Palmore not sticking around

Just kidding.

Really, though, this shouldn't surprise anyone all that much:

Georgia men's basketball assistant coach Stacey Palmore will not return for the 2014-15 season, head coach Mark Fox announced Thursday.

I have no inside information about how this went down, but I can certainly speculate.

One of the things Greg McGarity says he and Coach Fox talked about was recruiting, and rightfully so.  Fox's recruiting has not been as abysmal as some make it out to be, but it also hasn't been as good as it can be considering the fertile recruiting ground an hour west of Athens.

So what is Fox to do?  Saying, "It will get better" is nice, and I'm sure he said just that, but that's not enough when your job is on the line.  This is the real world, and there has to be a sacrificial lamb - and Fox wasn't going to fire himself.

Today, that sacrificial lamb appears to be Stacey Palmore.

All the press I'm reading implies that the decision was Palmore's, but I have a hunch the decision would have been made for him if he chose not to step away.  His contract was up, and a renewal was probably not forthcoming.

What does it mean?  This would seem to be a great opportunity for Fox to fix the biggest problem facing the Georgia basketball program for the last...oh...quite a few years.  Recruiting the state of Georgia.

Year in and year out, recruiting rankings show that there is enough talent in the state of Georgia to win.  When Fox was hired, one of his biggest perceived mistakes was not hiring assistants familiar with the Atlanta recruiting scene, and that has borne itself out as guys like Jordan, Adams, Tony Parker, Evan Nolte, and many, many others have left the state to play their college basketball.

Now is the time for Fox to get a guy who can recruit the state.  Korey McCray wouldn't be a bad first phone call.  He is a local guy with tons of state ties.  If he won't come, find someone else.

This is an opportunity that Fox needs to seize.

Meanwhile, happy trails to Coach Palmore.  Best of luck, and thank you for your contribution to Georgia basketball.

h/t Dawg Post

Update:

I probably should have known this, but all Georgia basketball assistants work under one-year renewable contracts.  So his contract was up every year.  Regardless, my opinion remains that this decision was Georgia's first, and Palmore's second...