As a youngster growing up in Garden City, Mark Fox didn’t dream of playing basketball at Kansas University.

“I wasn’t that good,” quipped the 35-year-old Fox, who excelled on the court two years each at Garden City Community College and Eastern New Mexico University.

“I remember watching Darnell Valentine and that team,” he added of Ted Owens’ Jayhawks. “There’s a lot of tradition and a lot of great players who have gone through there.”

A lot of great coaches have gone through there, too, and Fox, the University of Nevada’s first-year coach who brings his Wolf Pack into Allen Fieldhouse for today’s 8 p.m. tipoff, spent a lot of time with one during the 1993-94 season. Fox, who received a masters degree from KU, spent that season observing Roy Williams’ KU team from the stands.

That KU squad went 27-8 and lost to Purdue in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.

“Coach Williams let me come to practice every day,” said Fox, who went on to work as an assistant to Tom Asbury at Kansas State from 1994 to 2000. “(Former KU aide) Joe Holladay and I are good friends.

“It was his first year there. His wife was still in Oklahoma (before moving to Lawrence). Joe and I had dinner four times a week. We talked a lot of basketball.

“I learned a great deal that year. I had a chance to watch one of the best coaches in the game and one of the best systems,” added Fox.

He is pleased his Wolf Pack players — who went 25-9 and reached the Sweet 16 last year and are off to a 3-0 start this year — will get to experience the fieldhouse tonight.

“It’s a privilege to play Kansas in Allen Fieldhouse,” Fox said. “A lot of kids don’t get the experience. For me, to grow up in the state watching the Jayhawks, it’s a privilege also to coach a game in the fieldhouse.”

Fox, who was associate head coach to Trent Johnson for four years at Nevada, received a promotion when Johnson headed to Stanford in June.

“Mark’s done a great job,” KU coach Bill Self said. “He deserves the opportunity. He’s recruited very good players and done a great job of evaluating talent. He’s going to do a great job, similar to how they played under Trent.”

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Fox took his team to Athens, Ga., for its road opener on Friday. The Wolf Pack beat Georgia, 58-47.

“Anytime you win on the road, it’s good,” Fox said. “We got a win. As young as we are, it was good for us.”

He starts a freshman at point guard in Ramon Sessions and returns an experienced front line in Nick Fazekas and Kevinn Pinkney, who average 23.3 and 11.7 points. They combine for 12.5 rebounds per contest.

“Our frontcourt gets a lot of attention. They were the fourth and fifth options last year,” Fox said.

Of Fazekas, who has NBA potential, Fox noted: “He is extremely skilled. He’s a fine player. He can score facing the basket and with his back to the basket. He has great hands.

“We thought by the time he was a sophomore he’d be an excellent player. He’s doing very well.”

Of his team, he said: “We have so much inexperience. On some possessions we’re throwing it through the cheerleaders.”

He knows the cheerleaders and fans will be rocking Allen Fieldhouse tonight. He knows KU well, though he hasn’t been in Lawrence in a decade.

“It doesn’t seem that long,” said Fox, whose parents will make the drive from Garden City to watch their son work. “It seems we pulled into town tonight (Saturday) and there were all familiar surroundings. It’s a great place.”