#1 - Losing at Vanderbilt in 2021 and/or losing to LSU in the 2021 SEC Tournament …. I hate to point to a couple of games over 5 seasons, but those 2 losses were the difference between the NIT and a 2nd NCAA Tournament appearance in 3 years. If he makes the NCAA Tournament in 2021, nothing else really matters and we aren’t having the discussion today.
#2 - Staff … Kermit’s staff didn’t have enough recruiters on it. 2 of the 3 assistants came over from MTSU and struggled to land highly rated recruits. Especially Ronnie Hamilton. Levi Watkins was the only SEC-caliber assistant coach we had on staff for 4 years. We brought Bobby Lutz in to help with the offense (LOL) and had to hire a Sun Belt assistant coach just to get a halfway serviceable big man in the portal.
#3 - Recruiting misses … This piggybacks off of point #2, but Kermit and the staff haven’t landed enough talent. The biggest miss of the Kermit tenure was TyTy Washington, who ended up being a Top 15, 5-star recruit and a 1-&-done 1st Round pick. We could’ve had him, but Kermit slow played him and we ended up with James White instead. Or what about passing on Xavier Pinson when he expressed interest after the 2019-20 season? Might’ve been nice to have a guy who averaged 14 ppg in the SEC on that 2020-21 team. Again, we might not be having this conversation if he had just taken a kid who wanted to come here (see #1). Not to mention misses like Chris Moore, Chandler Lawson, Deebo Coleman, Myreon Jones, Landers Nolley, etc. who are starting caliber players and/or quality depth pieces. At some point, you have to close on guys like that. I’ll give him credit for Murrell, Ruffin, and Romello White. Those were big time gets. But 3 dudes in 5 years isn’t going to cut it.
#4 - Misevaluations and lack of player development … it’s abundantly clear that Kermit and his staff have struggled to evaluate and/or develop talent here. His entire first recruiting class transferred out. 7 guys! Granted it was a transition class, so those classes aren’t usually very good. But it did have 3 guys that could’ve helped you (Hinson, Buffen, Rodriguez). His first “real” class — 7 players — every single one of them ended up transferring out as well. The first 14 guys this staff signed were run off (misevaluations) or felt like they were better off somewhere else (lack of development). That’s so bad, it’s almost impressive! And when you consider that many players seem to play better when they leave the Ole Miss program, it’s an even worse look.
#5 - Failure to improve the offense … Kermit’s teams have always been known for defense and toughness. It was his calling card coming from MTSU. But you better be an ELITE defensive team or a very efficient offense if you’re going to play as slow as his teams have played and expect to win. And if you can’t win, you better be fun. Ole Miss has ranked in the mid-200s in possessions per game over the last 3 seasons (a good statistical indicator for pace of play). That’s incredibly slow and in order for that to work, you have to be incredibly efficient offensively, which we are not. Because we can’t shoot. Which shouldn’t come as a surprise since Kermit and staff have failed to recruit shooters. This year is a perfect example. Everyone and their mother knew we needed to add shooters this year. Instead, he added a bunch of “tough”, defensive-minded players from low-majors, SWAC, and NAIA levels. On top of personnel issues, the offense just isn’t enjoyable to watch. At best, it seems like we run a middle school motion offense with a lot of aimless passing 20+ feet from the basket, leading to forced/discombobulated offense late in the shot clock. At worst, everyone is standing around while we play a 2-man game with a guard who can’t break someone down off the dribble and a big man with limited offensive ability. It just doesn’t work. Tyree (and to a lesser extent Shuler) covered this up for 2-3 seasons but the offense we’ve ran since Kermit got here just isn’t going to cut it.
#2 - Staff … Kermit’s staff didn’t have enough recruiters on it. 2 of the 3 assistants came over from MTSU and struggled to land highly rated recruits. Especially Ronnie Hamilton. Levi Watkins was the only SEC-caliber assistant coach we had on staff for 4 years. We brought Bobby Lutz in to help with the offense (LOL) and had to hire a Sun Belt assistant coach just to get a halfway serviceable big man in the portal.
#3 - Recruiting misses … This piggybacks off of point #2, but Kermit and the staff haven’t landed enough talent. The biggest miss of the Kermit tenure was TyTy Washington, who ended up being a Top 15, 5-star recruit and a 1-&-done 1st Round pick. We could’ve had him, but Kermit slow played him and we ended up with James White instead. Or what about passing on Xavier Pinson when he expressed interest after the 2019-20 season? Might’ve been nice to have a guy who averaged 14 ppg in the SEC on that 2020-21 team. Again, we might not be having this conversation if he had just taken a kid who wanted to come here (see #1). Not to mention misses like Chris Moore, Chandler Lawson, Deebo Coleman, Myreon Jones, Landers Nolley, etc. who are starting caliber players and/or quality depth pieces. At some point, you have to close on guys like that. I’ll give him credit for Murrell, Ruffin, and Romello White. Those were big time gets. But 3 dudes in 5 years isn’t going to cut it.
#4 - Misevaluations and lack of player development … it’s abundantly clear that Kermit and his staff have struggled to evaluate and/or develop talent here. His entire first recruiting class transferred out. 7 guys! Granted it was a transition class, so those classes aren’t usually very good. But it did have 3 guys that could’ve helped you (Hinson, Buffen, Rodriguez). His first “real” class — 7 players — every single one of them ended up transferring out as well. The first 14 guys this staff signed were run off (misevaluations) or felt like they were better off somewhere else (lack of development). That’s so bad, it’s almost impressive! And when you consider that many players seem to play better when they leave the Ole Miss program, it’s an even worse look.
#5 - Failure to improve the offense … Kermit’s teams have always been known for defense and toughness. It was his calling card coming from MTSU. But you better be an ELITE defensive team or a very efficient offense if you’re going to play as slow as his teams have played and expect to win. And if you can’t win, you better be fun. Ole Miss has ranked in the mid-200s in possessions per game over the last 3 seasons (a good statistical indicator for pace of play). That’s incredibly slow and in order for that to work, you have to be incredibly efficient offensively, which we are not. Because we can’t shoot. Which shouldn’t come as a surprise since Kermit and staff have failed to recruit shooters. This year is a perfect example. Everyone and their mother knew we needed to add shooters this year. Instead, he added a bunch of “tough”, defensive-minded players from low-majors, SWAC, and NAIA levels. On top of personnel issues, the offense just isn’t enjoyable to watch. At best, it seems like we run a middle school motion offense with a lot of aimless passing 20+ feet from the basket, leading to forced/discombobulated offense late in the shot clock. At worst, everyone is standing around while we play a 2-man game with a guard who can’t break someone down off the dribble and a big man with limited offensive ability. It just doesn’t work. Tyree (and to a lesser extent Shuler) covered this up for 2-3 seasons but the offense we’ve ran since Kermit got here just isn’t going to cut it.
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