Adam Zagoria covers basketball at all levels. He is the author of two books and an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Sports Illustrated, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide.
Rival Schools Using Negative Recruiting Against Kennedy
It probably shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, but Texas A&M associate head coach Glenn Cyprien says rival schools are using Billy Kennedy’s health situation as a tool for negative recruiting.
“Hey, there’s no question. It’s a cutthroat profession in a lot of ways unfortunately and it has been thrown around a lot in recruiting in terms of coach’s health,” Cyprien said Monday on a conference call promoting the 2K Sports Classic. “Boy, you hate to see that but I guess that’s the way it is when you got some programs that use the negative recruiting.
“It has come up on numerous occasions in conversation. But we’ve tried to assure all the kids that we’re recruiting that coach is going to be back at some point and he will be back 100 percent. To answer your question, yeah it has affected recruiting in some ways.”
Texas A&M announced in October that Kennedy had early-stage Parkinson’s disease and would be leaving the team to undergo treatment.
Still, Kennedy was on the sidelines Sunday when the No. 20 Aggies beat Southern 83-58 in his first game back.
“For the team, it was great. The guys were just ecstatic to have him around,” Cyprien said. “He had been around several days prior to the game and kind of helped out at practice a little bit and advised. But just to have him on the sidelines was really good and I thought our team really fed off the energy that he had.”
He added: “After the game he was just tired. He was happy to be on the sideline but when the game was over I think he was a little bit exhausted and rightly so.”
Cyprien said Kennedy would make the trip to New York for Thursday’s game against Mississippi State and Friday’s against either St. John’s or Arizona, but that his status going forward was “day-to-day.”
“It’s hard to predict,” he said. “I’d like to say he’s back for the long haul but I think it’s day-to-day. He’s definitely not 100 percent, as we all know.
“We’re just kind of going about our business on a day-to-day basis, but he has shown great improvement. He was coming into the office an hour, two hours a day, and now he’s been able to come in most of the day now and join the team in practice and obviously a game scenario.”
Adam Zagoria is a Basketball Insider who covers basketball at all levels. A contributor to The New York Times and SportsNet New York (SNY), he is also the author of two books and is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker. His articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide. He also won an Emmy award for his work on the SNY mini-documentary on Syracuse guard Tyus Battle.
A veteran Ultimate Frisbee player, he has competed in numerous National and World Championships and, perhaps more importantly, his teams won the Westchester Summer League (WSL) championships in 2011 and 2013.
He lives in Manhattan with his wife and children.
It probably shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, but Texas A&M associate head coach Glenn Cyprien says rival schools are using Billy Kennedy’s health situation as a tool for negative recruiting.
“Hey, there’s no question. It’s a cutthroat profession in a lot of ways unfortunately and it has been thrown around a lot in recruiting in terms of coach’s health,” Cyprien said Monday on a conference call promoting the 2K Sports Classic. “Boy, you hate to see that but I guess that’s the way it is when you got some programs that use the negative recruiting.
“It has come up on numerous occasions in conversation. But we’ve tried to assure all the kids that we’re recruiting that coach is going to be back at some point and he will be back 100 percent. To answer your question, yeah it has affected recruiting in some ways.”
Texas A&M announced in October that Kennedy had early-stage Parkinson’s disease and would be leaving the team to undergo treatment.
Still, Kennedy was on the sidelines Sunday when the No. 20 Aggies beat Southern 83-58 in his first game back.
“For the team, it was great. The guys were just ecstatic to have him around,” Cyprien said. “He had been around several days prior to the game and kind of helped out at practice a little bit and advised. But just to have him on the sidelines was really good and I thought our team really fed off the energy that he had.”
He added: “After the game he was just tired. He was happy to be on the sideline but when the game was over I think he was a little bit exhausted and rightly so.”
Cyprien said Kennedy would make the trip to New York for Thursday’s game against Mississippi State and Friday’s against either St. John’s or Arizona, but that his status going forward was “day-to-day.”
“It’s hard to predict,” he said. “I’d like to say he’s back for the long haul but I think it’s day-to-day. He’s definitely not 100 percent, as we all know.
“We’re just kind of going about our business on a day-to-day basis, but he has shown great improvement. He was coming into the office an hour, two hours a day, and now he’s been able to come in most of the day now and join the team in practice and obviously a game scenario.”
