Fox takes blame for schedule decision

Coach says Bulldogs shouldn’t have played on road after break.

ATHENS — Of the many facets of a coach’s job, one part that often gets overlooked is scheduling. It’s a crucial part to every season, both in the regular season and postseason, seeing how a schedule can be a deciding factor in any postseason tournament.

But it’s what Georgia basketball coach Mark Fox said is something that he made an unsuccessful decision with when arranging this year’s schedule.

“I think I put our players in a terrible position by taking them on the road after an 11-day break,” Fox said. “I don’t think that was wise scheduling on my part.”

After a victory at Stegeman Coliseum against Winthrop on Dec. 5, Georgia went into the exam break for 11 days before traveling to UMass on Saturday, and the Bulldogs lost 72-62. But scheduling wasn’t the only thing that contributed to Georgia’s loss.

“At the same time, we have to play better,” Fox said. “We showed a little rust when the game started and eventually kind of started to look like ourselves, but I’m not sure we ever did.

“But we have come back with a good approach to try to play more complete basketball.”

Fox is looking for more consistency. And with SEC play looming and a Kentucky game in Lexington on Dec. 31, it is something that Fox is hoping to see soon.

“We have to get back to playing the way we were two weeks ago,” Fox said. “The break did not serve us well, and we have to fight through that and get back to playing like we were two weeks ago because we need to. We have a lot of good teams in front of us.”

Speaking of teams in front of Georgia, the Bulldogs take on state rival Georgia Tech tonight at home.

The Yellow Jackets have been riddled with injuries throughout the early portion of the season, and that makes it tougher to scout Tech.

“It’s hard to put your team together when you have guys who are injured and missed a game,” Fox said. “I’m not sure (Georgia Tech) has had a game yet where they have had everybody healthy and suited up. It is a little bit hard to gauge what kind of team they will be when they have all of their pieces together, but we have to trust that our preparation will be sufficient.”

Tipoff is at 9 p.m. at Stegeman Coliseum. Fox is hopeful that even though students have been dismissed for break that the rivalry game will bring more people back to Athens.

“If it truly is a rivalry game,” Fox said, “people will come and we will have a great crowd.”