Cal Bears head coach Mark Fox has some comments to make after a call during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Oregon State in Corvallis, Ore., Sat Mar 4, 2023 (AP News file photo)
By Morris Phillips and Michael Duca
Cal Bears head coach Mark Fox was the butt end of memes during Cal home games that showed the swirling Fire Fox logo during this season. The inevitable happened on Thursday afternoon when Cal Athletic Director Jim Knowlton announced that indeed Fox was fired from the flagging basketball team who went 3-29.
“This was a difficult decision and one that I do not take lightly,” Knowlton said. “After deliberately and holistically evaluating all aspects of our program, I felt a change was needed at this time.” Fox took over the reigns of head coach in 2019. Fox gave the Golden Bears some hope when he took the club to a 14-18 season, the Bears that season went 7-11 in non conference games.
It was the last three years that Fox just couldn’t recover Cal basketball with losing seasons that landed him and the Cal MBB program in last place in 2021 and 2023. Cal had a 10-50 overall record in those last three seasons. Previous to Fox coming to Cal head coach Wyking Jones coached the Bears for two seasons going 8-24 in 2017-18 and 8-23 in 2018-19.
Fox leaves Cal with a 38-87 overall record and going 17-61 in four regular seasons. When Fox first took over in 2019-20 he was able to win seven conference games. Fox was unable to win over five games in each of the following three seasons as Cal head coach. Also the Cal program had lost over 20 games in three consecutive seasons with Cal finishing in last place in two seasons under Fox.
Before coaching at Cal Fox coached at the Georgia Bulldogs for nine seasons and led Georgia to two NCAA Tournament appearances. Fox at Georgia finished above .500 in his last five years. As head coach in Reno for the Nevada Wolfpack Fox won three NCAA Tournaments and won at least 21 games in his five seasons in Nevada.
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