No Nevada vs. Georgia series as part of the hiring

Thanks goodness.  It didn’t turn out so good in 2004 or 2005.

I know that’s not news, but it does illustrate (at least to me) that no matter what, we have an improvement in the new coach.  In talking to folks out west, they are pretty impressed with the hire and think he is actually a ‘more accomplished’ version of Anthony Grant.   I know this is a bit of homerism, but I tend to agree.

I still trust Damon and think he got a good hire out of this.  If Fox comes in and makes  a key hire to help with recruiting (think Rodney Garner, but for basketball), I see plenty of reason for the SEC East to be nervous about Georgia basketball in year two and beyond. Even with a mediocre hire to help with recruiting, the Dawgs are in much better shape than they were two months ago.  I like Fox’s take on schollys (not wanting to use them for the sake of using them this year) and what that means Damon has told him about his future and the future of the program.  This is a future building exercise and one that is designed to bring long term success.  I see no way to argue with that.

In the end, would it have been nice to get Anderson? Sure.  I am not of the opinion that completely wiffing on Grant was epic fail.  Did I want him? Yes, but comparing Fox and Grant, the one thing that make Grant more interesting is his local (read SEC) coaching pedigree.  The one thing that makes Fox more interesting is his long term success in coaching players.  I know which one I think is more important.  Furthermore, we hired the seach consultant to act as a proxy to represent the program.  If the consultant and Grant didn’t get along, that is even more evidence to me that it wasn’t a good match.