COLLEGE STATION – The small crowds in Reed Arena this season amplified Texas A&M's longtime standing as a football school.

Large crowds still showed up to Kyle Field during the Aggies' down years, all with the notion better times were right around the corner, whether they were or weren't. Hope sprang and still springs eternal with Aggies football.

As A&M's current basketball season wore on, the crowds diminished down to a few thousand in 13,000-seat Reed, as fans quickly found better things to do with their time. Like read up on the offseason goings-on of the football team.

It's one more reason why A&M coach Billy Kennedy won't be back for a ninth season according to multiple people with knowledge of the situation – A&M fans' disinterest in his program has been hitting the athletic department in the pocketbook.

A&M's early target for a replacement is Texan and Virginia Tech coach Buzz Williams, a former A&M assistant under Billy Gillispie from 2004-06.

Meantime Kennedy's 11th-seeded Aggies will face 14th-seeded Vanderbilt on Wednesday night in the opening round of the SEC Tournament in Nashville, Tenn., and the winner will take on sixth-seeded Mississippi State on Thursday in the second round. Meaning Kennedy's A&M tenure likely will be done by late Thursday.

His success with the Aggies occurred in infrequent spurts – spurts not spectacular enough to make up for the rest of his down time in College Station. Kennedy failed to make the NCAA Tournament in his first four seasons, after inheriting a program that had played in six consecutive NCAA postseasons under coaches Billy Gillispie and Mark Turgeon.

Kennedy made the NCAA Tournament in 2016 and the Aggies, led by future NBA players Danuel House and Alex Caruso, advanced to the Sweet 16 after overcoming a 12-point deficit in the final minute against Northern Iowa.

Oklahoma, which made the Final Four in Houston that season, shellacked the Aggies in the Sweet 16. A&M again missed the NCAA Tournament in 2017 before rebounding with another Sweet 16 showing last season.

In what will be the highlight of Kennedy's tenure at A&M, the Aggies whipped then-reigning national champion North Carolina in Charlotte, N.C., before Michigan whipped A&M in the Sweet 16 in Los Angeles.

Kennedy's many highlights off the court are more impressive, and he's served as an inspiration to thousands fighting diseases. In the fall of 2011, just before his first season at A&M, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

Instead of quietly bowing out of the pressures of coaching college basketball, Kennedy instead has relied on his seemingly-impenetrable faith and focused on improving his diet and exercise, and along with the incredible support of his wife, Mary, has effectively combated the disease.

On a personal note, Kennedy always took the time to greet and visit with my kids when I'd haul them along to press conferences at Reed Arena following practices. He would consistently ask about the health of our youngest, Brady, who had heart surgery as a newborn and is now five, and always said he'd pray for the little fellow.

He's invited me into his home – quite an old-school interaction between coach and writer.

When reporters who cover other SEC programs visit Reed, invariably they ask, is Billy Kennedy always this way? Meaning kind and helpful and never demeaning to those trying to do their jobs. Reporters know appearances aren't always what they seem, but in Kennedy's case, they absolutely are.

Also invariably, Kennedy didn't win enough to keep fans' interest at a football school, and the disinterest was palpable during home games. Early in the Aggies' victory over Alabama on Feb. 19, for example, I clearly heard the Crimson Tide bench chatting it up in a lifeless arena.

It was almost surreal compared to what Reed Arena had become about a decade ago – a place in town to see and be seen – when the Aggies were regularly competing in the NCAA Tournament.

I don't know if Kennedy's exit will be presented as a reassignment, retirement, resignation or flat-out firing, but I know this: Thousands of people in and around Bryan-College Station are better off for having had Billy Kennedy in their lives.