GAME THREAD - MBB @ Ga Southern Fri 2/24 7pm

[AppinATL]

We likely get them again in the tourney. They will be #8 and we are #9. This can be pretty good at times, but so inconsistent. I really don't think this team is consistent enough to make it to the finals. Hard for us to put to good games back to back.

Edit: If USA loses to UL, GS holds the tiebreaker over USA. We will play #8 USA if that happens.

Good GAMES back to back? We can’t even put two halves back to back!

[AppinATL]

After Watching Savrasov slaughter us twice this year, I think Kerns needs to spend 2-3 weeks over in Russia and see if he can snag us somebody like that. Surely right now there has to be a ton of Russian guys that age that would rather sneak off to play college ball in the USA than get handed a Kalashnikov and sent to Ukraine.

[AppStateNews]

X is a traditional, old school PG that facilitates. He's not a current day PG. He runs out offense really well. But we do need a guard (not necessarily a PG) that can create their own shot too. That is what we are missing IMO.

Kerns is not against international players, but he's not a big fan of recruiting them due to the potential "issues" in the home country that can and often do come up (see Sasha and others during his time at Wofford).

[appdaze]

Before people go off the deep end, lets have a gander at our basketball past.

70–57 (.551). This is kerns; currently, I believe. Buzz and Cremins are the only post WWII coaches with a better win percentage. Let that sink in. Kerns is not going to change his ways, and he is not going to change his staff. He brought the whole crew from Presby. I'm not a huge fan of his X's and O's, but he cleaned up our culture and brought back some semblance of winning. I think he has earned two more years to show he can contend for the conference title. If we still havent sniffed one by that point, then yes, we will need to start asking the big questions.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachi ... %5Bedit%5D

[hapapp]

Since the days of Bobby Cremins we have had 24 winning seasons, 22 losing seasons and 2 .500 seasons. Thursday will determine that becomes 25 winning or 3.500 ones.

[bigdaddyg]

The big boy teams are discussed in terms of SOS, quad wins, etc. I'm sure our SOS is trash. What is the closest "quad" win for us?

[DenverOfTheEast]

Before people go off the deep end, lets have a gander at our basketball past.

70–57 (.551). This is kerns; currently, I believe. Buzz and Cremins are the only post WWII coaches with a better win percentage. Let that sink in. Kerns is not going to change his ways, and he is not going to change his staff. He brought the whole crew from Presby. I'm not a huge fan of his X's and O's, but he cleaned up our culture and brought back some semblance of winning. I think he has earned two more years to show he can contend for the conference title. If we still havent sniffed one by that point, then yes, we will need to start asking the big questions.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachi ... %5Bedit%5D

Define the above highlighted mark please....

Fox left the APR perfect - Fox left the following players for Kerns to coach, Justin Forrest, Adrian Delph, Isaac Johnson, O'Showen Williams, Hunter Seacat, Donovan Gregory, James Lewis -- now go see where all those rank on the all time scoring and rebounding list. And he walked into a schedule that had ECU and Charlotte in Boone and road game at Howard -- pretty dang good head start for a first year coach.

This off season will tell Kerns future, (unless he gets lucky and wins the SBC) - player retention and future spring signees will decide it all moving forward - I don't question his game planning or defense stratgey - his offense is brutal - but recruiting and retention is the big question mark.

[bigdaddyg]

Someone help this old guy understand what our "culture " is. Do some programs/schools have an established culture of doing things wrong/bad or a culture of losing. I can't think of one single school that goes out of their way to lose on purpose or to knowingly do things wrong so as to create a culture that is negative. That word has been batted around so much that I really don't think anyone really can properly define it. We have generally had success in football and wrestling but very little in basketball if success is measured by conference championships and post season results. Baseball has been mediocre and we have shuttered some sports. Track and field had a good bit of glory in the SOCON days but now apparently it's a joke. If I recall we had swimming and diving many years ago. Men's soccer is gone. So again I ask what is our culture? Football or bust?

[appdaze]

Before people go off the deep end, lets have a gander at our basketball past.

70–57 (.551). This is kerns; currently, I believe. Buzz and Cremins are the only post WWII coaches with a better win percentage. Let that sink in. Kerns is not going to change his ways, and he is not going to change his staff. He brought the whole crew from Presby. I'm not a huge fan of his X's and O's, but he cleaned up our culture and brought back some semblance of winning. I think he has earned two more years to show he can contend for the conference title. If we still havent sniffed one by that point, then yes, we will need to start asking the big questions.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachi ... %5Bedit%5D

Define the above highlighted mark please....

Fox left the APR perfect - Fox left the following players for Kerns to coach, Justin Forrest, Adrian Delph, Isaac Johnson, O'Showen Williams, Hunter Seacat, Donovan Gregory, James Lewis -- now go see where all those rank on the all time scoring and rebounding list. And he walked into a schedule that had ECU and Charlotte in Boone and road game at Howard -- pretty dang good head start for a first year coach.

This off season will tell Kerns future, (unless he gets lucky and wins the SBC) - player retention and future spring signees will decide it all moving forward - I don't question his game planning or defense stratgey - his offense is brutal - but recruiting and retention is the big question mark.

Fox is that you? Is that 56-99 Jim Fox talking about culture? If what you left for Kerns was so good then why couldn't you win with it? There is more to culture than just making sure students have good grades. Building a winning mentality along with confidence is another piece of a winning culture.

[appdaze]

Someone help this old guy understand what our "culture " is. Do some programs/schools have an established culture of doing things wrong/bad or a culture of losing. I can't think of one single school that goes out of their way to lose on purpose or to knowingly do things wrong so as to create a culture that is negative. That word has been batted around so much that I really don't think anyone really can properly define it. We have generally had success in football and wrestling but very little in basketball if success is measured by conference championships and post season results. Baseball has been mediocre and we have shuttered some sports. Track and field had a good bit of glory in the SOCON days but now apparently it's a joke. If I recall we had swimming and diving many years ago. Men's soccer is gone. So again I ask what is our culture? Football or bust?

Culture gets thrown around a lot because every group of people has their own culture within larger cultures. Our sports teams have different cultures from each other as they live within the greater App State culture. Our football team has built a winning culture that has been able to withstand multiple coaching changes. Our basketball program has not built that kind of stable culture. It's not just a out the winning. It's about building something that can withstand outside/inside changes while still achieving quality levels of success. It doesn't mean a conference championship every year. Not everyone can be Duke/Bama/etc. But vying for one every year is not impossible.

[app97]

Before people go off the deep end, lets have a gander at our basketball past.

70–57 (.551). This is kerns; currently, I believe. Buzz and Cremins are the only post WWII coaches with a better win percentage. Let that sink in. Kerns is not going to change his ways, and he is not going to change his staff. He brought the whole crew from Presby. I'm not a huge fan of his X's and O's, but he cleaned up our culture and brought back some semblance of winning. I think he has earned two more years to show he can contend for the conference title. If we still havent sniffed one by that point, then yes, we will need to start asking the big questions.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachi ... %5Bedit%5D

Define the above highlighted mark please....

Fox left the APR perfect - Fox left the following players for Kerns to coach, Justin Forrest, Adrian Delph, Isaac Johnson, O'Showen Williams, Hunter Seacat, Donovan Gregory, James Lewis -- now go see where all those rank on the all time scoring and rebounding list. And he walked into a schedule that had ECU and Charlotte in Boone and road game at Howard -- pretty dang good head start for a first year coach.

This off season will tell Kerns future, (unless he gets lucky and wins the SBC) - player retention and future spring signees will decide it all moving forward - I don't question his game planning or defense stratgey - his offense is brutal - but recruiting and retention is the big question mark.

Fox is that you? Is that 56-99 Jim Fox talking about culture? If what you left for Kerns was so good then why couldn't you win with it? There is more to culture than just making sure students have good grades. Building a winning mentality along with confidence is another piece of a winning culture.

True. It’s almost as if Fox was brought in solely to fix the APR and off the court issues that Capel created even if he couldn’t win. From what I’ve heard, the locker room was a little “weird” with Fox in town. He seems like a good guy but the difference in his teams’ culture and Kerns is that Fox’s tended to sort of give up when they got down (loser mentality) whereas Kerns’ teams fight til the end no matter what situation they’re in. Aren’t we at or near the top in the ncaa in second half comebacks? I don’t doubt Fox’s X and O’s knowledge, but success is not determined by how complicated the playbook is…often the opposite. Some very successful coaches have kept things pretty simple (Roy and Mike Young come to mind). Above all connection with the players must happen. The relationships are as or more important than anything else….not sure if Fox understood that.

[bigdaddyg]

Someone help this old guy understand what our "culture " is. Do some programs/schools have an established culture of doing things wrong/bad or a culture of losing. I can't think of one single school that goes out of their way to lose on purpose or to knowingly do things wrong so as to create a culture that is negative. That word has been batted around so much that I really don't think anyone really can properly define it. We have generally had success in football and wrestling but very little in basketball if success is measured by conference championships and post season results. Baseball has been mediocre and we have shuttered some sports. Track and field had a good bit of glory in the SOCON days but now apparently it's a joke. If I recall we had swimming and diving many years ago. Men's soccer is gone. So again I ask what is our culture? Football or bust?

Culture gets thrown around a lot because every group of people has their own culture within larger cultures. Our sports teams have different cultures from each other as they live within the greater App State culture. Our football team has built a winning culture that has been able to withstand multiple coaching changes. Our basketball program has not built that kind of stable culture. It's not just a out the winning. It's about building something that can withstand outside/inside changes while still achieving quality levels of success. It doesn't mean a conference championship every year. Not everyone can be Duke/Bama/etc. But vying for one every year is not impossible.

Thanks and please don't take this response as jerky or smartass. I'm really trying to grasp it in my mind. You used the word culture 7 times there and your definitions make sense but in terms of App versus any other (mainly peer) school what about our particular "culture " is any different? We did manage to overcome the many coaching changes while still winning and for the last several years we have seemingly managed to avoid any real scandals that would otherwise tarnish our reputation. We seem to maintain a strong academic reputation in terms of graduation rates- I would think that is a cultural other schools might not be as good as us? We have had a few bad apples, like any other school and we seem to do a good job of weeding them out? While most of us believe that Boone is God's country and never understand how any 18 year old wouldn't want to come here the reality is that some simply don't dig months of crappy weather and the mountains in general. It's always going to be a challenge for baseball and maybe the portal will help us with basketball by restocking every year. It's too easy to sell out traditional approaches in order to win at all costs.

[DenverOfTheEast]

Before people go off the deep end, lets have a gander at our basketball past.

70–57 (.551). This is kerns; currently, I believe. Buzz and Cremins are the only post WWII coaches with a better win percentage. Let that sink in. Kerns is not going to change his ways, and he is not going to change his staff. He brought the whole crew from Presby. I'm not a huge fan of his X's and O's, but he cleaned up our culture and brought back some semblance of winning. I think he has earned two more years to show he can contend for the conference title. If we still havent sniffed one by that point, then yes, we will need to start asking the big questions.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachi ... %5Bedit%5D

Define the above highlighted mark please....

Fox left the APR perfect - Fox left the following players for Kerns to coach, Justin Forrest, Adrian Delph, Isaac Johnson, O'Showen Williams, Hunter Seacat, Donovan Gregory, James Lewis -- now go see where all those rank on the all time scoring and rebounding list. And he walked into a schedule that had ECU and Charlotte in Boone and road game at Howard -- pretty dang good head start for a first year coach.

This off season will tell Kerns future, (unless he gets lucky and wins the SBC) - player retention and future spring signees will decide it all moving forward - I don't question his game planning or defense stratgey - his offense is brutal - but recruiting and retention is the big question mark.

Fox is that you? Is that 56-99 Jim Fox talking about culture? If what you left for Kerns was so good then why couldn't you win with it? There is more to culture than just making sure students have good grades. Building a winning mentality along with confidence is another piece of a winning culture.

Kerns is that you? Taking over a program that Capel left a mess and entering the renegade SBC instead of the academic SoCon, isn't an easy fix Mr Dazed and confused for sure. During Fox tenure - he rarely played the non D 1 teams, he played in a SBC where 3 players where drafted(Hunter, Long, and Payton) - Two teams advanced in the NCAA tournament(UALR and Ga State) -- Fox inherited Frank Eaves that averaged 2ppg for Capel - Fox turned him into an All Conference SBC player. No comparison in what Fox inherited compared to Kerns

(I'm not arguing whose the better in game coach)

Kerns starting point culture was way better than Fox starting point culture -

[app97]

Before people go off the deep end, lets have a gander at our basketball past.

70–57 (.551). This is kerns; currently, I believe. Buzz and Cremins are the only post WWII coaches with a better win percentage. Let that sink in. Kerns is not going to change his ways, and he is not going to change his staff. He brought the whole crew from Presby. I'm not a huge fan of his X's and O's, but he cleaned up our culture and brought back some semblance of winning. I think he has earned two more years to show he can contend for the conference title. If we still havent sniffed one by that point, then yes, we will need to start asking the big questions.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachi ... %5Bedit%5D

Define the above highlighted mark please....

Fox left the APR perfect - Fox left the following players for Kerns to coach, Justin Forrest, Adrian Delph, Isaac Johnson, O'Showen Williams, Hunter Seacat, Donovan Gregory, James Lewis -- now go see where all those rank on the all time scoring and rebounding list. And he walked into a schedule that had ECU and Charlotte in Boone and road game at Howard -- pretty dang good head start for a first year coach.

This off season will tell Kerns future, (unless he gets lucky and wins the SBC) - player retention and future spring signees will decide it all moving forward - I don't question his game planning or defense stratgey - his offense is brutal - but recruiting and retention is the big question mark.

Every single player you mentioned got better under Kerns’s staff than they were under Fox, most of them significantly better. Shot selection, decision making, pacing, and obviously defense etc were all improved with these guys. We clearly have better teachers of the game currently on staff. The current staff has recruited Harcum, Huntley, Abson, Brown, Mantis, and likely re-recruited Gregory.

[311neers]

Before people go off the deep end, lets have a gander at our basketball past.

70–57 (.551). This is kerns; currently, I believe. Buzz and Cremins are the only post WWII coaches with a better win percentage. Let that sink in. Kerns is not going to change his ways, and he is not going to change his staff. He brought the whole crew from Presby. I'm not a huge fan of his X's and O's, but he cleaned up our culture and brought back some semblance of winning. I think he has earned two more years to show he can contend for the conference title. If we still havent sniffed one by that point, then yes, we will need to start asking the big questions.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachi ... %5Bedit%5D

Define the above highlighted mark please....

Fox left the APR perfect - Fox left the following players for Kerns to coach, Justin Forrest, Adrian Delph, Isaac Johnson, O'Showen Williams, Hunter Seacat, Donovan Gregory, James Lewis -- now go see where all those rank on the all time scoring and rebounding list. And he walked into a schedule that had ECU and Charlotte in Boone and road game at Howard -- pretty dang good head start for a first year coach.

This off season will tell Kerns future, (unless he gets lucky and wins the SBC) - player retention and future spring signees will decide it all moving forward - I don't question his game planning or defense stratgey - his offense is brutal - but recruiting and retention is the big question mark.

Every single player you mentioned got better under Kerns’s staff than they were under Fox, most of them significantly better. Shot selection, decision making, pacing, and obviously defense etc were all improved with these guys. We clearly have better teachers of the game currently on staff. The current staff has recruited Harcum, Huntley, Abson, Brown, Mantis, and likely re-recruited Gregory.

Kerns is close to being a consistent 20 team winner. In my opinion, 20 wins, top half of sun belt reg season, along with competing for SBC titles should be the goal. Love his defense, our fight, and tenacity. Offense could use some work but that comes with recruiting. It’s glaring that he’s only recruited (High school) a couple of sun belt caliber starters in 3.5 cycles…(Abson, Harcum/Huntley-toss ups). He’s done well in the portal, but I do feel we need to get to a more even distribution of High School/Portal recruits to become more consistent and develop players for the long haul. For example 3-4 high school recruits a year with 2-3 portal guys seems like a sweet spot. Right now it’s 1-3 high school guys a year and 5-7 portal guys. Hard to develop chemistry and “culture” that way as we saw this year where 3-4 guys walked in the middle of the year. He’s the right man for the job right now and I trust he can get us to the above goals I mentioned.

[DenverOfTheEast]

Before people go off the deep end, lets have a gander at our basketball past.

70–57 (.551). This is kerns; currently, I believe. Buzz and Cremins are the only post WWII coaches with a better win percentage. Let that sink in. Kerns is not going to change his ways, and he is not going to change his staff. He brought the whole crew from Presby. I'm not a huge fan of his X's and O's, but he cleaned up our culture and brought back some semblance of winning. I think he has earned two more years to show he can contend for the conference title. If we still havent sniffed one by that point, then yes, we will need to start asking the big questions.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachi ... %5Bedit%5D

Define the above highlighted mark please....

Fox left the APR perfect - Fox left the following players for Kerns to coach, Justin Forrest, Adrian Delph, Isaac Johnson, O'Showen Williams, Hunter Seacat, Donovan Gregory, James Lewis -- now go see where all those rank on the all time scoring and rebounding list. And he walked into a schedule that had ECU and Charlotte in Boone and road game at Howard -- pretty dang good head start for a first year coach.

This off season will tell Kerns future, (unless he gets lucky and wins the SBC) - player retention and future spring signees will decide it all moving forward - I don't question his game planning or defense stratgey - his offense is brutal - but recruiting and retention is the big question mark.

Every single player you mentioned got better under Kerns’s staff than they were under Fox, most of them significantly better. Shot selection, decision making, pacing, and obviously defense etc were all improved with these guys. We clearly have better teachers of the game currently on staff. The current staff has recruited Harcum, Huntley, Abson, Brown, Mantis, and likely re-recruited Gregory.

Hard to make Forrest better when he averaged 16 under Fox -- the rest got better because they got older....duh -- they play better defense because Kerns plays way slower, Fox played too fast. -- there are tons of factors that go into someone actually being better or appearing to be better -- I could go on and on about that, schedule, tempo, style of play.

[hapapp]

Before people go off the deep end, lets have a gander at our basketball past.

70–57 (.551). This is kerns; currently, I believe. Buzz and Cremins are the only post WWII coaches with a better win percentage. Let that sink in. Kerns is not going to change his ways, and he is not going to change his staff. He brought the whole crew from Presby. I'm not a huge fan of his X's and O's, but he cleaned up our culture and brought back some semblance of winning. I think he has earned two more years to show he can contend for the conference title. If we still havent sniffed one by that point, then yes, we will need to start asking the big questions.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachi ... %5Bedit%5D

Define the above highlighted mark please....

Fox left the APR perfect - Fox left the following players for Kerns to coach, Justin Forrest, Adrian Delph, Isaac Johnson, O'Showen Williams, Hunter Seacat, Donovan Gregory, James Lewis -- now go see where all those rank on the all time scoring and rebounding list. And he walked into a schedule that had ECU and Charlotte in Boone and road game at Howard -- pretty dang good head start for a first year coach.

This off season will tell Kerns future, (unless he gets lucky and wins the SBC) - player retention and future spring signees will decide it all moving forward - I don't question his game planning or defense stratgey - his offense is brutal - but recruiting and retention is the big question mark.

Fox is that you? Is that 56-99 Jim Fox talking about culture? If what you left for Kerns was so good then why couldn't you win with it? There is more to culture than just making sure students have good grades. Building a winning mentality along with confidence is another piece of a winning culture.

True. It’s almost as if Fox was brought in solely to fix the APR and off the court issues that Capel created even if he couldn’t win. From what I’ve heard, the locker room was a little “weird” with Fox in town. He seems like a good guy but the difference in his teams’ culture and Kerns is that Fox’s tended to sort of give up when they got down (loser mentality) whereas Kerns’ teams fight til the end no matter what situation they’re in. Aren’t we at or near the top in the ncaa in second half comebacks? I don’t doubt Fox’s X and O’s knowledge, but success is not determined by how complicated the playbook is…often the opposite. Some very successful coaches have kept things pretty simple (Roy and Mike Young come to mind). Above all connection with the players must happen. The relationships are as or more important than anything else….not sure if Fox understood that.

I wouldn't think that's the case this year.

No doubt Kerns has had a great deal more success than Fox had but it's not like we have been a top team in the Sun Belt either. He certainly gets high marks for taking us to the NCAA tournament in 2021. But, at what point do we actually see a season without double digit losses? And, no I'm not on some campaign to look for a new coach but realistically we haven't seen any seasons under Kerns that individually equate to some of those under even Fancher and Apke, and certainly not Peterson.

[hapapp]

Before people go off the deep end, lets have a gander at our basketball past.

70–57 (.551). This is kerns; currently, I believe. Buzz and Cremins are the only post WWII coaches with a better win percentage. Let that sink in. Kerns is not going to change his ways, and he is not going to change his staff. He brought the whole crew from Presby. I'm not a huge fan of his X's and O's, but he cleaned up our culture and brought back some semblance of winning. I think he has earned two more years to show he can contend for the conference title. If we still havent sniffed one by that point, then yes, we will need to start asking the big questions.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachi ... %5Bedit%5D

Define the above highlighted mark please....

Fox left the APR perfect - Fox left the following players for Kerns to coach, Justin Forrest, Adrian Delph, Isaac Johnson, O'Showen Williams, Hunter Seacat, Donovan Gregory, James Lewis -- now go see where all those rank on the all time scoring and rebounding list. And he walked into a schedule that had ECU and Charlotte in Boone and road game at Howard -- pretty dang good head start for a first year coach.

This off season will tell Kerns future, (unless he gets lucky and wins the SBC) - player retention and future spring signees will decide it all moving forward - I don't question his game planning or defense stratgey - his offense is brutal - but recruiting and retention is the big question mark.

Every single player you mentioned got better under Kerns’s staff than they were under Fox, most of them significantly better. Shot selection, decision making, pacing, and obviously defense etc were all improved with these guys. We clearly have better teachers of the game currently on staff. The current staff has recruited Harcum, Huntley, Abson, Brown, Mantis, and likely re-recruited Gregory.

Kerns is close to being a consistent 20 team winner. In my opinion, 20 wins, top half of sun belt reg season, along with competing for SBC titles should be the goal. Love his defense, our fight, and tenacity. Offense could use some work but that comes with recruiting. It’s glaring that he’s only recruited (High school) a couple of sun belt caliber starters in 3.5 cycles…(Abson, Harcum/Huntley-toss ups). He’s done well in the portal, but I do feel we need to get to a more even distribution of High School/Portal recruits to become more consistent and develop players for the long haul. For example 3-4 high school recruits a year with 2-3 portal guys seems like a sweet spot. Right now it’s 1-3 high school guys a year and 5-7 portal guys. Hard to develop chemistry and “culture” that way as we saw this year where 3-4 guys walked in the middle of the year. He’s the right man for the job right now and I trust he can get us to the above goals I mentioned.

He is averaging 17.5 wins a season and 14.3 losses. Its above water but not exactly setting the world on fire. He has led us to some success (NCAA 2021) but the mark of his teams has been inconsistency. He has yet to have a losing season. He has yet to produce a 20 win season something four of our D1 coaches have managed to do. His teams haven't been bad and play hard but overall have been mediocre. Will this continue to be the case? He's certainly done enough to keep his job and short of hitting the skids he likely can stay if he continues on this path.

[Stonewall]

Neither Tom nor Houston took us to the NCAA Tournament in years , and years , of trying.DK has already done it .In fact the last coach at App to win a Sunbelt title in any sport ? DK. With that said , it's a completely different ball game now with the Portal and NIL .It's one season , one roster at a time ....

[app97]

Before people go off the deep end, lets have a gander at our basketball past.

70–57 (.551). This is kerns; currently, I believe. Buzz and Cremins are the only post WWII coaches with a better win percentage. Let that sink in. Kerns is not going to change his ways, and he is not going to change his staff. He brought the whole crew from Presby. I'm not a huge fan of his X's and O's, but he cleaned up our culture and brought back some semblance of winning. I think he has earned two more years to show he can contend for the conference title. If we still havent sniffed one by that point, then yes, we will need to start asking the big questions.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachi ... %5Bedit%5D

Define the above highlighted mark please....

Fox left the APR perfect - Fox left the following players for Kerns to coach, Justin Forrest, Adrian Delph, Isaac Johnson, O'Showen Williams, Hunter Seacat, Donovan Gregory, James Lewis -- now go see where all those rank on the all time scoring and rebounding list. And he walked into a schedule that had ECU and Charlotte in Boone and road game at Howard -- pretty dang good head start for a first year coach.

This off season will tell Kerns future, (unless he gets lucky and wins the SBC) - player retention and future spring signees will decide it all moving forward - I don't question his game planning or defense stratgey - his offense is brutal - but recruiting and retention is the big question mark.

Every single player you mentioned got better under Kerns’s staff than they were under Fox, most of them significantly better. Shot selection, decision making, pacing, and obviously defense etc were all improved with these guys. We clearly have better teachers of the game currently on staff. The current staff has recruited Harcum, Huntley, Abson, Brown, Mantis, and likely re-recruited Gregory.

Hard to make Forrest better when he averaged 16 under Fox -- the rest got better because they got older....duh -- they play better defense because Kerns plays way slower, Fox played too fast. -- there are tons of factors that go into someone actually being better or appearing to be better -- I could go on and on about that, schedule, tempo, style of play.

Essentially what I was referring to. All things that Kerns implemented, which made those guys better players. They’re better on defense due to Kerns’s emphasis on a stingy pack line defense…again something he implemented. He slowed the game down and got former out of control players under control to play within themselves as opposed to the Shabazz and Forrest iso/hero ball we witnessed for a few years before Kerns.

There was an immediate difference in the quality of play with O’showen, Delph, Lewis, etc that involves more than them being a few months older. The new staff knew how to maximize their strengths to fit his system and their individual development as opposed to Fox who appeared to run what he knew from Davidson without molding it to our players’ strengths. After a year or two he appeared to ditch his “system” or lack thereof in favor of hero ball. I will, however, give credit where credit is due. Eaves blossomed after Capel left.