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Georgia basketball 2017 schedule: Last chance for Mark Fox

By Kyle Funderburk

NASHVILLE, TN - MARCH 13: Mark Fox the head coach of the Georgia Bulldogs gives instructions to his team against the South Carolina Gamecocks during the quarterfinals of the SEC Basketball Tournament at Bridgestone Arena on March 13, 2015 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
NASHVILLE, TN - MARCH 13: Mark Fox the head coach of the Georgia Bulldogs gives instructions to his team against the South Carolina Gamecocks during the quarterfinals of the SEC Basketball Tournament at Bridgestone Arena on March 13, 2015 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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NASHVILLE, TN – MARCH 13: Mark Fox the head coach of the Georgia basketball team gives instructions to his team against the South Carolina Gamecocks during the quarterfinals of the SEC Basketball Tournament at Bridgestone Arena on March 13, 2015 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
NASHVILLE, TN – MARCH 13: Mark Fox the head coach of the Georgia basketball team gives instructions to his team against the South Carolina Gamecocks during the quarterfinals of the SEC Basketball Tournament at Bridgestone Arena on March 13, 2015 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /

Besides the seeding for the Wooden Legacy, the 2017-18 Georgia basketball schedule is complete.

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Last year, Georgia basketball had a pretty difficult schedule. Non-conference was tough with trips to Clemson and Oakland, as well as a game with Kansas in Kansas City and a home game against Marquette.

Then the conference schedule was probably the most intense in the league. Georgia had to play Florida, Kentucky and South Carolina each two times. That included playing those three back-to-back-to-back.

The games were winnable but the Bulldogs failed to win them and ultimately fell to 19-15, missed the NCAA Tournament and lost in the first round of the National Invitational Tournament.

But Mark Fox was given another chance. Understandably so, there was some youth on last years team that held them back, but poor shooting from everyone except J.J. Frazier and Yante Maten was the real killer.

For 2017-18, Frazier is the only starter missing as Yante Maten decided to return to the team a few weeks ago. Senior Juwan Parker, juniors Derek Ogbeide and Mike Edwards, and sophomores Tyree Crump and Jordan Harris will all be one-year more experienced and wiser. Then you add Rayshaun Hammonds, probably the biggest recruit of the Mark Fox era.

Talent-wise, this is the best team of Fox’s tenure in Athens. And if you’re a long-time reader of Dawn of the Dawg, you know that I used that as my reasoning for keeping Fox for another year, but also as reason for firing him if this team does not go to the NCAA Tournament.

Well now that the schedule has been revealed, I only feel more confident about this teams chances of going to the Big Dance, but I’m also more confident that this is Fox’s last chance. If you can’t win with these players on this schedule, you don’t need to be coaching Georgia basketball.

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