Andy Kennedy

Andy Kennedy (born March 13, 1968 in Louisville, Mississippi) is an American college basketball coach and the current head men's basketball coach at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). Kennedy was a player in high school at both Winston Academy and Louisville High School. He was a 1986 Parade All-American and he went on to play for North Carolina State and the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). On March 24, 2006, Kennedy was introduced as the Rebels' 20th head men's basketball coach. Kennedy is only the fourth coach in SEC history with 45 or more wins in his first two years joining Tubby Smith, Eddie Sutton, and Bruce Pearl. Also, he is only the seventh coach in SEC history to guide his teams to 20+ wins in four of his first five seasons.

Playing career

College

Kennedy, a 6'7" forward, was a 1986 Parade All-American, as well as the Mississippi Player of the Year at Louisville High School. He started his collegiate career at North Carolina State where he was a member of Jim Valvano's 1987 Atlantic Coast Conference championship team. He then transferred to play for legendary coach Gene Bartow at UAB where he was a two-time all-conference player who became the school's second all-time leading scorer with 1,787 points (18.8 ppg. career average) and still holds over 15 individual records.

Professional

After graduation, Kennedy played briefly for the NBA's Charlotte Hornets at guard.^[1][2][3][4] He later began a three-year professional career abroad, playing in Greece, Holland, Spain and Puerto Rico. Chronic knee problems brought his career to an early end. He had his second ACL tear and subsequently his fifth and final knee operation while playing in Puerto Rico and chose to retire as a player and transition into coaching.

Coaching career

Early years

Kennedy's coaching career began as an assistant for the University of South Alabama during the 1994–95 season. Since then he has also served as an assistant coach at UAB from 1996 to 2001 and the University of Cincinnati from 2001 to 2005. Prior his appointment at Ole Miss, Kennedy's most notable coaching position came during the 2005–06 season when he was named interim head coach for the University of Cincinnati after Bob Huggins resigned.

Cincinnati

Kennedy was tapped with the challenge of steadying a program that had two national championships in its past and a streak of 14 consecutive NCAA Tournaments. The Bearcats were also less than three months away from their first season of competition in one of the nation's strongest conferences, the Big East. Kennedy's already daunting task became even more difficult with the departure of one incoming recruit, two returning veterans and two promising freshmen, plus the loss of a key three-year starter to a mid-season injury, not to mention playing the fifth-rated schedule in the nation.

Despite all the adversity, Kennedy's Bearcats jumped out to a 13-2 start with road wins over Vanderbilt, Marquette, Dayton and eventual Final Four club LSU. While playing only eight scholarships players, Cincinnati cracked the AP Top-25 ranking, and Kennedy was named Mid-Season National Coach of the Year by CBS Sportsline. The winning continued in conference play. The Bearcats stunned Jim Boeheim's Syracuse Orangemen in the Carrier Dome 82-65, knocked off Rick Pitino's Louisville Cardinals 74-68 and upset 14th-ranked West Virginia 78-75.

Perhaps more significant than the victories, Kennedy reignited the fire and belief in Cincinnati basketball. The early-season home crowds of half-capacity were once again selling out Fifth Third Arena and chanting and waving signs of "Hire Andy". Cincinnati played itself to the cusp of an NCAA Tournament appearance. Kennedy's club finished the regular season with an 8-8 league mark and squared off with Syracuse in the opening round of the Big East Tournament. The Bearcats erased a 14-point deficit and took a two-point lead with 6.2 seconds left. Orangeman All-America Gerry McNamara took the ensuing inbounds and heaved in a controversial running three-pointer as time expired for the 74-73 SU win. Whether McNamara had traveled or not, Cincinnati's bubble had been burst, and Kennedy's Cats eventually found themselves in the National Invitation Tournament instead. Despite disappointingly being left home from the Dance, they competed with the same passion they had the entire season and reached the NIT quarterfinals.

When the dust finally settled on Cincinnati's 2005-06 campaign, Kennedy had directed the Bearcats to a 21-13 record, defeated 12 foes ranked in the top 100 of the RPI and played a schedule rated fifth-toughest in college hoops. National media praised what Kennedy had achieved under such difficult circumstances. The New York Post labeled him the Big East Coach of the Year, and at least one media outlet - Minnesota-based GopherHole.com - even named him their National Coach of the Year.

Ole Miss

During his six seasons at the helm, Kennedy has led Ole Miss to five 20-win campaigns and five postseason berths, with seven postseason victories in those appearances. All those postseason berths have, however, been in the NIT, and he has so far in his career not managed to earn his team a NCAA Tournament bid.

Some of the many feats Kennedy has achieved in his short time at Ole Miss: • With 105 Wins, has the Most Victories by an Ole Miss Coach in a 5 year period • 1st Coach in School History to record Four 20+ Win Seasons (Ole Miss had seven total 20+ Win Seasons in its Program’s history prior to Kennedy) • Reached 100 Wins Faster than Any Coach in the Program’s History (in 158 Games) • The 1st Coach since R.L. Sullivan (1920-25) to lead Ole Miss to 5 Straight Winning Seasons • Has the Highest Winning Percentage (105-64 = .621) of any Coach through 5yrs • Recorded The Most SEC Regular Season Wins (38) by a Coach in his 1st 5yrs • Only 2nd Coach to lead the Program to 4 Postseason Appearances in 5 Seasons

The Kennedy-led Rebels have also claimed a pair of SEC Western Division Titles (2007, 2010) and made the first two NIT Final Four appearances in school history (2008, 2010).

Over the last five years, the Rebels have gone 105-64, which marks the most victories by an Ole Miss coach in a five-year span. Kennedy reached the 100-win mark faster than any coach in school history, and he is the first to ever lead Ole Miss to four 20-win campaigns. In fact, he's just the seventh coach in SEC history to guide his teams to 20+ wins in four of his first five seasons. He has also guided Ole Miss to more postseason wins (seven) than any coach in school history.

In SEC play, the Rebels are 38-42 during that span, which is sixth-best in the league behind Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida, Vanderbilt and Mississippi State. Compare those numbers to the previous five seasons (75-74 overall, 26-54 SEC), and it's easy to see what big strides the program has made.

Along with wins and postseason appearances, Kennedy has brought a renewed passion for Ole Miss hoops founded on an exciting brand of full-court, fast-paced action and lots of twine being tickled. Since Kennedy arrived, the Rebels have set season records in almost every offensive statistical category and several defensive ones, as well. And Tad Smith Coliseum has seen both season and single-game attendance records shattered.

The Rebels' pursuit of championships is largely based on a keen eye for talent and the tireless recruiting efforts of Kennedy and his staff. Each year, they have added to the team's talent level and managed to reel in some of the most highly rated prep players in school history. The staff has brought in 11 players who were ranked among the nation's top 100 high school prospects, including 2010 NBA draft selection Terrico White. Add diamond-in-the-rough Chris Warren to that mix, and it's quite an impressive list.

Kennedy wasted no time putting Ole Miss back on the map when he arrived. In his debut season of 2006-07, he guided an unheralded Rebel squad to 21 wins, a Southeastern Conference Western Division title and a second-round appearance in the National Invitation Tournament en route to 2007 SEC Coach of the Year honors.

After breaking the string of four losing seasons, the internal expectations for Kennedy's team were rising, despite the fact that most media experts again picked the Rebels to dwell in the division cellar in 2007-08.

Kennedy would be counting on three freshmen and a pair of inexperienced sophomores to take over a backcourt that lost all three senior starters from the year before.

After Ole Miss broke out of the gates with a blazing 13-0 start and a No. 15 national ranking, folks around the country started to take notice. In the end, Kennedy took his second Rebel squad to 24 wins, the second-most in school history, and the program's first-ever trip to the NIT Final Four at New York's Madison Square Garden.

The Rebels' 45 victories and back-to-back 20-win campaigns were both program firsts for a head coach in his first two seasons. In fact, Kennedy was just the fourth coach in SEC history with 45 or more wins in his first two years, a list which includes Tubby Smith (63 wins at Kentucky, 45 at Georgia), Eddie Sutton (50 at UK) and Bruce Pearl (46 at Tennessee).

Injuries riddled the Ole Miss lineup in 2008-09, but the Rebels still managed to register a winning 16-15 record and a 7-9 mark in SEC play.

Despite the fact that it was the first time in four seasons as a head coach that Kennedy had not led his team to 20 wins or postseason play, the Louisville, Miss., native was named a finalist for the Clair Bee National Coach of the Year award and tabbed by CollegeInsider.com as the SEC Coach of the Year. Some think it was the best coaching job yet by the rising star, whose résumé was already stock-piled with accolades.

The short-handed Rebels upended nationally ranked Kentucky and SEC East champ Tennessee at home and would-be tourney champ Mississippi State on the road, while Terrico White flourished as the league's freshman of the year after Kennedy moved him to the starting point guard role.

In 2009-10, the Rebels were again among the league's elite squads as they claimed their second division title under Kennedy. They matched the 2007-08 team with a 24-11 record. Ranked in the polls for nine weeks, Ole Miss just missed out on an NCAA Tournament berth before storming through the first three rounds of the NIT with wins over Troy, Memphis and Texas Tech en route to an NIT Final Four trip to New York for the second time in three years.

Led by sensational senior scorers Chris Warren and Zach Graham, last year's Rebels again reached the 20-win plateau and a postseason berth. Warren garnered first-team All-SEC distinction, ranking second in the league with 19.1 points per game and leading the NCAA in free-throw shooting with an Ole Miss and SEC record percentage of 92.8. He led the way for an Ole Miss team that finished 20-14 and made the first round of the NIT.

The highlight of the 2010-11 season may have occurred in a Feb. 1 meeting with No. 10-ranked Kentucky in Oxford, which saw Warren hit a 25-foot 3-pointer with two seconds remaining to upend the Wildcats 71-69. The Tad Pad crowd was in a frenzy after the dunk-filled, down-to-the-wire affair that marked Ole Miss' first win over a top-10 foe since 2002. ^[5]

Arrest

Kennedy was arrested in Cincinnati, Ohio on December 18, 2008, after allegedly punching cab driver Mohammed Jiddou according to the police report. Kennedy's attorney entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf at a court hearing later that day. Kennedy subsequently filed a lawsuit against Jiddou and for defamation of character; Kennedy claims, as well as four other people that were with him, that no assault occurred and that Jiddou was the one who used racial slurs in insulting Ole Miss assistant coach Torrey Ward, who is black and was with Kennedy at the time of the arrest.^[6]

On December 22, 2008, Kennedy filed suit against the cab driver. On January 16, 2009, the cab driver and the witness filed civil countersuits claiming distress from the frivolous lawsuits filed by Kennedy. The cab driver has also filed a separate civil lawsuit against Andy Kennedy for assault and ethnic intimidation.^[7]

On Monday, April 21, 2009, in the criminal trial, Kennedy plead guilty to disorderly conduct and was sentenced to 40 hours of community service and a $100 fine. Kennedy still vehemently denies that he punched Jiddou or uttered ethnic slurs at him. He only admitted to a verbal altercation which escalated into an incident that did not involve slurs or violence. After Kennedy's plea, Ole Miss announced the coach would keep his job. Athletic director Pete Boone said because of the incident, Kennedy's contract would not be extended at this time but left open the possibility of extending it in the future. ^[8]

In August, 2010, all civil lawsuits were dropped as Jiddou apologized to Kennedy in open court. "I would like to apologize to Mr. Kennedy and the court for any role I may have played in this unfortunate incident," driver Mohamed Jiddou said in court. "I am now ready to move forward with my life, and I hope that my apology will let Mr. Kennedy move forward with his."

Kennedy and his attorney, William Posey, said that Kennedy had come to civil seeking an apology.

"He came for his [Jiddou's] apology, and he got his apology," Posey said. ^[9]

Head coaching record

Personal life

Kennedy and his wife, Kimber, have 2 daughters, Meagan and Kaitlin.

External links

• Kennedy's Ole Miss profile

References