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Mark Fox: Can Dawgs Win 20 Games, 3 Years in a Row?

By John Buhler

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Mark Fox is entering his seventh season with the Georgia Bulldogs Men’s Basketball Program. Can Fox get the Dawgs to 20 wins for the third year in a row?

Mark Fox has the Georgia Bulldogs Men’s Basketball Program in arguably its best spot in decades. The Georgia Bulldogs are coming off back-to-back 20 win campaigns and made it to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in his six years building the UGA program.

Under Mark Fox’s tutelage the UGA program has gone from one of the worst basketball teams in the SEC historically into a team that is a competitive team in the conference and a perennial team on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament. Does Mark Fox get the Dawgs back to 20 wins in 2015-16? Will that be enough to get UGA into the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive year?

A major reason for Georgia’s turnaround the last two seasons has been because of improved conference play. After going 9-9 during SEC play in 2012-13, SG Kentavious Caldwell-Pope‘s sophomore season, Georgia rattled off 12-6 and 11-7 season in SEC play in 2013-14 and 2014-15, respectively. With those two above-.500 campaigns in SEC play came two of Mark Fox’s three 20-win seasons (20-14 in 2013-14 and 21-12 in 2014-15).

Looking at UGA’s 2015-16 slate of games, I see the Dawgs dropping two of the three games in the non-conference: Murray State, Seton Hall, and Baylor. Murray State and Seton Hall feel like NCAA Tournament bound teams. UGA gets a tough Baylor Bears team in the Big 12/SEC Challenge. Though that might stand as a UGA defeat, I’m glad we are a part of this series with the Big 12. It wouldn’t be a bad loss either should it happen.

In the SEC slate, I’ll split it up with the first and second half of Conference Play, as the Baylor Game on January 30th in Waco, TX breaks it up nicely. Georgia’s first eight SEC games are as follows: @Florida, Missouri, @Ole Miss, Tennessee, Texas A&M, @Missouri, Arkansas, @LSU. UGA is fortunate to get Florida early, Mizzou twice and Arkansas at home. LSU on the road sounds tough. I’d say 5-3, maybe 6-2 during this stretch is probable.

-= Related: Georgia Bulldogs Men’s SEC Basketball Schedule =-

After the Big 12/SEC Challenge, Mark Fox’s Georgia Bulldogs will complete their remaining 10 SEC games. They are as follows: South Carolina, Auburn, @Kentucky, @Mississippi State, Florida, @Vanderbilt, @Auburn, Ole Miss, @South Carolina, Alabama.

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UGA doesn’t beat UK in Lexington. I like UGA to go around 8-2 or 7-3 in the back half of SEC play. So we’re looking at a 17-19 win team heading into the SEC Tournament. The question becomes if UGA plays well enough to get a crucial double bye in the tournament by having a Top 4 seed in the SEC.

With a projected 14-4 to a 12-6 record in conference, I would say UGA finishes in the 3 to 6 seed range entering the SEC tournament. To feel safe about getting to a 20-win season in 2015-16, Mark Fox will have to get his boys to win at least one SEC tournament game. Being that the Dawgs have already gotten to the SEC Semifinals in back-to-back seasons, that’s possible.

However, the Dawgs will play a different style of ball in 2015-16, with senior leaders down low in Marcus Thornton and Nemanja Djurisic having already graduated. UGA is most experienced in the back court with Charles Mann, Kenny Gaines, and J.J. Frazier. Yante Maten is an intriguing piece down low as a sophomore and Mark Fox usually does a phenomenal job in getting the most out of his players.

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20 wins is an attainable goal for the 2015-16 Georgia Bulldogs’ Men’s Basketball Program. However, I feel that they would need to win at least 22 games to feel comfortable about getting back into the Big Dance in 2016. Then again, the new influx on coaching talent may have the SEC as one of the NCAA’s most exciting conference in College Hoops this season.

College Basketball season is only a month away. I’m excited for the Dawgs to keep building their program under HC Mark Fox. If the backcourt trio of Mann, Gaines, and Frazier play well together and UGA can still rebound like they have the last three years, the seems like an NCAA bubble team. Play hard and let’s see what happens. Go Dawgs!

Next: Yante Maten: Ready to Anchor Dawgs Down Low?

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