The question was about the North Florida men’s basketball team effort in cutting a 23-point deficit to four points during an eventual 93-85 loss to West Georgia in the Atlantic Sun Conference tournament on March 4.
But departing senior point guard Kamrin Oriol went another direction.
Oriol wanted to talk about interim coach Bobby Kennen and delivered a message that should resonate with the UNF administration.
“I just want to say I’m super proud of Coach Kennen,” Oriol said. “It was hard being the head coach of a team with the record we had (7-25), but he never let that hinder him. He showed up every day for practice as the same person, and as players, we didn’t have our heads down or mope around.”
Led by vice president of intercollegiate athletics Nick Morrow, UNF should thank Kennen for steering the Ospreys this season by removing the interim tag and signing him to a three-year contract.
Quickly.
I will never get in the habit of stumping for a coach whose team was 18 games under .500, but the situation Kennen inherited when Matthew Driscoll resigned on May 22, 2025, to become an assistant coach at Kansas State was full of extenuating circumstances.
A late appointment. Injuries to two freshmen (point guard Mason Watkins and center Arden Begaj) expected to contribute. And no NIL money.
UNF was playing uphill from its opening game at Florida, but kept playing hard.
After his press conference, Kennen told me he met with Morrow before the two final regular season games, a win over Florida Gulf Coast and a loss to Jacksonville.
“We’ll find out in the next couple days,” Kennen said of his status.
The Ospreys should embrace continuity instead of having a third coach in as many seasons.
Patience sometimes pay off
UNF showing patience by sticking with Kennen wouldn’t be abnormal in the mid- and low-major college basketball world.
Last year, there were 62 Division I openings, but only four were teams that had seven or fewer wins (Miami, Sacramento State, Chicago State and Bellarmine).
Miami coach Jim Larranaga retired mid-season, Bellarmine coach Scott Davenport retired after the season and Sacramento State coach Michael Czepil was an interim appointment. Chicago State coach Scott Spinelli was fired after one season.
Twenty-eight schools had seven or fewer wins and patience kinda-sorta paid off for The Citadel (5-25 last season to 10-21 this season), NJIT (6-25 to 15-16) and Green Bay (4-28 to 19-14). Not so much for Air Force (4-28 to 3-27 and looking for a new coach) and Mississippi Valley State (3-28 again) and La.-Monroe (7-25 to 4-28).
Through games of March 4, only 11 teams in Division I had fewer wins than UNF.
If Morrow opts to hire a full-time coach from outside the program, the portal could fill up with UNF players, setting the program back since it can’t toss money around for replacements.
If Morrow opts to give Kennen the full-time post, Kennen said he is “very confident,” he could retain, for starters, Kent Jackson, Mason Lee and BJ Plummer.
“We have had a couple of people committed to donating some money and the revenue share number we’re getting will put us in good shape,” Kennen said.
Let’s face it, on a team with 25 losses, there won’t be a huge market to poach players from UNF. If the boosters can reach between the couch cushions for some change, the negotiations should be easy.
West Georgia coach complimentary
Throughout the league season, the vibe I got was Morrow would wait until after the season to meet with Kennen and hear out his plan for 2026-27.
I asked Kennen if he was surprised Morrow approached him last week.
“Not really because one of the things we’ve talked about is for him to see what I was thinking with the roster moving forward,” Kennen said. “That was a lot of the conversation.”
Imagine the conversation in the halftime locker room after West Georgia shot 58.5% from the field in building a 48-35 lead and in the sideline huddle after the Wolves built the aforementioned 23-point lead with 15:46 remaining.
UNF, which led for only 40 seconds in the game, never got back to within one possession, but made the Wolves sweat.
“They play really hard,” West Georgia coach Dave Moore said after his team won the season series over UNF, 2-1. “We got them down 23 points and they could have went away. To their credit, they didn’t. That’s a credit to (Kennen) and a credit to their players that they stayed with it and battled.”
Oriol gets the last few words.
Oriol had to play out of position, moving from shooting guard to point guard because of Watkins’ wrist injury. Oriol played two years at UNF, grateful for the opportunity to transfer from an NAIA school in California to play Division I basketball. An opportunity fostered by Kennen.
“He pushed us to be the best version of ourselves,” he said. “I’m super thankful I got to play for him.”
Contact O’Halloran at rohalloran@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Despite record, Bobby Kennen should get chance to lead UNF
Reporting by Ryan O’Halloran, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
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