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

Toledo and MAC fan here who has enjoyed watching kent hoops over the past 15 years. the flashes fell off a bit the past couple yrs but still had talent. it seems like the staff has really restocked this recruiting yr and positioned the team to be a contender again. how do you guys see the squad -the returnees, transfers, high school recruits?

I'm just a little optimistic for an improvement -

I don't see much improvement coming next year out of Brewer, Manley, Jackson, or Ortiz...last season for them seemed as productive as their previous season.

Spicer and Thomas should get more minutes, and somewhat more production

Jimmy Hall, I think, will be the biggest difference maker.

I don't expect too much out of Vedder

With Lawrence, he should develop a bit. I don't expect much first-year production out of Rosel, but Raasean could put up some numbers. Probably not much in 2014/2015, but hopefully have a good career

With Edwin, Akbar, and Jones; you never know what you're getting from Community Colleges. Are you getting Chris Evans or Devin Carter? None of these 3 put up as good numbers as Devin Carter put up before coming to Kent. One of these three should put up what Darren Goodson put up, or maybe all three together might add up to Goodson.

So as a review - Hurley and Edwin replaces Simmons as a guard, that should be at least even, could be better; Henniger, Tabb, and Goodson's minutes go to Hall and Vedder, some go to Lawrence and Davis, and hopefully either Akbar or Jones surprise.

While I liked Henniger, he didn't score or rebound enough; Goodson had potential but couldn't play in control and had to be taken off the floor too much; Tabb had potential but went backwards from 2012/2013 to 2013/2014. This year's front court rotation of Hall/Spicer/Ortiz/Vedder/(Lawrence or Davis or Akbar or Jones) should be much more productive than Henniger/Spicer/Ortiz/Goodon/Tabb/Lawrence

i wish it was.

when we get the make-over of the lower bowl & dedicated practice facility, we'll be back. till then, we'll be treading water. other programs have passed us by. more will be passing us by (till we get our act together.)

One thing that we must consider is that in the past, we were out recruiting our MAC foes. This is no longer the case. Our rivals got smart and hired better coaches and we are beginning to see their benefits. Also, it seems to me that we are not recruiting as well. I do not see the Chris Singletarys, Rod Shermans, Antony Simpsons, Al Fishers, Justin Greenes, that we used to get. I could be wrong here and unfair to judge so early. As a team this year, I think we could be better than last, but it will have to come from being more mature and playing better together. But, our opposition will be better than last year.

+1

surprised jones hasn't created much interest. he and spicer would be a unique mac frontcourt. edwin is a great recruit. both those guys were successful and productive at high level jr college ball, i could see either making an impact.

(05-26-2014 02:07 AM)pono Wrote:  surprised jones hasn't created much interest. he and spicer would be a unique mac frontcourt. edwin is a great recruit. both those guys were successful and productive at high level jr college ball, i could see either making an impact.

The optimistic Kent State fans feel that next season's team is going to be much more productive in the paint. Some of that is by addition (Jones, Hall and maybe Davis and Akbar) and some is by experience/growth (Spcier, Ortiz and maybe Lawrence). But the last two seasons have shown that the difference between potential and reality is a large one.

The backcourt has to improve as well. Again, as an optimist I see too much talent (Brewer, Manley, Jackson and Thomas in particular) to settle for chucking up three pointers all night long. Sure, some of that was the result of virtually no production in the paint, but man it made for some ugly nights.

Big season for Kent State in terms of figuring out how much the gap is widening between the top dogs in the conference and the rest of the bunch.