Sun Belt Tournament 2026

[Stonewall]

I believe Bobby Cremins to be our all time best. He inherited the worst program we had fielded in 75 years. Becam championship level in a short time. DK is second or third behind him. As to all of you suggesting more money, send it in. Or demand a shift in priorities away from football. Someone last night reminded me that “ we are in the entertainment business and this isn’t entertaining enough to generate revenue “. Again, my read after talking to people, if we continue to win more than we lose , he can stay at least until his contract expires. A losing season brings a different scenario.

[311neers]

I do miss a fast break.
Can’t remember a fast break we had.

[pop5app]

I believe Bobby Cremins to be our all time best. He inherited the worst program we had fielded in 75 years. Becam championship level in a short time. DK is second or third behind him. As to all of you suggesting more money, send it in. Or demand a shift in priorities away from football. Someone last night reminded me that “ we are in the entertainment business and this isn’t entertaining enough to generate revenue “. Again, my read after talking to people, if we continue to win more than we lose , he can stay at least until his contract expires. A losing season brings a different scenario.

I agree. Cremins is the best. Buzz next. Kerns may be next but when I remove all the “non-D1” wins from his record I suspect he’ll be only slightly above .500. (In a less than “good “ conference.)

[hapapp]

Here are the Sun Belt results under Kerns:
19-20 6th 1-1 in tournament
20-21 7th (4th in East) 4-0 in tournament
21-22 2nd 1-1 in tournament
22-23 7th 0-1 in tournament
23-24 1st 1-1 in tournament
24-25 6th 0-1 in tournament
25-26 2nd 0-1 in tournament

Kerns is 133-92 (.591) in his 7 seasons at the helm. He is currently the 3rd winningest coach in App's D1 history. He trails Tom Apke (139 wins) and Houston Fancher (137 wins). Apke was here 10 years and Fancher 9. He has the 2nd highest win percentage at .591 (Cremins is at .588; Cremins has a higher conference win %) behind Buzz Peterson at .665 (conference .779). Cremins, Peterson, and Kerns each won a conference tournament title. Cremins won three regular season titles, Peterson two (four counting division titles), and Kerns one. Peterson had the most 20 win seasons (4), Cremins had 2, Apke 1, Fancher 1, and Kerns 1.

[ASUFan4863]

Maybe this question needs to have its own thread but I shudder to think what irrational comments would follow. I have to ask in all seriousness to the “fire the coach” crowd.

How on earth do you expect any good coach at our level to maintain success? I keep reading that we need to find and spend more money. I see lots of decent players coming and going at App and at our level in general. Those who spout the money thing have no clue what that magic number is. There will always be a finite number of legit D1 talent every season. Losing is disappointing but it’s got to be a minor miracle to turn a brand new roster into a 20 game winner- every year! What on earth do some expect our coach to do?

I don’t think sustained success is the goal at our level and our investment because eventually that becomes a static and mediocre mindset.

[BambooRdApp]

Maybe this question needs to have its own thread but I shudder to think what irrational comments would follow. I have to ask in all seriousness to the “fire the coach” crowd.

How on earth do you expect any good coach at our level to maintain success? I keep reading that we need to find and spend more money. I see lots of decent players coming and going at App and at our level in general. Those who spout the money thing have no clue what that magic number is. There will always be a finite number of legit D1 talent every season. Losing is disappointing but it’s got to be a minor miracle to turn a brand new roster into a 20 game winner- every year! What on earth do some expect our coach to do?

UNCW seems to find a way to do it

[appdaze]

When it comes to basketball, we have one of the most delusional, ignorant fan bases in the nation. Honestly, if people are considering moving on from Kerns, they know absolutely nothing about basketball and should have no part in basketball decisions. Running off one of the top 2 ish coaches in your school's history when he isn't the problem is a great way to tank your program and show all other up-and-coming coaches to avoid APP at all costs.

Weeks was throwing up everything and getting to the line. We played him decently well as he went 10/24, but he did a good job of getting to the line. On top of that, we couldn't hit our 3s. Neither of those issues do I lay at the feet of Kerns. It's not the end to the season I was hoping to see, but this season showed positive progress for our program.

[hapapp]

Maybe this question needs to have its own thread but I shudder to think what irrational comments would follow. I have to ask in all seriousness to the “fire the coach” crowd.

How on earth do you expect any good coach at our level to maintain success? I keep reading that we need to find and spend more money. I see lots of decent players coming and going at App and at our level in general. Those who spout the money thing have no clue what that magic number is. There will always be a finite number of legit D1 talent every season. Losing is disappointing but it’s got to be a minor miracle to turn a brand new roster into a 20 game winner- every year! What on earth do some expect our coach to do?

UNCW seems to find a way to do it

I would assume they put much more towards basketball than we do.

[BambooRdApp]

Maybe this question needs to have its own thread but I shudder to think what irrational comments would follow. I have to ask in all seriousness to the “fire the coach” crowd.

How on earth do you expect any good coach at our level to maintain success? I keep reading that we need to find and spend more money. I see lots of decent players coming and going at App and at our level in general. Those who spout the money thing have no clue what that magic number is. There will always be a finite number of legit D1 talent every season. Losing is disappointing but it’s got to be a minor miracle to turn a brand new roster into a 20 game winner- every year! What on earth do some expect our coach to do?

UNCW seems to find a way to do it

I would assume they put much more towards basketball than we do.

That's my point. Yes, there are limited number of players in the fish bowl. However, if you do not put more cash into it, you are not reeling in the better fish. I think we do know what the number is. App knows what it counterparts are spending. Naive to think they do not. That is silly.

[AppFan11]

Everybody has opinions and I do respect them. I do think it’s really hard to compare coaches from before and after rev share and nil. The coaches before would not have had the wins with the players in yr 2-4 of the players time because those good players would not have been there. It is just such a different environment.. it’s almost not fair. I guess you could say, in the “before times” Cremins was the best etc.

[hapapp]

When it comes to basketball, we have one of the most delusional, ignorant fan bases in the nation. Honestly, if people are considering moving on from Kerns, they know absolutely nothing about basketball and should have no part in basketball decisions. Running off one of the top 2 ish coaches in your school's history when he isn't the problem is a great way to tank your program and show all other up-and-coming coaches to avoid APP at all costs.

Weeks was throwing up everything and getting to the line. We played him decently well as he went 10/24, but he did a good job of getting to the line. On top of that, we couldn't hit our 3s. Neither of those issues do I lay at the feet of Kerns. It's not the end to the season I was hoping to see, but this season showed positive progress for our program.

I don't disagree with bulk of what you say. But, its hard to know how this season carries over to the next in terms of progress given one has no idea who will be on the roster next season. Frankly, I had pretty low expectations coming into this season since given the two big losses in personnel. However, after watching the team play I was impressed with how I thought this team had developed some good chemistry. That seven game winning streak excited all of us but then the same bugaboo that seems to creep into season's end showed up again.

I do wonder if we had not somehow gotten the 4 seed and had played earlier in the tournament, would we have fared better or were we just done. For me, its less the loss but the margin. The two critical losses at season's end were by one and three points. It wouldn't taken much to win both those games. So, there was some hope that with some rest for an overworked rotation, we might be fresh enough to defeat a team we had handled previously. Of course, that So Miss team we beat in Hattiesburg was a different squad than they have been down the stretch.

[Saint3333]

If you gave Kerns and Cremins the same players, I’d put my money on Kerns.

Cremins had a great recruiting pipeline.

Now I’d take a Cremins press conference over just about anyone, dude was a character.

[311neers]

We’ve started hitting on a couple HS recruits lately like Wilson and Marcus. Hopefully Brim and Neal are hits as well and Njock might settle in next year.

I don’t think we have an 2026 commits.
So it’ll mostly be a brand new transfer team again next year.

[AppFan11]

I think in today’s environment, it does not make a lot of sense to recruit hs kids for the most part.. take too long to be game ready (1-2 seasons) and if good you’ll have them for one season and if not good…. wasted time and effort. Where transfers have production already… whether that’s at low G6 or D2 or Community college. Today it just makes sense to get production.

[Stonewall]

Each competed by the rules of the day , with resources comparable to their conference counterparts. Cremins was at App when VMI was knocking off top twenty teams , including in the NCAA tournament as UTC , Furman and Marshall wear mid-heavy weights themselves. In any event Queens is going into overtime in the ASUN Championship for a bid to the NCAA TOURNAMENT and I am going to the bar …

[Saint3333]

The rules of the day make it more difficult to have this many over .500 seasons in today’s era.

Look at what Kerns was building before the TP and NIL.

He was a season away from a top 40-50 team.

Then 12 of 14 players left.

[AppFan11]

I’d say that as long as you compare coaches from the same rule eras….. then apples to apples. But comparing coaches between two different rule eras is like comparing apples to doors. In all seriousness, it makes sense to compare staffs, in-game coaching, adjustments …. Not wins, winning %, not tournament wins… completely agree that the goal is getting to the big Dance.

[Saint3333]

Usually when that’s the response they can’t articulate what would make another coach/player better.

[Stonewall]

Each competed with the rules of the era , as did the competition. If you didn’t live the Cremins era you missed something incredible and unmatched in Boone.

[Stonewall]

And Queens is going to the Dance.