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

Indiana assistant coach Todd Starkey, a former Division II national coach of the year, will be the new Kent State women's coach, the Record-Courier reported this evening.

Starkey has been at Indiana, which was 21-12 in the Big Ten last season, for two years.

Before that, he was head coach for nine years at Lenoir-Ryne University in Hickory, North Carolina. He was Division II coach of the year in 2008-09 and four-time coach of the year in the South Atlantic Conference.

His record in nine seasons at Lenoir-Ryne was 165-95. Over his last six years, it was 124-52.

Story developing on my blog at http://wbbflashes.com.

On the surface, looks like a decent hire. Certainly better than what we had by experience. Head coaching experience, although at a lower level, looks good with national honors. Big Ten in the Midwest for 2 years is good. I would have preferred the YSU head coach, but this one is OK. Good luck Coach.

There's now more background, records, links and analysis on Starkey on the blog at http://wbbflashes.com.

KSU officials announced Starkey as the new coach this afternoon. He'll hold a press conference at the school Wednesday.

Story is on the blog at http://wbbflashes.com.

Press release is at http://kentstatesports.com/news/2016/4/1...LINKDATA@.

Highlights of new coach Todd Starkey's introductory press conference are on the blog at http://wbbflashes.com, along with a link to a video of the entire conference.

Well as they say he won the press conference. I was favorably impressed with the way he handled the situation. He is suppose to be a good X's and O's guy and we sure could use a heavy dose of that. I remember feeling that way about O'Banion so this means very little. I know after watching O'Banions teams for about three games I had a sinking feeling which remained (with the exception of a couple of games) for four years. We will know a lot more by around December 1st.

In looking at the pictures-the team looked "excited" at the press conference........

(04-21-2016 09:04 AM)bball4me Wrote:  In looking at the pictures-the team looked "excited" at the press conference........

Then now they know how we've felt watching them the last few years.

I can imagine being 20 years old (just barely) and not caring one bit what Nielsen and his lieutenant said but I would think they would be pretty intent on listening to their new coach. If they come out next year and play the same way, you have to believe most of the problem is them and a house cleaning will have to take place. Hopefully they were just itching to get to their two o'clock practice.

At about 4 oclock yesterday i'll bet the new coach had an upset stomach and thought to himself I now see why the job was open and others turned it down.

Cupboard pretty bare. Point guard who played in crunch time game I saw was maybe an OAC (as in mount union) player. slow, no quickness, looked out of shape.

I wasn't watching the players at the press conference, but they already had met with him during the search and in a team meeting the previous day.

I suspect they were there out of duty and had heard most of it before.

I wouldn't read anything into it. Let's see how they look on the court.

(The point guard ksu315 is talking was a walk-on, which in itself tells you something about that position last year. She did actually helps the team because she played under control. Player I think has the most potential at point was hurt in the third game and will be a redshirt freshman next season. She was an all stater in Michigan.)

I really don't think the cupboard is bare (at least physically). Your right about the point guard (who was a walk on) but there are two other point guards on the team who have D1 quickness but just didn't fit with what OBanion wanted. The whole time she was there point guards struggled. Lindsay's point guard was immediately replaced and she seemed to put the wraps on any creativity from the others. The new coach will find out quickly whether they can do the job. If they can't he needs to go out and recruit one. I'm kind of hoping he finds one this year (maybe an Indiana recruit that wasn't quite good enough for the B10). It's highly unusual for a team to return all 15 players so there probably will be an opening.