Of the Huggins assistants, I am surprised that Andy Kennedy has not
done better... Ole Miss beat by Illinois State in the NIT.
Has Andy made it to the Big Dance yet???

Looks like Martin and Mick were the picks of the bunch...

Kennedy has been remarkably consistent.. Win 20-24 games, hang around .500 in conference play, and make the NIT. Almost every single year. Same with his interim year here.

I got Martin knocking off Syracuse.

Martin is definitely a Huggins clone in intensity but you know, in the whole picture, I think UC was very lucky to get Mick Cronin here. He's done things in the right way and he persevered when UC had nothing when Kennedy left. I haven't seen ole Miss improve a lot and they had most of their players returning when Andy took that program over. Martin was left with a pretty good team when Huggns up and bolted after only 1 year. We need to get a bit higher level of recruits if we want to be a power in the Big East but that time will come eventually if Mick continues doing the right things in running this program. So far, he's done a good job. Read the stories of Indiana's nightmare when Tom Crean hired there. UC's wasn't much different. When IU got Cody Zeller to commit to IU, it turned things around quickly. Good luck CATS!!!!!!

(03-15-2012 11:23 AM)WarningSigns Wrote:  Kennedy has been remarkably consistent.. Win 20-24 games, hang around .500 in conference play, and make the NIT. Almost every single year. Same with his interim year here.

I got Martin knocking off Syracuse.

Andy has been consistent since leaving here. NIT's only. The main thing I seen now with Andy is evidently he makes sure his players haven't dropped out of school WHILE the season is going on.
Syracuse is definitely more vulnerable now. Losing Melo is not good for that program. Be interesting if its over a drug issue after the stories came out about Syracuse not reporting them for years.

Two things on Kennedy. First, I think Ole Miss is one of the hardest schools to win at in the BCS. Very little history, not at ton of in state talent, small budget, etc. Second, he seemingly has dealt with injury issues every season, which I think is part of the reason his teams have never made the jump.

In the 4 years prior to AK arriving at Ole Miss they went 17-47 in SEC play and finished below .500 overall each season. I think AK will get them in the NCAA sometimes, but I don't know that as a program the ceiling is much higher. I think it would take a special coach to make Ole Miss much more than they are now (though as I said I think it has been bad luck that has kept AK out of the tourney a couple times). Kennedy has done a good job down there, but that is a really touch job.

(03-15-2012 11:38 AM)bearcatmark Wrote:  Two things on Kennedy. First, I think Ole Miss is one of the hardest schools to win at in the BCS. Very little history, not at ton of in state talent, small budget, etc. Second, he seemingly has dealt with injury issues every season, which I think is part of the reason his teams have never made the jump.

In the 4 years prior to AK arriving at Ole Miss they went 17-47 in SEC play and finished below .500 overall each season. I think AK will get them in the NCAA sometimes, but I don't know that as a program the ceiling is much higher. I think it would take a special coach to make Ole Miss much more than they are now (though as I said I think it has been bad luck that has kept AK out of the tourney a couple times). Kennedy has done a good job down there, but that is a really touch job.

Totally agree Mark. Ole Miss is a tough place to recruit to for BBall, not sure why? But it is. AK has done a good job there.

Martin has done a really job good maintaining the momentum that Huggins created at KState.

He is a fine coach and program builder.

Coaching at MS schools is tough as it's a low population density state so they don't have a great number of instate kids to recruit players from. The largest city is Jackson and it's smaller than Dayton.

You have three universities fighting over what recruits there are instate — Ole Miss, State and Southern Miss. Trying to bring in players from other states is tough — all three cities are nice Oxford, Hattiesburg and Starkville but none of them are more than very small college towns. Add in that football rules the South and recruiting basketball talent down there is even tougher.

Worst of all for MS coaches is that the very best players in MS tend to get poached by Bama and LSU.

Ole Miss is currently in a $150 million campaign to renovate their football stadium and build a new arena.. if Kennedy sticks around it should be a very nice recruiting tool.

(03-15-2012 12:11 PM)WarningSigns Wrote:  Ole Miss is currently in a $150 million campaign to renovate their football stadium and build a new arena.. if Kennedy sticks around it should be a very nice recruiting tool.

I heard that the Tad Pad is a dump, never been inside though. Nice rendering of a new arena. The Campus is nice.

Cronin had the toughest road to hoe. Don't forget, he also got Murray St. to the tournament.

AK does have a difficult project at Ole Miss but he has manged to get some decent talent, though I think he has had some discipline issues with a few.

It's hard for me to judge Martin just yet since Huggins left him a very solid program when he left. Personally, I hate the attitude he has on the bench but some players seem to respond to that.

Stansbury at State is retiring as per an announcement today.
Depending on who State hires AK's job could get easier or harder.
Murray State Coach is likely at the top of the list as Stansbury came from that part of KY.

Kennedy has set the bar low and then has consistantly failed to reach it in that terrible SEC West.

My bro in law is an Ol' Miss tix holder...says folks are getting fed up with spitting the bit and playing in the Andy Invitational every season.

The fights in the locker room after bringing in Memphis' discarded cancer don't help matters. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Tough to recruit to Ole Miss and recruiting was never a strong part of Andy Kennedy's repetoire.

(03-15-2012 12:18 PM)BeerCat Wrote:  Cronin had the toughest road to hoe. Don't forget, he also got Murray St. to the tournament.

AK does have a difficult project at Ole Miss but he has manged to get some decent talent, though I think he has had some discipline issues with a few.

It's hard for me to judge Martin just yet since Huggins left him a very solid program when he left. Personally, I hate the attitude he has on the bench but some players seem to respond to that.

Dude I love Mick. Doing a top flight job at UC, but every coach the last 3 decades has gotten Murray State to the tournament. They are the class of the OVC>

Again Ole Miss was 17-47 in SEC play the 4 year prior to AK's arrival. He has definitely lifted the program. But they have not been able to make the next leap. I think he has done a very good job, not a great job.

Mark is dead on as usual. AK has done a good job relative to the program. As people point out, its not a program set up to succeed given its geography, facilities, etc. He hasn't been great but he certainly hasn't been bad. Not sure how people could be ready for him to go when he's outperformed thier somewhat miserable history and the prior recent coaches there, but then again that's just looking at things like his actual record.

I agree that Ole Miss isn't a traditional power but in a weak SEC not making the tournament has to be extremely disappointing

Whatever their disadvantages, Kennedy's recruiting hasn't been much worse than ours, and he has landed multiple top 100 guys.

I wouldn't call 5 years of NIT "very good" at any major conference school.

The Ole Miss record doesn't look quite awful, but they got absolutely housed by most of the the decent teams they played this year and even by some of the not so decent. Lots of BIG double digit losses.

I think Frank Martin is doing a good job.