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I am beginning to believe we just don't have the talent. We know other than Greene our bigs are not very good. Our guards can't stop penetration. Slow guards in the MAC are the kiss of death. We need Gaines but I am not sure that will be enough this year.

I saw a total lack of defensive effort in the second half. How can you let a team score at will in the second half and have no answers. We have not shown the agressive in your face defense that will help motivate your offense, as the teams in the past. I am totally disappointed in the players that wear the Kent State uniform.

I will continue to go and watch the game but I will not expect anything and maybe on an occassion I will see a good game.

(01-21-2012 08:02 PM)AlphaFlash Wrote:  

(01-21-2012 08:01 PM)AlphaFlash Wrote:  Man, I hope this is not the beginning of the end.

After looking at Akron's roster, next year looks to be their best year too.

It helps to build with four-year guys.

Props to Akron. That was a helluva second half.

burden,

you may just be right. as much as I hate to think that way, that might just be it. and it ain't gonna get much better with this roster. trouble ahead, trouble behind.

You know with the new President not helping the Athletic Department financially and the new Athletic Director so into football I wonder if other sports are starting to suffer. Basketball both womens and mens are down. Womens sports in general are going down. I am going to really watch baseball and wrestling over the next couple of years but if they show signs of heading down it just could be.

By the way I wouldn't criticize the players effort .I think they just are not similar to our previous teams and our coaching staff with 3 ex-players and a head coach that has been at Kent quite a few years are having trouble adjusting. The so-called Kent way might not be what this team needs. For instance this team might need to play a lot more zone. That is one thing I have always admired the womens coach for. Some years he presses like hell and runs like crazy and then 2 years later he is boring you to death. However he wins (until this year) most years. I think the men need to start adjusting some strategies.

Agree, Burden. Talent is as talent does. One would have thought that being the winningest program in the MAC for well over a decade would have given Kent State a definite edge in recruiting over the rest of the conference, but it never really happened and it seems now that they are on the verge of being just another MAC program, or at least just another MAC East program. Akron, since losing Dan Hipsher (How I hated to see him go!), has actually finally passed Kent State by. And, while I'm certainly not writing Senderoff off this early in his career, I'm wondering if the constant coaching changes have finally left us with a coach that isn't going to outcoach opponents. I'm not saying that that is definitely the case, but it is a possibility. Finally, as David Carducci has pointed out on more than one occasion, the only thing Kent State has going for it in the MAC is its winning ways, as money and facilities are now sub par. We'll see.

I'm sticking with my original position. We have a team that has heard all about how talented and good they are. no one ever told them they still have to work for it. I think that even happened to us on a fan level.

As a fan I have always supported the team when they play a whole game or play up to the ability that they have. They have shown some of this ability or teased us for short periods of time but nothing sustained or consistant. The first half they played hard defense and contested shots. Then they seemed to think they could coast the second half and they ended up looking the same as they did against OU.

As fans we always feel we played well in the first half to get the lead but got lazy in the second half and blew it. What if the reverse is true. In fact Akron might have played poorly in the first half and then turned the wick up and showed they were the superior team in the second half. Based on what I have seen all year I think the latter is true. Not so good teams can play on emotion for 20 minutes but not 40. Even against West Virginia we were playing a team with 4 freshman. I doubt we would beat them today even at home. Your seeing a team that doesn't want to be the first average Kent team in 15 years but is having trouble keeping it from happening. I am worried that after this game they will begin to realize they are not great and we won't even see 20 minutes of good play. I hope I'm wrong but if you remember the 2003 team they were something like 19-2 then lost some games and the emotion from 2002 was gone and they stumbled to the finish line. I think this might be the same thing.

(01-21-2012 09:26 PM)burden Wrote:  I hope I'm wrong but if you remember the 2003 team they were something like 19-2 then lost some games and the emotion from 2002 was gone and they stumbled to the finish line. I think this might be the same thing.

I was thinking the same thing. But I'm okay with that. However, I looked at that year's record. They could at least run with the opposition. We were also able to reload in 2004. But yes, that year was a train wreck. I just hope we can bounce back like we did then.

From what I am seeing, I would say the word is "fall" to the finish line and I believe-sorry to say-it will be short of the line.

I didn't realize Rod Sherman's middle name is "Tradition".

Hard to believe but we are SOFT. The zips killied us on the offensive boards in the second half and we had to answer. We dont have tha enforcer we have had in the past. and with JG in foul trouble we reverted back to shot and pray offense. Granted th zips got hot in the second half but when was the las time Kent gave up 80 + in 3 straight games. MAC games are suppose to be grind it out 50-60 pt affairs we have turned them into track meets with us being the one in the rear view mirror.

We have to sweep the west and go at least 4-1 on the second swing throught the east to have a realistic chance at a 1-4 seed.

Do you really thinnk that is possible with what we have seen so far????

Burden, you are right about the 2003 team, EXCEPT most people don't seem to remember that Antonio Gates hurt his knee and that started the slump. That team was built around one player, Gates, like no other recent Kent State has been. Gates didn't miss much time. Maybe only one game. But he was a mere shadow of his former self the rest of the season.

Earlier, fans were concerned about Kent State playing poorly until the second half. Since the MAC season started, the FIRST half has been their strongest. They were supposed to be incredibly deep, but now some fans are concerned about depth. Funny how those things go. The bottom line, though, as Burden mentioned is talent. The talent that most thought Kent State had just isn't as good as was hoped, even if it is mostly "above the neck".

Is it football season yet?

I was out of pocket last night, but ready to weigh in. We should have won last night. You dominate the first half, and then get owned in the second half? That is embarrassing and unacceptable. Keep this in mind, if 2 of our 3 road losses were in the second MAC East rotation and we had held serve at home, nobody would be freaking. Let's see if we can run the West table again and if so, we will be ready for the home stretch. I am more cautious today than I was after a 1 point loss @ UB and the beating we took from OU, but remember all 3 of these teams have to come to Kent in the next 6 wks.

(01-22-2012 12:48 PM)dannyb73 Wrote:  I was out of pocket last night, but ready to weigh in. We should have won last night. You dominate the first half, and then get owned in the second half? That is embarrassing and unacceptable. Keep this in mind, if 2 of our 3 road losses were in the second MAC East rotation and we had held serve at home, nobody would be freaking. Let's see if we can run the West table again and if so, we will be ready for the home stretch. I am more cautious today than I was after a 1 point loss @ UB and the beating we took from OU, but remember all 3 of these teams have to come to Kent in the next 6 wks.

Agree with you dannyb73, but really worried about the following:

Porrini taking fadeaway jump shots early in the shot clock in the 2nd half....Guyton inability to snap out of his jump shooting slump.....Most importantly, no transition D and getting beat on both ends on the boards...

The 1st point is intelligence, if you are up by 10, you dont take jump shots early in the shot clock, you go to the hoop which is your strength Mike....2nd point, Guyton just needs to keep facilitating and going to the paint....3rd & 4th points are looking in the mirror and deciding you are going to hustle and play with a big heart

We will see if the team wants to play as a team and accept roles or if they want to play individual basketball and continue to get beat by inferior talented teams in the MAC. Maybe a change or 2 in the rotation? Gaines comes back and the defense improves?

danny,

I would even step back a bit further. Take five of six (which means winning a couple road games) and see where you stand after that. Its reasonable and it is also reasonable to think that Akron, OU and Buffalo could stumble along the way as well.

GoFlashes,

This is how I feel about Porrini's shot selection last night...he seems to press at times not to be "the guy" but because he wants to be a leader. Does that make sense? I guess what I am trying to say is although I don't think he deserves a pass for poor shots, but since his effort is always there I don't mind dying with him in critical situations.

After almost 24 hours, I'm going to chime back in. I'm going to try putting a positive spin, but I hate getting my hopes up. However, usually when these 2 teams are this good, we tend to split the season series. Last night aside, if there is a good time to tune our offense, it would be against our weaker conference opponents. (It's a good time to play the West.) But we will need to be perfect, I mean PERFECT against that competition. After all, the final score of the EMU/Toledo had less than 80 points total.
I can't blame Senderhoff. I think we have a very rare breed of athletes this year. We are very good skill-wise, but we can't quite wrap our heads around it. I don't think anyone here can say Sendy is a bad coach. Its not like we got Rob from a successful lower division program or sitting on a bench at a major team. He came from Kent State. He has proven his success to everyone here. Last year at this time, we had a discussion on here about how fortunate we are with Rob on our bench. I refuse to believe he is our iCoach.
Finally, other than the NIT bid, there is no real need to get the #1 seed in the MAC-T. The #1 seed hasn't won the tourney for years now. And how many times as the tournament championship gone to a team with a #4 seed or lower? It is very doable for Kent to put a run together and win it all. Like I said earlier in the week, this team can wake up and just start winning games and not even realize what happened.