App State Basketball: Analyzing Dustin Kerns and a mid-major program on the rise

Dustin Kerns has taken an App State Basketball team that had a streak of eight consecutive losing seasons to back-to-back winning seasons and an NCAA Tournament appearance in just his first two years in Boone.

The Mountaineers return eight of their top 10 rotation players from last season, which saw the team go on a run in March to win the Sun Belt Tournament, qualifying for their first NCAA Tournament in 21 years.

Overall, App State returns over ninety percent of its minutes from last season. Of the 358 teams in Division I men’s college basketball, only 33 return more than ninety percent of their minutes, putting App State in the top 9.2% in terms of retained experience. However, the staff insists that while experience and roster continuity are invaluable, the focus must be on this season, not the past.

App State has managed to keep both Justin Forrest (13.2 ppg, .446 eFG) and Michael Almonacy (12.7 ppg, .515 eFG) in Boone for one final season. Forrest and Almonacy ranked first and third in scoring on an App State team that won the Sun Belt Tournament last season. Forrest made All-Sun Belt Second Team, with Sun Belt Tournament MVP Michael Almonacy featured on the league’s Third Team. Joining Almonacy on the Third Team was App State’s second-leading scorer, Adrian Delph, a junior who will also be back in Boone this fall.

“We may have to take a different route, but we have to be committed to the same process when we arrived here that changed the course of the program,” said Kerns on the team’s mindset heading into 2021-22 during an interview I conducted.

In an era of college basketball often headlined by one-and-done freshmen and the transfer portal, the importance of experience and continuity in building a winning program should not be overlooked when it comes to building a winning culture.

"“To love winning is easy, but to love the preparation and the work required while maintaining the same edge, toughness, and killer instinct is what it really takes,”"

When Kerns and his staff were hired by App State in 2019, the program was coming off of its eighth straight losing season. Kerns immediately reversed course, going 18-15, the program’s first season finishing multiple games above .500 since 2010. In his second season—last season—Kerns and his staff took the Mountaineers to their first NCAA Tournament in 21 years.

"“Even though we bring back a majority of last year’s team, this is a new team. The Sun Belt is going to have really good teams and really good players again this year. Everything that it takes to win – the extra reps, preparation, and execution – has to be replicated. We are not entitled to anything based on last year’s success,” said Director of Basketball Operations Bradley Fey."

Of nearly equal importance has been Kerns’ ability to retain the team’s staff, allowing them to make such an immediate impact at App State.

"“This will be year 5 for Dustin, Frank, and Pat, and year four for the entire staff going back to when we were at Presbyterian. Having great staff chemistry helps tremendously,”"

Kerns also stressed a desire for his assistant coaches to eventually get the chance to lead their own programs, a task he believes each would excel at given their ability, passion, and knowledge. For the time being, each is fully committed to App State’s success, but Kerns believes that Young, Szorc, and Moynihan are all worthy of that next step up.

While the players and coaches are focused on the future and earning continued success, having such a large returning core of experienced players does have practical implications.

“It makes it easier to implement things because we are more experienced this year,” said Assistant Coach Frank Young.

Stagnation is a very real potential hurdle the team will have to jump, made significantly easier through roster and staff continuity, as App State looks to repeat as Sun Belt champions and return to the NCAA Tournament this season.