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

(12-09-2010 09:31 PM)Flash FreaK 81 Wrote:  Anyone know why Gaines didn't play? I think he got in in garbage time and that was it.

Wondered the same thing.

(12-09-2010 09:29 PM)Flash FreaK 81 Wrote:  

(12-09-2010 08:13 PM)ilovegymnast Wrote:  So many turnovers its killing them.

Hate to be so negative but I don't care what the final score was, this game was a debacle. Fla gave a max effort for most of the game and the Flashes didn't have the athletes to match up. They played frantic / out of control most of the time on offense. I can't believe they only lost by 12 pts. Only KSU player to show up and do what he normally does was Guyton. Greene played well on O (except for the slow/wild passes out of the double team) but looked like a 6th grader playing the varsity in trying to defend Fla's bigs down low. Porrini and Rod played hard but were overmatched.

I think I have identified probably the worst KSU defender of all time; Darius Leonard. He must really be able to score 'cause he didn't get his scholarship from playing low post D. He simply didn't have a clue. C'mon Geno, Henniger has to be better than what Leonard's shown.

Justin Manns and Scooter Johnson were equally horrible. I'd hate to see Mann's with a baseball glove because he can't catch a ball 15 times as big on the hardwood. Johnson absolutley choked! In a span of 2 minutes he bricked 2 FT's, missed a dunk, got the rebound and missed the wide open put back. Totally intimidated.

I'm sick of beiing on Nat'l TV and getting embarrased! It's been 4 years since Kent played a decent game against a name big-time opponent (granted St Mary's was an excellent team but no one knew who they were.

The good news; KSU can only get better (I hope!)

Agree with a lot of what you say, but ..... I would give Scooter a break because of being out of BB for over a year. Remember, he could not even workout with the team while getting qualified to play. Defense is a temperament and I am afraid that I do not see anyone on the team with it.
I am surprised that Greene is no better on defense than he is. Manns really concerns me. He will not jump. Greene does not jump either, and no one really goes after the ball off the boards. After saying all this, I did see progress with the team. I see us being pretty good by mid season.

Agreed...........we really played poorly in the 2nd half. Needed to ball screen more and set up some looks for Guyton behind the arc. Greene needs to be more assertive down in the post, however as others have noted he's not an above the rim type of player. He has a nice jump hook and decent touch underneath but is better in transition off a dribble drive dish down low. We need to attack the rim more and dump it into Greene's hands on the move! I agree Henninger should get some more looks and I'm not sure why Gaines didn't get more involved into the rotation! Rod did not have a good game at all. That last possession before the half was abysmal, for as long as he's been in the program! Mann's got worked tonight! Macklin ate him up all night! Also coach needs to get these guys into the gym to work on free throw shooting!

I'm not overly discouraged because I believe this team has enough talent to win the MAC. I still see them as a Top 100 team that is learning to play together. Adjustments are needed for sure, but the talent is there.

That said, dang, Brian Frank broke his hand in practice taking a change? Wow. That's commitment to make everyone around you better. Hope he gets better soon.

I am baffled at what I am reading. Since when is a 13 point loss at a ranked team "embarrassing"? This is a program that has 2 National Championships in the last 5 years. They have a top 10 recruiting class almost annually. By no way, shape, or form am I into moral victories, but we are not as awful as you guys make it out to seem. I would be surprised if we don't beat USF at home and then end our non-conference schedule with several more wins.

Yes we are young. Yes we can play better defense. Two years ago, not one single person on this board would have thought Justin Greene would even play in a game like this. Now we expect him to dominate a team like Florida? A week ago, someone was saying Guyton couldn't shoot. He went 6-11 in games against UAB and Florida (by my math that is >50%). People need to remember Manns is in his 4th year of basketball - EVER. Holt is working his way through a slump. I could go on and on.

I assure you, this team is fine. They appear to be the best team in the MAC right now and still have 3+ months to get better. Come off the ledge folks. We are all good.

People relax, we lost to a top 25 team in there place by 13. Sure there were plenty of things that went wrong in the second half and it could have been a lot closer had we executed better. This team is far from a finished product and the biggest thing that can help them improve is time. I was dissapointed that Kent missed so many close layups, there's no excuse for that, and also that they gave up so many 2nd chances and easy points around the rim. Remember that was an SEC team, they should be able to take it to us inside, especially in early December. Hopefully the guys will realize that they need to play tougher around the rim and battle harder on the glass so if we end up seeing another team from that level in March we can put up more of a fight. Sure tonight was dissapointing but we definitely did not go on ESPN and look like a joke. I mean we lost by the same margin to Florida in Gainesville that Akron lost by to CSU at the JAR. Not a knock on CSU, I'm just trying to put it in perspective.

Well I had a fun time cheering for Kent while my parents were enjoying watching the game kindly not going nuts while the Gators were ahead. Not so bad and I can tell all my friends that when my families traditional team played my Alma mater I can proudly say I cheered for my team. Wish we won but that was not embarrassing. My parents were impressed we stuck around at all considering they were ranked. They also were impressed that we are #16 on most wins since 1998 in Div I basketball.

Comparitavely speaking from the last time we actually beat a Top 25 team... (That was St. Mary's.) This year's team is not as mature as that team was. We don't have Q or Fisher. We are much younger.
After losing to Duke and UNC -wow, that was years ago- but people wern't on here preaching doom and gloom.
Before everyone starts going on and on about wanting more than just the MAC Championship, step down a second. We need to get to the NCAA before we can start talking about geting past the first round. We need to get to the NCAA, then get a good seed in order to have a decent shot. Last night's game put us in a good position for a decent B-buster. And I'll go ahead and call it, we will win that game.

dannyb, I pretty much agree with your assessment.

Macklin is a big time post. We have no answer for that. He and Tyus(?--the guy who had about 20 dunks) were too big and effective. Could we have done better with them? Sure. But only to a degree. We do not have top 20 talent. Day in and day out, those guys would own us. Our bigs were having to alter their offensive moves because they were getting stuffed.

On the other side, not only is there no one we face in the MAC that dominant, Greene is the dominent one that other teams can't handle.

It was good our guys got a talent check. We could have played better and made a close game of it. I was not impressed with too many other UF players, but they played within their abilities probably better than they have all season and we made some very uncharacteristic unforced blunders. I think this game give us confidence. I don't see another team in the MAC that could have been within 20 of UF on a good night.

(12-10-2010 12:23 AM)dannyb73 Wrote:  I am baffled at what I am reading. Since when is a 13 point loss at a ranked team "embarrassing"? This is a program that has 2 National Championships in the last 5 years. They have a top 10 recruiting class almost annually. By no way, shape, or form am I into moral victories, but we are not as awful as you guys make it out to seem. I would be surprised if we don't beat USF at home and then end our non-conference schedule with several more wins.

Yes we are young. Yes we can play better defense. Two years ago, not one single person on this board would have thought Justin Greene would even play in a game like this. Now we expect him to dominate a team like Florida? A week ago, someone was saying Guyton couldn't shoot. He went 6-11 in games against UAB and Florida (by my math that is >50%). People need to remember Manns is in his 4th year of basketball - EVER. Holt is working his way through a slump. I could go on and on.

I assure you, this team is fine. They appear to be the best team in the MAC right now and still have 3+ months to get better. Come off the ledge folks. We are all good.

I'm not an any ledge. I'm just frustrated that KSU didn't play better. I didn't expect a win. The 13 pt margin was not the embarassment. It was watching a team that had no clue how to defend/rebound down low take a pounding (dunk fest) that was embarassing. As I said, I can't believe they only lost by 13. Should have been 25. We were all told how good a some of these new guys are and I just don't see it (at all).

(12-10-2010 07:06 AM)Flash FreaK 81 Wrote:  

(12-10-2010 12:23 AM)dannyb73 Wrote:  I am baffled at what I am reading. Since when is a 13 point loss at a ranked team "embarrassing"? This is a program that has 2 National Championships in the last 5 years. They have a top 10 recruiting class almost annually. By no way, shape, or form am I into moral victories, but we are not as awful as you guys make it out to seem. I would be surprised if we don't beat USF at home and then end our non-conference schedule with several more wins.

Yes we are young. Yes we can play better defense. Two years ago, not one single person on this board would have thought Justin Greene would even play in a game like this. Now we expect him to dominate a team like Florida? A week ago, someone was saying Guyton couldn't shoot. He went 6-11 in games against UAB and Florida (by my math that is >50%). People need to remember Manns is in his 4th year of basketball - EVER. Holt is working his way through a slump. I could go on and on.

I assure you, this team is fine. They appear to be the best team in the MAC right now and still have 3+ months to get better. Come off the ledge folks. We are all good.

I'm not an any ledge. I'm just frustrated that KSU didn't play better. I didn't expect a win. The 13 pt margin was not the embarassment. It was watching a team that had no clue how to defend/rebound down low take a pounding (dunk fest) that was embarassing. As I said, I can't believe they only lost by 13. Should have been 25. We were all told how good a some of these new guys are and I just don't see it (at all).

Here is what I will tell you. I was a manager for four years. I watched many HS kids come to KSU who were all-city players, some players of the year in their district, etc. etc. - In practices and in games, at KSU they looked like they couldn't even dribble. The change from HS to college is drastic. Think about college football players that go to the pro's. Only a few each year truly look like studs early in the season. But towards the latter part of the year they look like they belong and make a lot more contributions. Even the JUCO guys usually take a good amount of time before they look comfortable. Just to rehash the past a little, of Q, Fisher, Youngblood and Tyree Evans, none of them stepped on the court and were "players" immediately. The only guy I can recall putting on a uniform and being a go-to type of guy was Antonio Gates.

It is going to be a great year for KSU. Glasses half full people.

I’m not even close to a ledge. It was interesting to see the chart of the Florida ranking of recruiting classes during the show. All top Ten recruiting classes except for one year a Top 20. And, all five starters return from last year.

I actually saw some bright spots:

1. Long range shot went down. I forget the actual numbers, but Guyton Holt and Sherman hit a few threes.

2. Assists to points ratio was very high. Lost it in the second half a bit, but overall set up and passing is getting better.

3. Holt was all in. Maybe his stats don’t look at that great, but he was hustling and beat because of size, not out of position.

Actually, the only time I was really down after a BCS loss was losing that heartbreaker at BC. They were undefeated and it the Top Ten. We had them +25 and choked. I though Dre Haynes was never going to come back after that. We went through a rough skid.

Then we won the MAC.

I think its a good thing that people around the program are not settling for moral victories. Reading Ford's comments, he was not pleased with some of what went down last night either. But I think at some point you have to be realistic about a game, on the road, against a team like Florida. Especially this early in the season for a team as "green" as Kent.

I'll throw out three positives that I noticed from last night (but I really do believe that there were many more.

1) Nealy. He is clearly "behind" after missing a month of the season, but it is evident that he is strong and wants to bring rebounding and toughness, especially on defense. Add to that, that his presence is most likely going to put some pressure on Manns and I think Kent State is starting to develop some much needed depth in the post. As for the way he played the last two games, nothing fancy, but enough grit to make me think he can contribute.

2) Sherman. He is emerging as the leader. Maybe I just hadn't seen enough of him this season, but at times it seemed like he was either pressing or going through the motions. He looked smooth at times last night and even though it is not his "natural" position, I feel comfortable with Rod handling the ball in pressure situations. He doesn't back down and as long as he can hit a few deep ones here and there, the offense will open up for other guys.

3) Guyton. As Ford's offense develops and the team gets more and more comfortable playing as a unit, Guyton will get more and more dangerous. I like the way he kept his head last night and wasn't afraid to take shots.

Okay, here is my cliche of the day.....
"Experience is what you get when you don't exactly get what you want."

(12-09-2010 09:52 PM)GFlash68 Wrote:  

(12-09-2010 09:31 PM)Flash FreaK 81 Wrote:  Anyone know why Gaines didn't play? I think he got in in garbage time and that was it.

Wondered the same thing.

Could it be that Holt was playing better and hitting some range shots? Gaines is an around the basket type of guy. I love the EG, but he’s not getting a spot in a game where we can’t get an inside game going and need shooters.

Don’t know; just my speculation.

We just did not have enough talent to stay with Florida. The team was playing at a pace that was at least twice as fast as usual. They had to be out of their comfort zone. I thought it was amazing they were only 5 down at half time. Playing at that pace it was a miracle they shot as well as they did. We are good enough to win the MAC but no where near good enough to beat a veteran top 25 team on the road. What I was thinking as I watched was how amazing that 2002 team was beating Oklahoma St., Alabama and Pittsburgh back to back.

(12-10-2010 11:00 AM)burden Wrote:  We just did not have enough talent to stay with Florida. The team was playing at a pace that was at least twice as fast as usual. They had to be out of their comfort zone. I thought it was amazing they were only 5 down at half time. Playing at that pace it was a miracle they shot as well as they did. We are good enough to win the MAC but no where near good enough to beat a veteran top 25 team on the road. What I was thinking as I watched was how amazing that 2002 team was beating Oklahoma St., Alabama and Pittsburgh back to back.

Amen to that.........I thought the same thing listening to Mark Gotfried who was calling the game on ESPN last night and in 2002 was coach of that Alabama team that we dismantled! Bama was stacked that year...I forgot Mo Williams was on that team. He apparently made a diss to Trevor Huffman over the previous summer at some US Junior team tryouts and TH reminded him of it during that game with his play and a great quote of "remember me"! I'm glad they are honoring that 2002 Elite 8 Team on Sunday! The memories of that great run will continue to ring large!!!! Truely amazing!

I remember that Gottfired was the Alabama coach. Still, the announcers were mistaken when they said that KSU was coached by Jim Christian in '02 and that Geno Ford was an assistant. Actually, Stan Heath was the coach and Geno didn't arrive until the next season!

Delflash, I'm shocked (shocked!) to think there are sports announcers out there that don't do sufficient pre-game preperation!

Ahh, it was nice having guards that could control the tempo of a game. The 2002 team aside how nice would D'Andre Haynes or Al Fisher be on this team?

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Even the JUCO guys usually take a good amount of time before they look comfortable. Just to rehash the past a little, of Q, Fisher, Youngblood and Tyree Evans, none of them stepped on the court and were "players" immediately. The only guy I can recall putting on a uniform and being a go-to type of guy was Antonio Gates.
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Dude, I was so ready to throw Trevor Huffman out onto Summit Street after some games his freshmen year. Man, did I eat my words.