@ThaKid, I suppose: I disagree. I think Kennedy and Horne have both improved and some of that credit has to be given to Norm. I was honestly surprised to see Paris hit the rim every time on his distance shots. You remember his freshman year? He started by hitting some shots, but also missing by nearly a foot on others. The rest of the year he seemed to focus on defense and shot a little less as a percentage of his time on the floor. Fast forward to his sophomore year. His shooting percentages from distance went down but Horne's overall percentages go up; he turns the ball over less; he understands his role when mase goes down and looks a lot better doing it. Horne was here much of last summer; some of the credit has to go to the staff.
Kennedy, meanwhile, also reduced his turnovers, compensated when he couldn't get shots to fall inside the arc, seemed to get a little better at his defensive role (still needs some work), and at the end of the year concentrated at the FT line and was the team's best charity stripe shooter. Kennedy took a lot more shots, and his offensive contributions/ offensive efficiency were better, especially when you compare conference play from a year ago to this past year.
Look, unless you're with the players you can't say whether it was their own work or off-site training, or consultations/ workout plans with the coach and the staff that made them better. You have to assume that since the players improve while playing for coach, coach has something to do with it.
I'm not making coach out to be some guru at anything, a great communicator, or any of that; I think the progress that centers haven't made under Norm Roberts is troubling, I think he doesn't know how to get Justin more involved, I think the scoring part of Malik Boothe's game (along with his defense) needs some work.