Fox talks roster depth, thoughts on NCAA Tournament selection process

Mark Fox enters this season knowing his team could be as deep as he has had since becoming Georgia’s head coach.

While he didn’t make that definitive of a statement when broached with the question, Fox acknowledged the pieces back from last season’s roster, which advanced to the second round of the NIT. He has one of the better SEC guard-big combos in J.J. Frazier and Yante Maten. He has on-court experience and got an offseason to develop Derek Ogbeide and Mike Edwards.

Sophomores E’Torrion Wilridge and Turtle Jackson are poised for more minutes. Juwan Parker, after a medical redshirt season due a partially torn Achilles tendon, is finally healthy and ready to go.

While Georgia lost Kenny Gaines and Charles Mann to graduation, freshmen Tyree Crump and Jordan Harris are guards who could see some early playing time. And Crump can flat out shoot the ball as Fox said he put up at least 20 3-pointers during Georgia’s exhibition tour in Spain.

Pape Diatta, a junior college transfer, also will be expected to contribute on the offensive end with his versatility to play like an off guard or as a small forward at his 6-foot-7 frame. Houston Kessler and Kenny Paul Geno will provide key defensive minutes as the younger and more explosive offensive contributors learn how to play the college game at that side of the court.

As a result, it makes sense why Fox would be pleased with the kind of team he has at his disposal for the 2016-17 season.

“I think we have the balance,” Fox said. “Hopefully, we have the balance similar to what it was two years ago when we had scoring from lots of places. We are deeper. I think we’ll have far greater competition for minutes. I think no matter how split the group up, Team A vs. Team B in practice ought to be extremely competitive because of our depth. It should allow us to accelerate how fast we improve.”

With that in mind, the expectations of an NCAA Tournament berth will be higher than it’s been, even before last season began. Georgia had a slow start a season ago, and following a late-season loss to Auburn, it proved too much for Georgia to earn admission into the big dance — even with wins over South Carolina, which might have actually knocked the Gamecocks out of the field of 68.

Georgia has been to the NCAA Tournament twice in Fox’s seven seasons. After being left out last season, Fox was left wondering what he could’ve done differently. That’s still been a thought of his throughout the offseason, given the lack of clarity of what the NCAA selection committee is looking for each year.

“Part of the NCAA’s process is out of your control because, again, I’m not the only one who says this, but what are the benchmarks?” Fox said. “We’re just driven internally to be as good as we can make this group. Hopefully this team can achieve that.”

Fox suggested more transparency in the NCAA Tournament selection process. Perhaps, he said, it’s time to replicate the college football playoff approach and rank teams weekly on whether they’d earn a tourney berth or not once it gets closer to tournament time.

That way, teams will know what they need to do to earn admission to the NCAA Tournament before Selection Sunday comes.

“As the group of teams in Division I has grown, there should be a top 75,” Fox said. “Here’s a ranking against the top 75, here’s how you did against the top 75. And then here are the things that are most important to us — scheduling teams at these levels. Nobody has a balanced league schedule anymore. The game’s changed with league expansion and we need to have a specific set of criteria.”

Part of the reason for Georgia’s slow start a year ago was that Parker and Ogbeide suffered injuries at the start of the season. The Bulldogs were forced to adjust how they wanted to play offensively and had to slow the tempo down while moving Mann to an unfamiliar position at which he didn’t practice all preseason.

Assuming nothing goes awry this time around, the Bulldogs possess a deep enough roster to build on last season’s strong finish, during which Georgia won six of its final eight games. And maybe this time, given the makeup of the team, Georgia won’t have to worry come Selection Sunday.

“This group is deeper,” Fox said. “Obviously, we start practice (this week) and we have a lot to learn. I do think we’re deeper and more balanced than maybe we were last year.”

This story was originally published October 5, 2016 at 10:39 AM with the headline "Fox talks roster depth, thoughts on NCAA Tournament selection process."