For the Georgia men’s basketball team, this “offseason” has been anything but that.

Since the Bulldogs last took the court in defeat to eventual SEC Tournament champion Mississippi State, the team has been engulfed in a whirlwind of hirings, players and coaches coming and going and further speculation about who exactly will be taking the court in Stegeman Coliseum when the 2009-2010 season tips off is November.

After the midseason firing of Dennis Felton as head coach following a string of dismal performances by the Bulldogs, assistant coach Pete Herrmann stepped in as interim head coach while athletic director Damon Evans searched for the right man to begin rebuilding a program in obvious need of an overhaul.

Before a new head coach could even be named, the rebuilding process took a sharp turn for the worse.

Two sophomore guards, Zac Swansey and Troy Brewer, were granted releases from their athletic scholarships after expressing a desire to continue their collegiate basketball careers elsewhere.

These departures left the team with just eight scholarship players on the roster and fans with little more than a glimmer of hope for the team’s immediate future.

After months of speculation, including rumors that former Indiana and Texas Tech coaching legend Bob Knight was in talks with the University, the rebuilding process began in surprising fashion in early April.

Mark Fox was named Georgia’s new head coach, after serving five years in the same capacity at Nevada where he led the Wolfpack to five seasons of 21 wins or more, including three consecutive NCAA tournament appearances from 2006-08.

Since being hired, Fox has pieced together a diverse supporting cast of assistant coaches, intent on fielding a team that can compete in the SEC.

Kwanza Johnson, an Oklahoma City native, served as an assistant to Fox at Nevada and followed him to Athens, and will serve in the same capacity.

Johnson, most notably, worked with All-American forward Nick Fazekas, who was eventually drafted 18th overall by the Washington Wizards in the 2008 NBA draft.

New assistant coach Phillip Pearson also joins the Georgia staff, bringing with him 16 years of experience as both a coach and player at the University of Alabama.

Most recently, Fox added assistant coach Stacey Palmore, who previously was an assistant at Virginia Tech, where he gathered praise for his outstanding recruiting and basketball knowledge.

Fox will look to Palmore to recruit Georgia’s tremendous high school basketball talent, which in the past has escaped to more esteemed college programs.

In late April, the Bulldogs inked Vincent Williams, a 6-foot-1 guard from South Dade High School in Homestead, Fla., where he averaged 26.1 points and 5.9 assists in his senior season.

Williams was named to the All-Dade County second team by the Miami Herald.

“Our team is going to need depth on the perimeter and outside shooting ability,” Fox said. “Vincent provides us with both of those.”

The Bulldogs also acquired Gerald Robinson Jr., a sophomore transfer from Tennessee State, where Robinson was among the Ohio Valley Conference leaders in points per game, assists and steals in each of his two seasons.

Due to NCAA rules governing student-athlete transfers, Robinson will not be allowed to suit up for the Bulldogs until the 2010-11 season.

Most recently, rising sophomore forward Trey Thompkins was selected to attend the 2009 USA U-19 Basketball National Team Trials.

He will compete with 16 of the country’s most talented 19-and-under basketball players for a spot on the USA U-19 Basketball team.

National team trials will be held June 16-18 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., where the invitees will be trimmed down to a 12-man roster to compete in the 2009 FIBA World Championships, July 2-12 in Auckland, New Zealand.