Texas A&M head coach Billy Kennedy finished a tremendous regular season by earning a #1-seed to the SEC tourney, and even after a 5-PT OT loss to Kentucky in the SEC tourney title game earlier today his team received a #3-seed in the NCAA tourney and will face Green Bay in Oklahoma City this Friday. After making the CBI in 2014 Kennedy hired Rick Stansbury to be 1 of his assistant coaches, who helped the Aggies sign a top-10-in-the-nation recruiting class that helped them win 26 games so far this year. Stansbury made 6 NCAA tourneys in an 8-year stretch as head coach at Mississippi State and is a big reason that yet another SEC team is finding success. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to speak with Coach Stansbury about losing a tourney game in OT thanks to a Providence player named Billy Donovan and being named SEC COY.
Take me through the 1987 NCAA tourney as assistant coach at Austin Peay:
Tony Raye made a pair of FTs with 2 seconds left before Ken Norman missed a 15-foot shot at the buzzer in a 1-PT win over Illinois: did you think that Norman’s shot was going in, and what was the feeling like in your locker room afterward? The Illini were a #3 seed so nobody gave us any chance to win. Illinois had a very good team and was loaded but we were tough and could really defend people. We even had a big guy who could shoot from behind the arc.
Billy Donovan had 25 PTS/7 AST in a 3-PT OT win by Providence after Bob Thomas missed a FT at the end in regulation: how devastating was that loss, and could you tell at the time that Donovan would become a star on the sideline 2 decades later at FL? We were fouled with no time on the clock with a chance to go to the Sweet 16. Providence coach Rick Pitino called a timeout but there was no real strategy for us to share at that point. I just told Thomas to make the FT and he said it was money in the bank…but he missed it. We were up late in OT with time running down when Donovan pushed off of our defender with his left hand, stepped back, and made a 3-PT shot: the rest was history. Pitino later said in his book that he might still be at Providence if we had made that FT, but he became coach of the Knicks the following season.
What are your memories of the 1995 NCAA tourney as assistant coach at Mississippi State (tourney MOP Ed O’Bannon scored 21 PTS in a win by eventual champion UCLA)? We started the tourney with an 8-PT win over Steve Nash’s Santa Clara team, followed by a 14-PT win over Keith Van Horn’s Utah team. Next up was UCLA in Oakland but Tyus Edney and the O’Bannon brothers were too talented for us.
What are your memories of the 1996 NCAA tourney (Erick Dampier had 12 PTS/14 REB/6 AST in a loss to eventual national runner-up Syracuse)? I never saw someone score over Dampier that entire season but Otis Hill did exactly that and finished with 15 PTS. We were favored to meet Kentucky in the finals in an all-SEC championship after we had blown them out in the SEC title game 2 weeks earlier, but we were not at our best.
What are your memories of the 2002 NCAA tourney (Deginald Erskin scored 17 PTS [8-9 FG] in a 4-PT win by Texas)? We played them in Dallas in the 1st year of the pod system (where teams were assigned to 1st-round sites in an effort to minimize travel). We were the higher-ranked team but you can imagine who had the most fans there. We were the poster boy for how the pod system did not work!
What are your memories of the 2003 NCAA tourney (Mario Austin had 18 PTS/10 REB but Brandon Miller made a runner in the lane with 6 seconds left in a 1-PT win by Butler)? At the time nobody knew how good Butler was. We were down by 1 PT late in the game and Winsome Frazier had an open shot but it went off the rim. Butler went on to beat Louisville before losing to Oklahoma.
In 2004 you were named SEC COY: what did it mean to you to win such an outstanding honor? When we changed offices several years ago I uncovered the trophy that had been sitting in a box. I had forgotten all about it so I polished it up and put it up in my new office. Maybe when I get older I will look back and reflect on it.
What are your memories of the 2004 NCAA tourney (Lionel Chalmers scored 31 PTS [11-13 FG] in a win by Xavier)? We finished 25-2 in the regular season and went 8-0 on the road in the SEC. Our 2 losses were at home to Kentucky/Alabama, and then we beat the Tide on the road to win the outright SEC title. I felt like we should have been a #1 seed but we got a #2. It is a fine line when you get to the NCAA tourney: we had to play a very hot Xavier team in the 2nd round. A kid we recruited named Dedrick Finn made a 60-foot shot at the halftime buzzer to take a 1-PT lead. We actually tried to bring Finn in to visit Starkville but at first he could not make it due to 9/11, and later his football schedule kept him from doing so.
What are your memories of the 2005 NCAA tourney (Shelden Williams had 13 PTS/15 REB in an 8-PT win by Duke)? We played Duke in Charlotte and they were a very good team. We had blown out Stanford by 23 PTS in the 1st round. The Duke game was close all the way but our PG had a critical turnover with a couple of minutes left.
What are your memories of the 2008 NCAA tourney (Ben Hansbrough scored 19 PTS in a 3-PT loss to eventual national runner-up Memphis, his last game before transferring to Notre Dame)? We beat Oregon in the 1st round but nobody realized that Memphis would end up playing for the title. Their center Joey Dorsey had been mainly a rebounder all year long but he scored 13 PTS (6-8 FG) against us. Barry Stewart was a great player for us but he went 1-12 from the field that night. Even so, it was still a 1-possession game until the final buzzer.
What are your memories of the 2010 SEC tourney (Eric Bledsoe scored 18 PTS in a 1-PT OT win by Kentucky)? We played the Wildcats in the SEC title game in Nashville with all of their future 1st-round draft picks (John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, etc.). We were up 3 PTS late and fouled Bledsoe with 4 seconds left. He made the 1st FT so everyone knew what was going to happen next…except the 3 people in charge on the court. Wall started at the top of the circle as Bledsoe put up a high-arcing shot, ran into the paint, and was 3 feet ahead of Bledsoe while the ball was still in the air. Wall eventually got the ball and flung up a 3-PT shot from the corner that was short. Jarvis Varnado thought the game was over, but Cousins flicked it in at the buzzer and we ended up losing in OT. It did not just cost us the SEC title: it also cost us an NCAA bid. There are always calls that beat you here and there but rarely do they cost you a conference title/NCAA bid. I became the 1st basketball coach in SEC history to get fined for my comments about a game: $30,000!