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Nevada's Mark Fox builds on past success
By Steve Sneddon of the Reno Gazette Journal
SALT LAKE CITY - It was a chance meeting in a gym in Portales, N.M., that helped shaped Nevada basketball history.
Nobody knew at the time in 1991 that any grand plan was being hatched, especially not Trent Johnson and Mark Fox as they met for the first time at a junior college scrimmage. Johnson, the Washington Huskies assistant, and Fox, the Eastern New Mexico University senior who was eager to begin a college coaching career, just talked about basketball. They talked for three hours, Fox said, although Johnson laughs and said it was a lot longer than three hours.
That was the embryo of the plan that has resulted in the Wolf Pack's third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. No. 5 Nevada faces No. 12 Montana in a first-round game at the Huntsman Center at 1:10 p.m. Thursday.
Johnson went from assistant jobs at Washington, Rice and Stanford to become the Pack's head coach before the 1999-2000 season. After one season he brought in Fox, who had been an assistant on the staff at Kansas State for six years before Tom Asbury was fired.
Johnson and Fox could see a plan. Their vision was clear, starting with the Sweet 16 appearance in 2004, which served as a stepping stone for Johnson to become Stanford's head coach and Fox to succeed him at Nevada.
“The idea was to build this program into one that could play in the postseason,” Fox said. “If Trent ever left, he would try to do everything he could to ensure that I got the job. He delivered on all of that. He wasn't the one that hired me, but everything we planned out came true.”
Johnson was handing over the keys to a program he loved and wanted to see grow, even if it was going to be without him. That program has flourished under the 36-year-old Fox, whose team is 27-5 and ranked No. 20 by The Associated Press and No. 21 by USA Today/ESPN. Fox is 52-12 in his two seasons and has guided the Pack to two Western Athletic Conference regular season titles and a WAC Tournament title.
The first meeting
In 1991, Johnson had been recruiting two players from Garden City, Kan., Community College. Fox had played at the community college in his hometown for two seasons before playing his last two seasons at Eastern New Mexico. When Johnson returned from Portales he recommended to Huskies head coach Lynn Nance that the team hire Fox as a graduate assistant. Fox was an assistant coach at Washington the next season.
“The thing that impressed me the most was his persistence and his maturity for his age,” Johnson said of Fox. “The game's important to him. It's his life. I think that's why we're close.
“Mark's worked. He's paid his dues. He has the whole package. He knows who he is and he surrounds himself with good people.”
Fox's associate head coach David Carter came to Nevada with Johnson as an assistant and stayed as Fox's associate head coach.
At least one national story has described Johnson as Fox's mentor. It's not true, Johnson said vehemently.
“I haven't been his mentor,” Johnson said. “More than anything it's two guys that have a lot of the same things in common. David Carter is the same way.”
Wisely, Fox rarely, if ever, calls Johnson his mentor.
“He knows I'd go ballistic,” Johnson said.
Going ballistic is something they both share. Nevada fans got accustomed to Johnson prowling the sidelines in front of the bench and sometimes pouncing. The fiery Fox is more the erupting type. He's particularly deadly on white boards during timeouts as he makes his point by breaking the board. At monthly Time-Out Luncheons he has been asked about breaking the boards and smiles. It has become something of a costly trademark for him.
He made a deal with his assistants this season that he would pay a fine for every board he breaks. The current count is about 10.
“It costs me $100 a board,” Fox said. “I don't think their count is as accurate as they say.
“I told them I wasn't going to break any boards. I said, ‘I'll give you 100 bucks every time I do it.' That's why I don't gamble. Hopefully, they're giving (the money) to charity.”
Why break the boards?
“I don't know. Maybe it's a strong right hand,” Fox said. “It gets (the players') attention if they don't listen, I guess. It only hasn't worked one time. That was at UCLA. That's when I knew we were tired.”
The Pack won its first six games, but looked like a weary team in its 11-point loss to UCLA in the Wooden Classic at Anaheim, Calif.
“Each team is different. Each team has different buttons,” Fox said. “Last year, I could push Kevinn (Pinkney's) button and everybody's got pushed. This team's different. There have been games where I could sit and watch the team and they haven't needed it. But sometimes they do. I really feel a team in any sport will eventually take on the personality of their coach.
“It's an inexact science, but eventually they're to get like their coach unless they don't care, unless being held accountable doesn't bother them. If it doesn't bother them and they don't care about it, it's not going to happen. We have kids who care about it. We have terrific kids. They all came here for the same reason - to try to win.”
Learning the craft
Fox said he considered his work as an assistant an apprenticeship, starting under the long-time coach Nance, who taught him to be a major college coach. Fox also learned the finer points of defense with Asbury and learned a lot about offense from Johnson.
“(Fox's) got several qualities that make him what he is,” said Asbury, who is now an assistant at Alabama. “He is highly intelligent, which is unusual for a basketball coach. He's a self-starter. He doesn't need to be told what to do. And he's extremely loyal. He has those three elements - intelligence, work ethic and loyalty.
“He has good players and he's done a good job of coaching them. He has a good system. He's a real competitor. He gets his message across. The competitor will come out in him. But he's the same guy who will put his arm around (the players) and compliment them publicly.”
Throughout the season, Fox has poked, prodded, cajoled, patted backs and pushed buttons. By the time the Pack players got to Boise State on a January evening seven weeks ago, they looked like no amount of pushing was going to drive them.
They were 13-5 overall and 3-3 in the Western Athletic Conference, and some Pack fans were falling over each trying to get off the bandwagon. Nevada fell behind by 13 points in the second half before coming back for an 82-79 win.
That started the Pack's current 14-game winning streak, which is second in Division I to only Gonzaga's 18 games.
Only Duke and Memphis - who both have 30 wins - have won more games this season than Nevada. Only Texas, Connecticut, UCLA and Gonzaga have matched the Pack's 27 wins.
The victories have focused national attention on Nevada and Fox. National experts have lauded Fox.
He said the compliments directed at him mean something personally, but he seems uneasy with them.
“I want our team to get the publicity nationally that it deserves,” Fox said. “I don't believe in self-promotion. I don't think our kids believe in it. But if they accomplish something, they should get the respect that every team gets.
“Everything you get in this game should be earned. So I don't get too hung up that sometimes they don't talk about Nevada as much as maybe I want them to. Hopefully, we'll get the recognition these kids deserve.”
Balancing family and job
Fox can be very single-minded, although he prefers to have two things on his mind.
“There are two things I care about, my family and my team. That's it,” Fox said. “I am ashamed to say at times they get out or order. The most rewarding thing is to see a kid when he knows he's accomplished something, whether that's getting a degree or winning a championship.”
His has a young family. He and his wife, Cindy, Nevada's associate athletic director for sport support, have two children, Parker, 6, and Olivia, 3.
The day Olivia was born, her father was out on the recruiting trail. That's the day he first saw guard Kyle Shiloh in an all-star camp in a sweltering gym at Atchison, Kan.
“That's really hard (to miss a birth),” Fox said. “My wife's understanding. She has been a part of athletics. Even though she understands it, that doesn't make it right. That's one of the major drawbacks of this profession.
“Your family should never take a backseat. My two kids should never take a backseat. My wife should never have to take a backseat. But there are times they do and I'm not proud of it.”
What has he been the most proud of as Nevada's coach?
“We've certainly won two (WAC) championships, which I'm proud of,” Fox said. “In college athletics, the hardest thing to do is to get to the NCAA Tournament. I don't know the percentage, but I would say probably less than 20 percent of the teams. It's not easy to do. It's really not easy to do from a smaller conference. I'm very proud we were able to get there last year (and this year).”
History of influences
As a coach, Fox has been influenced by coaches he played for and assisted, including Nance, Asbury and Johnson. Fox also was influenced by two former Kansas State coaches, the legendary Jack Hartman and Tex Winter.
After playing at Garden City High for Kirk Burrows, who later became a successful high school coach in Northern California, Fox played for Jim Carey at Garden City Community College. Carey, a fiery coach who led Nevada for four seasons, took the Pack to its first postseason tournament, the 1979 National Invitation Tournament. Carey, who died Feb. 4 in Wichita, Kan., also had a major effect on Fox.
“Coach Carey, he felt like every game could be won,” Fox said. “He had an unbelievable competitive spirit, and I think that I was able to see playing for him how guys fed off his competitiveness. You can't fake your competitiveness. You're either a warrior or you're not. He certainly was.”
There's something else that Fox learned from Carey - never talk about potential.
“Coach Carey hated that word,” Fox said. “Coach Carey said potential is manure that hasn't started stinking yet.”
Fox went from Garden City Community College to Eastern New Mexico, where he graduated magna cum laude.
Fox's coach at Eastern New Mexico, Earl Diddle, said he always thought Fox would be a coach.
“The way he conducted himself on and off the floor separated him from the other players,” said Diddle, who now coaches women's basketball at Howard College of Big Spring, Texas. “His passion and enthusiasm separated him. And he's very smart. The fast run from the slow, the strong take from the weak and the smart take from everyone. He's a guy who deserves to be where he's at.
“I'm happy for a guy like that who has persevered through (the Kansas State firing of Asbury and his staff) and performs in the national limelight. It's quite a success story. He was a junior college player who played at a Division II school. He scratched and clawed his way to the top.”
It was all part of the plan Johnson and Fox began drawing up in Portales.
By Steve Sneddon of the Reno Gazette Journal
SALT LAKE CITY - It was a chance meeting in a gym in Portales, N.M., that helped shaped Nevada basketball history.
Nobody knew at the time in 1991 that any grand plan was being hatched, especially not Trent Johnson and Mark Fox as they met for the first time at a junior college scrimmage. Johnson, the Washington Huskies assistant, and Fox, the Eastern New Mexico University senior who was eager to begin a college coaching career, just talked about basketball. They talked for three hours, Fox said, although Johnson laughs and said it was a lot longer than three hours.
That was the embryo of the plan that has resulted in the Wolf Pack's third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. No. 5 Nevada faces No. 12 Montana in a first-round game at the Huntsman Center at 1:10 p.m. Thursday.
Johnson went from assistant jobs at Washington, Rice and Stanford to become the Pack's head coach before the 1999-2000 season. After one season he brought in Fox, who had been an assistant on the staff at Kansas State for six years before Tom Asbury was fired.
Johnson and Fox could see a plan. Their vision was clear, starting with the Sweet 16 appearance in 2004, which served as a stepping stone for Johnson to become Stanford's head coach and Fox to succeed him at Nevada.
“The idea was to build this program into one that could play in the postseason,” Fox said. “If Trent ever left, he would try to do everything he could to ensure that I got the job. He delivered on all of that. He wasn't the one that hired me, but everything we planned out came true.”
Johnson was handing over the keys to a program he loved and wanted to see grow, even if it was going to be without him. That program has flourished under the 36-year-old Fox, whose team is 27-5 and ranked No. 20 by The Associated Press and No. 21 by USA Today/ESPN. Fox is 52-12 in his two seasons and has guided the Pack to two Western Athletic Conference regular season titles and a WAC Tournament title.
The first meeting
In 1991, Johnson had been recruiting two players from Garden City, Kan., Community College. Fox had played at the community college in his hometown for two seasons before playing his last two seasons at Eastern New Mexico. When Johnson returned from Portales he recommended to Huskies head coach Lynn Nance that the team hire Fox as a graduate assistant. Fox was an assistant coach at Washington the next season.
“The thing that impressed me the most was his persistence and his maturity for his age,” Johnson said of Fox. “The game's important to him. It's his life. I think that's why we're close.
“Mark's worked. He's paid his dues. He has the whole package. He knows who he is and he surrounds himself with good people.”
Fox's associate head coach David Carter came to Nevada with Johnson as an assistant and stayed as Fox's associate head coach.
At least one national story has described Johnson as Fox's mentor. It's not true, Johnson said vehemently.
“I haven't been his mentor,” Johnson said. “More than anything it's two guys that have a lot of the same things in common. David Carter is the same way.”
Wisely, Fox rarely, if ever, calls Johnson his mentor.
“He knows I'd go ballistic,” Johnson said.
Going ballistic is something they both share. Nevada fans got accustomed to Johnson prowling the sidelines in front of the bench and sometimes pouncing. The fiery Fox is more the erupting type. He's particularly deadly on white boards during timeouts as he makes his point by breaking the board. At monthly Time-Out Luncheons he has been asked about breaking the boards and smiles. It has become something of a costly trademark for him.
He made a deal with his assistants this season that he would pay a fine for every board he breaks. The current count is about 10.
“It costs me $100 a board,” Fox said. “I don't think their count is as accurate as they say.
“I told them I wasn't going to break any boards. I said, ‘I'll give you 100 bucks every time I do it.' That's why I don't gamble. Hopefully, they're giving (the money) to charity.”
Why break the boards?
“I don't know. Maybe it's a strong right hand,” Fox said. “It gets (the players') attention if they don't listen, I guess. It only hasn't worked one time. That was at UCLA. That's when I knew we were tired.”
The Pack won its first six games, but looked like a weary team in its 11-point loss to UCLA in the Wooden Classic at Anaheim, Calif.
“Each team is different. Each team has different buttons,” Fox said. “Last year, I could push Kevinn (Pinkney's) button and everybody's got pushed. This team's different. There have been games where I could sit and watch the team and they haven't needed it. But sometimes they do. I really feel a team in any sport will eventually take on the personality of their coach.
“It's an inexact science, but eventually they're to get like their coach unless they don't care, unless being held accountable doesn't bother them. If it doesn't bother them and they don't care about it, it's not going to happen. We have kids who care about it. We have terrific kids. They all came here for the same reason - to try to win.”
Learning the craft
Fox said he considered his work as an assistant an apprenticeship, starting under the long-time coach Nance, who taught him to be a major college coach. Fox also learned the finer points of defense with Asbury and learned a lot about offense from Johnson.
“(Fox's) got several qualities that make him what he is,” said Asbury, who is now an assistant at Alabama. “He is highly intelligent, which is unusual for a basketball coach. He's a self-starter. He doesn't need to be told what to do. And he's extremely loyal. He has those three elements - intelligence, work ethic and loyalty.
“He has good players and he's done a good job of coaching them. He has a good system. He's a real competitor. He gets his message across. The competitor will come out in him. But he's the same guy who will put his arm around (the players) and compliment them publicly.”
Throughout the season, Fox has poked, prodded, cajoled, patted backs and pushed buttons. By the time the Pack players got to Boise State on a January evening seven weeks ago, they looked like no amount of pushing was going to drive them.
They were 13-5 overall and 3-3 in the Western Athletic Conference, and some Pack fans were falling over each trying to get off the bandwagon. Nevada fell behind by 13 points in the second half before coming back for an 82-79 win.
That started the Pack's current 14-game winning streak, which is second in Division I to only Gonzaga's 18 games.
Only Duke and Memphis - who both have 30 wins - have won more games this season than Nevada. Only Texas, Connecticut, UCLA and Gonzaga have matched the Pack's 27 wins.
The victories have focused national attention on Nevada and Fox. National experts have lauded Fox.
He said the compliments directed at him mean something personally, but he seems uneasy with them.
“I want our team to get the publicity nationally that it deserves,” Fox said. “I don't believe in self-promotion. I don't think our kids believe in it. But if they accomplish something, they should get the respect that every team gets.
“Everything you get in this game should be earned. So I don't get too hung up that sometimes they don't talk about Nevada as much as maybe I want them to. Hopefully, we'll get the recognition these kids deserve.”
Balancing family and job
Fox can be very single-minded, although he prefers to have two things on his mind.
“There are two things I care about, my family and my team. That's it,” Fox said. “I am ashamed to say at times they get out or order. The most rewarding thing is to see a kid when he knows he's accomplished something, whether that's getting a degree or winning a championship.”
His has a young family. He and his wife, Cindy, Nevada's associate athletic director for sport support, have two children, Parker, 6, and Olivia, 3.
The day Olivia was born, her father was out on the recruiting trail. That's the day he first saw guard Kyle Shiloh in an all-star camp in a sweltering gym at Atchison, Kan.
“That's really hard (to miss a birth),” Fox said. “My wife's understanding. She has been a part of athletics. Even though she understands it, that doesn't make it right. That's one of the major drawbacks of this profession.
“Your family should never take a backseat. My two kids should never take a backseat. My wife should never have to take a backseat. But there are times they do and I'm not proud of it.”
What has he been the most proud of as Nevada's coach?
“We've certainly won two (WAC) championships, which I'm proud of,” Fox said. “In college athletics, the hardest thing to do is to get to the NCAA Tournament. I don't know the percentage, but I would say probably less than 20 percent of the teams. It's not easy to do. It's really not easy to do from a smaller conference. I'm very proud we were able to get there last year (and this year).”
History of influences
As a coach, Fox has been influenced by coaches he played for and assisted, including Nance, Asbury and Johnson. Fox also was influenced by two former Kansas State coaches, the legendary Jack Hartman and Tex Winter.
After playing at Garden City High for Kirk Burrows, who later became a successful high school coach in Northern California, Fox played for Jim Carey at Garden City Community College. Carey, a fiery coach who led Nevada for four seasons, took the Pack to its first postseason tournament, the 1979 National Invitation Tournament. Carey, who died Feb. 4 in Wichita, Kan., also had a major effect on Fox.
“Coach Carey, he felt like every game could be won,” Fox said. “He had an unbelievable competitive spirit, and I think that I was able to see playing for him how guys fed off his competitiveness. You can't fake your competitiveness. You're either a warrior or you're not. He certainly was.”
There's something else that Fox learned from Carey - never talk about potential.
“Coach Carey hated that word,” Fox said. “Coach Carey said potential is manure that hasn't started stinking yet.”
Fox went from Garden City Community College to Eastern New Mexico, where he graduated magna cum laude.
Fox's coach at Eastern New Mexico, Earl Diddle, said he always thought Fox would be a coach.
“The way he conducted himself on and off the floor separated him from the other players,” said Diddle, who now coaches women's basketball at Howard College of Big Spring, Texas. “His passion and enthusiasm separated him. And he's very smart. The fast run from the slow, the strong take from the weak and the smart take from everyone. He's a guy who deserves to be where he's at.
“I'm happy for a guy like that who has persevered through (the Kansas State firing of Asbury and his staff) and performs in the national limelight. It's quite a success story. He was a junior college player who played at a Division II school. He scratched and clawed his way to the top.”
It was all part of the plan Johnson and Fox began drawing up in Portales.