The Flashes will hear tonight whether they make the WNIT.
I spent much too long researching the tournament yesterday and figure they're likely to get in. Coach Todd Starkey also told me the same at the men's MAC finals Saturday.
First-round games would be Wednesday through Friday at campus sites. All WNIT games through the finals are played on teams' home floors.
Could Kent State host a game? Maybe, if it's willing to pay. It cost Toledo about $11,000 for a first-round game about five years ago (Rockets actually won the tournament that year.) That $11,000 is gross expenses. The Toledo Blade figured the school lost about $2,000 on its first-round game.
Toledo kept buying games that season and actually made money as the tournament went along and its crowds grew. But Toledo can draw more than 4,000 for a game. Biggest crowd at Kent State this season was about 1,000; average was about 550.
The WNIT schedules early games based on geography and a sort-of seeding system that ranks teams in high, low and middle tiers. But a big emphasis is to keep travel costs down.
I figured Kent State was toward the bottom of the middle tier.
My best guess on opponents would be Penn State, Virginia Tech and Drexel. I list another half dozen possibilities on the blog at
http://wbbflashes.com.
Check back tonight.
Looks like Kent made it. No word on where or when yet.
Congratulations. They desire to keep playing. Go Kent!!!!
They're in. Pairings will be announced by midnight.
First game is likely to be within driving distance of Kent Wednesday, Thursday or Friday.
Story going up at
http://wbbflashes.com.
The Flashes will play at Michigan Thursday, time to be determined.
It's about as tough a draw as Kent State could have received. Michigan was 22-9 and finished third in the Big Ten. The Wolverines likely lost an NCAA bid by losing in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament and dropping three of their last four-regular season games. All the losses were to pretty good teams.
Michigan's RPI is 46, about sixth highest in the WNIT field. Kent's is 96. The Flashes were crushed by Iowa and Minnesota, two teams Michigan beat at home, in a road trip just before Christmas. Kent State is a better team than it was then, but still...
Story is on the blog at
http://wbbflashes.com.
Michigan finished third in the Big 10 only behind Maryland and Ohio St. Those two teams are good enough to earn the honor of being crushed by Connecticut sometime in the tournament. We must have been in the lower third to draw Michigan. It will be a good measurement on how much we have improved since December.
I've posted a pre-WNIT interview with underclass guards Alexa Golden, Megan Carter and Naddiyah Cross on the blog at
http://wbbflashes.com. Full preview of the game, including interview with coach Todd Starkey, will go up later Wednesday.
The players talk about how the team has changed since it last played (and was badly beaten by) Big Ten teams in December, their relationship with the team's seniors and coaches, and the excitement of playing in the postseason. I interviewed them to talk to someone new; Lurken, Korinek and Stephens have been interviewed a million times.
There is also information on tickets ($7) and directions to the game. It's an easy three-hour drive. There's also a free fan bus (including tickets). Info for that is on the blog; you have to sign up by 2 p.m. Wednesday.
The game will be on radio; I can't figure out if it's on TV or being streamed. I'm started to doubt it but am checking everywhere I can.
The game will be streamed on BTN Plus. It will cost $9.95. (Game tickets are $7, but the BTN is for a monthly subscription to Michigan events.)
Details are on the blog at
http://wbbflashes.com.
Full preview of the game will up up this afternoon.
Final, detailed preview of the Kent State-Michigan WNIT game is up on the blog at
http://wbbflashes.com.
It's got a look at Tuesday's practice, quotes from Kent State coach Todd Starkey and Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico, a comparison of the teams' lineups and statistics and an honest appraisal of Kent's changes (a very long shot).
Plus details of how to get to the game, watch it on TV, hear it on the radio or follow it online.
Michigan 67, Kent St 60. We fell about 20 points down and then tried to make a comeback but just didn't have enough time to pull it off. Nothing to be embarrassed about as we played the number 3 team in the Big 10 fairly well. Lurken didn't make her 23 point average but she helped foul out one Michigan player and had two on the bench at times with 4. The team showed how much they improved since getting blown out by Minnesota and Iowa in December. Our next problem is how we replace Lurken and Stephens next year.
The first half felt just like the games against Iowa and Minnesota before Christmas, when they were blown out by about 30. KSU shot 18 percent, Michigan 46. Kent had 11 turnovers and the score was 43-22.
The second half was astonishing. Kent State just dominated the third-place team in the Big Ten, a team that probably should have made the NCAA tournament.
They outscored Michigan 38-24. They outrebounded them 22-15 (46-34 for the game). They outscored them 20-10 on second-chance points. They had just four turnovers; Michigan had eight.
Star of the game, perhaps, was 6-4 sophomore Merissa Barber-Smith. She had a career-high eight points and a career-high 13 rebounds, in just 19 minutes. Most of that was against Michigan's 6-5 all-Big Ten center.
Lurken had 19. Her sixth free throw in the first half broke the NCAA record for most free throws made in a season (280).
McKenna Stephens had 11, including seven when Kent State rallied in the third quarter. (Lurken didn't score a point in that rally.) Jordan Korinek had 10.
Kent State finishes the season 19-13. A year ago the Flashes were 6-23.
Michigan is 23-9. The Wolverines will play Wright State in the second round of the WNIT. Wright State, a team KSU beat by 10 points on the road in December, upset MAC regular-season champion Central Michigan 66-64 Thursday.
As always, full story is on the blog at
http://wbbFlashes.com. It includes lots of quotes from Starkey and Lurken.