I don't think you can completely dismiss the past, certainly the few years just prior to Fox stepping on campus still have lasting impacts on the program, but the Capel disaster become less of a factor with each season. I think both Fox and Kermit Smith had/have similar tasks at hand. Kermit perhaps an easier build as talent is not as big a question on the diamond as culture and team building. Fox had culture (and I mean the culture of the team and the recruits as it relates to education and discipline) issues AND relatively low talent to overcome in his first seasons. That's a double whammy of badness that deserves a bit of a longer leash.

If you take the poor team culture, compound it with lower than average talent, and then add in extenuating factors of location (not only does Firemoose know way more about recruiting, but it just makes sense), school and conference basketball culture historically, not to mention the relative challenge of recruiting basketball for a football school in a decidedly basketball heavy state the App State head coaching position is an extremely difficult build process.

I'm not suggesting that Fox is out there directly competing with Coach K or Coach Dadgum for recruits, but I've seen with my own very limited experience a kid choose to go be the 12th option at Moo-U instead of start at App State. Recruiting is a huge part of college basketball, no doubt, but it is also what you can do with what you have. That's where coaches like Tony Bennett have been able to build a program that can now get the recruits.

Obviously we don't have the W's yet to prove Fox is on the right track but can anyone clearly and accurately articulate his current score card to date? I like the guy and hope he is tracking on the right path. I don't see the end results yet but IF we strongly believe he is building the right program that is on path to provide success academically AND on court I would absolutely be willing to extend his rope. I acknowledge that we were in a deep ditch but also don't want to allow too many excuses either. What I don't want to see is another nine years of wondering in the wilderness that we allowed to happen with Fancher. He was absolutely given too much time.

Rebuilding a program often times is much more than the total of W and L, however just for the sake of discussion:

'14-'15: 12-17
'15-'16: 9-22
'16-'17: 9-21

I think a valuable topic of consideration for anyone who is considering putting the job on the market is to question if there is better out there? I like Fox, I like what he stands for, I like some of the intangibles that I perceive to have come along with his very short tenure on the Mountain (like the improved APR), but anyone thinking that Fox is not the guy to get this team to 20 wins or better, then I suppose you also think there is a better coach out there willing to take on this challenge?

Here is something to consider. If you want to get rid of Fox at this point (which I think is not enough time) are you starting down the path of this is not a very desirable job. Look at NC State. It has become the job nobody really wanted.