After losing at N.C. State today, Wake Forest is now 1-4 in a weaker than usual ACC and has a loss at home to Depaul.

Coach Kennedy has obvious disadvantages to deal with every game out and has managed to get more with less IMO.

Unless Zimpher and the BOT have some super secret name that will be pulled from a hat and blow me away with how great the candidate is (yeah right), then I want Coach Kennedy to be manning the Bearcats.

no doubt, Andy Kennedy.

If Prosser cant win with Williams, Gray, Strickland, Ellis, ect. how is he supposed to win with Allen, Tilford, McGowan, and a bunch of walkons.

jarr Wrote:If Prosser cant win with Williams, Gray, Strickland, Ellis, ect. how is he supposed to win with Allen, Tilford, McGowan, and a bunch of walkons.

That is my point. While we all hate the fact that the team is undermanned for various reasons, i.e. Zimpher, player stupidity, Kirkland's injury and so forth - what a great test of how good a "coach" Kennedy is.

There are 12 games (hopefully more) left to have a full assessment, but somebody name a coach that could have taken the reins when he did and accomplished any more than Kennedy has. Coach Huggins is the only possible name that comes to mind for me, and I am not sure of that to be honest (I loved Huggs by the way and will root for him wherever he goes, unless he becomes the coach of the Steelers ;-) ).

bcatwilly Wrote:

jarr Wrote:If Prosser cant win with Williams, Gray, Strickland, Ellis, ect. how is he supposed to win with Allen, Tilford, McGowan, and a bunch of walkons.

That is my point. While we all hate the fact that the team is undermanned for various reasons, i.e. Zimpher, player stupidity, Kirkland's injury and so forth - what a great test of how good a "coach" Kennedy is.

There are 12 games (hopefully more) left to have a full assessment, but somebody name a coach that could have taken the reins when he did and accomplished any more than Kennedy has. Coach Huggins is the only possible name that comes to mind for me, and I am not sure of that to be honest (I loved Huggs by the way and will root for him wherever he goes, unless he becomes the coach of the Steelers ;-) ).

What impresses me the most is how he manages the game. The way he buys rest for guys - i.e. taking Hicks out 30 seconds to a minute before a scheduled t.v. timeout, etc. - has been impressive, along with his situational use of Connor Barwin. I'll be interested to see if Benken gets any time, and if Allen switches back to the perimeter where he's more effective...but I'm coming to respect and trust Coach Kennedy's decisions much like I trusted Huggs.

jarr Wrote:If Prosser cant win with Williams, Gray, Strickland, Ellis, ect. how is he supposed to win with Allen, Tilford, McGowan, and a bunch of walkons.

No one is going to win with Allen, Tilford, McGowan, and walkons. As much as I love Huggs even he coudn't get that team to .500.

To answer the question Kennedy, and its not even close. Kennedy has impressed me in every facet of being the head coach this season. The only thing we don't know about Kennedy is how recruiting would be under him. And for those who reference his recruiting under Huggs that was irrelevant. He was the salesman and Bob Huggins was the product. If AK were the head coach he no only would have to be the salesperson, he'd have to be able to sell himself as the leader of a top 20 program. But he's succeded at every challenge he's faced thus far and I fully expect he'd excell at recruiting if given the chance.

the reason skip is coaching so poorly is becasue he has checked out...he thinks he is coming to UC, but be careful, he may end up at UK...ha-ha

If Skip is auditioning...........he's losing ground.

There will be a collective gasp if/when he is hired. And another one when Kennedy is hired elsewhere.

In a year we will see more threads titled, "what could have been......"

RealDeal Wrote:

jarr Wrote:If Prosser cant win with Williams, Gray, Strickland, Ellis, ect. how is he supposed to win with Allen, Tilford, McGowan, and a bunch of walkons.

No one is going to win with Allen, Tilford, McGowan, and walkons. As much as I love Huggs even he coudn't get that team to .500.

To answer the question Kennedy, and its not even close. Kennedy has impressed me in every facet of being the head coach this season. The only thing we don't know about Kennedy is how recruiting would be under him. And for those who reference his recruiting under Huggs that was irrelevant. He was the salesman and Bob Huggins was the product. If AK were the head coach he no only would have to be the salesperson, he'd have to be able to sell himself as the leader of a top 20 program. But he's succeded at every challenge he's faced thus far and I fully expect he'd excell at recruiting if given the chance.

WHEN Bob Huggins was named coach of the UC Bearcats after being at AKRON, I was worried about his recruuiting too. He never really seemed to have a lot of stars at Akron but he showed that by coaching at Cincinnati, he also was able to recruit star players over the years. Andy Kennedy would probably find it easier to recruit at UC then Huggins found it when he first came here. He'll be fine.

I'm pretty much with the consensus... AK hands down.

As Jarr says, AK's shorthanded guys are fighting to the end, and as Chatter and Arsenal say, Skip's Wake guys are quitting. Hello, Captain Obvious, who should coach UC?

Also, put me in the category who thinks AK would do well in recruiting. If he works the recruits' homes like he works the media room, we've nothing to worry about... except UC not hiring him

AK even if Skip is distracted. Then again wouldn't AK be also since he knows he's not a candidate. ESPN reported Mike Thomas as saying that he was at the Xavier game But this was the same game where he looked like someone had beat the piss out of him.(The Joker did it). AK wins in a landslide!!!!

AK with out question...more importantly, who is going to be the better coach in 5 years? About the same time UC is coming out of the rebuild

hammerbearcat Wrote:AK even if Skip is distracted. Then again wouldn't AK be also since he knows he's not a candidate. ESPN reported Mike Thomas as saying that he was at the Xavier game But this was the same game where he looked like someone had beat the piss out of him.(The Joker did it). AK wins in a landslide!!!!

On important difference may be that one guy has a proven himself, has paid his dues and knows he can sleep walk through this season and will cash checks for a seven figure salary next season and the other guy is sweating bullets that he impresses the right people enough to have a shot at a job.

I hope all of you that have opined for AK, make your voices heard to THomas, the BOT and Nancy and do it in a constructive way. I really feel we have an incredible coach right here who we are about to let get away. Skip's style of play will not translate to the tough, grind it out, defensive league like the BE.
Kids want to play for a young energetic guy who will let them play (as AK has done). There are so many guys who have been in a similar situation that have done fine (Dixon at Pitt, Crean at Marquette, Matta at XU and then OSU, Izzo was an asst at Mich St and got the job, Davis (to some extent) at IU, Miller at XU. The name thing is way overrated. When you look at other assistants UC has had under Huggs, AK is truly unique and the cream of the crop. When Huggs used to talk about how "he was ready" for a head coaching job, he wasn't BS'ing anyone. He knew how good this guy was.