Runnin' With The Racers Podcast - Coach Billy Kennedy - Murray State University Athletics

Former Murray State Basketball coach, Billy Kennedy, part of the 2020 MSU Hall of Fame class, is this week's guest on the Runnin' with the Racers Podcast, episode 110.

The Runnin' with the Racers Podcast posts each week to GoRacers.com, iTunes and Soundcloud.

Kennedy guided the Racers from 2006-11 and is one of only four coaches to lead the Racers to victory in the NCAA Tournament.

He joined the Racers in April of 2006 after a successful stint as a head coach at Southeastern Louisiana (1999-05) and one season as an assistant at Miami (FL).

Kennedy rebuilt the Racers' roster and had a winning season in 2006-07 and by the time the 2009-10 season rolled around, Kennedy had a team that was built for being a champion. However, if one goes back to July of 2006, Kennedy was a new coach, with only five players on the roster in Tony Easley, Tyler Holloway, Rob Kennedy, Jared Key and Shawn Witherspoon.

"I remember that all too well, it was scary," Kennedy remembered. "We knew the tradition of winning at Murray State, they were coming off an NCAA appearance with that great team Mick Cronin put together. Those returners were all good kids and set the foundation for what we added. They believed in what we were doing and we needed that because we ended up signing 11 new guys."

Kennedy and his staff of Steve Prohm, Chad Dollar and Dusty May scrambled. They found enough talent to make the Racers into a good team and probably one that exceeded expectations. Billy Kennedy, Mary and Anna Cate

There were no big stars on this first Kennedy team, just a bunch of kids that learned winning began with point prevention. The Racers led the OVC in defensive field goal percentage (.402), which allowed them, to eek out a winning season (16-14) and finish in a three-way tie for second in the OVC at 13-7. Leading scorer, Bruce Carter, a junior college addition, was the only MSU player to be named All-OVC. MSU had other newcomers that contributed including Ray George, Ed Horton, Dwayne Paul, Kevin Thomas, Danero Thomas and Marvin Williams.

Those who know will tell you Kennedy's 2006-07 season was one of the best coaching performances in MSU history. It netted the program's 20^th consecutive winning season and a streak that was fourth best in the nation when it ended in 2017 at 29.

Family was and is important for Coach Kennedy. In that first season, he and his wife, Mary, decided to take their toddler daughter, Anna Cate, on the road when them on the team bus.

"Mary and myself said that we would try it and see how it went, because it was unique," said Kennedy. "It happened to work for us, because it usually doesn't work that way in this profession. She (Anna Cate) was easy to deal with on the bus. It meant a lot for us to be able to travel together to our games. I was blessed in that realm to have my family to be part of the program. We felt like it was a ministry to allow people to see the inside and out of our family."

All of the program building that occurred in the first three seasons of the Kennedy era produced winning seasons and three straight second place finishes in the OVC. When the 2009-10 season rolled around, the Racers were primed for greatness. The 31-5 record was the single-season record MSU's 85 college basketball seasons and in the OVC. The Racers had a 17-game win streak, the longest in the nation and a MSU record at the time. MSU's season culminated with a trip to the NCAA Tournament where they defeated Vanderbilt for the program's second win and first since 1988 (22 years) on a last second shot by Danero Thomas in San Jose, California.

Billy Kennedy

"The Shot" is one of a few plays in Racer history that a Racer fan can tell you where they were and what they were doing when it happened. With a few seconds on the clock during the final timeout, Kennedy drew up the play that won the game at the buzzer.

"The big thing that led up to that shot by Danero, was that we played really well and put ourselves in a position to win the game," Kennedy said. "We got a break there at the end when the ball was tipped out of bounds by Vanderbilt. Jeff McClain got the inbounds to Isacc Miles and he made the right play to get Danero the open look and we beat a really good team that day. That play I drew up wasn't something we had practiced. We had a thought that they might not know how to guard it. It worked."

Kennedy's last two teams at MSU were OVC regular season champions, involving solid rosters that won 23 straight OVC games over the two seasons (2009-10 and 2010-11). In the two-season period, the Racers went 54-10 overall and 31-5 in OVC games.

MSU hall of famer, Isaiah Canaan, OVC Freshman of the Year in 2010 was one of Kennedy's recruits. Canaan later was a two-time OVC Player of the Year for former Kennedy assistant coach, Steve Prohm, who succeeded Kennedy when he became the head coach at Texas A&M in 2011. Other Kennedy All-OVC performers included Bruce Carter, Danero Thomas, Isacc Miles, Ivan Aska and Tony Easley.

In 2011, Kennedy was honored by receiving the Fellowship of Christian Athletes John Lotz "Barnabas" Award. At the time, Kennedy joined other coaches who were so honored including Homer Drew, John Wooden and Steve Alford.

Kennedy is the eighth men's basketball coach and the 22nd overall coach to be inducted into the MSU Hall of Fame. The 2020 class marks the 38th class since the MSU Hall of Fame was started in 1965 and it highlights 10 inductees from seven sports. Combined, the class produced 31 OVC awards of all kinds, including 11 annual awards including annual awards including coach, player, freshman, defensive or athlete of the Year.

"First of all, I was shocked," Kennedy said about getting the call from MSU AD Kevin Saal. "that means I'm getting old! Looking back on the special years we had at Murray, we had great people around us. The community was so supportive of us and what we were trying to do with the program. Of course, we brought in some talented players and you can't win on a high level without that. It was very humbling to get the call from Kevin about the hall of fame and we're honored by the news."

About Runnin' With The Racers Podcast
Murray State Basketball great Jonathan Stark was the first guest when the pilot episode posted Aug. 29, 2018, The podcast is produced weekly and usually is available by Wednesday. The Runnin' with the Racers Podcast is mainly guest driven with news and notes of the week from the Racers. Dave Winder, MSU Athletics Associate AD for Media Relations is the host. The podcast is available on GoRacers.com, ITunes and Soundcloud.

Murray State University Athletics

Runnin' With The Racers Podcast - Coach Billy Kennedy

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