After leading Nevada to four Western Athletic Conference titles and postseason appearances in each of his first four seasons at the helm, there is little doubt that Mark Fox has firmly planted the Wolf Pack in the upper echelon of college basketball.

Heading into the 2008-09 season, the fifth-year head coach has all of the pieces in place to continue to build on the Wolf Pack's successes and solidify the program's status as a perennial conference champion and national contender.

"We have built this program with quality players who have been great people," Fox said. "Those young men have established a level of competitive toughness and effort. We will continue to strive for great citizenship and effort."

In his first four years at the helm, Fox has led Nevada to a 102-30 record and already ranks fourth in all-time wins in the school’s recordbook. A three-time winner of the WAC’s Don Haskins Coach of the Year award, he is the first coach in school history to lead his teams to four 20-win seasons and postseason invitations, including three NCAA Tournament appearances. Fox is tied for 21st on the the NCAA’s list of the fastest coaches to notch 100 career wins, doing it in 128 games, while his 81 wins in his first three seasons tied with Gonzaga's Mark Few for the most victories in Division I history by a coach in three years.

Last year, the Wolf Pack earned its fourth consecutive 20-win season with a 21-12 mark and earned an invitation to the inaugural College Basketball Invitational, the program’s sixth straight postseason bid. Fox coached his second WAC Freshman of the Year in guard Armon Johnson, while guard Marcelus Kemp and forward JaVale McGee were both named to the All-WAC teams. Fox also saw McGee become the second first-round draft pick in school history when the forward was taken 18th by the Washington Wizards in the 2008 NBA Draft.

The 2006-07 campaign saw the Wolf Pack set the school record for wins in a single season with a 29-5 record and captured the team's fourth consecutive WAC regular-season championship. Nevada climbed into the top 10 in the national polls for the first time in school history and earned its fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, advancing to the second round. The 2007 National Association of Basketball Coaches District 13 Coach of the Year, Fox coached forward Nick Fazekas to his third consecutive WAC Player-of-the-Year honor and first-team All-America accolades, while guard Marcelus Kemp also was named to the league's first team. Fox also saw two of his players - Fazekas and guard Ramon Sessions - taken in the second round of the 2007 NBA Draft.

In 2005-06, Nevada turned in a 27-6 record, finishing just one victory shy of the school record for wins, and won its third WAC crown. Nevada won 14 straight games over the last two months of the year, capping that streak off with the WAC Tournament championship to earn the Wolf Pack's third straight NCAA Tournament invitation. The team earned a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament, the highest seed in school history.

In 2004-05, Fox's first season at the helm, he guided Nevada to a 25-7 record and a trip to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Wolf Pack set the league record for conference wins with a 16-2 record en route to its second straight WAC title. Nevada earned the school's first at-large invitation to the NCAA Tournament and advanced to the second round after defeating Texas. Fox also became the first Wolf Pack head coach to reach the 20-win plateau in his first season at the helm and coached both the WAC Player of the Year in Nick Fazekas and the WAC Freshman of the Year in Ramon Sessions.

Fox was named the head coach of the University of Nevada men's basketball program on June 1, 2004, taking the reins of a program that was well on its way to establishing itself as a championship-caliber squad. The 16th men's basketball head coach in Nevada history, he replaced Trent Johnson, who resigned at Nevada after five seasons to become the head coach at Stanford University. Prior to being named head coach, Fox spent the previous four seasons (2000-2004) as the Wolf Pack's associate head coach.

"When we were looking for the right person for this job, we were looking for somebody who had a high level of integrity and commitment to academics and could lead Nevada basketball to postseason play," Director of Athletics Cary Groth said at the time. "Mark Fox is that person. He has proven to be an integral part of the Wolf Pack family through his ability to be a team player. He brings continuity and competitiveness as a coach which is what separated him from the other candidates."

As an assistant in 2003-04, Fox helped lead Nevada to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen for the first time in school history as the Wolf Pack turned in a 25-9 overall record. Nevada registered upset victories over Michigan State and Gonzaga in the 2004 NCAA Tournament before getting knocked out by eventual national championship runner-up Georgia Tech in a regional semifinal game. Nevada also tied for a share of the Western Athletic Conference regular-season crown for the first time in school history and captured the WAC Tournament title.

"It is an honor and privilege to lead this program," Fox said when he was hired. "I look forward to sharing in the daily efforts with our student-athletes, coaches and the rest of the university."

Fox began his coaching career as a graduate assistant coach and then as a full-time assistant at the University of Washington (1991-93) where he was on the same staff as former Nevada head coach Trent Johnson. Following his two-year stint with the Huskies, Fox spent six seasons (1994-2000) as an assistant coach at Kansas State University under Tom Asbury before joining the Wolf Pack staff in August of 2000. While a member of the Wildcat coaching staff, he helped guide Kansas State to an NCAA Tournament invitation in 1996 and two appearances in the National Invitation Tournament (1998 and 1999). The Wildcats led the nation in field-goal percentage defense in 1999 and were tops in the Big 12 Conference in that category from 1996-99. Fox spent the 1993-94 season observing then Kansas head coach Roy Williams and the Jayhawk program while completing coursework on his master's degree.

Fox developed a reputation as a strong recruiter during his 12 years as an assistant coach. He coached numerous players who earned conference honors from the Big Eight, Big 12, Pac-10 and WAC. He signed several of Nevada's current and former players, including three-time WAC Player of the Year and All-American Nick Fazekas. Fazekas spent the summer of 2005 on the USA Basketball U21 National Team and was a member of the 2004 WAC All-Newcomer team.
Fox also played an instrumental role in bringing 2004 WAC Player of the Year and NBA first-round draft pick Kirk Snyder to the program, as well as former Wolf Pack all-conference selections Todd Okeson and Kevinn Pinkney to name a few.

Fox played college basketball at Garden City (Kan.) Community College (1987-89) under former Nevada head coach Jim Carey and then lettered two seasons at Eastern New Mexico University (1989-91) in Portales, N.M. He was a first-team Academic All-Lone Star Conference selection in 1991.

He graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor of science degree in physical education from Eastern New Mexico in 1991 and obtained a master's of science degree in athletic administration and sports psychology from the University of Kansas in 1996.

Fox and his wife, Cindy, have two children: a son, Parker (8), and a daughter, Olivia (6). Cindy is the Executive Associate Athletics Director/Sport Support for the Wolf Pack athletics department.