Thompkins shines in Fox's debut at UGA

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By Ray Glier

For the AJC

ATHENS -- The Mark Fox Era opened here Friday night, but there was no official announcement, no pregame bow or wave to the crowd. It was no accident Fox was not introduced. He does not want to be the face of the program when the game tips off and be poured into the spotlight as coaches such as Rick Pitino, John Calipari do.

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Brant Sanderlin UGA first-year head coach Mark Fox picked up his first win, as the Bulldogs knocked off UNO to open the season Friday in Athens.

Photos: UNO at UGA

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Luckily for Fox, as he tries to end the program’s six-year recession, he has a player to assume the spotlight, Trey Thompkins, a 6-foot-10 sophomore forward from Lithonia.

Thompkins got the Fox era off to a winning start with a career-high 25 points in a 67-59 victory over New Orleans of the Sun Belt Conference. Thompkins, who made 7 of 11 field-goal attempts and had 12 rebounds, is lighter and leaner than a year ago and absolutely is the go-to player for the Bulldogs.

In front of a modest crowd of 6,365 at Stegeman Coliseum, the Bulldogs were challenged into the final four minutes of the game before putting away the Privateers, who got 11 points from former Georgia player Billy Humphrey.

Fox was understated after the game, and he shrugged off the suggestion that there should have been some trumpet noise to announce his coming.

“It’s about our team and our players, it’s not about me,” Fox said.

The opener was about Thompkins, who played anywhere he wanted on the floor, top of the key, wing, post. He had 16 points in the first half as Georgia led 34-32 and got some help from junior forward Jeremy Price, who finished with 12 points and made all five of his shots.

“The type of system that he runs is a system where the ‘4′ man has to do a lot of things on the floor,” Thompkins said. “With the ability that I have, I try and do everything he needs me to do.”

The Bulldogs have an obvious issue on offense, which is that they have no one to make an outside shot. This likely is going to have to be a team that goes from defense to offense and makes things happen quickly, or else it is going to free players on the blocks for inside chances. Outside shots in the offense look like a risk.

Fox understands his first team has limits and what has to happen for Georgia to exceed expectations.

“Trey needs help scoring the ball. We need to develop other people who can consistently score, and it might be by committee, it won’t necessarily be the same second person every night,” Fox said. “This team is not as offensively gifted as some. We do need that other scoring punch if we are going to become a good team.”

Fox, however, has shown some trust right off the tip of the season. He prepared guard Dustin Ware with some offensive sets to run and let Ware bring the ball up the floor in the first half and call out plays and direct the offense.

Fox patiently stayed in his seat the first half and observed how his team made it work.

“He just kind of let us go out there and feel it out and just kind of let us play it out because he trusts his players,” Ware said. “In the second half he said ‘I’m the coach I’m the leader,' and he grabbed hold of the reins a little bit. In my eyes he did a great job."