The unofficial online home for fans of the Kent State University Golden Flashes. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

I have counted four times that the Flashes have hit the floor so far with 6 min left in the first half. Looks like we have some defensive intensity today

5:05 left in half, Flashes up 17. This is our type of basketball we are playing!!

Those three pointers before the half kill me. Just like in the Toledo game. No reason for it when we know the NIU guys make a living off the three ball and to just leave them wide open on the perimiter like that. Nevertheless we are in better shape than Toledo. Now, we need to come out in the 2nd half and put this thing away.

42-32 Half

I couldn't make the game today but I'm watching on FSN. I'm not going to whine about a ten pt. lead but our interior defense is very inconsistent and we have way to many unforced turnovers.

Very happy to see Nate being very active and getting quite a few nice looks. Bring it Wednesday big guy !!!

Nice so far. Wish we had a bit more of the killer instinct to put the Huskies away.

Good inside presence.

Welcome back, Nate.

Nice win! Showed some defensive intensity. Weathered the comeback attempt that took the lead down to 7-8 pts.

Nate had a nice game. Good to see him looking relatively fit.

Now on to Wed! Zuck the Fips! Go Flashes!

Solid win, sorry it wasn't a flashy blowout, but the stats looked good particularly the rebounds (+13) and FG shooting (50%). I was glad to see them respond to the NIU 2nd half charges and the 3 pt defense improved in the second half. NIU shot 33% for the game. Not bad D against the MACs #1 rated 3 pt shooting team. All-in-all a good game, Any wins we get from here forward are going to have to be scrappy efforts and probably won't be too pretty. But right now I am happy, the game is on my TIVO box replacing that Toledo disappointment and the Flashes still control their destiny. 9-0 at home. Gotta get it done there.

Go Flashes!

Nate had 14 points and 5 boards in 12 minutes. By far his best game of the season.

This makes two strong games in a row for the big guy. Hope he's gunning for three Wednesday night. Our inside game is soooo much better with him.

Nate was big in this game....no pun intended and nice game by youngblood, I still want to see him scoring more consistently and finishing when he gets to the hole.

Armon Gates nuf said.. he is quietly turning into another clutch guy in our offense, I think if he stays healthy he will be a very solid senior.

The fate of our season lies in the knee of Nate Gerwig. Miami has been solid all year, Akron and OU having suprising seasons. Western solid team, Buffalo and Toledo, very scary, BUT....with a healthy Nate down the road and in cleveland, I see us as the toughest draw because the balance he brings our offense makes us so much better and keeps us from hanging on the 3 ball all the time. He is huge on defense as well. Please stay healthy Nate, we need you.
I think one of the best 4 consecutive offensive possesionsthis year was in todays game, when they came down ran the offense, got nate open on the block and gave him the ball... he wnt to the foul line all 4 times, that 4 possesions=4 fouls and we were shooting free throws at the 10 min mark... that is huge, especially when you play teams like Miami that dont let you get into a rythym offensively with their D.

The team and coach looked a little more confident today(as they always do at home) and now we need to roll into Crackron with that swagger and expect to win. its a very big game!!!!

GO FLASHES!

Exactly what I thought was missing last week, getting the ball inside to Warzynski and Gerwig and letting them finish.

Two things I didn't like:

* When Kent starts rolling and got up by 17 or so, they thought they could do anything, which resulted in a string of bad possessions, including a bunch of TOs. They lose their discipline when they get hot and let NIU hang around.

* Second half was entirely about hanging on to a ten-point lead. Very little of what gave them the big lead in the first place (pushing the ball and getting the ball inside). They got away with against NIU, mainly because of strong defense and NIU's inability beyond the arc. They wouldn't get away with it against top opponents.

Gerwig reminded me why I liked him so much as a freshman. I hope he's healthy next year, so we can see how good he is.

I think Nate is the x-factor in our drive this year. The more minutes he can log at the energy level he brought to the last two games, the better we are. If he can start to play 20+ minutes a game in the last two weeks of the season and tourney, I think we become the best team in the MAC. We just don't know if the knee is up to that. If not, we are in a mighty big pack of contenders.

bopol
I agree with what you say completely. It is obvious that JC is finally coaching inside. It is too bad that it took half a season to do this. This team still does not pass in the paint very well. Their is no deception from the passers and the receivers do not seem to handle the reception as if they expected to be passed to. Remember the great dump offs of Huffman to Gates and gang.
Also, if I am not mistaken, I do not believe that this team is in great physical condition. There are several tell tale signs. First we show that we have the abiltiy to defend for short periods of time. We have too often defended the ball intensely for 25-30 seconds only to break down and give up a easy bucket in the paint, or the uncontested 3. Secondly, as you said, second half intensity is not there. I believe that we tend to make the turnovers after a strong series of plays up and down the court. Our players very seldom take themselves out of the game due to needing a 1 minute blow. This is different from our past teams. The key is to rotate before the turnover or bum play, not after. Our bench is deep enough to use the Waters system.

As much as I like Crenshaw, I would be kicking this kid in the butt about looking so lackadasical. This kid should be expending himself each second he is in the game. He needs an attitude adjustment. When the intensity does not come naturally from the players, (D. Shaw), then it must come from the coach.

Gflash - I agree on Crenshaw. His body language does not excude intensity. He just doesn't look like he's into it or happy. I'm also been ranting all year about playing more bodies so we're fresh when it matters. Meechie started the IPFW game and i don't think he has played since. These guys are DI scholarship players at a minimum they could contribute 2-3 minutes a half to rest some people and let the starters know its not a free ride.

I like how we match up against Akron and i think we will pull off the road victory

GFlash68 Wrote:bopol
I agree with what you say completely. It is obvious that JC is finally coaching inside. It is too bad that it took half a season to do this. This team still does not pass in the paint very well. Their is no deception from the passers and the receivers do not seem to handle the reception as if they expected to be passed to. Remember the great dump offs of Huffman to Gates and gang.
Also, if I am not mistaken, I do not believe that this team is in great physical condition. There are several tell tale signs. First we show that we have the abiltiy to defend for short periods of time. We have too often defended the ball intensely for 25-30 seconds only to break down and give up a easy bucket in the paint, or the uncontested 3. Secondly, as you said, second half intensity is not there. I believe that we tend to make the turnovers after a strong series of plays up and down the court. Our players very seldom take themselves out of the game due to needing a 1 minute blow. This is different from our past teams. The key is to rotate before the turnover or bum play, not after. Our bench is deep enough to use the Waters system.

As much as I like Crenshaw, I would be kicking this kid in the butt about looking so lackadasical. This kid should be expending himself each second he is in the game. He needs an attitude adjustment. When the intensity does not come naturally from the players, (D. Shaw), then it must come from the coach.

Passing: I think it's more a lack of vision. Cutley had a great pass to Gerwig in the NIU game when he perceived that he was about to eat the ball when Hughes rotated to him. Guys like Huffman could see that. Haynes and Crenshaw seem to lack that vision when they are busy trying to dribble past guys in the paint.

Conditioning: Weird that you bring this up, but did you notice Mike Scott sucking for air before his free throws in the first half? Gerwig looked spent, too, but he has an excuse. The lack of movement at the beginning of the second half is obvious.

Intensity: Too much intensity from the coach can wear a team down too, as the coach can become a joke. It's got to come from the players. The club has intensity: the play were Warzynski dived a ball on the ground between the NIU player is a prime example. But I don't think there is the leadership. I finally realized how to articulate the difference between Cutley and Shaw. Shaw was intense, but that intensity was always in the positive sense. I don't ever remember him moping after a mistake. This guy played like a sportsman. Cutley is intense, but it can be a negative intensity. When he and Edwin tipped the ball in the wrong basket, Cutley looked mad at Edwin. I don't think Edwin cares, but that sort of thing can drag a teammate down if he is more a fringe player.

I remember the Alabama game when John Edwards was shutting down Erwin Dudley to the shock of everyone. There was a play where Edwards blocked Dudley and Mike Perry came over and pounded Edwards' chest. It was a real positive re-enforcement of what he was doing. That seems lacking on this club.

BTW, I've seen a couple people remark on this. I want tapes of the NCAA tournament games (esp. Kent/IU (the one we won), Kent/Bama and Kent/Pitt). Where do you guys get them? Do the AD sell them?

bopol,
I really enjoy your post as we seem to see the same things. VISION is the word. I would not generally use that term to most people because they think it has to do with eyes. Vision in sports is a nebulous thing. It is seeing without eyes. It is the feeling of knowing where your teammate is. It is the feeling of knowing what your teammate can handle. The really nebulous part of vision is creating because you have seen the play many times in your imagination before you instinctively do it on the court. Unfortunately, some players never imagine. They play the game only as they are coached. Others imagine but have to rethink it before performing it.(then it is too late) Man, can you believe that little KSU had players who could do that at one time and we got to see it. Experience it. I get high just thinking about it.

Today, home with my daughter who has the flu, I got to sit down and watch the Pitt game from '02.
What a revelation. That team had so much talent, mixed so well together. They played smart. We will not see a MAC, let alone KSU, team like that maybe ever. It was a miracle blend of speed, intensity, leadership, tangibles and intangibles. We can't compare our team now to that team. They would roll through the MAC now maybe even more easily than they did 3 years ago. (I still think the BG team that year was better than any team the MAC has had since. Wrong year for them. Even Ball St. might have won the last two titles with the team they had. But I digress...)
Our team needs so much more maturity and focus. They showed some of that last year for two games in the MAC tourney, then were beaten by a much stronger team.
This year, fortunately, the MAC is wide open. Every team has shown some serious flaws, and there really isn't a team likely to make an NCAA run of more than a game. And we are still in the thick of things. I belive this team has the ability and the coaching to make a MAC run. Will they? It's open to question, for sure. We need Wed. night to start to put a KSU stamp on this season.

The thing that struck me the most watching that game today was that those guys really were one of the best teams in the country and knew it. It was no Cinderella run. They belonged there playing nose to nose with anyone. The could have played OkSt, Ala., and Pitt over and over and I believe the results would have been aobut the same. I know they were a better team most days than IU. We sure played them on the wrong day. I'm not sure if IU was even the 2nd or 3rd best team we played in that tournament.

Axe,
Great memories!!

"I know they were a better team most days than IU. We sure played them on the wrong day."

15-19 from behind the arc.... that was an understatement. :mad:

Well, it was still an unbelievably bizarre call with the score tied 20 seconds left when Gates double pumped then leaned left and banked one in and they called it a jump ball. I remember at the time thinking we were going to get beat by Knight on the last possession. The announcers couldn't even figure out the call and showed it over and over.
Strange call to make in that situation.
People think we were on this incredible roll, but we didn't even play our best ball in the tournament. Mitchell was in the middle of a horrible slump and he was one of our key offensive cogs that we did without for the whole tourney.
The Pitt game, though, was John Edwards coming out party. Tremendous effort especially considering how he played at other times that year.
I bet Ben Howland still has nightmares about Antonio Gates every time he hears his named mentioned--which is quite a lot lately.