Georgia basketball: what to do with an honest coach?
Diogenes roamed Athens looking for an honest man. Could the Georgia basketball program find an honest coach to replace Mark Fox? Probably not.
With a huge assist from the FBI, Yahoo Sports continues to score with stories of widespread college basketball cheating. And with each report, Georgia basketball is forced further into a corner.
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College basketball cheating has been widespread since shortly after the time the continuous dribble rule was instituted. Actual documentation of cheating is the news.
Meanwhile, in Athens town, Georgia basketball head coach Mark Fox is on the hot seat. A Georgia basketball coach on the hot seat is generally not news, either. An actual college basketball coach that doesn’t cheat, that’s the news.
Deciding the fate of Mark Fox requires Athletic Director Greg McGarity and University President Jere Morehead to weigh the rare honest coach and winning basketball games against each other.
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Winning or integrity?
Honesty and integrity are nice, but they don’t fill the coffers. Winning games is where the money is. But now, it’s not so fast for college basketball, especially at Georgia. The Dawg Nation has long contended that doing things the Georgia Way is doing things the right way.
If it were only a question of integrity vs winning, it might be simple. Georgia could just do both – fire the coach and hire another coach with integrity.
Beyond the fact that hiring and firing seven head basketball coaches, including two Final Four coaches (Tubby Smith was also a Final Four coach and the only full-time coach to escape Athens without being fired), has done nothing for Georgia basketball in the past, there is that little issue of finding an honest coach.
Finding an honest man
There is not one potential head coach in America that can be trusted today. The name of any successful head or assistant coach could show up in the next court filing as part of an FBI list of college basketball bribers. Weigh this against Georgia basketball’s improved recruiting classes, and 16 wins could look pretty good from the President’s office.
The Dawg Nation has long contended that doing things the Georgia Way is doing things the right way.
Georgia has felt the NCAA sword before. While North Carolina let over 3000 students take fake classes, Georgia received probation for one easy PE test and paying Tony Cole’s 300 dollar phone bill. Georgia may be the only school in the country that fears the NCAA, but it’s not because of fake news.
When Mark Fox was hired, he said, “[Players] have to see that their dreams can come true – that they can win and play in the postseason, that they can play at the next level, that they can earn a degree. We’re gonna have to earn that respect, and it’ll take time.”
It takes a lot longer when you can’t also drop 20 or 30 grand on a kid and his family. Look for the Dawgs to stay the course. With the current top recruiting class in 2019 pledged to Georgia, Dawg fans may finally find in Athens an honest man that can ball.
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Take your lantern and roam Athens in the daylight. Give us a ring if you find an honest coach.