Mark Fox is the new head basketball coach at Cal where the Bears hope he’ll have the type of success he had at Nevada, but couldn’t replicate at Georgia.
Cal has hired former Georgia and Nevada coach Mark Fox as the Bears new basketball coach, replacing Wyking Jones who was fired after a 16-47 record in two seasons.
Fox was fired after the 2018 season by Georgia after spending nine years in Athens, only making the NCAA Tournament on two occasions, and not since 2014-2015. Cal fans looking solely at the win-loss record at Georgia doesn’t pain the full picture. Georgia is historically a program that’s been tough to have sustained high-levels of success.
Prior to his time at Georgia, Fox was the coach at Nevada for five seasons where he won more than 20 games each season and three tournament berths, including two Round of 32 trips where he helped build that program up. He was a three-time winner of the WAC Coach of the Year Award.
He spent last season as an assistant coach to Jeff Van Gundy for the World Cup Qualifying team and worked with the Bucks Summer League team.
“Mark Fox is a man of unparalleled integrity with a proven record of success as a head basketball coach,” Cal athletic director Jim Knowlton said in a release. “He is an inspiring leader, a teacher and an exceptional communicator who has displayed a strong commitment to developing the entire student-athlete on the court and off the court. We had an exceptional pool of candidates, and through the entire process, one person clearly rose to the top. I am excited to welcome Mark to the Cal family and look forward to him leading Cal men’s basketball program to new heights. We want our teams to be exceptional, and I firmly believe that Mark is the person to lead us there.”