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I hope Davis and Thomas workout, neither have the upside and high-end that Jordan had and has proven.

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Both actually have a clue how to play basketball and won't be looking to leave after one year.

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For sure. A solid argument could be made that they are as far ahead of him from a basketball skills standpoint as he was ahead of them from a size and athleticism standpoint. I'd bet my house that neither of them goes 2 for his first 26 free throws or whatever that percentage was that DeAndre shot.

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Which poll are you looking at?

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I'm looking at the AP Top 25 Poll and the USA Today Coaches Poll. We spent the first 16 weekly polls (preseason- week 16) ranked in both.

link - http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/rankings/_/year/2008/week/4/seasontype/2

I hope Davis or Thomas average 9 points like Jordan did his first and only season. Some of it is them, a lot of it is the system Kennedy runs. Jordan was a freak athlete that could get buckets.

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I think Billy Kennedy has had an entire roster transfer in four years.

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APR! APR! APR!

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The vast majority of people we've had transfer are ones he brought in himself. I can only guess that the players who he couldn't get rid of were his own mistakes too.

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Turgeon transfers
Naji
Jamal
Alexander
Davis

Kennedy Transfers
Jmychal
Fitzgerald
Andrew Young
Space
Shawn Smith
Jamal Jones



36% of the people Kennedy inherited transferred
46% of the people Kennedy himself recruited have transferred


That's right, almost half of the players Kennedy personally chose have already transferred. And there is defintitely potential for more before the offseason is over.

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They managed expectations.

Do the roster changes make us better or worse in the long run?

They obviously made us better, in the big picture, and were done in a way that didn't hurt our APR (which is not a red herring, btw. What a dumb, uninformed statement).

The 2015-16 roster is pretty impressive, which means someone has done a good job of building it. The guy responsible for that is the guy getting ripped the shreds on this board.

Good job, Coach Kennedy! Next season can't get here soon enough for me.

BK has done a horrible job here overall. The only season that was not absolute crap was last year and it was still a disappointment. The way the season finished out was terrible. He deserves to be fired, more so than being ripped to shreds.

His roster management overall has been awful. He has one great recruiting class coming in year five. The jury is still out on whether he can actually do anything with it.

The guy has two NCAA appearances in nearly 20 years as a HC. That is not the mark of a good coach. Having the wait until year 5 here for a NCAA appearance, is pretty pathetic considering the team was going to the NCAAs regularly before BK showed up.

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that didn't hurt our APR (which is not a red herring, btw. What a dumb, uninformed statement).

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Anyone who believes the APR red herring (and only morons give it any credence) is a know nothing, imbecilic BK supporter. Every crap argument or BS excuse for BK has been so thoroughly destroyed on this board, only idiots still believe the nonsense of BK supporters.

Do players develop here? AC getting better?

APR hurt zip zero nothing. Again Uconn won a title on probation for real APR issues. Wonder why Kevin Ollie didn't just give up.

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They obviously made us better, in the big picture, and were done in a way that didn't hurt our APR (which is not a red herring, btw. What a dumb, uninformed statement).

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Well, since facts have been presented indicating that the APR horrors were indeed fabricated, please provide your facts that prove it was indeed not a red herring. Nobody here wants to be uninformed, and since your certainty indicates you possess credible facts, please impart them so we may all be informed

You could tell all season that he was gone. Of all the players, he look disinterested and lazy. On the contrary, Space knew he was leaving, but played HARD and was a rah rah guy on the bench.
They were opposites.

And why is anyone spun up about the transfers. Its an epidemic in college basketball. Go look at your beloved Turgeon's transfer situation.
Kids aren't playing, don't want to earn it over a similar player, they leave. Simple.
Our roster is as good as ever with the new class.

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And why is anyone spun up about the transfers. Its an epidemic in college basketball. Go look at your beloved Turgeon's transfer situation.
Kids aren't playing, don't want to earn it over a similar player, they leave. Simple.
Our roster is as good as ever with the new class.

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No one minds transfers, but we have had more than national average and more of them have been BK players.

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Go look at your beloved Turgeon's transfer situation.

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So we "love" Turgeon because we recognize he is a superior coach to the boob we have in charge now? Don't be a fool Turgeon is a much better coach than BK. Recognizing that doesn't mean he is beloved. That is just having a lick of sense about college basketball.

It is not normal for a program to lose 2-3 players a year every year. Go look it up. The national average is definitely less that. And most of these transfers are BK's guys, which means he cannot evaluate talent and/or develop it.

Also, the reason people bring it up is because BK is a lousy coach who has turned over the roster every year in an effort to find the players that can overcome his incompetence because he cannot develop anyone.

The fact is your beloved BK sucks at his job. Bringing in one great class and limping into the NCAAs in year five (which is what is going to happen) is just further proof of that.

Turgeon can coach

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And why is anyone spun up about the transfers. Its an epidemic in college basketball. Go look at your beloved Turgeon's transfer situation.
Kids aren't playing, don't want to earn it over a similar player, they leave. Simple.
Our roster is as good as ever with the new class.

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It's been a huge problem for A&M. It has zero to do with "spin"

This year's team should have been in the tournament, no ifs, ands or buts. Once House got hurt,
the team fell apart and the excuse machine got fired up..."It's hard to
win when you only have one scorer."

We've recruited other "scorers" to play for Texas A&M.

Jamal Jones....where was he when House got hurt? Oh he transferred already.

Jmychal Reese....where was he when House got hurt? Oh he transferred already.

But people like you buy Kennedy's excuses, and label valid criticism as spin.

Fortunately as A&M continues to grow as a first-class institution, there will be less and less people like you (relativelly speaking) and more people interested in actual accomplishments.

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To clarify, 10 seed or worse in the NCAA tournament, you win, 9 seed or better and I win. Bet is null if
House and the four recruits don't play. You're on for $100.

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Deal.

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I wonder if Viva will come back to pay up? I'd say I'm in the drivers seat on this one.

Does Elijah transferring null the bet?

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To clarify, 10 seed or worse in the NCAA tournament, you win, 9 seed or better and I win. Bet is null if
House and the four recruits don't play. You're on for $100.

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Deal.

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I wonder if Viva will come back to pay up? I'd say I'm in the drivers seat on this one.

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Well, it's House and the 3 recruits now so it looks like it's void on a technicality that you included being greedy.

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can we bet on win totals? no chance next year's team sniffs 25 wins.
can we bet on top 50 wins? no chance next year's team beat's 2008 there either.
can we bet on weeks ranked in the top 25 poll?
can we bet on highest ranking in the polls?

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Hope you didn't bet any of these

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To clarify, 10 seed or worse in the NCAA tournament, you win, 9 seed or better and I win. Bet is null if
House and the four recruits don't play. You're on for $100.

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Deal.

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I wonder if Viva will come back to pay up? I'd say I'm in the drivers seat on this one.

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Well, it's House and the 3 recruits now so it looks like it's void on a technicality that you included being greedy.

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Guess it depends on the definition of "play" in the original bet b/c Elijah played...just not nearly the whole season.

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To clarify, 10 seed or worse in the NCAA tournament, you win, 9 seed or better and I win. Bet is null if
House and the four recruits don't play. You're on for $100.

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Deal.

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I wonder if Viva will come back to pay up? I'd say I'm in the drivers seat on this one.

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Well, it's House and the 3 recruits now so it looks like it's void on a technicality that you included being greedy.

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Guess it depends on the definition of "play" in the original bet b/c Elijah played...just not nearly the whole season.

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Ah good point. He did play so the bet is on IMO.

That's the way I see it.

E.Thomas played so bet is active IMO. He won't get the Natty Ring or be in last team picture

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Watch where he lands. If it's a high end coach that'll speak volumes to how mismanaged Fitz was. If it's a low end it'll show BK handled things correctly. I really have no idea. I'm a big believer in you earn your minutes. I saw nothing last year that screamed great player about to bust out from Fitz. Looked interesting, but way overhyped around here. But I'm in the camp that Kennedy just churns the roster looking for Daniel House types who can play without being coached or managed. I think AC speaks volumes to the Billy Kennedy coaching style. AC needs coaching in a very extreme way. It's sad as there is a good player under the mess he has been allowed to become.

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Sometimes I begin to miss Ben and then I look back at posts like these and think wtf.

Funny thread. Lots of absentee posters here.

I didn't see it posted here, but if anyone is curious, Davonte ended up at Minnesota with Ricky Petino. I'm not sure what that means in Ben's World.

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Funny thread. Lots of absentee posters here.

I didn't see it posted here, but if anyone is curious, Davonte ended up at Minnesota with Ricky Petino. I'm not sure what that means in Ben's World.

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I just hope viva comes back to pay what he's going to owe. Also wish I had remembered to come back after the schedule was released and taken 22 up on a couple of his offers.

Whew, snuck in at the end and made myself look smart
Things look pretty good right now. He had to fight uphill to recruit against the negative recruiting early in his diagnosis. He had to take some chances in recruiting and some didnt stick. So be it. He has developed a good roster and has some nice youth with more coming in. He was supported by people that matter and it paid off. Kudos.
I love it when a guy wins in the face of a bunch of clowns.

Interesting bump. There's no doubt that the lack of continuity has hurt us. Add Jamal Jones (our leading scorer in Kennedy year 3 who transferred after it finished) to last year's team and we probably make the NCAA Tournament. And who knows how Elijah and Robinson transferring will impact the team next year (maybe we'll be fine, but at minimum it created issues that we have to address).

However, between AAU ball culture and increasing numbers of slimy agents digging their claws into a Twitter-raised generation of divas primed to believe all the hype, I'm wondering how much of a place "continuity" has in modern college basketball. Because transfers aren't just an A&M problem. They are way up all over the country, and there's no reason to think those numbers are temporary. Kids want playing time and they want it now, and when they don't get it, they make decisions that don't even make any sense. For examples of that, look no further than Elijah Thomas, who's going to end up sitting out longer waiting for playing time than if he'd stuck it out here, or Jamal Jones, who ended up transferring to the D-League and a 20k/year paycheck.

I'm starting to think that Kennedy's rapid shuffle approach to roster building might just be the logical approach in today's NCAA. You can pine for the program building days of yore or you can accept reality (i.e. that today's college BBall is EXTREMELY mercenary) and react accordingly.

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can we bet on win totals? no chance next year's team sniffs 25 wins.
can we bet on top 50 wins? no chance next year's team beat's 2008 there either.
can we bet on weeks ranked in the top 25 poll?
can we bet on highest ranking in the polls?

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Unlike the likes of Viva (banned) and Ben (self-banned once the cheers & optimism about the current season got too much for him to tolerate), twenty two ags still is hanging around here posting as salvatore_ditmars. He does seem to be posting some happier thoughts now.

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I'm starting to think that Kennedy's rapid shuffle approach to roster building might just be the logical approach in today's NCAA.

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I think we need to see some actual success (we're on track this year, thankfully) and sustained success in the following years before making these sorts of statements.

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I'm starting to think that Kennedy's rapid shuffle approach to roster building might just be the logical approach in today's NCAA.

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I think we need to see some actual success (we're on track this year, thankfully) and sustained success in the following years before making these sorts of statements.

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I say we just go to a Final Four this March and break out the celebration champagne. Would be a pleasant change from the typical 'wait until next year' approach that often takes decades. Let's just go for all the marbles right the f*** now immediately and call it a day.

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I say we just go to a Final Four right now this year and celebrate. F*** the 'wait until next year' approach. Let's just go for all the marbles right the f*** now immediately and call it a day.

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That's a completely different discussion. But yes a Final Four is good.

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I love it when a guy wins in the face of a bunch of clowns.

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He's having a great season and deserves a lot of credit, but come on. The criticism during the first 3-4 years was completely warranted as our team was shockingly poor in numerous fundamentals. It wasn't just braying by "a bunch of clowns."

Also, to pretend like this: "after year 3, I'm going to hire a getting-antsy-in-retirement former HC with 300 wins (who's also a devastating recruiter), use his arrival to convince a 5* transfer that we're the place to be, and then use this offseason mini-surge to land a top 5 recruiting class and kick ass in year 5" was his plan all along is a bit ridiculous. Kennedy pulled off a Lazarus-esque revival.

I'm genuinely glad he did. The whole thing is kind of inspirational in a "never stop fighting" way. But GTFO with that "see!? The pot bangers had no idea what they were taking about!" schtick.