UGA basketball makes surprise hire in Mark Fox

Athens — Georgia will introduce its men’s basketball coach at a news conference at 11 a.m. Friday. And in the case of Mark Fox, it truly will be an introduction.

Virtually no one outside of the basketball coaching fraternity — and certainly very few people in Georgia — had heard of the 40-year-old coach from Nevada. Conversely the $30 million basketball training facility in which Fox will be introduced wasn’t even built when he brought his first Nevada team to Athens in November 2004. And from all indications, Fox didn’t have a chance to tour the UGA campus before accepting the job.

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Mark Fox had a 123-43 record in five seasons at Nevada.

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Fox agreed in principle to become the Bulldogs’ basketball coach during a meeting with athletics director Damon Evans early Thursday evening in Detroit, according to people in the athletic department.

So coach, fans and players will be making first impressions when Fox stands on the podium late Friday morning.

“At first I was really surprised because his was not a name I’d heard mentioned at all,” said Roger Harris, past president and current treasurer of the Georgia Tipoff Club and a longtime Bulldogs basketball fan. “But I immediately looked him up on the Internet and was impressed by his record. If he does that at Georgia, he’ll be a hero.”

“I don’t know anything about him,” said former Georgia coach Hugh Durham when asked for his impressions of him. “I really can’t comment because I really know absolutely nothing about him.”

Based on available information the hire was made swiftly. Georgia is known to have had extensive talks with Missouri coach Mike Anderson on Monday and Tuesday. But Anderson decided to remain with the Tigers, who offered him a new seven-year contract at $1.6 million a season.

The Bulldogs also made inquiries about Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel and had discussions with Clemson coach Oliver Purnell and Miami coach Frank Haith on Thursday. It was unclear whether any of those other candidates were interviewed.

One SEC coach, Trent Johnson of LSU, knows about Fox, who succeeded Johnson at Nevada when Johnson went to Stanford. However, Johnson declined comment until Fox’s appointment becomes official.

Here’s what we do know:

• Fox has been coach of the Wolf Pack for the past five seasons, where he was 123-43, including 21-13 this past season. He never won fewer than 21 games there and went 29-5 in 2006-07.

• Nevada competes in the Western Athletic Conference, and Fox’s teams won the league four of his five seasons. They finished second to Utah State this past season.

• The Wolf Pack 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.

Georgia has had an opening for its men’s basketball job since Jan. 29 when Dennis Felton was fired in the middle of his sixth season. The Bulldogs were winless in the SEC at the time (0-5) and Felton left Georgia with an 84-91 overall record, 26-59 in the SEC. They managed to win three more games under the direction of interim coach Pete Herrmann to finish 12-20 overall and 3-13 in SEC play.

Fox fits the criteria UGA President Michael Adams and Evans set forth for a new coach. He is experienced and successful on the NCAA Division I level. It remains to be seen if he can compete in the rugged SEC East, where he’ll go toe-to-toe twice a year with Florida’s Billy Donovan, Tennessee’s Bruce Pearl and, now, Kentucky’s John Calipari.

Fox has a reputation as a strong recruiter. During a 12-year run as an assistant coach, he signed players that earned all-conference honors from the Big 12, Pac-10 and WAC. He’s credited with signing Nevada’s All-American and three-time WAC Player of the Year Nick Fazekas. Fox also was instrumental in bringing 2004 WAC Player of the Year and NBA first-round draft pick Kirk Snyder to that program.

It would not appear Fox has many ties to the South. He played college basketball at Garden City (Kan.) Community College (1987-89) under former Nevada coach Jim Carey and lettered two seasons at Eastern New Mexico (1989-91) in Portales, N.M.

Fox graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor of science degree in physical education from Eastern New Mexico in 1991 and obtained a master’s of science degree in athletic administration and sports psychology from the Kansas in 1996.

Fox and his wife, Cindy, have two children: a son, Parker (8), and a daughter, Olivia (6). Cindy is an associate athletics director at Nevada.

For now, Georgia fans such as Harris are reserving judgment.

“I guess this is the sixth coach we’ve been through since I’ve been around and you always hope the next one is going to be successful,” he said. “So I’ll hope the best for him and he’ll certainly have all my support.”