This Could Still be the Year for Andy Kennedy

by Jake Adams

It was late in the game. The Rebels were nursing a 65-63 lead and hoping to escape the islands with a win and avoid returning to Oxford from its Christmastime tour of the Pacific with a disappointing 2-2 record after letting a 25-9 1st-half lead against Hawaii evaporate. Suddenly Marshall Henderson found himself in the corner, shoulders squared to the basket with the ball in his hands. It was a shot the 3-point specialist would have taken 100 times out of 100. Defenders were closing, but not fast enough to stop Henderson. He has a quick stroke. Henderson looked at the basket ready to fire and then did the completely unexpected - he dished it below to a wide open Murphy Holloway who scored an easy basket to put the Rebels up four and kick off an eruption that would end with an 81-66 win and bring the Rebels home 10-2, one game against Fordham removed from the beginning of conference play.

It was just three seconds of basketball, but it was a glimmer of what Ole Miss could be. For perhaps the first time in his seven years at Ole Miss Andy Kennedy has every piece he could hope for - an outside threat in Henderson, a talented point guard in Jarvis Summers, a senior leader in Nick Williams, and of course Murphy Holloway and Reginald Buckner - probably the best inside tandem in the SEC. All Kennedy has to do is use the pieces effectively. For now, that's still a work in progress.

And still there aren't many who believe. Everyone has seen this before, right? Kennedy's team flies through its non-conference schedule picking up 10 or 11 wins and is primed for the coach's first NCAA Tournament year only to sputter through conference play, lose a few they shouldn't and land back in square-dance-lover's delight - the NIT. The prognosticators are already calling it another "first four out" type of year for Ole Miss.

After the Rebels fell to Indiana State in the opening round of the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic that's exactly what many Ole Miss fans are expecting. All the Rebels had to do was beat the Sycamores and then they'd win the chance to play attractive RPI teams such as Arizona or Miami. But as has often been the tale of Kennedy's tenure in Oxford, the Rebels couldn't get it done when it mattered and instead added to their list of unimpressive non-conference wins in the consolation bracket. Kennedy's entire first six seasons in Oxford could be summarized as a consolation bracket, winning lots and lots of games, but never when it really matters. 

But this year really could be different. 

When Henderson recognized the better shot was Holloway's it showed the potential this team really has. If Kennedy can figure out a way to flame the fire that is Henderson's unquenchable confidence all the while harnessing it just enough so that his star shooter can recognize his arsenal isn't limited to the shot itself, but also includes the "threat" of the shot, the Rebels can stretch defenses in some impossible ways. There's enough talent on the floor to cause problems for any team.

Thanks to a conference-wide low RPI it does appear as though Ole Miss will need to win a lot of games in conference play to make the tournament, but those things have a way of taking care of themselves. For now Ole Miss just needs to win the next game. Do that, and let's reconvene in March to discuss.

The players are there. This really could be the year. I still think it could be.