(I don't know if these things help any, but Inside assigned this task to me, so I do the best I can.)

They are 5-2, with perhaps their most notable win being against Southern Illinois. Their losses were to Yale and Porter Moser.

They probably will start a front line of 6-9, 6-7, 6-5, and can bring 7-4 kid off the bench (and he is a good-looking physical specimen) and 6-10. Here is a link to their roster. The big kid is front and center. http://www.kentstatesports.com/roster.aspx?path=mbball

Their defense is outstanding, allowing opponents just 39.4% overall and 30.9% from the arc. What is scary is that they have a 10.7 percentage point differential from the arc. (They shoot 41.6%)

They are plus-2 rebounding.

They do not shoot FTs well - 61.1%.

Realtime RPI picks Kent by one.
Sagarin picks Kent by four.

I pick UALR to win by one on a last second three point field goal by James Reid. How's that for being specific!

I would take it.

It will be interesting to see how the week-long break affected us.

Their message board.
http://csnbbs.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=474?fid=474

Kent State fan here. Thanks for the invite to check out your forum. Here is some info (for what its worth) on the Golden Flashes.

The 7'4 player will log approximately 0 minutes on Sunday. That should keep him at his average for the season. Unfortunately it doesn't seem like he has the skill set to contribute at this level.

This Kent State team is a work in progress. Bad news is that one of the point guards is out for a month with a fracture, which presses an off guard into that duty at times.
Good news is Kent State is shooting the ball well from the field. I think the Flashes have the highest 3 point percentage in the country right now. That can be fools gold, of course.
Otherwise, Kent State is pretty athletic and has two and half pretty nice guards in Jackson (defensive pressure guy), Brewer (veteran) and Manley (three point shooter). A transfer named Hall (6'7 forward) started out the season very hot and is a good rebounder.

Best of luck Sunday.

(12-12-2014 12:30 PM)fallsdog Wrote:  Kent State fan here. Thanks for the invite to check out your forum. Here is some info (for what its worth) on the Golden Flashes.

The 7'4 player will log approximately 0 minutes on Sunday. That should keep him at his average for the season. Unfortunately it doesn't seem like he has the skill set to contribute at this level.

This Kent State team is a work in progress. Bad news is that one of the point guards is out for a month with a fracture, which presses an off guard into that duty at times.
Good news is Kent State is shooting the ball well from the field. I think the Flashes have the highest 3 point percentage in the country right now. That can be fools gold, of course.
Otherwise, Kent State is pretty athletic and has two and half pretty nice guards in Jackson (defensive pressure guy), Brewer (veteran) and Manley (three point shooter). A transfer named Hall (6'7 forward) started out the season very hot and is a good rebounder.

Best of luck Sunday.

Should be interesting since, last time I looked, we led the country in WORST 3 point shooting defense. You guys should have a field day.

Wow Kent State has the highest 3 point percentage in the country and UALR has the worst 3 point defense in the country. We better change our defense quick.

Does Ted Crass have eligibility left? I want to see him guard the 7'4" guy.

http://www.ualrtrojans.com/ViewArticle.d...=209805790

(12-12-2014 03:06 PM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  http://www.ualrtrojans.com/ViewArticle.d...=209805790

I've always said that if you can figure out a way to score more points than your opponents, you'll win the majority of your games. And it's great hitting a lot of your three point shots if you don't allow your opponents to hit more. It's all so simple when you think about it.
And here's the true formula for success. Divide your opponents score into yours. If the number is greater than one, you win. If it's less than one, they do. So you see the secret is to always have the formula to figure out at more than one. This might be a more important discovery than Einstein's theory of relativity.

I am not sure what Fallsdog was looking at, but I doubted the 3pt FG% being the top in the nation, and as it turns out, KSU is ranked 22nd in the nation shooting the long ball at almost 42%. Still no slouch, but not the best in the nation.

The one guy he mentioned, Jimmy Hall, is a load. If you stop him you have a good chance to win. There are other guys who can hurt you, and quickly, but they would be perimeter guys. Dev Manley would be the best bet to get hot, and if he does, look out. Manley, Kris Brewer and Derek Jackson are all seniors and will probably play 100% of the backcourt minutes unless 2 of them get into foul trouble. Brewer has show the ability to score in bunches, but it's very unpredictable when that will happen, so it's not expected.

I expect a grind it out kind of game and it sounds like UALR is a pretty good home team. That said, I am calling for a 7 point KSU win. See you Sunday.

(12-12-2014 09:31 PM)dannyb73 Wrote:  I am not sure what Fallsdog was looking at, but I doubted the 3pt FG% being the top in the nation, and as it turns out, KSU is ranked 22nd in the nation shooting the long ball at almost 42%. Still no slouch, but not the best in the nation.

The one guy he mentioned, Jimmy Hall, is a load. If you stop him you have a good chance to win. There are other guys who can hurt you, and quickly, but they would be perimeter guys. Dev Manley would be the best bet to get hot, and if he does, look out. Manley, Kris Brewer and Derek Jackson are all seniors and will probably play 100% of the backcourt minutes unless 2 of them get into foul trouble. Brewer has show the ability to score in bunches, but it's very unpredictable when that will happen, so it's not expected.

I expect a grind it out kind of game and it sounds like UALR is a pretty good home team. That said, I am calling for a 7 point KSU win. See you Sunday.

Coach Shields prides himself on being an excellent defensive coach. Really not sure what the problem is this year. I think a lot of playing good defensive is effort, and he usually gets 110% out of this players. I don't think any coach really likes playing against a Steve Shields team since they are gritty and always play hard. But, this year's team really hasn't established that identity so far and seem rather soft to me. Also seems like we always have one player that is considered a defensive stopper. That is missing from this year's team. Still, it should be a very competitive game. I would think you guys are a little better than us, but maybe playing on our home court (you won't have to worry about a crowd on Sunday afternoon with the students out) can help our guys pull out a close win.

(12-13-2014 01:01 AM)mjs Wrote:  Also seems like we always have one player that is considered a defensive stopper. That is missing from this year's team.

We may be missing Stetson more than we think.

As I recall, and I probably mentioned before, Stetson was obviously the heir apparent to Leroy at the three, but then they signed Jerron Washington who was supposed to also compete for that role, and he supposedly had a minimal better ball skills that Stetson. So where are we with that plan? Stetson is off scholarship for a year and Jerron is picking up a lot of splinters on the bench. Great evaluating and executing.

(12-13-2014 10:26 AM)outsideualr Wrote:  So where are we with that plan? Stetson is off scholarship for a year and Jerron is picking up a lot of splinters on the bench. Great evaluating and executing.

We had a monkey wrench thrown into that plan called Roger Woods. We could have just passed him up. Personally, I think the staff had to sign him if they could. But it did leave us short on the defensive end.

I sure can't fault them for signing Roger. It's just that we always seem to sign players who don't or can't play for us.

(12-12-2014 07:41 AM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  (I don't know if these things help any, but Inside assigned this task to me, so I do the best I can.)

They are 5-2, with perhaps their most notable win being against Southern Illinois. Their losses were to Yale and Porter Moser.

They probably will start a front line of 6-9, 6-7, 6-5, and can bring 7-4 kid off the bench (and he is a good-looking physical specimen) and 6-10. Here is a link to their roster. The big kid is front and center. http://www.kentstatesports.com/roster.aspx?path=mbball

Their defense is outstanding, allowing opponents just 39.4% overall and 30.9% from the arc. What is scary is that they have a 10.7 percentage point differential from the arc. (They shoot 41.6%)

They are plus-2 rebounding.

They do not shoot FTs well - 61.1%.

Kent State did not lose to or even play "Porter Moser" (not even sure who/what that is?). We have lost to Yale and Loyola Chicago by narrow margins.

Porter is the coach at Loyola who used to be the coach here.