Andy Kennedy, Ole Miss Basketball on Upward Trajectory
After defeating Tennessee 83-60 on Saturday, Andy Kennedy and the Ole Miss basketball program have momentum on its side. Which is great, considering the SEC tournament is set to begin next week and Ole Miss will need to make a run to hold onto its faint NCAA tournament hopes. The Rebels are 20-11(10-8) and it’s Kennedy’s 8th 20-win season in his now 10th year in Oxford. There’s no questioning what he’s done over the past decade, as it’s anything short of miraculous. The current momentum is just a short snippet of the overall momentum the program seems to be building.
While some may focus on the fact that Kennedy has yet to reach the previous high-water mark for the Rebel program, a sweet 16 appearance in 2001, the facts are the program has never seen this kind of consistency. Even during seasons when it appeared the bottom could come out on Kennedy and company, he’s maintained a competitive team that will score the basketball and play above its talent.
Some have claimed AK’s style of play is “street ball,” but that notion has become laughable as the up-and-down style he employs is now taking the sport by storm. Thanks to Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors, the sport is now obsessed with the small-ball style that features one big amongst four skilled players who can shoot and run. As such as it goes, though, teams have started to recruit to that, which also makes that area more difficult to navigate.
However, even the most loyal AK supporters will admit he has to step it up. The landscape of college basketball has changed. Mid-majors are now more of a factor to gain at-large bids to the NCAA tournament and 20 wins no longer guarantees your spot in the Bid Dance. Furthermore, the ground in the SEC is shifting. The conference is now full of some of the best coaches in the college game. Recruiting has become a priority and basketball signing classes are no longer taking a backseat to the star power of their football counterparts.
Enter The Pavilion, which since it’s debut in January has become one the crown jewels as it pertains to arenas across the conference and around college basketball. It gives the Rebel basketball program something to be proud of whereas Tad Smith Coliseum hadn’t given them that in my entire lifetime.
In fact Kennedy has stated on numerous occasions the Tad Pad was not a part of the itinerary for recruits that came for on-campus visits. With the Pavilion in place and establishing itself as the new home of Ole Miss basketball recruiting, understandably, will improve and the wheels have already begun to spin in that direction.
In his time in Oxford Kennedy hasn’t been considered a great recruiter, but he has certainly taken some players that other programs had little or no interest in and made hay with them. So his ability to evaluate talent is there. And much to the dismay of many AK haters, he recruited well when he was at Cincinnati, a program with a better pedigree when it comes to the hardwood. In 2004, Rivals named Kennedy one of the top 20 recruiters in the country.
He’s built a program at Ole Miss that speaks for itself. Come and win, come and score, and if you can score, come and shoot. And combined with the SEC becoming a more appealing landing spot with recruits(see the recruiting spikes at Auburn, MSU, Alabama, LSU and Arkansas), it wouldn’t be surprising to see Ole Miss begin to pick up some recruiting momentum. Will The Pavilion immediately make the Rebels a recruiting force? No. But it will get them in the game with kids that they would not have had a chance with in the past.
On Saturday, January 9th, just the second game at The Pavilion, AK and the Rebels secured a commitment from 2017 wing JJ Smith. Smith figures to be a dynamic athlete with a base to build an all-around game upon. Just over a week later 2017 in-state forward Tirus Smith(younger brother Trey could be a top recruit in class of 2020) of Petal committed. In future classes, it appears that AK has already gotten a jump on building bonds with a pair of 2019s at Olive Branch in DJ Jefferies and Antavion Collum. Jefferies figures to be a top prospect in that class.
Now lets take a step back and look at a few guys that signed last November as there are a few
promising players that will be on campus for next season, as well. Remember, this class signed knowing they would play their entire careers in The Pavilion, but inked before the new digs were actually made reality.
Let’s start with perhaps the most important signee of the 2016 class, guard Breein Tyree. His quickness and explosion make him a lethal slasher at the point. He finishes well around the rim and shoots well enough that pulling up is always a threat. He seems like an ideal fit for Kennedy’s offense and could develop into one of the SEC’s best scoring threats. Unlike Chris Warren and Stefan Moody, Tyree’s size should not be an issue as he already stands at 6’2. And let us not forget he announced his commitment to the Rebels with this gem of a video.
With Tomasz Gielo and Anthony Perez moving at the conclusion of this season, it is crucial that height be added in the 2016 class. That was taken care of with the addition of junior college product Tyrek Coger and Lancaster, Texas, forward Nate Morris. Coger is more of a polished offensive player with a body physically mature enough to man the paint on both ends. Morris is a rim protector who could develop into a more balanced player in his career. While Coger should factor into the equation immediately next season, Morris is a guy who will play next season but is more than likely going to be counted on his sophomore season following Sebastian Saiz’s graduation.
Combine the incoming guys and Miami transfer Deandre Burnett with the likes of Donte Fitzpatrick-Dorsey, Terence Davis and Marcanvis Hymon, whom have all shown promise this season and the future looks bright for AK and company. And with future recruiting showing more promise than at any time in Kennedy’s tenure it appears the tide could be turning.
Could it be that a decade into Kennedy’s run in Oxford he is finally turning a corner? Only time will tell but the evidence seems to be adding up to that result. It seems strange for that to be case in the day and age we live in where everybody wants success yesterday, but considering where Ole Miss basketball was when Kennedy arrived it’s not surprising it took even a coach of his caliber this long to breakthrough.
It doesn’t hurt that after he finally broke the Rebels’ drought of reaching March Madness(which became known as ‘Marshall Madness’ during the Rebels’ run in 2013), that he did it twice in a three-year span. Pair that with the impeccable timing of the addition of The Pavilion and you have a perfect storm that has Ole Miss basketball, of all things, on a steep, upward trajectory.