It's over. Mark Fox, J.J. Frazier, Yante Maten, Juwan Parker. There's a new era coming for UGA basketball.

Stegeman ColiseumPhoto by Griffin Callaghan

The University of Georgia athletics had decided that it would be best to part ways with the longtime head basketball coach, Mark Fox. Fox coached some very good players during his time with the team and has sent two of his most successful players to the NBA in Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (L.A. Lakers) and Yante Maten (Miami Heat). J.J. Frazier and Juwan Parker have also latched onto professional teams overseas.

Fox was a very good coach but was never able to really replicate the success he had in other programs with different levels of competition. Making the NCAA tournament was a brand new obstacle every time a new season began. That was just not going to be good enough to cut it at such a sport-centric university.

In comes the new head coach Tom Crean. Crean has some interesting prospects on his resume. The most notable thing he has done in his career was recruit and develop NBA legend Dwayne Wade while he was at Marquette. Wade has spoken many times of his appreciation and fondness of Crean which is impressive coming from that big of a star.

Head coach Tom CreanPhoto by Griffin Callaghan

Tom has coached at both Marquette and Indiana while having a mixed bag of success. He carries an overall head coaching record of 356-231. That comes with an 11-9 NCAA D1 tournament record and 2-3 NIT tournament record.

Crean has always been known as an excellent recruiter and that is exactly why Georgia brought him on. Mark Fox was a fantastic coach but he lacked sorely in the recruiting department.

Tom already has two top-30 small forward recruits committed: Jaykwon Walton and Toumani Camara. Walton is the second ranked recruit coming out of Alabama and Camara is ranked fourteenth out of Florida.

Last season was a tough one for UGA fans because of all the what-ifs that came out of it. The team was just a win or two away from making it back into the NCAA March tournament. A tournament appearance had been the goal set for the team for the past few years and they have been ever so close to it without ever actually achieving.

This year comes a new sort of excitement and hype surrounding the team. With new events like "Stegmania" coming up soon, new coach Tom Crean is already making an impact on the program along with attempting to get his student body more invested in the sport.

Stegeman ColiseumPhoto by Griffin Callaghan

Some returning players projected to have more important roles on the team this year include Nicolas Claxton, Rayshaun Hammonds, Teshaun Hightower, and Tyree Crump. One of the knocks against Mark Fox was that he didn't utilize his personnel properly. Giving these players more opportunities is likely one of the priorities set by Crean as he looks to develop some of the guys he already has.

It is difficult to project exactly what this team can be because of all the changes that have come in the past few months. If Crean can put it all together then an achievable goal would be to make long anticipated trip back to the NCAA D1 tournament. Something to watch for would be the lineups that Tom Crean sets when the season starts. Who will be his starters? And his bench? These things will almost certainly be different than they were in the Mark Fox era.