Two players doesn't make for a deep front court.

Billy Kennedy, Year 7

That tells you everything you need to know about A&M athletics. It tells you everything you need to know about our athletic director, boosters, president, chancellor and board of regents. Forever losers.

If I woke up tomorrow and heard that our head basketball, football and baseball coaches were fired and that our AD, president, chancellor and board were all replaced I would shed no tears. If I also heard that our boosters moved on to "help" LSU or UT then I might shed tears of joy.

We shall see.

At this point all I am hoping for is that the talent level of the team can overcome the coaching deficit much like it did in 14-15 and 15-16. We should have enough depth across the roster to be in contention to go dancing, and I don't imagine with Kennedy's health history that he will want to finish out his full contract. We will just have to go from there...

Although I will say that he's a great recruiter and hopefully no matter when he steps down the cupboard will be well stocked for his replacement.

You're the new 2%. The 2% of Aggies that still watch Aggie basketball. Congrats. You're such a great Ag.

Sunday Ag wants you to support the players guys!!! DO IT!!! SUPPORT THEM!!!!

It's a tough thing. But sometimes supporting the players is doing what ever you can to get them a good coach.

Double Diamond said:

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Front court is thin. Back court is young. It would be easy to see this team win 18 games and stay home.

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I'll gladly wager anybody who wants an over/under of 18 wins next season.

Yeah. We don't know the schedule but I would be shocked if we didn't win at least 22. We are stacked.

I'm not a fan of Kennedy but if he gets to the sweet 16 next year, he would be the best coach we've ever had. We've never even come close to 2 sweet 16's in 3 years.

That is mostly true. He's still a bad bench coach and more often than not he coaches teams that are basically unwatchable because they're sloppy and boring.

Ag_EE_88 said:

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I'm not a fan of Kennedy but if he gets to the sweet 16 next year, he would be the best coach we've ever had. We've never even come close to 2 sweet 16's in 3 years.

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Our best coach ever was hired away by Kentucky, where he flamed out in spectacular fashion.

Kennedy would be one of the most accomplished coaches in A&M history, though, if he makes another Sweet 16. Not a lot of competition in that area.

sincereag said:

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Double Diamond said:

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Front court is thin. Back court is young. It would be easy to see this team win 18 games and stay home.

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You haven't heard? RW is coming back next year... we're not thin in the front court. The back court will be young but we should be much better than this year's guard rotation was.

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Hampton was OK at the end of the year. We presume JJ Caldwell will be better. But he will not have played competitively for nearly 2 years...and he's the same size as Hampton.

Who was the last 5 ft 11 in PG who could really pass the ball? Ty Lawson? JJ looks great against HS kids. He's not a Top 50 player (66). Jury is still out. I hope he does well...I'm just sayin'

jml2621 said:

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sincereag said:

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Double Diamond said:

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Front court is thin. Back court is young. It would be easy to see this team win 18 games and stay home.

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You haven't heard? RW is coming back next year... we're not thin in the front court. The back court will be young but we should be much better than this year's guard rotation was.

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Hampton was OK at the end of the year. We presume JJ Caldwell will be better. But he will not have played competitively for nearly 2 years...and he's the same size as Hampton.

Who was the last 5 ft 11 in PG who could really pass the ball? Ty Lawson? JJ looks great against HS kids. He's not a Top 50 player (66). Jury is still out. I hope he does well...I'm just sayin'

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Did you just compare an undersized combo guard from Lipscomb with no ability to drive the basket to a national Top 60 PG prospect? And if not Caldwell, then Top 100 Starks. If not Starks, then 6-foot-3 Top 125 PG Jay Jay Chandler. If not Chandler, then possibly this grad transfer Duane Wilson who visited. here will be multiple options, and all with more talent than the players who played point last season.

jml2621 said:

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Who was the last 5 ft 11 in PG who could really pass the ball? Ty Lawson?

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off the top of my head: tyler ulis, pierre jackson, phil pressey were all under 5'11 and thats just guys we've played against the last 5 years. im sure theres more than a handful every year cause theres not really any correlation between size and court vision

3 of the top 5 guys in APG in the SEC this year are listed at 5'10 or 5'11

Some above said it;

Because of the roster next season he will sketched dance which will buy him a couple more seasons

He's here at least 3 more years unless he fails to make the dance next tear with a loaded roster

If he makes the Sweet 16 next year he'll buy himself 3 more years.

I still won't think he's a very good coach, but an extension at that point (2 Sweet 16's in 3 years) would be earned.

But I don't understand how people don't see how silly it is to talk about how great an achievement it would be to make a Sweet 16 on one hand, but then on the flip side talk like it's a pretty likely thing next season.

Just like the "well we would have made the tournament this year had Caldwell been eligible" talk.

Can we go back to actually requiring people to achieve goals instead of crediting them in advance and in the past with excuses?

Is this a millennial thing?

free_mhayden said:

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If he makes the Sweet 16 next year he'll buy himself 3 more years.

I still won't think he's a very good coach, but an extension at that point (2 Sweet 16's in 3 years) would be earned.

But I don't understand how people don't see how silly it is to talk about how great an achievement it would be to make a Sweet 16 on one hand, but then on the flip side talk like it's a pretty likely thing next season.

Just like the "well we would have made the tournament this year had Caldwell been eligible" talk.

Can we go back to actually requiring people to achieve goals instead of crediting them in advance and in the past with excuses?

Is this a millennial thing?

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If he just makes the tourney he'll get himself 3 more years in not 6 more years. The bar is his inches high.

Double Diamond said:

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Front court is thin. Back court is young. It would be easy to see this team win 18 games and stay home.

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Same type of opinions were being posted by people during the off-season before the 2015-2016 season, even though it was pretty obvious that the roster that season was good enough to probably make the NCAA regardless of any coaching issues.

'Jimmies & Joes' CAN often get you into NCAA, and A&M just like in 2015-2016 will have a loaded roster with with plenty of experience as well. Sure, they could fail, but more likely will be an NCAA team than not IMO. Kennedy seems to have a really hard time coaching up offense, but he has usually seemed a respectable defensive coach, and with a much more athletic backcourt, I'm expecting us to go back to a lot more man-to-man that he is more comfortable with and that plus elite rim protection, I'm guessing that we'll probably be at least a top-25 or better defensive team (we were #9 in the country in 2015-2016), which should be a huge help in winning enough games to get us in.

The one remaining potential roster issue as mentioned is the PG position being manned by a redshirt freshman (Caldwell) and true freshman (Starks), but the staff appears to be out looking for a grad transfer veteran guard to shore up even that potential deficiency (we'll see who they get).

So...Ben...THE LOVER...whom I'm pretty sure this is you back online....in 2015-2016 once it was clear that particular team was going to be pretty good...you signed off and disappeared until 2016-2017 until it was clear we were no good again. Unfortunately, beware that you may have to sign off again during next season because we may very well be decent again for a bit.

If they DO miss the NCAA next year, they should fire the staff no questions asked IMO. This SHOULD absolutely be a 'no excuses' type of situation, given that roster.

LOL...free, you are on the nose. The freakin job description should say " Win Championships" as a key performance indicator.

Only in Aggieland where our expectations have been managed down to the level that we think we have accomplished something by getting to a Sweet 16. If this talent influx is so dramatic and Billy Kennedy is so convinced that he has developed Davis ,Hogg, Gilder and TTM to the point where they can provide leadership then why not expect an Elite 8 or a Final Four?

It's okay to think big and expect results.

Duane Wilson has had decreasing stats since his Fish year. Not sure why his decreasing stats, or why we'd be looking at him, unless we are ultra-concerned about our guard play.. 5 ppg, shot 29% from 3 this year.... pass.

We already have enough guys who can't shoot.

http://www.gomarquette.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/duane_wilson_847093.html

Wagering over +/- 18 wins is not really too much of a gamble, given that we play in a crap conference and the returning talent we have.

Now, if you wanted to wager something about being above a 5 seed in the tournament or so, that would be a pretty even wager.

zooguy96 said:

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Wagering over +/- 18 wins is not really too much of a gamble, given that we play in a crap conference and the returning talent we have.

Now, if you wanted to wager something about being above a 5 seed in the tournament or so, that would be a pretty even wager.

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What makes you so sure the SEC will be a 'crap' basketball conference next year? They got 5 teams into NCAA this season. Some teams that missed NCAA like Bama, Auburn, A&M, Miss State are going to have significant stock piled talent and have a chance to be better.

The worst team the past 3 years ( Mizzou ) is going to probably be a bit better with potential #1 NBA draft pick Michael Porter Jr on it.

Not saying SEC will be ACC, Big 10, or Big 12...and probably a couple of teams that made NCAA this season will slip back out.

But there are reasonable reasons to think the SEC will be a 5-6 NCAA bid league next year. Which isn't really a 'crap' league.

Crap as compared to the ACC, Big XII, PAC12, and B1G. We are the 5th best P5 conference, and it isn't close.

zooguy96 said:

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Crap as compared to the ACC, Big XII, PAC12, and B1G. We are the 5th best P5 conference, and it isn't close.

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SEC isn't crap compared to the Pac12. By some metrics (kenpom, # of NCAAT teams), it's actually a better conference than the P12.

We are probably the 5th best conference, but it's the Big East ahead of us, not the P12

P12 was top heavy, but pretty mediocre overall. I don't think the bottom 5 teams in the conference even had one decent win among them.

There are other folks on this board from other parts of the country, and I don't know what people are saying there, but I am in Lexington, Ky, and the people here laugh out loud when I tell them that Billy Kennedy is still the coach at Texas A&M. In their eyes, he is just as bad as Jones at LSU. I mean, they freaking can't believe it. Sadly, neither can I.

free_mhayden said:

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If he makes the Sweet 16 next year he'll buy himself 3 more years.

I still won't think he's a very good coach, but an extension at that point (2 Sweet 16's in 3 years) would be earned.

But I don't understand how people don't see how silly it is to talk about how great an achievement it would be to make a Sweet 16 on one hand, but then on the flip side talk like it's a pretty likely thing next season.

Just like the "well we would have made the tournament this year had Caldwell been eligible" talk.

Can we go back to actually requiring people to achieve goals instead of crediting them in advance and in the past with excuses?

Is this a millennial thing?

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I don't think making a Sweet 16 earns anything more than the next season. No, I wouldn't give him an extension. He just got one this year. You judge the program based on many factors. If the 2018 and 2019 classes are below the current talent level and the talent pipeline dries up, that matters. If he loses a couple of assistants and the replacements are unimpressive, that matters.

Context matters in everything....

wacarnolds said:

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zooguy96 said:

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Crap as compared to the ACC, Big XII, PAC12, and B1G. We are the 5th best P5 conference, and it isn't close.

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SEC isn't crap compared to the Pac12. By some metrics (kenpom, # of NCAAT teams), it's actually a better conference than the P12.

We are probably the 5th best conference, but it's the Big East ahead of us, not the P12

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I think I'll take the PAC 12's top half over the SEC's any day of the week.

Hop...context is everything.

In the context of Billy Kennedy's 18 year career as a head coach coupled with his six years here, I personally do not think that he has the capacity ( recruiting+ strategic vision+gameday execution) to build a foundation for a sustainable program.

If we put the failures of the past season in the context of the last six years then you see yet another litany of excuses that not only Billy Kennedy , but too many coaches at A&M use for consistently underperforming.

When you overlay his on court history over the issues of his unfortunate health prognosis, then what exactly does an Aggie basketball fan like me build his hope for the future of the program? We are trapped by the lowered expectations for our current coach and an athletic department mentality that has created a self fulfilling prophecy of mediocrity being good enough for A&M basketball.

I don't want to become as cynical as you are about basketball at A&M. I want to hold out hope that Reed can be packed and that my school is relevant in a sport that I love. I want Kentucky worried about playing my Aggies every year. I want to gripe about seeding errors.

Regardless of the talent on paper, I have no faith that Billy Kennedy can develop a cohesive winning team out of these different parts. There may be enough talent to overcome his history of ineptitude to get us to the dance in 2018 , but is an occasional Sweet 16 loss the best we can aspire to?

There is no sustainable future with Billy Kennedy and our aspirations for are held hostage to his ability to win on a day to day basis. As you would probably note Hop, maybe that's all Aggie basketball fans should expect.

Hop said:

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free_mhayden said:

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If he makes the Sweet 16 next year he'll buy himself 3 more years.

I still won't think he's a very good coach, but an extension at that point (2 Sweet 16's in 3 years) would be earned.

But I don't understand how people don't see how silly it is to talk about how great an achievement it would be to make a Sweet 16 on one hand, but then on the flip side talk like it's a pretty likely thing next season.

Just like the "well we would have made the tournament this year had Caldwell been eligible" talk.

Can we go back to actually requiring people to achieve goals instead of crediting them in advance and in the past with excuses?

Is this a millennial thing?

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I don't think making a Sweet 16 earns anything more than the next season. No, I wouldn't give him an extension. He just got one this year. You judge the program based on many factors. If the 2018 and 2019 classes are below the current talent level and the talent pipeline dries up, that matters. If he loses a couple of assistants and the replacements are unimpressive, that matters.

Context matters in everything....

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Yes you judge the program on many things, but if you make a Sweet 16 two times in 3 years at a program like Texas A&M then you are absolutely not on a 1-year leash.

free_mhayden said:

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Hop said:

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free_mhayden said:

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If he makes the Sweet 16 next year he'll buy himself 3 more years.

I still won't think he's a very good coach, but an extension at that point (2 Sweet 16's in 3 years) would be earned.

But I don't understand how people don't see how silly it is to talk about how great an achievement it would be to make a Sweet 16 on one hand, but then on the flip side talk like it's a pretty likely thing next season.

Just like the "well we would have made the tournament this year had Caldwell been eligible" talk.

Can we go back to actually requiring people to achieve goals instead of crediting them in advance and in the past with excuses?

Is this a millennial thing?

---

I don't think making a Sweet 16 earns anything more than the next season. No, I wouldn't give him an extension. He just got one this year. You judge the program based on many factors. If the 2018 and 2019 classes are below the current talent level and the talent pipeline dries up, that matters. If he loses a couple of assistants and the replacements are unimpressive, that matters.

Context matters in everything....

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Yes you judge the program on many things, but if you make a Sweet 16 two times in 3 years at a program like Texas A&M then you are absolutely not on a 1-year leash.

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To some it might not seem like much, but you also have to factor in that we were co-winners of the SEC conference last year. That's not an easy feat when you have Kentucky in the conference.

It depends on what barometer is used to analyze BK's success when you consider that he has taken us to the Sweet 16 which is something that BCG only did once and Turgeon couldn't do.

Now let's say by some sort of miracle we find ourselves in South Carolina's position next year, does that absolve BK of the previous seasons or will most of you still think that he's a bad coach??

My biggest gripe about his coaching ability is his inconsistency from game to game. Sometimes when you think the team will come out with fire, they have slow starts or we find a way to lose the game either by turnovers or free throws. Now maybe just maybe that's personnel issues about not having enough experience, but that would only mean that Coach Kennedy relies on veterans with experience to have success which translates to success every 3 or 4 years.

But what if he were to close the gap to two years which seems to be the case now?? What if he finds a model where he tries to have a mix of upperclassman (by way of transfers) and have talented freshman on the team?

Advancing far in the tournament can make up for a lot of things.

If Kennedy makes a Sweet 16 next year, he'll get at least 2 more years of leash. If he found his way to an Elite 8, then likely 3.

It doesn't necessarily change how good a coach he is, but it works both ways... I ignore all of the excuses some have made for his piss-poor performance at A&M and simply say look at the results... If he puts up solid results next year, even if he "lucks into them", then overall results start looking more competent.

Basically I want the guy canned because I don't think what he's done shows that he's capable of getting it done here -- that's including next season. The people that are already penciling in a Sweet 16 simply aren't realistic -- Kennedy's history shows it is not likely.

But if he gets us there, then you certainly won't see me calling for his head the next year.

Kind of where I am... resolved that he isn't going anywhere soon . I'll never trust his ability as a coach and by the nature of his illness he will not be setting a long term foundation to build upon once HE decides to leave. I just need to accept that we have to take it one game at a time and to not get into the mindset that the good game you see one day is not a precursor of future success.

I just hate the moving target that he perpetuates and the lack of accountability. There is no one in the current administration that will enforce accountability on Billy Kennedy.0