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

The Eagles (11-4, 0-2) come to the MAC Center searching for their first conference win. Losses at home to Ball State and at Miami came as a surprise to some. But others called EMU's record padded and didn't believe the hype of their 11-2 start.

Regardless, the Eagles like a slow tempo with their 2-3 zone and long offensive possessions. Redshirt sophomore guard Raven Lee leads EMU in scoring at 14.8 per game. Right behind Lee is 6'7 Karrington Ward. Ward averages 14.1 per game and is the team leader in rebounding, blocks and steals.

Ward will be an interesting matchup for the Kent State. Does Jimmy Hall get the assignment? Surely, keeping Hall out of foul trouble is a key for the Flashes. Or is it Ortiz and Brown who will guard him by committee?

As usual, the Eagles have some size under the hoop. They will be hungry for a win and Kent State needs to protect the home court and get some momentum for Saturday's matchup with Ohio University.

I'll set an over/under of 125 and take the under.

Go Flashes!

Well I am in a hotel tonight and my video isn't working. Don't know if it's my connection at the hotel or the video feed. If anyone else has success please let me know.

Got the second half up and running at Starbucks! Thank goodness the first half was spotty for me or I might have choked on my puke!

You picked the right half to miss. Great 2nd half. EMU crumbled under pressure.

My analysis is simple. Once the team got used to Lawerences dreadlock pigtails they settled down and started playing. Seriously Ortiz played the best game of his career. His 19 points were mainly inside not just a bunch of threes. He also played some defense. Jackson hitting two threes as the shot clock expired were huge.

Bottom line, once we played some defense it changed the game. We would have been in trouble without Ortiz' monster game tonight because Dev and KB were pretty horrible from the floor. EMU may be 0-3 in conference, but this was a big win over a difficult opponent.

Hopefully Saturday we manhandle OU. They are not very good.

Very nice game tonight. It shows that we don't have to rely on the three to win. Good ball movement inside. Even in the first half we had shots inside, but they just weren't dropping ( including another missed dunk by Spicer). A breakout game for Chris Ortiz. Coach Rob had the perfect solution for EMU's 1-3-1 zone. A well coached and scouted game. We now have the 2 inside threats we have been lacking for the last several years.

Very nice win, especially considering the two guys who have carried the offensive load all year (Hall and Dev) struggled from the floor. Down the stretch I found myself thinking, "Come on, let's get the ball to Ortiz." I believe that's a first for me. Hope he builds on this one, he played a whale of a game. It was also nice to see Akbar contribute. He might be the best guy we have for breaking down a zone. He's a very good interior passer. We'll see if his performance garners him more PT going forward.

I was impressed at how well EMU was able to guard the 3 point line despite playing only zone. I noticed a lot of times when Dev was on the side opposite from the ball, the guy whose job it was to guard the back side was out beyond the 3pt arc covering him. So it seemed pretty clear they had game planned to try to prevent him from getting looks. I would've liked to see us capitalize on that defensive scheme more by running weak side lobs to the big man on the opposite block since the defender had vacated the area.

Lastly, the refs were really atrocious tonight.

Reading the re-cap and looking at the box score it seems like a team victory indeed. Down double digits in the first and responding like they did is encouraging. Maybe Chris Ortiz was tired off reading about how Kent State has no production from the 3 position.

Should be interesting on Saturday as Ohio U. is in big time need of a W.

Great win @ home vs a tough zone defense and former KSU assistant coach (Rob Murphy). As Danny said, onto Ohio U @ home this weekend and then Toledo comes town, which will be a very tough game as they are scoring a ton of points on pretty much anyone that they play.

Here are the individual stats through 16 games: http://www.kentstatesports.com/cumestats...&year=2014

Just wondering if Kris Brewer is going to step it up over the last (2) months of the season during his senior year, especially on the offensive end?

Also, Marvin Jones is clearly redshirting as he hasn't played in 1 game this season, which I think was the best move, but are they redshirting Rasean Davis as he hasn't played in quite a few games. Also, are they medical redshirting Kellon Thomas? He has had a lot of injuries over the last year, so pushing him to play this year and burning eligibility for a few games just doesn't make sense. Last, welcome to Deon Edwin, just started classes on Monday and practice as well.

Here is the video blog from Coach Senderoff, discussing Deon's arrival and how he/Xavier Pollard are really pushing the starting backcourt in practice: http://kentstatemensbasketball.blogspot....ws_14.html

(01-15-2015 09:48 AM)GoFlashes7 Wrote:  Great win @ home vs a tough zone defense and former KSU assistant coach (Rob Murphy). As Danny said, onto Ohio U @ home this weekend and then Toledo comes town, which will be a very tough game as they are scoring a ton of points on pretty much anyone that they play.

Here are the individual stats through 16 games: http://www.kentstatesports.com/cumestats...&year=2014

Just wondering if Kris Brewer is going to step it up over the last (2) months of the season during his senior year, especially on the offensive end?

Also, Marvin Jones is clearly redshirting as he hasn't played in 1 game this season, which I think was the best move, but are they redshirting Rasean Davis as he hasn't played in quite a few games. Also, are they medical redshirting Kellon Thomas? He has had a lot of injuries over the last year, so pushing him to play this year and burning eligibility for a few games just doesn't make sense. Last, welcome to Deon Edwin, just started classes on Monday and practice as well.

Here is the video blog from Coach Senderoff, discussing Deon's arrival and how he/Xavier Pollard are really pushing the starting backcourt in practice: http://kentstatemensbasketball.blogspot....ws_14.html

I think that is unfair to KB. I know you aren't picking on him, but I just want to say a few words to this. He has struggled offensively for sure, including last night. But Sendy was very comfortable having him on the floor because of his leadership and he will still play solid defense and within himself. How many times over the last many years have we wanted someone who wasn't clicking offensively to chill out? Just last year I can think of a guy (Goodson) and a couple of years ago there were many on this board who wished Randal Holt would have had less of a trigger. We have more options this year from a scoring standpoint, so why not be a team player and take a backseat to them? Kris has been a great Golden Flash.

not redshirting Rasean Davis seems like a terrible idea at the moment.

Thought the Flashes did a great job of finding Ortiz and Chris did a great job in finding the soft spot along the baseline in the EMU Zone....he was dropping them from in from 10-12 feet! Very happy with our free throw shooting again last night as well as our rebounding. It was a great comeback and I am looking forward to KSU pasting OU on Saturday. I will be in the lower reserved, section j, seat 50 if anyone cares to stop by.

GO FLASHES!!!

Ortiz game was truly a welcome development. If he can build on that performance, we have just elevated ourselves to another level of team quality. It is great to have the depth that we do have. I am guilty, along with others, of questioning coaching when things do not go well. If anyone would have listened last night during the first half, I probably would have said that the coaches did not have the players ready to play. That would just be an emotional, and erroneous response. No doubt in my mind that Coach Sendy understands the game and coaches it the right way. He really showed his worth last night. EMU gives everyone a fit. We had the right game plan all along. The player had to understand that playing that style is not fun. I am sure that Sendy drilled very hard at half time.

(01-15-2015 04:17 PM)GFlash68 Wrote:  No doubt in my mind that Coach Sendy understands the game and coaches it the right way. He really showed his worth last night. EMU gives everyone a fit. We had the right game plan all along. The player had to understand that playing that style is not fun. I am sure that Sendy drilled very hard at half time.

:cheers:Totally agree with that statement. Sometimes it's just that the players have to buy in and accept the reigns that have been put on them. In due time, the game plan worked out.....+2

(01-15-2015 09:59 AM)dannyb73 Wrote:  

(01-15-2015 09:48 AM)GoFlashes7 Wrote:  Great win @ home vs a tough zone defense and former KSU assistant coach (Rob Murphy). As Danny said, onto Ohio U @ home this weekend and then Toledo comes town, which will be a very tough game as they are scoring a ton of points on pretty much anyone that they play.

Here are the individual stats through 16 games: http://www.kentstatesports.com/cumestats...&year=2014

Just wondering if Kris Brewer is going to step it up over the last (2) months of the season during his senior year, especially on the offensive end?

Also, Marvin Jones is clearly redshirting as he hasn't played in 1 game this season, which I think was the best move, but are they redshirting Rasean Davis as he hasn't played in quite a few games. Also, are they medical redshirting Kellon Thomas? He has had a lot of injuries over the last year, so pushing him to play this year and burning eligibility for a few games just doesn't make sense. Last, welcome to Deon Edwin, just started classes on Monday and practice as well.

Here is the video blog from Coach Senderoff, discussing Deon's arrival and how he/Xavier Pollard are really pushing the starting backcourt in practice: http://kentstatemensbasketball.blogspot....ws_14.html

I think that is unfair to KB. I know you aren't picking on him, but I just want to say a few words to this. He has struggled offensively for sure, including last night. But Sendy was very comfortable having him on the floor because of his leadership and he will still play solid defense and within himself. How many times over the last many years have we wanted someone who wasn't clicking offensively to chill out? Just last year I can think of a guy (Goodson) and a couple of years ago there were many on this board who wished Randal Holt would have had less of a trigger. We have more options this year from a scoring standpoint, so why not be a team player and take a backseat to them? Kris has been a great Golden Flash.

Kris has been my favorite Flash in a long time. His playmaking has greatly improved each year and while he's not someone you should be leaning on to win you games a la Greene or Evans, he's a solid all-around basketball player that can get to the rim(needs to improve on his conversion rate) and holds his own on the defensive side.

Since Kellon went out he has been our best playmaking pg. Jackson is an elite defender but he's even more score-first than Kris.

In this fan's opinion:

Kris Brewer is a 4 year Golden Flash
Kris Brewer gives tremendous effort
Kris Brewer has played through injuries that very well would have sidelined less dedicated players

To me, he is a game on the line, ball in his hands kind of Flash

(01-15-2015 09:48 AM)GoFlashes7 Wrote:  Also, Marvin Jones is clearly redshirting as he hasn't played in 1 game this season, which I think was the best move, but are they redshirting Rasean Davis as he hasn't played in quite a few games. Also, are they medical redshirting Kellon Thomas? He has had a lot of injuries over the last year, so pushing him to play this year and burning eligibility for a few games just doesn't make sense. Last, welcome to Deon Edwin, just started classes on Monday and practice as well.

Jones is redshirting. Davis is not. I'm assuming Thomas is not as he played in the BG game.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Davis next year. Ever post player in the rotation will be back. So if he can't move ahead of Lawrence and Jones then it would make sense to try and redshirt him as he'd be 5th or 6th in the post rotation. Of course there's more that goes into deciding to redshirt a player than just what "makes sense".

(01-17-2015 11:32 AM)anti-zip Wrote:  

(01-15-2015 09:48 AM)GoFlashes7 Wrote:  Also, Marvin Jones is clearly redshirting as he hasn't played in 1 game this season, which I think was the best move, but are they redshirting Rasean Davis as he hasn't played in quite a few games. Also, are they medical redshirting Kellon Thomas? He has had a lot of injuries over the last year, so pushing him to play this year and burning eligibility for a few games just doesn't make sense. Last, welcome to Deon Edwin, just started classes on Monday and practice as well.

Jones is redshirting. Davis is not. I'm assuming Thomas is not as he played in the BG game.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Davis next year. Ever post player in the rotation will be back. So if he can't move ahead of Lawrence and Jones then it would make sense to try and redshirt him as he'd be 5th or 6th in the post rotation. Of course there's more that goes into deciding to redshirt a player than just what "makes sense".

i would think a redshirt with the specific instruction to lose 30 pounds and turn some of the weight to muscle. his play has been extremely limited but im not sure he could effectively move to guard pick and rolls and the free flowing offenses you see in the MAC

(01-16-2015 09:40 AM)fallsdog Wrote:  In this fan's opinion:

Kris Brewer is a 4 year Golden Flash
Kris Brewer gives tremendous effort
Kris Brewer has played through injuries that very well would have sidelined less dedicated players

To me, he is a game on the line, ball in his hands kind of Flash

I agree