Georgia played a basketball game Tuesday night, and the loudest cheers came at halftime when Kirby Smart and the football team walked onto the court. I would encourage Mark Fox and his basketball players to try crashing the Rose Bowl in a couple of weeks for attention but I’m guessing it won’t have the same effect.
Start small. Do something first.
Is this the year? What we saw Tuesday night at Stegeman Coliseum – the hoops surrounding the halftime hoopla -- was either a flash of something interesting or another tease. Three days after a dreadful performance at Massachusetts, Georgia dumped Georgia Tech 80-59 in their nicely renovated arena.
The Bulldogs beat Tech in football by 31 points (38-7) and in basketball by 21. But the objectives are higher in both. Smart has his team in contention for a national championship. Fox needs to have his team in the NCAA tournament come March.
It’s time. This Georgia team has a projected NBA player in Yante Maten (24 points and six rebounds against Tech), a talented freshman in Rayshaun Hammonds and a solid returning cast. The Dogs are 8-2 with one non-conference opponent (Temple) left before the start of SEC play and the expected opening mallet to the head at Kentucky on New Year’s Eve. (Is there some rule against starting against LSU?)
Last year was a letdown. Fox had a solid team, a seeming tournament-level team, but the Dogs lost too many games they should’ve won and wound up in the NIT.
The NIT was a positive thing for Tech in the first season under Josh Pastner. It was a lousy thing for Fox in his eighth year in Athens.
There was some debate whether Fox would be retained for another season. But given that he inherited a trainwreck of a program and the fact he had made significant strides in recruiting in the last few years, letting him coach this group was the right call. Georgia started the season 7-1, including wins over Marquette and St. Mary’s, and the thought occurred: Finally, a team.
Then they came back from an 11-day break and went splat at UMass. Fox jumped on the grenade for his players.
“The dumbest scheduling I’ve ever made in my life,” he said. “You look at these schools, everybody’s playing Humpty Dumpty U, and I’m taking my team on the road after an 11-day break and final exams. We didn’t play well. But we felt like if we can use a loss correctly, it will make you better. We were 7-1 at the time. I don’t think we were smelling ourselves but a loss probably did us some good.”
This was a nice response. Stegeman was full and Georgia went on a 13-3 run to start the second half and open a 12-point lead (49-37), led by as much as 24 and blew away an inferior opponent. They shot 71.4 percent (15 for 21) in the second half to Tech’s 25 percent (8 for 32).
“I think this is one of the better teams I’ve played on since I’ve been here,” Maten said. “Offensively and defensively, we’re well rounded. We’ve got height. We’ve got speed. We have pretty much the whole package to be a good quality team. If we keep making strides, we’re going to make an impact on the SEC this year.”
Fox said, “What I like about our team is we’re in a place where we still think we can get better and we want to get better. Hopefully we can accomplish that.”
He has learned to proceed with caution.
Beating Georgia Tech should not lead to any grand proclamations. Pastner did a terrific job getting Tech to the NIT championship game last year, but this isn’t a team expected to make a dent in the ACC or contend for an NCAA tournament bid. The Jackets’ biggest news has been limited to off court, with Josh Okogie and Tadric Jackson each drawing suspensions for accepting benefits in violation of NCAA rules and assistant coach Darryl LaBarrie being withheld indefinitely for an alleged violation of NCAA rules.
Assuming nothing major develops, Pastner is safe. The administration likes the job he's doing. The feelings about Fox in Athens are less certain. Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity denied a Yahoo Sports report before last season's SEC tournament that Georgia was "exploring its options" to make a change, which certainly seemed plausible. McGarity issued a statement denying that, saying in part, "We look forward to Mark leading our program next year."
So McGarity’s first hint that Fox was coming back came in a statement that shot down a report he might be out. Strange.
McGarity continued to decline interviews, even after Georgia was bounced from the NIT. Then two weeks later, he finally consented to a Q-and-A with an in-house writer from the Georgia Athletic Association.
Interviews are so much easier when you orchestrating both the questions and the answers.
Fox can spare the athletic director of more media dodging this season by winning. With this team, he has a shot. He needs to take advantage of it.
EARLIER: Georgia's in playoffs, and there's no reason to think this is an aberration
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