The answer to this question is yes and no. Don't forget Monty who I believe was also instrumental in on the floor teaching at the beginning of Kermit's run.
Having competent assistants is critical to success. But I have also written previously about what led to Kermit's success. And since I've written about it before I'm not going to detail it all again. But in summary, Kermit changed his style of coaching. His style, which in his early career and first 8 to 10 years at MT, were Bob Knight-esque. But that style did not fit the 21st Century kids. Millennial's do not respond to that type coaching. Remember, these are all kids that grew up getting trophies for showing up. The kids who came of age during the early 2000s came with a sense of entitlement and that was true even with lower economic status student-athletes to a degree. So, Kermit had to change. And he did. He also changed his recruiting philosophy. He figured out how to find kids that could play but that were also willing to play his style outside a P5. And then he added complementary pieces through transfers.The biggest thing though was that he changed his coaching and leadership style for which he deserves a lot of credit, because we always had good athletes who could play. The problem in truly getting over the hump from 18-19 wins seasons was addressing the amount of roster turnover early in his career here. The roster seemingly was always in flux. Things changed when he evolved as a coach, was able to keep them on the roster, and create buy in with the philosophy.
