Former Georgia coach Mark Fox gained an insight into the passion of the Kentucky basketball fan base long before he agreed to be an associate coach on the Wildcats staff this April.
Fox said that, even when he was Bulldogs coach, Kentucky fans recognized him in public and offered him niceties like paying for a meal. It happened once, for example, in an airport.
“I’m like, ‘Who paid for that?’” Fox said in a phone interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “And they said, ‘Well, this guy over there in the blue hat.’”
Did that happen with other teams’ fans?
Said Fox: “Um, not a lot.”
Fox was back in the state Tuesday as the No. 19 Wildcats faced No. 6 Duke in the made-for-TV Champions Classic at State Farm Arena in the annual event’s second visit to Atlanta. (Before a nearly full arena, Kentucky rallied to defeat the Blue Devils 77-72 after No. 1 Kansas lopped Michigan State 77-69 in the first game.)
“It matters to the people here,” Fox said. “It’s very similar to the love that the Georgia people have for football. It’s really important here and you can feel it from the time you get off the plane in Lexington.”
It has been six years since Fox was dismissed at Georgia after nine seasons. He left with a 163-133 record, the third most wins in school history after Hugh Durham and Herman Stegeman. In his time, the Bulldogs went to the NCAA Tournament twice and the NIT three times. Fox also led Georgia to three consecutive winning seasons in SEC play, something no other coach in school history has ever done when not flagrantly running afoul of the NCAA rule book (See: Harrick, Jim). But he was fired after Georgia failed to make the NCAA Tournament in his final three seasons.
Fox was frustrated then, wanting more support from then-athletic director Greg McGarity. His perspective has remained the same.
“We became consistent and there was another level that we wanted to get to,” Fox said. “But it was going to take another level of commitment and I think they probably knew that, too, because they made a change and then they made a greater commitment. That’s their prerogative.”
A critic would point out that Fox’s performance after Georgia doesn’t indicate that he would have gotten it done. He had four losing seasons at Cal – the last was the worst in school history – before getting fired.
However, in assessing his UGA tenure, time has proved Fox’s ally. In the six years since his firing – four with Tom Crean and the past two with Mike White – the Bulldogs have had two winning seasons and no postseason trips. Fox was 49-41 in SEC play in his final five seasons. The Bulldogs have gone 27-81 since, although the conference has become much more competitive.
“I got an unbelievable phone call from (Georgia AD) Josh Brooks a couple years ago which meant the world to me,” Fox said.
He declined to divulge the nature of the call. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Fox was hinting that Brooks – who worked in the UGA athletic department for most of Fox’s tenure before becoming AD in 2021 – told him he believed that McGarity’s decision to fire him was a mistake.
“I think the success in these jobs, I think a lot of it has to do with a lot more than just who the coach is,” Fox said. “It comes down to an alignment within the athletic department or the university. It comes down to the timing. There’s a lot of things that go into it.”
Regardless, Fox spoke with fondness for his time in Athens and the way the Bulldogs fan base treated him. He has maintained his friendship with Hall of Fame football coach Mark Richt, his contemporary.
“I’ve never met a better man,” Fox said of Richt.
Credit: Chet White
Credit: Chet White
Fox, 55, is at an unlikely stage at Kentucky. It’s rare for a coach who has been a head coach for 18 years, 13 of them at power conference schools, to return to the bench as an assistant. But new Kentucky coach Mark Pope was worth that step down the ladder for Fox. The two go back decades. When Fox was an assistant coach at Washington 1991-93, Pope played for the Huskies for two seasons before transferring to Kentucky, where he ultimately captained the Wildcats to the 1996 national championship.
When Fox was hired at Georgia in 2009, he gave Pope his first job in the industry, as his director of basketball operations. That put him on the path toward head-coaching jobs at Utah Valley, then BYU and now, the pinnacle.
“Even when I coached him, which was three and a half decades ago almost, you could tell he had something special inside of him then,” Fox said. “He spent a brief time with me in Athens and I could see a rocket ship about to take off. He just is really, really talented in his ability to see the game, to connect with people, to work at it.”
On the bench Tuesday at State Farm, Fox’s actions spoke of a man comfortable with deferring to his mentee. When a Kentucky player was called for a foul, Fox flashed two fingers to Pope, communicating how many fouls he now had. He waited for Pope to make eye contact with him before offering a suggestion. When Pope spoke with players during a timeout, Fox stood on the outside of the circle, trying to work his influence on one of the officials on his boss’ behalf.
“It’s been really fun just to see him be so successful and try to contribute in any way I can to help this group be more successful,” Fox said.
Pope has fashioned a roster most fitting for the transfer-portal era. He does not have a single scholarship player who was at Kentucky last season. Nine players transferred in.
Amid that change, having a trusted and experienced sherpa has been valuable.
“It is like a gift beyond imagination,” Pope told The AJC after leading the win over Duke. “It really is. Because for, like, 100 different reasons.”
He named a few of them. He called Fox a great coach, as well as his mentor. The two have a close friendship that goes beyond coaching. Fox is willing to tell Pope when he’s wrong.
“And also to know that he’s totally invested in us being successful – you never get that,” Pope said, walking back onto the State Farm court. “You don’t get that.”
Pope was fully confident that his mentor will be a head coach again, even as early as next season.
“He’s that good,” Pope said. “He’s unbelievable.”
Time will tell if there’s an AD out there who shares Pope’s confidence. You can be sure that he won’t go anywhere without confidence in the support he’ll get there.
Credit: Curtis Compton ccompton@ajc.com
Credit: Curtis Compton ccompton@ajc.com
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