As one of the biggest Cincinnati fans.........I want to congratulate you on getting Andy Kennedy. You will never be able to comprehend what the guy and the UC team went through this season.
1. Coach Huggins fired in August in a battle of ego's with the new president, Nancy Zimpher whom has established herself as the most hated person in Cincinnati right now.
2. Andy Kennedy named "interim head coach" a few days later.
3. Assistant coach, Keith Legree dismissed for a DUI.
4. Walk on Ryan Patzwald dismissed for a DUI.
5. The entire city in an uproar over the firing of legendary Coach Huggins.
6. JUCO transfer Ivan Johnson decides to not come to UC because of the firing of Huggins. Johnson is a 6'9" PF/C who goes to Oregon and is first man off the bench.
7. Freshman, Deandre Coleman 6'6" SF does not work hard in practice and doesn't get to play much, so he quits the team and transfers out. Andy Kennedy says it's addition by subtraction.
8. Freshman recruit, 6'10" Abdul Herrera, a top 100 recruit is declared ineligible as the season is about to begin by the NCAA in a ridiculous ruling where they did not accept English I, but accepted his English II and English III classes. Herrera's first language is spanish. Nobody alive understands this ruling and many accuse the UC administration of purposely meddling to not get Herrera eligible to make Kennedy's season that much harder.
9. The administration is viewed as not wanting Kennedy to succeed because they don't want to have to hire a Huggins disciple.
10. Desperate for bodies, Ronald Allen, a Division II basketball player who's school was wiped out in New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina is cleared by the NCAA to transfer and be immdiately eligible. The 6'9" Allen is not very athletic or Divison I quality, but he provides another body for Kennedy to insert for minutes.
11. The UC roster of scholarship players looks basically like this........
5'8" FR. PG Devan Downey
5'11" FR. PG/SG Dominic Tilford
5'11" SR. PG/SG Jihad Muhammed
6'2" SR. PG/SG Chadd Moore
6'9" JR. PF Ronald Allen
6'8" SR. SF Armein Kirkland
6'7" SR. SF/SG James White
6'6" SR. PF Eric Hicks
6'6" JR. PF Cedric McGowan
UC starts slow losing to Dayton and playing close games, but picks up steam and the UC fans get behind the team. They go into Marquette and upset them after Marquette had just beaten the #1 team in the country, UConn. Hicks has a triple double in that game. Kirkland plays outstanding defense on Marquette's best player, Steve Novak.
UC goes against LSU and wins on the road.
Then UC goes to UConn and hangs with them within 3 points all game, but Armein Kirkland goes down with a torn ACL 14 minutes into the game after having his best offensive game scoring 14 points in 14 minutes at that point. UC still hangs but falls away in the last 3 minutes.
UC is devestated by Kirkland's injury......UC"s only player over 6'7", and he was really only a SF.
UC is down to 8 scholarship players, 1 of which is a division II quality player.
UC's low post consists of two 6'6" players in Eric Hicks (1st team all Big East) and JUCO Cedric McGowan. They battle against bigger teams all year and hold their own.
UC loses to Villanova by 2 points but upsets West Virginia in the final game of the season to go 18-12, top 5 in strength of schedule, finish 8-8 in the Big East, and top 40 in rpi. They get beaten by a miracle three pointer by Gerry McNamara in the Big East tournament, but SO DOES UCONN, GEORGETOWN AND OTHERS.
UC gets snubbed by the NCAA Tournament committee to the uproar of Seth Davis, Jay Bilas, Dick Vitale and many others. Seth Davis and Joe Lunardi personally call Andy Kennedy to tell them in all of their years of predicting the tournament field, it was the biggest blunder they've ever witnessed.
When Kirkland went down, Kennedy recruits one of the football players to play with the team, Connor Barwin. He is 6'4" and plays instantly 3 days after joining the team vs. Syracuse. In fact, in their last game of the season the other night, he grabs 9 rebounds.
UC makes the NIT and is coasting through it when 2 seniors are declared academically ineligible, White and Muhammed. UC, shorthanded still leads South Carolina at halftime but falls by 3 points in the end.
My point is:
Andy Kennedy remained upbeat and would not allow this UC team to make excuses or feel sorry for itself all season. They were majorly shorthanded. Hicks, Downey and Moore played all 40 minutes against South Carolina the other night and that was the norm for most of the second half of the season. It seemed like the administration wanted him to lose so they wouldn't have to hire him. The fans wanted him hired........we loved Andy Kennedy.
He is a class act and one helluva coach. He won despite being shorthanded and in a very difficult circumstance. He won with a division II player, a short low post, a freshman PG, and a football player walkon. It is nothing short of amazing.
He will win at Ole Miss.
|
