Nevada's Fox defies norm by staying in Reno

Mark Fox had spent the past hour talking to high school principals about leadership and education, and now he was driving back to campus while talking to me about Barry Bonds and the record-breaking home run hit the night before.

Or at least he thought he was talking to me.

Unlike some of his peers, Mark Fox hasn't taken a path to a larger school. (Getty Images)

Then we were disconnected.

"Sorry about that," Fox said when he called back five minutes later. "I thought I was out of the mountains, but I guess I was still in them."

Yes, he was still in the mountains.

And isn't it kinda hard to believe he's still in the mountains?

Seriously, how many college basketball storylines are more surprising than Mark Fox still being in the mountains of Reno, still coaching at Nevada after compiling an 81-18 record in his first three years? Roy Hibbert still at Georgetown, perhaps. But beyond that this is the biggest shocker in the sport, particularly when considering those 81 wins tie Fox with Gonzaga's Mark Few for most victories in Division I history through three seasons as a coach.

He has won three WAC titles.

He has been to three NCAA Tournaments.

He has received three WAC Coach of the Year awards.

All of which was supposed to lead to Fox leading a parade out of town, off to a bigger school in a bigger conference just like Billy Gillispie (from UTEP to Texas A&M to Kentucky in five years), Bill Self (from Oral Roberts to Tulsa to Illinois to Kansas in 10 years) and Thad Matta (from Butler to Xavier to Ohio State in five years) have done in recent years.

Moving up the ladder, after all, is the natural progression of things in this sport. But here we are only three months from the start of the 2007-08 season, and Fox, 38, is preparing for his fourth year at Nevada, defying the folks who predicted he'd be gone -- and kindly suggested he should be gone -- by now.