his Masters at Kansas.
I think he is as good as we were going to get. I'm excited; the guy has a great record and brought NBA-caliber players to an unheard-of program.
The BULLDOGS are going to be coached by a FOX! I believe this is a great hire for UGA. GO DAWGS!!!
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