October 15th is only a month away. Can't wait for the season to start. Is this year that we finally start to put together a consistently competitive team? I think it is. While we will still have down moments (as any team does), I think that this is the first team that we have since we have made the transition to Division I (and subsequently were forced to dismantle our team) that has the depth to compete in Division I basketball. We will need to avoid injuries as all teams do, but I have great hope for this team. I am not such a fool for Kennesaw that I predict us to win the league, but I think we have a chance to compete with everyone.

We won't really know until the season begins. Here are some storylines that interest me in the upcoming season...what are yours?

1. Markeith Cummings and Ladaris Green: Will Ladaris be cleared academically, and will Markeith be cleared medically. I am anxious to see how hard these two have been working in their year off.

2. Jay Mitchell: From high major prospect to a questionable contributor off the bench. Will this year be a healthy year for the big fella. He has skills, but is he willing to get himself back into shape so that he can play effectively. He looked slow last year, which is reasonable considering the trauma that his ankle underwent, and the lack of conditioning that ensued. We need him to be a consistent presence.

3. Guard play: who will emerge from our young guards. Will Kelvim become more than just a shooter, will Woods continue to improve, can Dixon develop into a more of a distributor than a finisher?

4. JMac and Whipple: Can these two 4 scholarship players be the leaders that Coach Ingle needs them to be. They are the inaugural class in a sense for this school, and will go down in Kennesaw history as the first 4 year athletes in our Division I program, and the first seniors to captain a fully fledged Division I team. Will they lead through action in service, or simply lead with words.

I have others but don't want to ruin everything....post your questions and thoughts about the upcoming season.

I hear Jay is in great shape and "has his hops back." So this is great news. I am expecting our team to come out in league play and control the paint within the conference. From what I hear this is Matt's, Cumming's, and Green's team. I believe J-Mac is going to have a solid year if he is healthy. I have heard about some health issues with him. However, he looks to be O.K. I really look for the guard play to improve as they will have a talented group of forwards to dish to down low. I can see Wood's having another great year. However, look for his ppg average to drop as our forwards start to contribute down low. This team has great depth and I can see ingle playing 8-10 guys. I am looking forward to a great year! Maybe not worst to first but we will see big improvements.

Also, Athwrong came out with their preseason rankings. I can tell you right now our team is going to be WAY better this year.

Post: #1ASUN preseason from Athlon

Athlon Magazine ranks the ASUN.

Jacksonville
Mercer
Lipscomb
ETSU
Belmont
Campbell
Florida Gulf
Stetson
North Florida
USC Upstate
Kennesaw

That is a legitimate ranking though. I also feel we will be much better, but we are fans. When you go 3-17 in conference and don't sign any new recruits other than a juco combo guard, you aren't going to get much of a bump. We have to go and earn any respect we want this year. I hope we get ranked last in every publication.

(09-15-2009 08:20 PM)KennesawBasketball Wrote:  That is a legitimate ranking though. I also feel we will be much better, but we are fans. When you go 3-17 in conference and don't sign any new recruits other than a juco combo guard, you aren't going to get much of a bump. We have to go and earn any respect we want this year. I hope we get ranked last in every publication.

Thanks guys for getting this started!

We have a lot to be excited about this season … Notre Dame, St. Louis and Rick Majerus, Southern Illinois will not be a joke coming in here. But the true indicator will be the Georgia Tech game. In that game, we will see WHO truly is ready to play this season and who won’t be able to help us on a consistent basis. If you are TRULY a PLAYER, you can’t wait to compete against the best on the biggest stage of the season! Last season Jacksonville played Tech to a 2 point game. I realize that it wasn’t the same Tech team as this year, but my point is – they didn’t back down!!! Going to places like Maine and Western Michigan are going to tell a story too before conference play.

My hope is the new guys bring their own swagg with them. We have a few seniors that can only be on the floor for a few minutes at best before they begin to hurt the team with a lack of focus. Heramb has got to be great for us on a nightly basis and quite frankly, I am not sure he can do it. If he could, he would still be in the SEC. I hope I am wrong. I hope that Woods has added more to his game besides the ability to jump higher. In addition to that ability, I would like to see him block about 2 shots a game. All it would take is more effort on the defensive end. I would like to see Cummings pass the ball better. And speaking of passing, I am sure that leading scorer McConnell will take a different approach early this season and get his new teammates comfortable with the system until they hit the envitable “wall”. He is smart enough to know that it is not how you start but how you finish and will step up as needed in the end. I can see Dixon’s playing time being cut some this year but him being a more productive and consistent player as a result. Ingle will work the newer, bigger guards into the rotation early to see if they are ready for this level of basketball before conference play.

The Athlon’s book sucks I agree. Lindy’s is comparable but they are both decent reads. As for the standings, if we finish 6th going into the conference tourney, I’m happy.

Just my 2 cents .... thanks for reading!

I could care less how many shots Woods blocks to be honest :) What I would love to see out of him is continued maturity when running the point, better vision in the open court, become a knockdown shooter and not just a streaky shooter (this is the difference in good and great), and lastly if he works his tail off on his defensive fundamentals he could lead the ASun in steals. He has the instincts and athleticism, he just needs to do a better job of positioning himself on the court to be able to both jump in the passing lane to steal the ball and square up his man if the pass is made by him. Last year many times he was either hugged up to his man (a common freshman occurrence) or he was too far over in the lane which left his man an open jumpshot. He has to work on recognizing and anticipating where he should be on the court to be a threat to both his man and the passer. He could become a great defender if he has the desire to.

(09-15-2009 04:11 PM)KennesawBasketball Wrote:  October 15th is only a month away. Can't wait for the season to start.

Yes! I can't wait either. Great to see the increased chatter. Like you guys, I have been hearing snippets of information about our newcomers and returners. I simply cannot get enough of this stuff.

I'd love to see more people on the boards? Anyone still in school who can pull some more fans on the boards? That'd be fun.

The season, we'll just see where this shakes down. I'm anxious for postseason play just because it's taken so long to get there. Now there's a reason to fight at the end unlike in seasons past. Get the game running as best possible before going to the ASun championship. Winner goes to the NCAAs... if that doesn't motivate you, I don't know what will.

Just re-upped my 100 Club membership today -- can't wait for the season to begin and hopefully we'll be able to see Cummings and Green on the court.

(09-18-2009 08:56 AM)Nick M Wrote:  I'd love to see more people on the boards? Anyone still in school who can pull some more fans on the boards? That'd be fun.

The season, we'll just see where this shakes down. I'm anxious for postseason play just because it's taken so long to get there. Now there's a reason to fight at the end unlike in seasons past. Get the game running as best possible before going to the ASun championship. Winner goes to the NCAAs... if that doesn't motivate you, I don't know what will.

i wish i could pull some more fans in, but all my friends really arent KSU supporters like us. The kind of ppl that wear uga stuff and cheer for uga like they go there. I had a couple friends at KSU who actually cheered for UGA when we played them in basketball.

Sounds like you need to get some new friends 84 :) For serious though, that sort of stuff is gradually fading out. That is what you get when you are a school that has grown so quickly that it doesn't quite have its own identity yet. The identity is starting to form though, and we are gaining regional recognition. I am starting to run into people all the time now that are are Kennesaw graduates, and I live outside of Georgia. If we continue to graduate 5,000 students a year or whatever it makes out to be, our regional and national image will continue to improve. As that improves, the pride that individual students take in our athletic program will improve. It kind of sucks right now that there are some idiots that still don't appreciate Kennesaw, but that is the price you pay for being a young school in a market that has been geared towards Georgia and Georgia Tech for the past 100 years. It will take some time to overcome it.

This is a story that doesn't directly relate, but I will tie into the thread topic. Tonight, if anyone didn't know, was the first game of the season for the KSU club ice hockey team that plays at the town center ice forum. I was there to show my support and what I saw made me think about two things specifically. First of all I must describe to you the atmosphere, and amount of people, that were at the game. The ice forum, if you've ever been there you'll know, has some bleachers you can sit in and then some areas to stand around the rest of the boards. I am not exaggerating when I say that there were 5 to 6 rows deep of people around the rink. I have no idea on the exact attendance, but it filled both the ice forum parking lot and the CCT parking lot directly next to the building. With that many people there, being the first game, and the fact that it was against UGA's club team made it a very fun and enjoyable atmosphere. This was my first school-related athletic event of the young semester so that alone got me pumped up for KSU athletics as a whole, especially basketball. That was observation #1. Observation #2 is me wondering. Wondering if we could see that kind of enthusiasm and excitement for KSU men's basketball, because I mean, let's face it, its the rudder that steers our ship here. What if we saw the entire east deck, all 5 floors full with cars at the basketball game? The unique thing about those hockey games is that there is like a following. I go to the games and always see the same people rain or shine, big crowd or small. I feel that's what this basketball program needs, and hopefully is slowly developing. People who are like us, who are at every game they can make (or in KB's case, watch on ASUN.tv) rain or shine, good season or bad who hangs by every thread of a jump shot and who goes mad banging on that padding along the sideline shouting "DEFENSE!" Do you think it is coming? I surely hope so, because now, more than any other time in our storied history, is the time to get excited about KSU basketball.

As far as fan support goes, the amount of students wearing Kennesaw hats and shirts on campus is night and day compared to even a few years ago. The addition of the new dinning hall and the recreation park will really help the overall atmosphere on campus which will have a big impact on how students identify with the university. If you havent seen the new dinning hall it is remarkable. I was very impressed.

I believe it is clear that the hockey team continues to draw a crowd due to the success they have enjoyed. Our basketball program will see those types of crowds when they start to win games. I believe we will see our program taking big steps within the next few years. Ingle seems to have the team in the best position it has been in since the transition to D-1 started. This is perfect timing.

(09-21-2009 06:18 AM)kr983 Wrote:  As far as fan support goes, the amount of students wearing Kennesaw hats and shirts on campus is night and day compared to even a few years ago. The addition of the new dinning hall and the recreation park will really help the overall atmosphere on campus which will have a big impact on how students identify with the university. If you havent seen the new dinning hall it is remarkable. I was very impressed.

I believe it is clear that the hockey team continues to draw a crowd due to the success they have enjoyed. Our basketball program will see those types of crowds when they start to win games. I believe we will see our program taking big steps within the next few years. Ingle seems to have the team in the best position it has been in since the transition to D-1 started. This is perfect timing.

I also think it helps that the hockey team..even though club plays schools like UGA, Kentucky, Clemson, Tech, etc.

Obviously the big question going into this year is how the "new guys" will impact the team.

Matt Heramb- Big guy with a good shot but consider "soft" by SEC standards. This isn't the SEC.. im excited to see what he can bring

Ladaris Green- The most talked about recruit since I've joined the boards. I've always quesitoned his size but would like to see what he can bring to the table. Especially defensively with those long arms and shot-blocking abilities.

Jay Mitchell- Will he be healthy..?

Markeith Cummings- If we want to put butts in seats we need to win AND have a marketable player.. If he jumps like I've heard.. he could be that guy.


I hate to put the season on a handful of guys that haven't really played for us before.. but if they can't make an impact we won't take many strides forward this season. Having said that, im sure they'll make an impact. How big of an impact is the quesiton.

(09-22-2009 10:02 PM)Corn_3024 Wrote:  Obviously the big question going into this year is how the "new guys" will impact the team.

Matt Heramb- Big guy with a good shot but consider "soft" by SEC standards. This isn't the SEC.. im excited to see what he can bring

Ladaris Green- The most talked about recruit since I've joined the boards. I've always quesitoned his size but would like to see what he can bring to the table. Especially defensively with those long arms and shot-blocking abilities.

Jay Mitchell- Will he be healthy..?

Markeith Cummings- If we want to put butts in seats we need to win AND have a marketable player.. If he jumps like I've heard.. he could be that guy.



I hate to put the season on a handful of guys that haven't really played for us before.. but if they can't make an impact we won't take many strides forward this season. Having said that, im sure they'll make an impact. How big of an impact is the quesiton.

Cummings jumps higher then Wooten. As for Green, he's bulked up a good deal since highschool.