It doesn't happen often, but when Paul Westerdawg speaks at the Georgia Sports Blog, it's always worth listening.
Yesterday,
he said what a lot of us are thinking:
At this point, there's an incredibly shrinking opportunity to debate
Mark Fox's future. It appears that he hasn't signed his contract
extension from last Spring. Now he likely won't sign it due to buyout
implications which are rumored to impact him negatively in the new
unsigned doc. His old contract ends after the 2016 tourney. Buying
him out at $3.4 million $1.7 million or less is more than manageable. (I checked and the buyout is lower than I thought. #JournalismMath)
So...in my opinion and the opinion of others I talk to...he has to make
the tourney or he's out. That means he likely needs to win 4 more
games. There are 5 regular season games and at least 1 SECT game.
That includes 3 remaining road games and a home game against UK. Other
than UK, the opponents are beatable, but so were Auburn (home) and South
Carolina (home and road). Those are horrible basketball teams.
The only debate left is....what happens if he makes the tourney and
loses first round? Is 6 years without a single NCAA tourney win worth
rewarding? Can he find another job before McGarity fires him
after the NCAAs?
That's the question.
Fox's future is a conversation I really don't want to have until after the season, but that's just me. We all have a pretty good idea of where this season is going, but the body of work isn't complete yet.
I also disagree slightly on what it will take to get in the tournament. I continue to believe 3 more regular season wins will do it. That's splitting hairs, though, and not really the point.
The buyout implications of not signing the extension have been eating at me, so I'm glad Paul brings it up. Did that play into Fox's decision not to sign or is it simply a "happy" coincidence for Fox now that it looks like his team is going to miss the tournament yet again.
His final question is one I hadn't even considered. My operating assumption was that a tournament berth would save his job, period. But is that really enough in year 6?
At this point, it almost seems like wishful thinking that we'll even be
having that debate in a month.
[Georgia Sports Blog]
