re: Fox returning as MBB coach next year

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All the old fan sit down the whole entire game, And that's if they are even there. We can't even fill the lower bowl of Stegemam.

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Y'all gonna realize: Georgia Athletics is a big club and we all ain't in it.

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Vitale sure did.

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Of course, Dick Vitale also gets really excited about Pizza Hut.

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Bottom line is it has been 8 years and we are a mediocre basketball program by any standard you wish to judge it by.

If that is OK with you, fine. But I would think that Georgia would aspire to a higher standard. It can be done at Athens with the right coach.

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Based on history, the program has been above average. This is not even debatable unless you are a Millennial. I do agree it could be better and should be better.

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Based on history, the program has been above average

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I think we all agree on that

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I do agree it could be better and should be better.

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I think MANY of us agree on that too, we could and should be better. And we aren't going to get any better with fox at the helm.

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If we get a mid major guy who does well, he will be gone in a few years

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that's a loser mentality and there's simply no way to know that. You're basically saying let's hang on to fox and get those 18-20 wins and an NIT bid because heaven forbid we get someone really good in here who will just bolt soon after.

If someone does as well as you're talking about, good enough to where they leave in 3 years, it means we've at the very least MADE the tourney and in all likelihood won a game or 2 when there. It is also likely that he will have gotten a high profile recruit or 2. If that were the case and he bolted, we'd be no less attractive of a job than we are now. A guy doing so well that he leaves for something better in 3 years would be a fantastic problem to have I'd think.

And on the flip side, if the guy is a career mid-major dude and is doing well in the SEC and making $2M a year, it's not set in stone he'd automatically leave.

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We need to do more than just hire a hot up and comer if we want the program to truly mature to the next level and hold.

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Define do more? What is the recommendation if hiring a hot coach isn't at the very least part of the answer.

With our current AD, we *know* that hiring an established P5 coach that would truly be game changing is not on the table... we're not going to pay 3.5-4 mill a season in year one just to have that creep up over time - which is ultimately what it would take to hire away a high quality P5 HC (if that would even do it). It needs to be a systematic process of building on success... Fox has had incremental success, but none of it at the scale that merited significant increased investment in the program. KCP only at UGA for 2 years was great for the time, but tough to build momentum on. Only one tournament berth in the last several years and no wins doesn't exactly give you momentum to capitalize on either.

If you hire the hot mid-major coach and offer a competitive salary maybe with some pretty enticing accelerators for tournament wins... you could conceivably make the situation very desirable. Be transparent. Have early discussions on the reality of the current venue and set guidelines on what level of success (both on court and fan engagement) might merit re-evaluating a facility change... I will agree with you that *just* hiring a new coach does not necessarily change the program, but it can be the catalyst. Also, I feel like there isn't as much drive to *get* students and locals to basketball games from what I hear (not in Athens anymore so can't speak from personal experience). During the Harrick days, there was a metric shite ton of student and local marketing to get people to attend, and the crowds were generally quite good. Athens is tricky as far as attendance goes, as getting to games during the week from Atlanta (where the largest chunk of the alumni base lives) is brutal if not impossible, so you're counting on local area support to fill those games up. Weekend games tend to have pretty good attendance from what I've seen.

That's the thing... UGA is playing good basketball now. Not seeing the marketing we used to see. Maybe it's there and not working. Not saying a new guy won't stir something up, but we are playing good basketball now and the fan support does not correlate. I just don't feel like I'm seeing anything huge being done for the team other than McGarity saying he promises not to fire the coach most likely...

We haven't played exciting basketball though, which is why I don't think we've seen good attendance/support. We're #281 in 3-pt percentage, we didn't really run the floor a lot, our defense wasn't that impressive, etc. Having a slower offense that plays through a post player just isn't going to bring in average fans in droves.

Some people really believe that.