Maybe he's open to negotiating his buyout.

I highly doubt that it happens unless his medical condition dictates such.

Miss the NCAAT, 100% he is replaced whether through resignation or firing. Otherwise only if health dictates.

Buyout between 05/15/17 and 05/14/18 -- $4.5m
Buyout between 05/15/18 and 05/14/19 -- $3.5m

Hire Buzz Williams on May 15th.

Seems stubborn.

Precisely 0.0%

BK isn't going to resign, we will have to fire him.

Seriously though, why would he resign? We're giving him a pile of money to coach. Why walk away from that?

Why are we talking about Buzz Williams? Kennedy's team is ranked 58 spots higher in the RPI right now than Williams' team at Virginia Tech and Williams is in year 4 with that program.

Gap said:

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Why are we talking about Buzz Williams? Kennedy's team is ranked 58 spots higher in the RPI right now than Williams' team at Virginia Tech and Williams is in year 4 with that program.

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You can't really evaluate a coach until year 5 though...

Texas A & M said:

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Buyout between 05/15/17 and 05/14/18 -- $4.5m
Buyout between 05/15/18 and 05/14/19 -- $3.5m

Hire Buzz Williams on May 15th.

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Whenever we part ways with Kennedy, we won't wait until mid may, 7 weeks after the coaching carousel has stopped spinning in order to save $1 mil. That would be beyond idiotic.

Gap said:

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Why are we talking about Buzz Williams? Kennedy's team is ranked 58 spots higher in the RPI right now than Williams' team at Virginia Tech and Williams is in year 4 with that program.

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Because he's a better coach.

Method Man said:

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Gap said:

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Why are we talking about Buzz Williams? Kennedy's team is ranked 58 spots higher in the RPI right now than Williams' team at Virginia Tech and Williams is in year 4 with that program.

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Because he's a better coach.

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Not really setting the bar high, are we?

No. I think Buzz is a solid and good coach. He would recruit better here I think if we kept our same
Structure. Haven't we had enough of paying this guy for disappointment?

Method Man said:

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No. I think Buzz is a solid and good coach. He would recruit better here I think if we kept our same
Structure. Haven't we had enough of paying this guy for disappointment?

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You missed the joke. I wanted us to hire Buzz a few years ago. But his results at Va Tech haven't been impressive at all.

Seems too early this season to make a ruling about Buzz Williams.

VaTech was in terrible shape when he showed up, they've improved under him. We'll see where it goes from here.

Amazing that we gave him a new contract with those buyout numbers when there was no reason to do so.

Junkhead said:

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Method Man said:

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No. I think Buzz is a solid and good coach. He would recruit better here I think if we kept our same
Structure. Haven't we had enough of paying this guy for disappointment?

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You missed the joke. I wanted us to hire Buzz a few years ago. But his results at Va Tech haven't been impressive at all.

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Oh, I didn't miss it. I fake laughed out of insitinct.

old yeller said:

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Amazing that we gave him a new contract with those buyout numbers when there was no reason to do so.

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Disgusting actually. Millions of dollars to a friend that can't coach. Ags are the biggest suckers out there I think.

VT is in a very hard league. Buzz is a really good coach. And RPI rankings aren't how you value a coach. RPI were it can move up with a loss RPI.

Brad Underwood

The 2015/2016 success provided the necessary rationale to give BK a contract that would set him up for life should we decide to " reassign" him.

My guess is that there is a recognition that he is not the program changer that we need but Woodward , Sharp and BMAs wanted to make sure he had an extension to protect his recruiting and to be seen as " taking care of BK and his family" when we can no longer sustain the facade of his coaching ability.

It's a good motivation and one that I deeply respect if indeed it was to give Kennedy a big payday in what is probably his last coaching job. As is often mentioned , it's not my $4.5 million.

That being said, this year may turn out to be the opportunity to move on with the coaching change.

bero88 said:

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Brad Underwood

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We're going to hire the sitting coach at Illinois? Seems unlikely unless he has some ties to A&M that I'm not aware of.

DogCompany74 said:

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The 2015/2016 success provided the necessary rationale to give BK a contract that would set him up for life should we decide to " reassign" him.

My guess is that there is a recognition that he is not the program changer that we need but Woodward , Sharp and BMAs wanted to make sure he had an extension to protect his recruiting and to be seen as " taking care of BK and his family" when we can no longer sustain the facade of his coaching ability.

It's a good motivation and one that I deeply respect if indeed it was to give Kennedy a big payday in what is probably his last coaching job. As is often mentioned , it's not my $4.5 million.

That being said, this year may turn out to be the opportunity to move on with the coaching change.

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Keep in mind that Woodward that had been AD for like two months when Kennedy got his extension. I wonder if he had that decision to do over again if he'd have done the same thing.

But even if so, the "we gave him the contract to set him up for life" thing is as wild a conspiracy theory as I've ever seen here. You don't give a guy a few extra million dollars to not coach your basketball team, at least not on purpose.

It was a bad decision at the time, and even on the verge of the NCAA Tournament and in the midst of one of our best seasons ever a lot of us here pointed that out. It either showed a complete lack of institutional faith in our ability to sustain a basketball program, or that our decision makers were somehow swindled by Kennedy's agent. Neither is a particularly promising prospect.

I think debating the future of a coach in the middle of the season, especially a season that could still turn out to be a great one, doesn't do anyone any good, but this "the good ol' boys wanted to take care of their boy BK" thing is ridiculous.

The season could indeed be a triumph and we should wait ( yet again) to see if BK can coach his way into a good tourney run. But looking at BKs career history and his one tourney appearance in 7 years, there was no legitimate reason to give him that kind of extension. Where was he going to go? Who was banging on BKs door to jump this wonderful success that he has built here? Why in the world would Scott Woodward give a 55% career coach that kind of money as his first contract as AD?

Woodward wasn't here long enough to negotiate the deal himself . He executed what was previously agreed to probably at the request of people with names on buildings. That deal bought Woodward time and political cover to make an objective evaluation of the basketball program .

BK miraculously turns into as 4-5 star recruiter for the first time in his coaching career but still can't seem to get the wins on the floor. Poor Billy's litany of travails in 2016/17!and continuing into this year does not scream sustainable program growth. The drop off in current recruiting may be the precursor of a deeper downturn that is the norm for his coaching career. Any competent AD would be a fool to stake his second revenue sport on a guy with BKs record and his " dog ate my homework" excuses.

Call it conspiracy but in my mind this is the only thing that makes sense in that contract . Woodward can fire Kennedy knowing that the school has provided him with an extraordinary financial windfall and he will not have to deal with as much of the negative fall out within the coaching community that is sure to come with any termination of Kennedy.

Junkhead said:

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Method Man said:

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No. I think Buzz is a solid and good coach. He would recruit better here I think if we kept our same
Structure. Haven't we had enough of paying this guy for disappointment?

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You missed the joke. I wanted us to hire Buzz a few years ago. But his results at Va Tech haven't been impressive at all.

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It's important to realize what kind of basketball school Virginia Tech was before he arrived.

They were a once-a-decade tournament team. The doormat of the ACC, and the doormat of the Big East before that. Literally one of if not the worst team in the respective conference historically.

Buzz took over a 9 win team and won 11, 20 then 22 (making the tournament).

He stands at 12-4 this year with no bad losses. If he can survive conference play this year and get this team to the NCAA Tournament, he will be only the second Virginia Tech coach to have more than 1 NCAA Tournament appearance -- and the first since the mid-80's.

Not saying he will get it done this year, but what he's done there has already been impressive.

I think the signs on the horizon of a downturn, even pointed out by Hop several times, are going to be interesting to watch. Kennedy has done here what he did at every school he's been at, be below average to average for several years and then cash in the one year he finds success with a phenemonal roster. The interesting thing is, he's never had to sustain the one year of success he has run into because he's had the ability to jump to another job. In our case we gave him an unwarranted pay raise. This year remains up in the air, but looking to the future it's frightening knowing he has never had to or shown an ability to maintain a program.

bobinator said:

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bero88 said:

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Brad Underwood

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We're going to hire the sitting coach at Illinois? Seems unlikely unless he has some ties to A&M that I'm not aware of.

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Our 7-5 football program just hired the sitting coach at Florida St. Go get this dude. He is legit.

The prestige of and interest in our football program is a little different from basketball... as is the talent that will be on the roster follwing this year or next year.

Hop has been very open and "called it like he sees it" in regards to Kennedy's recruiting next season, but he defended Kennedy's resume and refused to see the parallels between the tankjob and rebuild for one great year with lots of experience at Murray State and the tankjob and rebuild for one great year with lots of experience at Texas A&M.

The only wildcard regarding Kennedy's tenure here was if he could continue to stack stud recruiting classes to make the need for these un-necessary "rebuilds"... and so far 2018 is not looking pretty in that regard.

The contract sicken me every time I read it. Why not just have camp Ozark pay him a couple million dollars a year to teach arts and crafts? BK would only have to work during the summer and we wouldn't have to watch our team miss the dance year after year.

free_mhayden said:

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Junkhead said:

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Method Man said:

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No. I think Buzz is a solid and good coach. He would recruit better here I think if we kept our same
Structure. Haven't we had enough of paying this guy for disappointment?

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You missed the joke. I wanted us to hire Buzz a few years ago. But his results at Va Tech haven't been impressive at all.

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It's important to realize what kind of basketball school Virginia Tech was before he arrived.

They were a once-a-decade tournament team. The doormat of the ACC, and the doormat of the Big East before that. Literally one of if not the worst team in the respective conference historically.

Buzz took over a 9 win team and won 11, 20 then 22 (making the tournament).

He stands at 12-4 this year with no bad losses. If he can survive conference play this year and get this team to the NCAA Tournament, he will be only the second Virginia Tech coach to have more than 1 NCAA Tournament appearance -- and the first since the mid-80's.

Not saying he will get it done this year, but what he's done there has already been impressive.

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What did Billy Clyde take over here and how did he do? That was impressive. I'd still take Buzz in a heartbeat, though.

Junkhead said:

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free_mhayden said:

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Junkhead said:

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Method Man said:

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No. I think Buzz is a solid and good coach. He would recruit better here I think if we kept our same
Structure. Haven't we had enough of paying this guy for disappointment?

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You missed the joke. I wanted us to hire Buzz a few years ago. But his results at Va Tech haven't been impressive at all.

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It's important to realize what kind of basketball school Virginia Tech was before he arrived.

They were a once-a-decade tournament team. The doormat of the ACC, and the doormat of the Big East before that. Literally one of if not the worst team in the respective conference historically.

Buzz took over a 9 win team and won 11, 20 then 22 (making the tournament).

He stands at 12-4 this year with no bad losses. If he can survive conference play this year and get this team to the NCAA Tournament, he will be only the second Virginia Tech coach to have more than 1 NCAA Tournament appearance -- and the first since the mid-80's.

Not saying he will get it done this year, but what he's done there has already been impressive.

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What did Billy Clyde take over here and how did he do? That was impressive. I'd still take Buzz in a heartbeat, though.

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Billy Clyde had more resources at his disposal (both recruiting grounds and program $$$) than Buzz did at VTech.

Despite all that, what BCG did here in the time he had was damn near miraculous and certainly on a whole other level compared to Buzz at VT.

But that doesn't mean what Buzz has done at VT has been unimpressive.

Again, I would take Buzz in a second. Anyone know what his salary & buyout are?

We have a lot of loyalty for BK. He stays.

Junkhead said:

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Again, I would take Buzz in a second. Anyone know what his salary & buyout are?

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Under $500k.

Buyout and salary aren't the issue -- it's Kennedy $3.5m buyout that is the issue (the hope would be if we did make such a move that it would be worked behind the scenes and we'd keep BK on until his buyout went from $4.5->3.5).

I think Woodward has proven he is serious about winning in FOOTBALL. But there's a lot of money from donors to fund that for FOOTBALL.

Not so much for basketball. I just don't see Texas A&M firing a coach two years removed from a Sweet 16 if it requires paying $3.5-$4m to do so. I just don't think basketball generates enough revenue and/or has enough donors willing to foot the bill for a massive change.