McGarity expands on reasons he kept Fox as basketball head coach

For the first time since the Georgia basketball season ended, athletics director Greg McGarity expanded on why he decided that head coach Mark Fox would remain in his position.

First, a refresher: Heading into the SEC Tournament, a Yahoo! Sports report surfaced that McGarity was doing his due diligence to find potential replacements for Fox. The following morning after the report was published, McGarity denied it while stating Fox would be back.

In an interview with The Telegraph, McGarity spoke at length about his reasoning, which he hadn’t done since the 2016-17 basketball season ended.

“I think you just have to have a gut feeling,” McGarity said. “Mark Fox is an excellent coach. I’ve got confidence that we’re going to have a great season. We had some close games — and again, I don’t deal in the what-ifs, the could-haves and the would-haves. I know the type of young men he has on his team. I know who he is bringing in.”

McGarity pointed to a few factors at play for why he holds confidence in Fox for the upcoming season.

First, Georgia is bringing back forward Yante Maten, who will enter his senior season as one of the top candidates for preseason SEC Player of the Year. While Georgia loses All-SEC first-teamer J.J. Frazier, it returns every other key contributor from last season’s team.

McGarity noted that the Bulldogs finished .500 in the SEC, which ended up placing three teams — South Carolina, Florida and Kentucky — in the Elite Eight. The Gamecocks beat the Gators and advanced to the Final Four. Georgia lost a combined seven games to these three teams, which included overtime losses to Florida and Kentucky and two single-digit defeats to South Carolina.

McGarity also was impressed with the recruiting class Fox brought in, which included top-50 prospect Rayshaun Hammonds, a four-star forward out of Norcross. Nic Claxton, a 6-foot-11 forward, and 6-5 point guard Teshaun Hightower are also part of Fox’s most recent recruiting haul.

After a 19-15 season, which Fox publicly said was disappointing, Georgia’s basketball program still hosted the most donors it ever had before at its year-end team banquet.

McGarity did acknowledge he has heard from those disappointed in the basketball team during the past two seasons. But for every detractor, McGarity has heard from a supporter.

“Either you have confidence in someone, or you don’t,” McGarity said. “When it comes to the point where you lose confidence in someone’s ability to lead a program you have to make a change. But there is no blueprint. There are certain factors that weigh in. You have to weigh in everything in totality. I respect the job Mark has done. I think he’s an excellent coach. We have tremendous young men in our program who are doing great things. I just didn’t feel like it was the time to make a move.”

Since arriving at Georgia from Nevada in 2009, Fox has compiled a 145-118 record. In eight seasons, Fox’s teams have reached the NCAA Tournament twice. He has yet to lead Georgia to an NCAA Tournament win, however, with his teams going to the NIT the past two seasons.

McGarity said he hasn’t spoken to Fox — or any Georgia coach, for that matter — about whether he needs to hit certain postseason goals in the upcoming season.

Those, McGarity said, are implied.

“We know what’s expected at the University of Georgia,” McGarity said. “You don’t have to go out there and define that. That would be an insult to our coaches. They know what they need to do.

“And I just want to see a program that’s moving forward in the right direction.”

This story was originally published August 20, 2017 at 9:54 AM with the headline "McGarity expands on reasons he kept Fox as basketball head coach."