New Georgia basketball coach Mark Fox has been pushing most of the right buttons when it comes to the fans, and the “Wreck Tech” ticket campaign shows he gets this too. There won’t be a more important game in his inaugural campaign than Tuesday night’s game against Georgia Tech.

Since the series returned to campus sites in 1995, Georgia hasn’t lost a game in Athens to their rival. Bulldog teams that made the NCAA Tournament or finished dead last in the SEC have found a way to win this one game. They’ve beaten pedestrian Tech teams as well as the eventual national runner-up that came in as #3 in 2004.

I know it’s not a conference game, and the series doesn’t have quite the same history on the basketball court as it does on the football field. But not much is expected in conference play from the Bulldogs this year, and a win over Tech is an opportunity for Fox to establish legitimacy in front of fans and the all-important local recruiting base. Georgia’s football and women’s basketball teams have already righted the rivalry in their respective sports. With football season behind us, the Tech game will be many casual fans’ first look at Fox’s team. Can they pull it off?