Andy Kennedy

Andy Kennedy (born March 13, 1968) is an American college basketball coach who is the head coach of the UAB Blazers men's basketball team.

He was a 1986 Parade All-American and he went on to play for North Carolina State and the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

Kennedy, a 6'7" forward, was a 1986 Parade All-American, as well as the Mississippi Player of the Year at Louisville High School. He started his collegiate career at North Carolina State where he was a member of Jim Valvano's 1987 Atlantic Coast Conference championship team.

Following his freshman season, Kennedy transferred to UAB where he played under another legendary coach, Gene Bartow.

From 1988 to 1991, Kennedy was a two-time all-conference performer that led the Sun Belt Conference in scoring at 21.8 points per game in 1991.

Kennedy finished his UAB career as the program's second all-time leading scorer with 1,787 points.

Kennedy still holds numerous school and conference records.

On 2022 October 7 Kennedy was inducted into the UAB Sports Hall of Fame.

He became just the 4th men's player selected.

After graduation, Kennedy played briefly for the NBA's Charlotte Hornets at guard.

He later began a three-year professional career abroad, playing in Greece, the Netherlands, Spain and Puerto Rico.

Chronic knee problems brought his career to an early end.

He had his second ACL tear and subsequently his fifth and final knee operation while playing in Puerto Rico and chose to retire as a player and transition into coaching.

Kennedy's coaching career began as an assistant for the University of South Alabama during the 1994–95 season.

Since then he has also served as an assistant coach at UAB from 1996 to 2001 and the University of Cincinnati from 2001 to 2005.

Kennedy's first head coaching position came during the 2005–06 season when he was named interim head coach for Cincinnati after Bob Huggins resigned.

He led the Bearcats to a 21–13 record and an NIT appearance that year.

He was named the NY Post Big East Coach of the Year.

In his first year as head coach of Ole Miss, Kennedy led the Rebels to a 21–13 overall record and 8–8 in conference play record to become co-champions of the Southeastern Conference Western division.

The Rebels made it to the semi-finals of the SEC tournament, but fell to the eventual champions, Florida.

The Rebels then received an NIT berth and won the first round against Appalachian State but fell to the eventual runners-up, Clemson.

In his 12 seasons at Ole Miss, Kennedy became the program's all-time wins leader, as well as the only head coach since World War II to finish with a winning record in SEC play.

Among Kennedy's accomplishments at Ole Miss:

He was head men's basketball coach at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) from 2006 to 2018.

Kennedy was a player in high school at both Winston Academy and Louisville High School.

Under Kennedy's guide UAB finished with their highest NET ranking in program history along with the program's highest Kenpom ranking since 2011.

The Blazers were led by their defense in Kennedy's first year as they finished with the most wins in Conference USA as well as the most series sweeps.

They finished 5th in the country in scoring defense while also boasting the 3rd best turnover margin in the NCAA.

For the first time in UAB history they had 2 members selected to the conference All-Defense team.

The 22 wins were the most by a first year head coach in the NCAA and the most wins for UAB since 2016.

Kennedy's first year leading his alma mater saw UAB reach its 4th highest winning percentage in program history and be one of 17 programs in America with at least 22 wins and 7 or fewer losses.

On February 12, 2018, Kennedy initially announced that he and Ole Miss had agreed to part ways following the 2017–18 season.

However, Kennedy resigned effective immediately on February 18, 2018.

In 2018, Kennedy agreed to a deal with the SEC Network to become a college basketball analyst across the ESPN family of networks.

During the 2018–2019 and 2019–2020 seasons, Kennedy was featured as an in-game color analyst, studio analyst, and sideline reporter covering college basketball.

On March 20, 2020, he was announced as the seventh head coach of UAB.

After 2 years working with ESPN, on March 20, 2020, Kennedy was hired as the head coach at UAB, replacing Robert Ehsan.

In his first year Kennedy led the Blazers to a 22–7 record.