Kennesaw State

COACH AND PROGRAM

It's hard to blame Kennesaw State coach Tony Ingle for his desire to focus squarely on what lies ahead. The future is, after all, the wellspring of all opportunity.

And now that the Owls have completed a four-year transition into Division I basketball, the opportunities have never been more limitless.

"We're now telling everybody that we have a chance to go to our conference tournament and it leads to an NCAA bid," Ingle said. "We actually get to go to our conference tournament nowwe think we're a pig in slop."

Kennesaw State Owls
Last Season 7-22 (.241)
Conference Record 3-17 (11th)
Starters Lost/Returning 0/5
Coach Tony Ingle (Huntingdon '76)
Record At School 157-121 (9 years)
Career Record 227-191 (13 years)
RPI Last 5 years N/A-250-276-323-336

Besides all that, last season was certainly nothing to look back on and remember fondly. Kennesaw State had little margin for error entering the year, but that margin shrunk even further after just seven games.

The Owls jumped out to a 5-2 record before senior leader J.D. Pollock went down with a season-ending injury. With Pollock out of the picture, Kennesaw State only won two games the rest of the way.

"When J.D. went out, buddy, that just was devastating," Ingle said. "What I tell people is that there are five wheels on a car. You have four on the ground and you have one called a steering wheel. J.D. was the steering wheel. J.D. was the leader. J.D. was the one that kept us on track and would get us moving in the right direction."

Replacing Pollock's scoring production and leadership were certainly the primary concerns for the Owls. Before his injury, Pollock scored a career-high 24 points in a 54-50 win over Colgate. But having one less body in the backcourt rotation also took its toll as the season wore on.

"I've coached a long time," Ingle said. "When you have depth, that is very encouraging. They work harder in practice, they play harder in games.

"But it's stressful when you don't have a lot of depth. You get one in foul trouble and you get one sick, lame or lazy, and buddy, I thought I was going to have to put those tennis shoes on."

PLAYERS

Even though the Owls faced their share of adversity last season, there are some positives they can take with them as they move forward. They enter this season with five returning players who were in the starting lineup for the bulk of the 2008-09 campaign.

But the biggest positive for his program last season was the emergence of Kurtis Woods (10.5 ppg, 3.0 rpg). Woods, a 6-3 sophomore guard, was Kennesaw State's second-leading scorer and landed Atlantic Sun All-Freshman honors.

"That was good for our program and something positive to put a spin on and tell the recruits," Ingle said. "We're in a situation where we're looking for anything that we can. Kurtis Woods is a competitor, he's a good shooter and he's going to have a great career here. We're looking for more out of him on both ends of the floor."

Kelvin McConnell (11.9 ppg, 2.4 apg) and Spencer Dixon (7.4 ppg, 3.4 apg) return to the Owls' backcourt with plenty of starting experience under their belts.

Blue Ribbon Previews

Atlantic Sun Take an Inside look at the Atlantic Sun with Blue Ribbon's 2009-10 team reports: Insider
Belmont
Campbell
East Tennessee State
Jacksonville
Kennesaw State
Lipscomb
Mercer Insider Free
North Florida
Stetson

McConnell, a 6-0 junior, led the Owls in scoring last season and is on pace to finish his career with 1,000 points. That's quite an accomplishment for a guy that came to Kennesaw State as a walk-on before earning a scholarship just before last season.

McConnell commands respect from everyone on the roster and is developing into a team leader.

"I don't know anybody who gets more out of what they've got," Ingle said. "He plays solid defense and he stretches the defense because of his outside shooting ability [.379, 66-of-174 3PT]. He definitely earned his stripes, and my heart goes out to those kind of guys who come here with a dream and have some success."

Dixon, a 6-0 sophomore point guard, led the team with 46 steals and 78 assists and started 19 games a year ago. He will have to improve on his 29 percent shooting, however, as he moves forward.

"He's quick and I liked him coming off the bench," Ingle said. "He was my No. 1 guard off the bench last year, and then when J.D. goes down, we had to rotate some things. But Spencer got a lot of playing time, and this year we want to build on that."

Cortez Irby will be a newcomer in the backcourt after transferring from Shelton State (Ala.) Community College. Ingle describes the 6-4 guard as a good shooter. In the semifinals of the Alabama Community College Tournament last year, Irby tossed in six three-pointers en route to a season-high 24 points. For the season he averaged 8.3 points and shot .341 (57-of-167) from three-point range.

In the frontcourt, Jon-Michael Nickerson (10.0 ppg, 5.6 rpg) was supposed to be a cornerstone inside for the Owls but a foot injury over the summer has cast his playing future in doubt.

If the 6-6 senior forward has to have surgery, he will miss the entire season. If the foot can heal, however, Nickerson might be back during the second half of the campaign.

Nickerson's absence, regardless of its length, will put more pressure on Jonathan Whipple (4.9 ppg, 3.3 rpg) and Jay Mitchell (2.0 ppg, 2.1 rpg).

Whipple, a 6-7 senior, hustled his way to a team-high 53 offensive boards last season and started 23 games. Mitchell, a 6-9 senior, missed the first half of last season with an ankle injury. He appeared in 14 games down the stretch but was never completely healthy.

Meanwhile, Artie Marine (1.8 ppg, 1.3 rpg) and Zadrian Gibson (4.0 ppg, 4.1 rpg) saw plenty of action as reserves last season. Marine, a 6-6 sophomore forward, hit back-to-back three-pointers in crunch time to lead the Owls to a win over North Florida. Gibson, a 6-6 junior forward, made quite an impact defensively. The walk-on led the Owls with 33 blocked shots.

Help is on the way on the interior as Matt Heramb, LaDaris Green and Markeith Cummings step in after red-shirting last season.

Heramb, a 6-9 junior, spent two seasons at Auburn before transferring to Kennesaw State and sitting out last season. Heramb's brother Steve played for Ingle, who is excited about Matt's versatility.

"He's a four-five guy because of size, but skill-wise he could play the two or the three," Ingle said.

Heramb didn't get much PT at Auburn, but like Ingle says, he showed signs of being an inside-outside threat. In 27 games as a sophomore, he averaged 9.9 minutes, 3.0 points and 1.4 rebounds. More impressive were his shooting percentages: .520 from the field (30-of-58), .390 from three-point range (7-of-18) and 93 percent from the free-throw line (14-of-15).

Heramb scored a career-high 17 points against Alabama State, making 6-of-7 shots from the field and 3-of-4 from behind the arc. He totaled 11 points and six rebounds against Presbyterian and 10 points, four boards and three assists against Towson, so Heramb has proven he can play well against A-Sun-level competition.

Green, a 6-9 forward, and Cummings, a 6-7 forward, were teammates at Beach High School in Savannah, Ga., before moving on to team up at Genesis One Prep in Mississippi.

Green averaged 12.0 points, 11.0 rebounds and 3.3 blocks his senior year at Beach and came up with a triple-double (10 points, 14 boards, 12 blocks). He was chosen to the Georgia Sports Writers Association Class AAAAA first-team all-state team in his senior year and also played in the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association All-Star game.

Cummings averaged 14.3 points and 5.3 rebounds as a senior and also played in the GACA All-Star game.

"They are pretty good ballplayers," Ingle said. "But they're young. That's what we've got with those two guys."

BLUE RIBBON ANALYSIS

BACKCOURT: C+
BENCH/DEPTH: C
FRONTCOURT: C+
INTANGIBLES: B-

It's hard to believe that any coach in the country is more eager to start the new season than Ingle. A shot at playing in the A-Sun Tournament has him fired up, while memories of last year leave him ready to move forward.

"That was just frustrating," Ingle said. "I'm sitting here thinking back and I'd rather just think about the future."

But Ingle is quick to admit the future for the Owls will only be as good as they make it. There is an opportunity for improvement, but Ingle said his players will need to get better in order to capitalize on the situation.

"The situation is that after winning seven games, we've got guys coming back," he said. "How much of a positive is that? Obviously we can't keep doing what we're doing, we've got to make some changes."

While wins were few and far between, Ingle was encouraged by the way his players kept on fighting last season. Even when things were at their bleakest, Ingle didn't allow them to get down on themselves.

"It's hard lessons that these guys have learned," Ingle said. "But they learned them. We fought through those things."

The goal now is to bring that same fight into a new season and find a way to turn the tide.

"We feel like we're at the threshold right now," Ingle said. "We're just starting this program. Better days are ahead."

Good read, thanks.

(10-29-2009 09:25 PM)Corn_3024 Wrote:  Good read, thanks.

Dam Kbasketball! Thanks for the info. However, I must say that you are a TRUE basketball fan. Blue Ribbon basketball magazine is one hell of an expensive publication that can only be ordered and is not usually on the shelves, so my hat is off to you my dude!!!!!! :ncaabbs::ncaabbs::ncaabbs:

So roughly adding up those grades we are approximately being graded as "C" going into this season. I know you can't base things off potential, and most of the preseason stuff is off of last year's performance, but a "C"? What do you all think?

GFWO - you give me too much credit. Blue Ribbon and ESPN Insider have an agreement, and ESPN publishes all of their previews. Therefore all I have is an ESPN Insider subscription and nothing more :) I do love Blue Ribbon though, and have read their publications before. They do an excellent job in my opinion.

Escalade - I think C's are about right. You can't expect anything more considering all of the question marks surrounding our team. We all believe in the players that we have, but there is no reason for anyone outside of the Kennesaw family to put any faith in our players. I will say this though....recruiting analysts know that level of talent that we are adding this year...Heramb, Markeith, and Ladaris are all mid major plus prospects. If we pulled in all three of those players straight out of high school in normal circumstances, people would be wondering what we were putting in the water during the recruiting trips. I really think this year is the start of something special at Kennesaw.

So whats the deal on JMac? Article talked about surgery?

Yeah, that article didn't sound positive...it sounds like JMac played in the Black and Gold game though, so perhaps he is doing better than expected? I really don't know.

(10-29-2009 10:35 PM)KennesawBasketball Wrote:  Yeah, that article didn't sound positive...it sounds like JMac played in the Black and Gold game though, so perhaps he is doing better than expected? I really don't know.

Yea that injury is news to me. He played in the black and gold game, and not just for a couple minutes, but for the majority of the game. he didnt look any different from last year.

Great article btw.

I am pretty sure J-Mac had a bunch of micro-fractures in some bones in his foot. However, He did wear a boot for parts of the summer. I have a feeling he is fine now. I believe a "c" is to be expected from the outsiders but I don't put much stock into a lot of those previews. I have yet to read one article that truly highlights our new players (Cummings, Green, and Heramb) and we all know they are major upgrades in comparison to our forwards last year.