Coach Kennedy
The Rebel basketball team recently completed its first season under head coach Andy Kennedy, and to say the season was rewarding would be an understatement. Ole Miss was predicted by virtually every major magazine and sports outlet to finish dead last in the SEC West, however, the Rebels finished the season with a share of the western conference title at 19-11 (8-8), which is especially impressive considering the SEC ranked second in the nation in RPI. While the players did more than fair share of the work, I have to credit the turnaround this season to Coach Kennedy, current SEC Coach of the Year.
Coach Kennedy inherited a team that basically resembled a good JUCO team. He had a solid, but slow point guard, a shooting guard that took the term too literally, a scrappy undersized small forward, and two solid post players. The bench wasn’t much better with players like Trey Hampton, Xavier Hansbro, and Brian Smith. Kennedy immediately hit the recruiting trail and brought in Kenny Williams, Eniel Polynice, Rodney Jones, and Andy Ogide. Kennedy didn’t just have an impact through recruiting, but he was able to convince key players like Dwayne Curtis, Brian Smith, and others to buy into his system and not abandon the program.
After filling the roster, Kennedy had to teach these Rod Barnes era players how to do a complete 180 and learn an entirely new system of basketball. Rod Barnes, while a good guy, was not the greatest coach and had his teams execute some of the most boring basketball in the league. Barnes prided himself on defense, not 40 minutes of hell type defense, but just solid half court defense. His offense consisted of passing around the perimeter, with little to no movement, for 35 seconds hoping to find an open Dwayne Curtis or taking a three-point shot.
Kennedy came in and told the players to forget everything coach Barnes had taught them about how to play. Kennedy wanted to play an up tempo style, constantly pushing the ball up the court, and implementing a stingy full court press, mixed with man, and zone. Unfortunately for Kennedy, he had not exactly inherited a team full of track stars. Todd Abernethy, the point guard, was a solid player but critics would often point to his lack of quickness as a major flaw. How did Todd and Kennedy fix this? The weight room and conditioning. Abernethy got to the point where he was strong enough to go head to head against any point guard in the league and beat him due to his strength advantage, he would often use his forearm to easily create space and give him that advantage when necessary. While Abernethy did not become the fastest player on the court, he did become the most durable player and could push the ball up and down the court for an entire game without showing a noticeable sign of fatigue. Abernethy’s hard work and Coach K’s tutelage transformed him into, arguably, the best point guard in the SEC this season. Dwayne Curtis is another player who could be considered the antithesis to AK’s style of play. Curtis is 6’8 280 pounds, slow, and cannot jump. He relies on the use of his body and angles to score and rebound. He was a great player for Rod Barnes style of play, but many questioned how effective DC would be in Kennedy’s up-tempo game. Curtis conditioned hard from a pre-season injury and hit the floor running, sort of. Curtis averaged 13 points and 8 rebounds a game this season, which is roughly the same as he averaged under Rod Barnes. Before Dwayne Curtis returned from his injury the team appeared to be flat, but Curtis return to full strength seemed to be the difference for the Rebels who began to go on a tear in the SEC.
Kennedy was able to take these misfits and turned them into a running machine. The Rebels scoring increased their points per game from last season 8.5 points to 73.5 ppg, the defense also allowed 68.9 ppg and forced 16 turnovers per game which was just as good as Rod Barnes defenses of the past. Turnovers were a crucial part to the Rebels success this season. They had a +4.6 turnover margin, which roughly equated to 8 more points off turnovers than the opposition. While many people thought the defense would take a hit with the departure of Barnes and implementing a fast paced offense, Kennedy proved the fans wrong and taught the boys how to play aggressive defense with active hands.
Kennedy and the Rebs are set to play their first game in the SEC tournament tonight against the 6th seeded LSU Tigers. The Tigers are coming off a hard fought overtime victory over the 3rd see Tennessee Volunteers. While the Tigers may not be the most ideal match up for Kennedy and the Rebs, they couldn’t be catching them at a better time. As mentioned earlier, the Tigers are coming off an overtime victory where Tennessee had them running up and down the court the entire game, a style of play that LSU is not accustomed too. To make matters worse for the Tigers, their best player, Glen “Big Baby” Davis, had not played in LSU’s last couple of games and played a total of 40 minutes. Davis was not the only player to log extensive time on the floor, three other LSU plays logged 39 minutes or more. One would hope that the Tigers are unable to rebound from this overtime thriller tomorrow night, and still show signs of fatigue from the fast paced game Tennessee put them through last night.
While Ole Miss may be the fresher team, they are still going to have their hands full trying to deal with a talented, underachieving LSU team. The focus for the Rebels will be trying to keep Glen Davis from getting on track offensively. This job will fall on the shoulders of the injured Dwayne Curtis (big toe), Kenny Williams, and Jeremy Parnell. If these three can find a way to contain Big Baby Ole Miss should win and win easily, and will get one step closer to an SEC title and hopefully a spot in the Big Dance.
Coach Kennedy inherited a team that basically resembled a good JUCO team. He had a solid, but slow point guard, a shooting guard that took the term too literally, a scrappy undersized small forward, and two solid post players. The bench wasn’t much better with players like Trey Hampton, Xavier Hansbro, and Brian Smith. Kennedy immediately hit the recruiting trail and brought in Kenny Williams, Eniel Polynice, Rodney Jones, and Andy Ogide. Kennedy didn’t just have an impact through recruiting, but he was able to convince key players like Dwayne Curtis, Brian Smith, and others to buy into his system and not abandon the program.
After filling the roster, Kennedy had to teach these Rod Barnes era players how to do a complete 180 and learn an entirely new system of basketball. Rod Barnes, while a good guy, was not the greatest coach and had his teams execute some of the most boring basketball in the league. Barnes prided himself on defense, not 40 minutes of hell type defense, but just solid half court defense. His offense consisted of passing around the perimeter, with little to no movement, for 35 seconds hoping to find an open Dwayne Curtis or taking a three-point shot.
Kennedy came in and told the players to forget everything coach Barnes had taught them about how to play. Kennedy wanted to play an up tempo style, constantly pushing the ball up the court, and implementing a stingy full court press, mixed with man, and zone. Unfortunately for Kennedy, he had not exactly inherited a team full of track stars. Todd Abernethy, the point guard, was a solid player but critics would often point to his lack of quickness as a major flaw. How did Todd and Kennedy fix this? The weight room and conditioning. Abernethy got to the point where he was strong enough to go head to head against any point guard in the league and beat him due to his strength advantage, he would often use his forearm to easily create space and give him that advantage when necessary. While Abernethy did not become the fastest player on the court, he did become the most durable player and could push the ball up and down the court for an entire game without showing a noticeable sign of fatigue. Abernethy’s hard work and Coach K’s tutelage transformed him into, arguably, the best point guard in the SEC this season. Dwayne Curtis is another player who could be considered the antithesis to AK’s style of play. Curtis is 6’8 280 pounds, slow, and cannot jump. He relies on the use of his body and angles to score and rebound. He was a great player for Rod Barnes style of play, but many questioned how effective DC would be in Kennedy’s up-tempo game. Curtis conditioned hard from a pre-season injury and hit the floor running, sort of. Curtis averaged 13 points and 8 rebounds a game this season, which is roughly the same as he averaged under Rod Barnes. Before Dwayne Curtis returned from his injury the team appeared to be flat, but Curtis return to full strength seemed to be the difference for the Rebels who began to go on a tear in the SEC.
Kennedy was able to take these misfits and turned them into a running machine. The Rebels scoring increased their points per game from last season 8.5 points to 73.5 ppg, the defense also allowed 68.9 ppg and forced 16 turnovers per game which was just as good as Rod Barnes defenses of the past. Turnovers were a crucial part to the Rebels success this season. They had a +4.6 turnover margin, which roughly equated to 8 more points off turnovers than the opposition. While many people thought the defense would take a hit with the departure of Barnes and implementing a fast paced offense, Kennedy proved the fans wrong and taught the boys how to play aggressive defense with active hands.
Kennedy and the Rebs are set to play their first game in the SEC tournament tonight against the 6th seeded LSU Tigers. The Tigers are coming off a hard fought overtime victory over the 3rd see Tennessee Volunteers. While the Tigers may not be the most ideal match up for Kennedy and the Rebs, they couldn’t be catching them at a better time. As mentioned earlier, the Tigers are coming off an overtime victory where Tennessee had them running up and down the court the entire game, a style of play that LSU is not accustomed too. To make matters worse for the Tigers, their best player, Glen “Big Baby” Davis, had not played in LSU’s last couple of games and played a total of 40 minutes. Davis was not the only player to log extensive time on the floor, three other LSU plays logged 39 minutes or more. One would hope that the Tigers are unable to rebound from this overtime thriller tomorrow night, and still show signs of fatigue from the fast paced game Tennessee put them through last night.
While Ole Miss may be the fresher team, they are still going to have their hands full trying to deal with a talented, underachieving LSU team. The focus for the Rebels will be trying to keep Glen Davis from getting on track offensively. This job will fall on the shoulders of the injured Dwayne Curtis (big toe), Kenny Williams, and Jeremy Parnell. If these three can find a way to contain Big Baby Ole Miss should win and win easily, and will get one step closer to an SEC title and hopefully a spot in the Big Dance.
posted by Jason Smith at 12:02 AM
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