UGA basketball coach: Smart ‘going to do a phenomenal job’
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Kirby Smart has yet to coach the Bulldogs in a game that will count, but he already has a ringing endorsement from another Georgia head coach, Mark Fox, UGA’s basketball coach of the last seven seasons.
Jason Butt of The Telegraph (Macon, Ga.) wrote of the two coaches’ mutual admiration while reporting on their visits to alumni clubs in Macon and Columbus.
Fox, who was a close friend of former UGA coach Mark Richt, said he already sees Smart doing all the right things only four months into his new job.
“He’s appropriately named. Coach Smart is a smart man,” Fox said at a recent alumni gathering. “He’s covering all the bases and checking all the boxes. … He’s brought great energy to our university and to our team. He’s going to do a phenomenal job.”
Recruiting will be a big part of Smart’s “phenomenal job,” and it appears the hoops coach is setting quite the example.
“You know why he’s a good recruiter? Because he works at it. He constantly works at it,” Smart said of Fox. “His staff works at it. I’ve seen them interact with recruits. I’ve seen what they do. I know how he is with the cellphone. In this day and age, if you want to be a great recruiter, you’ve got to neglect something. And it’s hard. It’s hard doing the coaching job that he and his staff do. They do a phenomenal job.”
Will Fox and Smart be able to make Georgia two-sport titans? Only time will tell.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaign of Fred Taylor.
