In defense of Mark Fox: program stability

When thinking about Mark Fox's job performance, program stability isn't a bad place to start.  Is it the most important thing about being a head coach at a Division 1 basketball school?  No.  Winning is.  However, it's fair to step back and ask yourself:  has my basketball program embarrassed itself lately?

10 years ago, for Georgia fans the answer was yes.  You may or not like how the administration handled the whole Jim Harrick situation, but the result was a pile of smoldering wreckage.  It wasn't even much of a scandal, and it wouldn't have phased a school like Kentucky, Duke, or North Carolina, but for a Georgia program that was slowly pulling itself up by its bootstraps, it was devastating.


That led to a very safe hire - Dennis Felton - who was tasked as much with restoring order in the program as he was with winning games.  He did a lot of the first and very little of the second.  Fortunately, Mark Fox was able to come on board without rocking the boat.  Consider the following:

APR

These are the available 4-year average rates for Mark Fox's tenure:

• 2009-10 - 946
• 2010-11 - 960
• 2011-12 - 990
• 2012-13 - 986

Not a bad trend line.

Cheating Scandals

None that I'm aware of.

General Embarrassment

12 years ago we were embarrassed about this.  Now it's things like this and this.  I'm down with that.

Has it been perfect?  It never is.  The Brandon Morris incident was a bit of a blight, but not Fox's handling of it, and that's the point.  Fox has given us no reason to believe he's doing anything other than running the program with integrity and class - as much as that's possible in the sometimes nefarious world of college sports, anyway.

You don't keep your job as a college basketball coach just by running a stable program, but it's a great foundation if your goal is to build something meaningful, and Fox has laid that foundation nicely over the last 6 years.