Image: AP

Georgia has hired it’s new men’s basketball coach. Jeff Capel or Jamie Dixon it isn’t…

Georgia has hired Nevada coach Mark Fox as its men’s basketball coach and will introduce him at a news conference tomorrow at 11 a.m. in Athens, according to two people within the UGA athletics department.

Fox has been coach of the Wolf Pack for the past five seasons. He was 123-43 during that span, including 21-13 this past season.

Paul Westerdawg of Georgia Sports Blog thinks it’s a damn good hire.

Specifically, he has more conference titles, more NCAA Tourney wins, more weeks ranked in the Top 25, and more wins against teams you’ve ever heard of than Anthony Grant by a long shot.

I feel a lot better after reading PWD’s post. You?

LINKS:

• What do you think of Dogs getting Fox? – AJC
• UGA basketball makes surprise hire in Mark Fox – AJC
• UGA to Hire Mark Fox as Basketball Coach – Georgia Sports Blog
• Done Deal: UGA To Hire Fox – Bulldogs Blog
• Mark Fox Bio – NevadaWolfpack.com
• Fox heads to Georgia – ESPN
• Welcome to Stegeman Coach Fox – Bernie’s Dawg Blawg
• Georgia Hires Nevada’s Mark Fox as New Basketball Coach – SicEmDawgs.com
• Is Georgia crazy like a Fox, or just crazy? – Mark Bradley/AJC
• Reports: Fox to be named new Georgia coach – Athens Banner-Herald

After the humbling rejection by Missouri’s Mike Anderson Mr. Evans and Mr. Adams have apparently come back down to earth. Now, they appear to be seriously considering second tier candidates Oliver Purnell of Clemson and Frank Haith of Miami.

Georgia athletics director Damon Evans will meet with Clemson coach Oliver Purnell and Miami coach Frank Haith in Detroit today to discuss the Bulldogs’ basketball job, sources confirmed for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Hardly the splash our dynamic duo was hoping to make. However if you’re feeling sick about the new names being mentioned, read this post from Dawgs Online. It gives you hope that Damon and Mike can still come through with the guy we all want.

Whatever you do, keep it together man! Don’t go off the deep end like our buddy Vance at Bulldawg Illustrated. He was so distraught over being rejected by Anderson he thought he’d beat that Bobby Knight carcass to relieve his frustrations.

Chip Towers suggests there are more names being tossed about. He mentions Baylor’s Scott Drew, Xavier’s Sean Miller and Butler’s Brad Stevens.

Ok, starting to feel a little better now. You?

Mike Anderson has agreed to stay at Missouri.

Missouri has signed head coach Mike Anderson to a new seven-year contract, athletic director Mike Alden told ESPN.com Tuesday night.

“We are excited Coach Anderson is going to be at the University of Missouri for a long time,” Alden said in a statement. “He’s done a tremendous job rebuilding our basketball tradition and is poised to lead our program to new heights in the coming years.”

What next? Sicemdawgs has some thoughts.

With the money Georgia is offering, hopefully they will attract attention from Oklahoma’s Jeff Capel, unless a private denial has already been issued. Other top coaches to consider should be Xavier’s Sean Miller, Villanova’s Jay Wright and Pittsburgh’s Jamie Dixon. Some “realistic” candidates include UNLV’s Lon Kruger, Baylor’s Scott Drew and Butler’s Brad Stevens.

Let’s hope Evans and company surprise everyone and haul in a name from the first part of that list.

LINKS:

• Mike Anderson to stay at Missouri – AJC
• GEORGIA BACK TO CAPEL – FOX Sports
• Where Do We Go From Here? – Bulldogs Blog

UPDATE 2: The AJC has spoken to Anderson’s agent and he says that Anderson has not been offered the job.

“Georgia hasn’t offered him the job,” Sexton said. “I wish they had. They haven’t said the job is his.”

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UPDATE: @ajcsportseditor has tweeted:

ESPN is wrong: Anderson has not been offered the UGA job, his agent says. Details coming on ajc.com/sports.

If it’s true I hope this isn’t hurting our chances.

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ESPN is now reporting that Georgia has extended an official offer to current Missouri Tiger basketball coach Mike Anderson.

Georgia officials have offered the 49-year-old Anderson a multiyear contract that would pay him more than $2 million per season, according to sources. He would replace Dennis Felton, who was fired Jan. 29 after going 84-91 record in six seasons at Georgia.

Now, the ball is in Anderson’s court.

Anderson, who led the Tigers to a school-record 31 victories and the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament this season, spoke to Georgia athletics director Damon Evans on Monday, according to multiple sources, and is back home pondering his future.

Chip Towers most recent piece on Georgia’s search for a head basketball coach isn’t exactly positive. Essentially when UK got the hatchet out for Billy G. it dropped a big blue turd in Georgia’s punch bowl.

Kentucky’s late entry into the competition for candidates —- it fired Billy Gillispie on Friday —- appears to have cast a Big Blue shadow on the proceedings. Numerous reports Monday had the Wildcats zeroing in on Memphis coach John Calipari. If that happens, that creates another formidable competitor for Georgia in the marketplace. The Tigers reportedly were paying Calipari about $3 million per season.

Despite their recent slide Kentucky is now demonstrating their commitment to climb back up onto college basketball’s top shelf. That means they’re going after a proven winner at big time program, like Calipari, which creates formidable competition for the Dogs in their quest to land their coveted coaching prospect.

It seems what’s being said by the article is “get ready for a coach who isn’t Mike Anderson or Jeff Capel.”

David Hale has a nice update on his blog that suggests that scenario may be more likely than most Georgia folks want to believe.

The other rumors… well, until they can be classified as something more than that, I’m not going to print them. I will say, however, that there is at least one name out there that I’m fairly certain has gotten attention from UGA that isn’t Jeff Capel or Mike Anderson.

The question moving forward is… “Who is the mystery man?”

University of Georgia Athletic Director Damon Evans was in Atlanta meeting with agent Jimmy Sexton, who just happens to be the agent for Missouri Coach Mike Anderson.

Jimmy Sexton, Anderson’s agent, is in Atlanta visiting with Damon Evans, Georgia’s athletic director. Sexton told FOX13 Sports that he had no comment.

Apparently UK is pulling no punches in the pursuit of Calipari and he will be Lexington bound sooner rather than later. That will leave Memphis and Georgia to compete for Anderson’s services.

Good news for Georgia is that Anderson is likely to consider the move to Memphis, a Conference USA program, a lateral move at best.

It appears that this will all be unfolding rapidly this week so stay tuned for a week of drama.

To catch the news as it breaks be sure to follow @gabulldogdotcom on Twitter.

Via Georgia Sports Blog.