ST. LOUIS – On Friday afternoon, when the buzzer sounded on Kentucky's 62-49 win over Georgia, it is entirely possible that we witnessed the end of the Mark Fox era at Georgia.

It's also entirely possible that, if Georgia moves on from its head coach for the past nine seasons, it would be making a huge mistake.

The case for Georgia to jump on the coaching carousel is a simple, black-and-white one to make: In Fox's nine seasons, the Bulldogs have only made the NCAA Tournament twice. In this winning-obsessed era, that's not enough.

The case against Fox is simple, but it's also simple-minded. This has become an extraordinarily complicated time in college basketball. The sport is in the midst of something approaching an existential crisis. A federal corruption probe has landed four high-major assistant coaches dangerous legal waters and landed many more programs in hot water. The ideal of amateurism is being challenged. The NBA appears to be moving forward in helping solve the one-and-done issues that have changed the sport over the past decade or more.

The case to keep Fox is not simple. But sometimes the easy answer is the wrong answer, and I believe that's the case here. Because in the midst of these stormy times in college hoops, Georgia has someone who can man the ship with a steady hand.

And look: This isn't just me who thinks this. I got no skin in this game one way or the other.

But I asked someone who's got a lot more skin in the game, and has a lot more experience with Fox than I do: Kentucky coach John Calipari. If you're a Georgia fan who is antsy to lock in that miracle coach who is going to take you to the NCAA Tournament year after year after year – more to the point if you're an administrator in the Georgia athletics department who is going to be tasked with an important decision in the coming days – please pay attention to what Calipari had to say. It's long, and it's complicated, but I'm going to let it speak for itself.

"Everybody that's watched us play against each other, Georgia and Kentucky, they've all been wars," Calipari said after the Wildcats ousted the Bulldogs in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament. 'I know how good a coach he is. I know what he's doing with young kids. He's doing it the right way. He's a great guy."

"I told him prior to the game, I said, 'I'd love for you to beat us and get two more and go play in that (NCAA) tournament and squelch all the crap,' " Calipari continued. "It's nuts in our profession. Guys like a Mark Fox, they could consider and say, well, he's not doing a good enough job for us. I just beg to differ. I coach against him, so I know what he brings every time to the table."

"So let's just hope that Georgia looks at this and looks at a bigger picture and says, you know what? It's in good hands. There's a lot of stuff going on out there, stuff that's not going on at Georgia. They're in good hands. That has to mean something."

And it should mean something, especially in these crazy times. Fox has not turned Georgia into a college basketball powerhouse. (Who could?) What he has turned Georgia into is a program that's consistently knocking on the door of the NCAA tournament – which is not something to sneeze at at a football school that had only made 10 NCAA tournaments in its history before Fox arrived. In Fox's eight seasons, he's averaged 18.6 wins per year. In the six seasons before that, Georgia averaged 14.5 wins.

I know he's not exactly setting the world on fire. Two NCAA Tournaments in eight years isn't great. But his teams are always on the cusp. In three more seasons, Fox's Georgia teams have twice been No. 2  seeds in the NIT and once was a No. 3 seed. That means that in those seasons, Georgia was a few losses away from getting into the NCAA Tournament. I know it's damning him with faint praise. But being almost there should count for something.

I asked Fox about how he saw his job status immediately after the Kentucky loss. It was an unfair question, but the question Georgia fans are certainly thinking about. His answer was, basically, 'we'll see.'

"My entire focus, as I said before the tournament, was on trying to get these kids some wins and trying to make sure that they have the most incredible season they could have," Fox said. "We felt like we could come in the tournament and win it, and we knew that the fatigue eventually would be something we'd have to overcome. And we've been 100 percent focused on that and solely that. So I haven't really thought much about the rest of it."
"I'm sure that (Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity) and I will meet at some point and have conversations about how to continue to improve and grow our program. I'm not sure when those conversations will occur. We'll let you know."

Those conversations will certainly focus on winning. And winning's important. But so is establishing a program culture, and understanding the reality of a program's place in the basketball hierarchy, and valuing a guy who by all accounts does things the right way.

Just remember: As fans, you may not be satisfied with a coach who has gotten you nearly there so often. But it's far from a guarantee that the next coach will do any better.