Mark Fox Completely Owns Georgia Basketball Melt Down

The Georgia Basketball team lost in another blowout last night to lowly Vanderbilt. Folks have gone from questioning Mark Fox to tuning him out.

NCAA Basketball is a tough, dirty business. If you don’t think it is dirty, I would point you to the current Dept. of Justice and FBI investigations. I’d also point you the University of North Carolina. How they still have an academic charter is beyond me. To that end, Coach Mark Fox does it the right way. Georgia Basketball is a clean program, by all accounts, and he seems to be liked by his players and UGA staff. That’s important. It means something. The problem? He can’t win.

As the UGA Football team explodes on the national scene, creating buzz and building a national brand, the Men’s Basketball team is careening towards another post-season oblivion, and are losing to the worst teams in the conference. Georgia Basketball is currently (13-10) on the season and (4-7) in the SEC. That doesn’t seem gawd-awful until you consider that, at one point, they were (10-3). That’s not a swoon. That’s not a rough patch. That’s an implosion.

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Fans, and some writers, casually call for coaches to be fired every year. It’s the casual part that gives me agita. It seems uncivilized to openly and boisterously call for a person, and consequently his or her family, to lose their employment and security.

Now, we do this with the knowledge that these people are millionaires, and won’t exactly be standing in unemployment lines needing a handout. I get that, too.

So, it is with hesitation, but also a rising certainty, that I can write in good faith that Mark Fox just hasn’t done enough to warrant continued employment.

Doug Brodess, former College Basketball analyst for Bleacher Report, and other outlets, replied to me on Twitter today with the following regarding Fox:

Mr. Brodess, a recurring guest for years on my radio show, is a very kind person. That was his polite way of saying , yes.

And it was that last point he made that focuses the attention and sharpens the focus. Mark Fox, while at Georgia, has a losing record in conference. That is just unacceptable.

Or, maybe it is acceptable. AD Greg McGarity will have to decide that. But I can write with certainty that fans are growing tired of watching other teams win with players from the State of Georgia.

Coach Fox has done an admirable job coming in on the heels of Harrick and Felton. He stabilized the program, and one can make a case that, at times, elevated the program.

But, not consistently. It seems silly that the University of Georgia can’t field a consistently competitive Men’s Basketball team.

Time will tell, and there are worse coaches out there. One has to ask, though: What is the standard? Where is the happy place?

Next: Georgia Bulldogs Raise Ticket Prices And Fan Consternation

If it is the NIT, UGA is in great shape.