After surviving nine seasons in the barren basketball lands of north Mississippi, Andy Kennedy is one the few who can say he earned the right to literally put his stamp on the Pavilion at Ole Miss yesterday.
Andy Kennedy signing the beam that will be lifted to the top of The Pavilion. @OleMissMBB #BeamSigning pic.twitter.com/VUdbwkWQWW
— OleMissPix (@OleMissPix) May 5, 2015
Signing one of the new basketball facilities beams seemed unlikely for Kennedy three seasons ago, but then Marshall Henderson an SEC Tournament Championship and two NCAA appearances in three years happened.
Now Kennedy is very nearly the dean of SEC coaches and the recipient of a new 4-year contract. Not too long from now he'll be the first coach to lead the Rebels in the Pavilion. That will be a special and well-deserved moment for a coach who successfully endured 9 seasons of Tad Smith Coliseum.
From OleMissSports.com:
Kennedy's four-year deal is the longest allowed by the state of Mississippi and includes a base salary of $1.925 million that was earned after reaching certain performance incentives for the 2014-15 season. It also includes incentives for SEC regular season and NCAA postseason success and an increase in the investment of assistant coach and basketball support staff salaries.
"The future of Ole Miss Basketball could not be stronger," Bjork said. "Andy Kennedy is the core of that strength and we are pleased to announce his contract has been extended four more years. Coach Kennedy has built his legacy among the top coaches in SEC history, and I look forward to him leading the Rebels into a new era with the opening of the Pavilion at Ole Miss."
"I greatly appreciate the opportunity I've been given to be the head basketball coach at Ole Miss," Kennedy said. "As a native Mississippian, it is an honor to continue in my role as a head coach at Mississippi's flagship university. I want to publicly thank Dr. Dan Jones and Ross for their unwavering support in our mission to continue to build Rebel Basketball into a program of national relevance."
The all-time winningest coach in Ole Miss history, Kennedy is one of only 10 active head coaches who have coached at least 10 seasons without a losing record, a group that includes Mark Few, of Gonzaga, Tom Izzo, of Michigan State, Bo Ryan, of Wisconsin, and Roy Williams, of North Carolina. He has averaged more than 21 wins per season in his nine years at Ole Miss, after the Rebels had posted three 21-plus win seasons in the 96 years before his arrival.