re: UGA Season Long Basketball Thread (18-15, 7-11); Georgia to decline NIT bid

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i tend to agree with this but you also definitely cant be afraid to make program changes because a couple of 18 year olds may possible sorta be good one day

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Exactly... keeping a coach because of recruits is a losing proposition 10/10 times. Yante was a top player if not THE best player in the league this year... it isn't enough to offset poor coaching decisions.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say I think we won last night because Mike Edwards only played 2 minutes.

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I'm gonna go out on a limb and say I think we won last night because Mike Edwards only played 2 minutes.

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This....that guy should never see the floor barring massive injuries to the guys in front of him. A total liability in every respect.

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This isn’t football....2 Top 50 players in the country ((including #8) can completely change the landscape of the program and recruiting moving forward.

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Ok... so throw out the rankings for a moment and let's just *pretend* that these 2 top 50 recruits are immediately elite impact players in the SEC and highly productive. Then let's think about 2016-2017... UGA had 2 of the best players that we've ever had on our roster and 2 of the most productive players in the SEC on the roster, and we not only didn't make the NCAA tournament, but lost in the first round of the NIT.

Even if I assume that the 2 recruits that are only *committed* to UGA, actually come, I have to also assume that they offer significantly better production as freshmen than the combination of JJ as a senior and Yante as a junior together - in order to not only offset Fox as a coach but also to account for the general improvements we've seen within the league in the past year. While it's certainly possible, it is a hell of a leap to make when you consider Fox's in game decision making and general approach to the game. The second part of that, the improvement in the league, is one of the reasons many of us felt that last year was the time to make that move... the league is improving one way or the other... Fox does not seem to have the impetus to drive our growth at a pace faster than the "rate of inflation" if you will.

Secondarily, you're making the assumption that if you replace Fox with what would be viewed as an objectively better coach, that those recruits would then *not* come to UGA (even though most of their remarks have been about doing something special close to home, and a coaching change doesn't necessarily negate that). I recognize that the better coach is a leap of faith as well... because let's face it, McGarity doesn't have a lot of credibility in that arena... however... for those of us who think it's not just time, but past time to move on from Fox, we're also advocating that we should be targeting an objectively BETTER coach... no one is saying we should can Fox and then go target George Ivory (HC of Arkansas Pine Bluff)... If my option is keep Fox or go try and grab a bargain basement head coach with next to no track record, fine... keep him for one more year and then let the new AD make the decision... but then we're making the assumption that McGarity is also gone at the end of this contract... which I think most of us *hope* is true, but who knows...

If we're to assume that 2 solid recruits can make a team good enough to offset a coach's deficiencies, wouldn't those same 2 recruits be better with a better coach?

In that regard, you're right... it's *not* like football at all. Instead, if those 2 players are in fact good enough as freshmen to have JJ/Yante level production, then we're in effect keeping Fox for what will amount to potential lottery picks after their Freshman or Sophomore seasons, whereas in football, you're at least guaranteed 3 years if you can keep them out of trouble and eligible academically (no different than basketball on that caveat)... And yet, Fox has not recruited at that level with any consistency, so anticipating him to follow that class with 2 *more* top 100 players even is probably expecting a bit more than he can bite off.

It's fair to acknowledge that Fox has probably run his course here and that someone else could pick up where he left off to advance the ball without saying that he's been some kind of abject failure. You also can't really consider it a great hire either though, when you compare it to the other hire made essentially at the same time using the same search firm - Tony Bennett at UVA. They were not terribly dissimilar candidates at the time... longer track record on Fox, Bennett at a larger program and had a sweet 16 run but had just lost in the first round of the NIT in the previous season. We got Fox for the bargain price of 1.3M compared to Bennett at 1.7M...

The team essentially has no identity under him at this point... independent of his maddeningly frustrating decision making, substitution patterns, or "offensive philosophy" (if you can call it one), the team flat out doesn't consistently show the level of hustle/effort required to win consistently with his "style" of basically poor man's "defense first" basketball. Not to mention that we continue to find ourselves poor at things like ball handling/passing, limiting turnovers, and/or breaking press coverage - all things that should be more or less "coachable".

KCP was also an elite recruit (#12 nationally), who played very well for us... but was not a sign of things to come on the recruiting front nor continued success after his 2 seasons with the Bulldogs... And that was while the era of newness around what Fox could bring to the program was quite real. As opposed to year 9 and either stalled out or moving backwards slightly seeming to be the "direction" of the program.

I just heard about Fox’s whiny press conference where he accused the media of hating players and not, you know, just critizing his mediocre tenure.

I’m with Fib on this, he may get these players in here but nothing leads me to believe he’ll do anything more than a 1st round tournament loss

Additionally, those worried about McGarity blowing the hire. In my opinion I want to know now if McGarity is willing to commit. As someone else said, the eyes seem to already be on him. If he makes another mediocre hire and continues to only be able to point at football as his success then we have yet another piece of evidence that he also needs to be removed. It’s riskier and it puts the basketball program in harms way but I’d rather see them reduced to Felton levels if it leads to a better Athletic Director and basketball bal coach in the end, even if it’s Fox’s replacement’s replacement.

It’s easy to say that now but I guess I can’t see Fox being more than what he’s shown and McGarity making a worthwhile hire unless the same boosters who forced him to hire Kirby come back in.

Yea I agree. I guess my thought process is that even though our athetlics aren’t in a great place overall that you’d need Basketball to really tank along with baseball to get him ousted if the football program is on solid footing.

My idea is that only way Greg gets booted is if

A) he doesn’t support the football program and it becomes Kirby and/or boosters vs McGarity and his staff or

B) baseball and basketball erode to the point that everyone realizes that pretty much all of our sports are in lulls and McGarity can’t hide behind football any longer

Right now, Lunardi has us as his 8th team out. Honestly, we probably need to win every game to put us in the field, or win 3 out of 4 and then get two Conference Tourney wins.

Outside shots at the tourney has been UGA for most of my years as a fan. That’s not a Fox thing.

I'm firmly with WG on this.

We have plenty of resources and if we have a great basketball program, fans will come.

We'll be as good a program as we damn well decide we'll be. Probably won't ever be Kentucky or Duke, but we can absolutely become what Florida basketball became. Nothing is holding us back from that.