Why UAB coach Andy Kennedy has a unique tie to NC State ahead of tilt with Wolfpack

Andy Kennedy remembers it like it was yesterday. Walking up two flights of stairs from the locker rooms in the basement of Reynolds Coliseum, NC State’s team would gather underneath the bleachers of the student section just before running onto the court.  

That moment was filled with passion and energy from those clad in red and white, while spilled drinks usually made their way through the cracks down to where the team was waiting. It was an unusual setting, but one that made the Wolfpack men’s basketball team appreciate what it had going for them in the late 1980s, just a few years removed from the program’s second national championship. 

Although Kennedy transferred away from NC State after his freshman year in the 1986-87 campaign to UAB, he’s set to return to Raleigh as an opponent for the first time in 37 years. The veteran coach is set to bring his new-look UAB roster to the Lenovo Center to face off with NC State on Friday night (9 p.m., ACC Network). 

Ironically, Kennedy can tie his experience of leaving the Wolfpack program to his own life as a mid-major college basketball coach these days. He thought looking for a new place to play was the best option for him, and now more than three decades later, he lost his entire roster from last season’s 24-13 team that made the NIT Quarterfinals due to the portal. 

“I was looking at things through the eyes of an 18 year old, and trust me, I’m paying penance for that yearly,” Kennedy said in a phone interview with TheWolfpacker.com earlier this week. “I was like every snotty-nose 18 year old, I thought I had all the answers and came to realize, I didn’t have any. Trust me, I’m paying all that back tenfold in my voyage as a coach. I deal with it all the time.”

While Kennedy’s Wolfpack career was just one season, where he averaged 2.6 points and 0.8 rebounds in 6.6 minutes across 25 appearances under Jim Valvano, he still holds a special appreciation for the national-championship winning coach. 

The 57-year-old believes Valvano was ahead of his time in coaching with his ability to “transform the profession” through working as the athletic director, while also doing endorsements for various companies in addition to his day-to-day coaching duties. 

Even though Kennedy has learned from prominent coaches in Gene Bartow and Bob Huggins, Valvano’s imprint can still be found within his coaching style. UAB likes to play multiple defenses within a game, running man about 65 percent of the time while incorporating different zone schemes for the other 35 percent — a direct result of Valvano’s approach to the game.

“I remember him being an innovator,” Kennedy said. “Back in those days, we mixed a lot of defenses. I do that as well. He would play three or four different defenses in a half, which was really unusual back in those days.”

Despite this being his first trip to the Lenovo Center, Kennedy said he still holds NC State in a special place within his heart. After all, he met his now-wife Kimber, a Raleigh native, during his freshman year with the Wolfpack.

“I’ve got great respect for [NC State],” Kennedy said. “We won the ACC Tournament Championship, and at the time, this was right before Duke became Duke. Duke was good, but they weren’t the Duke of Duke now. Carolina was the standard and NC State with Coach Valvano, did such a great job of just elevating the level of the program back to the gold ole David Thompson, Norm Sloan days.”

As Kennedy prepares to face off with his one-time program, it will mark this third-ever meeting with current Wolfpack coach Will Wade, who holds a 2-0 record in those contests. They faced off as SEC opponents during the 2017-18 campaign as Wade’s LSU team beat Kennedy’s Ole Miss squad 82-62, while they met again two seasons ago in a 81-60 McNeese win over UAB. 

Kennedy appreciated Wade being “gracious” enough to schedule his Blazers’ squad this season. In a way, he’s returning the favor of a buy game that he received at McNeese as UAB will receive $90,000 for playing against NC State. 

UAB, which lost eight players to the portal after last season including star forward Yaxel Lendeborg (the No. 1 available player this offseason), is working to figure out its identity for the 2025-26 campaign. It beat Mississippi Valley State 106-55 in the opener, but this will be a step up in competition for the Blazers. 

Kennedy, in all honesty, is looking to see if his roster can rise to the challenge against Wade’s fringe-top-25 squad.

“It’s going to be a tremendous challenge,” Kennedy said. “I know that Wolfpack Nation is on fire for Will Wade, as they should be. I know they’re super excited. … I’m excited to see the building, I heard it’s fantastic. I just want to see if our guys can rise to the occasion under the bright lights playing a team as talented as NC State.”