Is there anything more quintessentially Georgia Way-ish than keeping a mediocre coach on the grounds that he’s doing something special by not cheating (which he’s not supposed to be doing anyway)?
I’m not saying Chip Towers is making that argument here. But I’m sure as hell expecting McGarity to do so if he elects not to can Fox at season’s end.
All together now: it’s a helluva way to run a railroad, Greg.
Get The Picture 
I don’t think that’s the argument GM will make – if he bothers to speak the true reasons why he makes whatever decision. I think in all honesty you have to admit that while literally every other program in the SEC appears to be touched by this scandal except for Georgia is not nothing. But, more to the point, while we don’t know which schools, players, assistants, etc will be touched by this scandal it doesn’t make sense to cause any dust-up in our own backyard while its drama free. Why bring in a coach if you don’t know if he’ll be slapped with a show-cause in a year?
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Why not make the new coach’s contract dependent on his representation that he did not cheat.
Why the loyalty to Fox? The argument that “we could do a lot worse” is really dumb when you are next to last in the SEC. You could only slip from 12th to 14th. What’s the difference?
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I think if Fox wasn’t currently holding some major commitments from the caliber of player that mostly has eluded us for the past . . well basically forever, then his fate would already be sealed. But the promise that maybe it’ll finally turn the corner is about the only thing keeping him here, if he does get a stay of execution. That and the ticket sales were pretty decent this year for bball so in other words, the money still showed up. Doesn’t hurt that Kirby’s success probably gave McG some breathing room.
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That 90+% of the fan base doesn’t care about the basketball program gives McGarity all the breathing room he needs.
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The big complaint against Fox is that he can’t recruit. If these allegations go where they look like they will maybe we we have found out why he’s had trouble with that.
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Feels good to be a 10%’er.
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We’ve got plenty of talent on this team, and previous teams, to be competitive and make the tournament. Fox doesn’t develop the talent. At all.
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Yup… While CMF year has not come close to meeting expectations; I have thought more than once, that we can at least be confident that UGA will not end up entangled in this investigation. And it sure looks like Auburn and Alabama and Kentucky are going to. And I wouldn’t be surprised to see another name or two that are UGA rivals get caught in this as well. Add to it the mess that GT has found themselves in; it is nice to know the program is ‘clean’ and that UGA actually graduates their players. You never know; the fall out could actually open things up so that even more players elect to play for Fox at Georgia. Especially if many of these schools end up on probation. In my mind; either go out and make a big splash; or ride out Fox and see what implications come from the investigation. The last thing you want to do is fire Fox, hire a coach that might get stained in this mess before it is all said and done.
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“And if it means that Kentucky and Duke and the like will have to cease signing three or four one-and-dones every year, it could be good for Georgia as well.”
Kentucky and Duke are serious about basketball. Georgia is not. This investigation won’t change Ga’s status in the least.
Dumb headline and article by Chip.
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I think McGarity is going to “split the baby” and give the job to Jonas Jennings.
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You mean Jonas Hayes? Jennings is with the football program.
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Make sure McGarity knows the difference. I wouldn’t bet in it.
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Ha, yes. Was posting faster than I could think, again.
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Fox’s contract runs through March 31, 2020.
Regardless of how this season finishes, I anticipate B-M won’t pay the buyout and will see if Coach Fox can take advantage of the new recruiting landscape.
We know basketball is not football, but there have to be some recent recruiting tactics he can deploy to his advantage.
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Well, Fox doesn’t suck any worse than lots of Georgia basketball coaches, so let’s keep him.
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Other than Tubby Smith, Jim Harrick (who got the program into trouble) and Hugh Durham, Fox is the best basketball coach to ever coach at Georgia. Tubby and Harrick proved you can win in Athens. If we dump Fox whom do you propose we hire? I pose this question to EVERYBODY who posts on this blog, particularly Bluto.
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I listened to six years of this shit with football….
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You misunderstood me. I favor making a change but only if the new hire is better. Who is that new hire going to be? Change for the sake of change doesn’t accomplish anything. We did that in baseball already and what did it get us?
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You understand we can’t be worse, right? I don’t understand why anyone would be hesitant to make a move. Who cares who the next hire is? What’s the downside? You go from being 13th to 14th?
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Let’s also not forget baseball has sucked for 10 years now. This state is baseball hotbed- even a bigger underachiever.
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^^This.
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First a disclaimer; this is just a theory.
Many of us have long wondered why UGA underperformed year in and year out on the basketball recruiting trail in a state that produces many very good basketball players. Every year, the top players in the state seemed to be headed for out of state programs. Yeah, UGA recruiting is likely hindered by less than competitive facilities and they certainly don’t have the pedigree of many programs. But, could there be a more significant reason to explain repeated less than stellar recruiting? Could it be that we didn’t participate in the market that appears to have been exposed nationally? It certainly appears to be a possibility. If this thing unfolds and many of the nationally elite/good programs are hit with a large scandal and this whole market associated with shoe companies evaporates, does that change the fortunes of UGA? Does it mean that suddenly we get 1-3 of the more elite players in the state each year going forward? Would that fundamentally change the expectations of UGA basketball? I think that it would.
This all assumes we are not involved in this whole thing.
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Fire Fox and then what? Hire a coach that may be indicted? Who knows who is clean and who isn’t? Not a bad strategy to wait it out and let the dust settle, then make a decision.
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I completely agree.
Let’s hoist the banner in Stegman that reads “2008-2018–Hey, at least our coach never got indicted.”
Name me the biggest win of Mark Fox’s tenure in Athens! Yeah, that’s what I thought.
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Beats Tech regularly. Just sayin.’
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He is 5-4 against Georgia Tech in his tenure at UGA…please tell me that is not something you are celebrating.
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“All together now: it’s a helluva way to run a railroad, Greg.”
Did I miss something? Did McGarity fire Fox?
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I don’t see anywhere in that BS article where ADGM is quoted as saying that.
Towers has no clue what is going on.
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We’ve won lots of games under Fox. (Lost almost as many). But that’s good enough for BM. We are the Georgia Way.
Sad.
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And let me be clear. I’ve advocated for change long and often to BM.
Crickets.
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Yep, this is tailor made for McGoofity. Georgia Way (and Reserve Fund) FTW!
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Does anyone trust the AD to make a decision on replacing Fox? He isn’t going to be handed a candidate as he was with Smart. He isn’t going to be instructed to hire someone like Courtney Kupets because Yoculan comes back as a volunteer assistant with her. I’m not saying this to advocate for Fox, but I don’t think we have a clue about hiring someone who is going to make Georgia basketball relevant.
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Again, Georgia is not serious about basketball. Even if we luck up and get someone good (lik a Tubby) this will be a stopover to a real program.
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If we’re not going to be serious about basketball, I would suggest keeping Fox because you know he isn’t going to do something stupid and get us in trouble that risks bleeding over into other programs. Sort of like many basketball schools feel about their football coaches.
We should get serious about basketball … we’ll never be Kentucky, UNC, Kansas, etc., but is it too much to ask to be Florida or South Carolina?
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What’s hilarious is some school will poach Fox from us to prove their commitment to running “Clean” program! Then what will we do?
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It’s amazing that the usual “who else are you going to get?” suspects didn’t learn anything from the football program’s change.
The arguments for keeping Fox are literally identical to those for keeping Richt – the difference is Fox has never won anything on a level that Richt did, so it’s even more preposterous.
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Couldn’t agree more. And I say that as someone who was initially hesitant about moving away from Richt, but you can’t be so scared to make a mistake that you refuse to take risks.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
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My question is why aren’t we cheating too?
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Calling Coach Hurley …..
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May not have to worry about losing recruits if Fox is canned. They are leaving already. Ashton Hagans, Top 10 prospect naionally, #1 PG, and #1 player in GA, decommitted today after just committing in December.
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