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

(03-28-2015 10:01 AM)FlashPan Wrote:  In the heat of the moment we have all made bad decisions. This was an emotional roller coaster last night unfortunately. When you hand a victory to your competition... well that's not good. NAU knew they were going down and we knew we had a victory. That's the sad part of what happened. It was not a fun time for Kent fans to see that game explode in a few seconds for no reason. Things happen and they happened in the wrong way last night. The sun came up this morning as usual and we will wait for a better day. In tournament play one thing is for sure.... everybody is going to feel the pain of losing except one team so we have plenty of company. It wasn't meant to be that Kent would win last night. Time moves on.

I think that it was meant to be for us to win last night. That is what hurts so badly. We were going to win but gave it away. We had it and were not willing to accept it.

I just noticed that Lawrence did not enter the game. Does anyone know this story. We could have used his energy and rebounding.

(03-28-2015 01:15 PM)GFlash68 Wrote:  

(03-28-2015 10:01 AM)FlashPan Wrote:  In the heat of the moment we have all made bad decisions. This was an emotional roller coaster last night unfortunately. When you hand a victory to your competition... well that's not good. NAU knew they were going down and we knew we had a victory. That's the sad part of what happened. It was not a fun time for Kent fans to see that game explode in a few seconds for no reason. Things happen and they happened in the wrong way last night. The sun came up this morning as usual and we will wait for a better day. In tournament play one thing is for sure.... everybody is going to feel the pain of losing except one team so we have plenty of company. It wasn't meant to be that Kent would win last night. Time moves on.

I think that it was meant to be for us to win last night. That is what hurts so badly. We were going to win but gave it away. We had it and were not willing to accept it.

And that's an important difference between a good team and a great team. I remember watching Kent in the early 00s play NIU and they didn't have their A game that night. The short of it was they got a small lead at the end and played strong defense on NIU's final possession and ran out of there with a 2 point (I think) win. They could have lost, probably should have lost, but they grabbed the win.

It's the difference between an NCAA team and a CBI team. Hanging tough a couple of more times this year and they might be in the NCAA tournament. It's a skill as much as shooting or rebounding.

That's simply the difference between Mitchell and Huffman vs. Brewer and Jackson. Those two gave Manley the ball and he lost it. I bet Shaw never touches that ball in 2002. We have been playing without a true point guard all year. That hurts you in close games.

(03-28-2015 04:09 PM)burden Wrote:  That's simply the difference between Mitchell and Huffman vs. Brewer and Jackson. Those two gave Manley the ball and he lost it. I bet Shaw never touches that ball in 2002. We have been playing without a true point guard all year. That hurts you in close games.

Well, this was post-Mitchell/Huffman, but there was always a sense after that of what do we need to do to win at any given point. I remember the 2003-4 team where they were playing Boston College and Gates snagged a big rebound and the first thing he did was pass it to Haut, not because he was the best point guard but because BC would have to foul and Haut was an automatic two from the line. Guys like Gates, Haut, Bedford, Sherman all had the "how do I win the close game" instinct. It's something that Coach Senderoff needs to get the young guards focused in on immediately because they'll carry that load for the next 4 years. As we saw this year, it probably cost the team 3 games and what was a very nice year could have a great year with those 3 games.

I fear Lawrence is on his way out. If that is true its too bad because he could be a terrific role player or even a guy to place in the starting lineup to bring big time energy and defense.

I don't think its worthwile to compare recent guards to Mitchell, Huffman and Shaw. That was a long time ago and the addition of a world class athlete made those really good players even better.

And I'm not knocking the current players. There was simply a missing element to the game last night, but this wasn't the first time it happened this year. It's too bad, but I am still proud of this particular team and wish the seniors all the best.

(03-28-2015 05:26 PM)fallsdog Wrote:  I fear Lawrence is on his way out. If that is true its too bad because he could be a terrific role player or even a guy to place in the starting lineup to bring big time energy and defense.

I don't think its worthwile to compare recent guards to Mitchell, Huffman and Shaw. That was a long time ago and the addition of a world class athlete made those really good players even better.

What makes you think that Lawrence is on the way out?

(03-28-2015 09:54 PM)GFlash68 Wrote:  

(03-28-2015 05:26 PM)fallsdog Wrote:  I fear Lawrence is on his way out. If that is true its too bad because he could be a terrific role player or even a guy to place in the starting lineup to bring big time energy and defense.

I don't think its worthwile to compare recent guards to Mitchell, Huffman and Shaw. That was a long time ago and the addition of a world class athlete made those really good players even better.

What makes you think that Lawrence is on the way out?

You never know what kids will do these days, but there is no pressure on him to leave.

It's been painful watching the CIT play out. We had the best team in it.



It might be less painful if I stopped banging my head.

(03-28-2015 01:17 PM)GFlash68 Wrote:  I just noticed that Lawrence did not enter the game. Does anyone know this story. We could have used his energy and rebounding.

My thoughts exactly after assuming the loss. Davis was way off all night. He turned the ball over and had a negative effective on play. He couldn't finish underneath and got eaten alive. Lawrence would have been better at getting at NAU's bigs.