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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 25, 2015)
SPORTS The Battalion I 3.25.15 3 VIEWS Keep Kennedy A&M has improved each season under Kennedy. Time to let him finish the job. Igglgg mmm?. Cole Stenholm @C_StenJ 1 1 ive losses in the last seven r-^ games. That alone has many JL among the A&M men’s bas ketball fandom questioning why head coach Billy Kennedy’s isn’t searching for residency elsewhere than College Station. And I understand it. Aggies want to win and Kennedy has had more than his fair share of time in Aggieland. In this day and age where we’ve seen coaches rou tinely ousted before the custom ary three-year grace period, it’s almost a miracle his contract has survived this long. But let’s not be too quick to launch the basketball program back into the “hit or miss” ty phoon that is the college coaching carousel. Kennedy is a proven program builder. At every stop along his coaching tour, Kennedy has left his programs in better places than when he adopted them, whether that be guiding Southeastern Louisiana to its first NCAA tournament appearance or raising Murray State from 16-14 in 2006- 07 to 31-5 in 2009-10. Under his leadership, a similar transformation unfolds in College Station for the A&M program. In his first year as head coach in 2011, A&M went 14-18. From there A&M earned winning re cords of 18-15 in 2012 and 18-16 record in 2013. And then, of course, there’s this year. With the emotional highs following a 2-5 closure to the campaign, it’s easy to forget that this squad won 21 ballgames, the most victories since 2011. It was another progressive season in the Kennedy era as die Aggies ad vanced to the second round of the National Invitation Tournament. The NIT is no NCAA tourna ment, but it is often thought of as a springboard for developing Cody Franklin —THE BATTALION Billy Kennedy will have a strong crop of freshmen next season. programs toward future NCAA tournament appearances and suc cess. Take, for instance, Wichita State University. In their development under up and rising head coach Gregg Mar shall, the Shockers appeared in the first round of the NIT in 2010 and then won the tournament the following year before advancing to the NCAA tournament four consecutive years, including this year’s current Sweet 16 run. It’s not hard to fathom that A&M is in an “NIT phase” of its own under Kennedy. A&M was never outmatched in any contest this year, it swept NCAA tourna ment team LSU and it took No. 1 Kentucky to the brink of defeat in a double overtime thriller at Reed Arena. Obviously, A&M fans will hope their team’s “NIT phase” will be a year shorter than Wichita State’s, and I think that’s - i in . quite realistic. The Aggies expect to have both of their most productive players back next season in juniors Danuel blouse and Jalen Jones. House led the Aggies in scor ing and was their best player, but missed his last four games, which fell right in the thick of that criti cized 2-5 closing stretch. Jones was the team’s second-leading scorer and leading rebounder. A&M also molded freshmen Alex Robinson and Peyton Allen into contributing roles. Robinson received key minutes orchestrat ing the offense and Allen offered a 3-point threat coming off the bench. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the Aggies have assembled, under Kennedy’s guid ance, the No. 3 recruiting class in the nation for the upcoming sea son. All four members are ranked inside the ESPN top 70. Are you sure that’s the head coach you want to can? Like I said, I get it. Aggies want to win, and they want to win no^. But don’t let what was an unforeseen, bitter conclusion tdThe ^(jl4-15 campaign hafig over the big picture. Kennedy’s got the ball moving on his master plan. Now, let’s let him see it through. Senior DB ; Devante Harris said he is excited for the shift in defensive culture at I A&M. AGGIES TALK REVAMPED DEFENSE AT SPRING BALL At spring practice Tuesday, secondary coach Terry Joseph broke down what fans will see from the Aggie defense under coordinator John Chavis. "Watching from a fan's standpoint it'll be a lot more aggressive, a lot closerto the line Jena Floyd — THE BATTALION of scrimmage," Joseph said. "One guy will be responsible for one guy and one route and we want you to win that one-on-one battle." Senior cornerback Devante Harris said he is excited about the transition. "I love that," he said. "Just guard the man in front of you." Alex Scott MORE AT TX.AG/BATT21 No. 1 track and field teams set for Texas Relays scrum By Seth Stroupe K. The Texas A&M track team will make the short trip to Austin to compete Wednesday in the Texas Relays, a unique event that draws athletes from the high school, colle giate and professional ranks. More than 6,625 athletes are slated to compete over the four-day sched ule of events. That includes represen tatives from 687 high school squads, 208 college teams and 134 invita tional athletes, making it likely the only event of the season to see com petitors from Southlake Carroll and the Japanese national team running on the same track. The massive field encompasses 34 states and over eight countries. The Aggies debuted at No. 1 in the men’s and women’s divisions in the first set of outdoor track rankings released Tuesday. The outdoor sea son is still in its infancy, but the Ag gies are already well represented on the collegiate leaderboard with the top marks in three individual events and two relays. Senior Olabanji Asekun leapt to the No. 1 spot in a very literal man ner last week in Tempe when he re corded a mark of 24 feet, 9 inches in the men’s long jump. That distance was 11/4 inch better than anyone else this season. Junior Lathone Collie has also found himself atop the early season standing in the men’s triple jump after recording a mark of 52 feet, 4 3/4 inches. But the most dominant individual performance from last weekend’s opener belongs to Junior Shelbi Vaughn, who now holds the top three spots in the women’s discus with spins of 195-2, 195, and 187-5. Her best toss of 195-2 is the seventh- best in school history. The Aggie men also lead the country in both the 4x100 and 4x400 relays. Fresh off a new indoor colle giate record for the mile relay at the NCAA championships, the quartet of Josh Hernandez, Bralon Taplin, Deon Lendore, and Hector Her nandez wasted no time setting the pace again last weekend with a time of 3:06.67. Taplin and Lendore also had their hands in the 4x100, join ing Devin Jenkins and Shavez Hart to post a nation-leading time of 38.98 seconds. The event will be televised exclu sively on the Longhorn Network. General admission for Friday and Saturday is $10. Onlookers can take in Wednesday and Thursday’s com petition free of charge. Place an Ad Phone 979.845.0569 Suite L400, Memorial Student Center Texas A&M University When to Call 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday Insertion deadline: 1 p.m. prior business day V/SA Private Party Want Ads SI 0 for 20 words running 5 days, if your merchandise is priced $1,000 or less (price must appear in ad). This rate applies only to non-commercial advertisers offering personal possessions for sale. Guaranteed results or you get an additional 5 days at no charge. If item doesn't sell, advertiser must call before 1 p.m. on the day the ad is scheduled to end to qualify for the 5 additional insertions at no charge. 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