Ball now in Jonas Hayes' court
The ball is in Jonas Hayes’ court as to whether or not he remains on the Georgia basketball staff as an assistant for new head coach Tom Crean.
On Thursday morning’s episode of Bulldog Roundtable on 680-AM with Chuck Dowdle, Crean confirmed the former Bulldog player and assistant under former head coach Mark Fox has an offer to stay.
“Jonas has a very lucrative proposal in front of him. There’s no question we’d like to have him here,” Crean said. “But in the midst of change and things like that, other potential things have come up for him. The most important thing is, there’s no question we’d like to have him. I’ve made that clear."
Crean did not offer specifics of the deal.
"We’ve put something together really good for him and I like him a lot. I think he’d be excellent here," Crean said. "But if he does decide to do something else, we’d wish him the best. He’ll always be part of the Georgia tradition, and we’ll move forward.”
Since joining Fox’s program in 2012 after a six-year stint as an assistant at Belmont Abbey, Hayes not only played key roles in the recruitment of Yante Maten and Pape Diatta; he also recruited Turtle Jackson, E’Torrion Wilridge and Mike Edwards in 2015, Tyree Crump and Jordan Harris in 2016, Rayshaun Hammonds, Nicolas Claxton and Isaac Kante in 2017, and now Amanze Ngumezi and Jojo Toppin, who will join the program next year.
Ashton Hagans and Elias King were also committed to Georgia, thanks largely to Hayes, before backing out of their decisions. Should Hayes return, the Bulldogs' chances of getting both back in the fold certainly improve.
Whether Crean hires Hayes or not, Chad Dollar is already on board.
On Wednesday, the Bulldogs' head basketball coach announced the hiring of the Atlanta native away from South Florida. Dollar is a veteran assistant with ample experience in the SEC.
“Chad is an Atlanta born and bred young man, and his dad is Don Dollar, who had a fantastic high school coaching career. Chad’s had some fantastic experience. He’s been at LSU, then he was at Auburn for a short time. He’s been with a really close, personal friend of mine in Brian Gregory, and Brian swears by him," Crean said. “Brian is the one that knew that this would be a tremendous opportunity for him to come back and be back home. My couple of meetings: I’ve seen Chad work, I’ve seen Chad on the court, and I’ve seen him recruiting—and after spending time with him, there’s no doubt in my mind that I want him representing the University of Georgia.”