Guys,
The Record-Courier is going to put out an 8-page special section in a week commemorating Kent State's 10 20-win seasons.
I'd like to enlist your help.
For my contribution, I'm going to put together an all 20-win team ... first and second team.
I'm also coming up with a list of top-10 memories from my time on the beat.
If any of you are interested, I'd like to create an all 20-win team as put together by the fans (again, first and second team. Two guards, two forwards and a center on each), and this site is a good way to get it together.
Over the next couple of days, If you'd like to put your team together and post it with a few comments based on players, I'll put together a team as "voted on" by this message board.
Also, any specific memories of games and moments from games, I may also be able to get into the section. So if you want to write a few paragraphs of your favorite memories, that would be fantastic, too.
We can put them on this thread. If you'd like to email me privately as well (dcarducci@yahoo.com) with a few paragraphs of memories or reasons for your teams (maybe the same things you post here, but with your real name if you'd like it in the publication (and where you live now), I'll try to get as many in as possible ... Just put "special KSU section" in the title of the email so I catch it.
Anyway, if you are interested in participating, please add to the thread. I think it will be fun for all of us to look back and read through the memories.
Jim Christian, Laing Kennedy and Eric Haut are also going to put together a list of their top-5 memories during the 20-win run for the special section. There will be lots of photos and stats, too.
Thanks,
Dave Carducci
(by the way, lots of you have called me David on the message board. I use that as a byline because its my given name, but my friends call me Dave, so feel free to use the less formal :) )
David,
For starters, try this thread by KSUDelt828 from earlier in the season, in which some poster put together their All 20-Win Team:
All 20-Win Team
Well Dave, I'm not going to put together a team because quite frankly, I never got a chance to see Whorton play. I started following KSU bbal my freshman year when Massey was a senior. There are far too many good players that have come through the program and I dont want to leave any off. As far as memories go, the one that sticks out most to me is the Marshall game in which we blew the crap outta them and we got to storm the court. I belive it was for conference championship if I'm not mistake, maybe I'm wrong. But that game was hands down my most memorable. I think Pellegrino actually score a few buckets and every time he drained them, we went nuts.
Also another game that sticks out to me was the Akron game at the MACC when haynes was a senior and the AK-Crappies tried to blend in as KSU students. They were chanting all of the "can't" stuff but as the game wound down and the outcome was finally settled, All of the KSU students were chanting "you can't beat us" That was classic and classy in my opinion and another one of my favorite memories of KSU baskteball.
If i can think of anymore, I'll put them back here.
Thanks barndog and dclear2k,
I'll start with that thread...
dclear2k, if you are talking about the blowout of Marshall in 2002, that was a great one. If I remember, Marshall cut maybe seven or eight points off the lead midway through the second half, and Stan sent all five starters to the scorers table ... almost immediately, the bench started stringing together 3's to kick the score back up ... Stan called the starters back and Greg White looked down the sideline at Stan and mouthed the words "thank you."
Great moment. I think I remember all of that right
Barndog, I checked out the earlier thread. That's good stuff.
Now that the 10 20-win seasons, if people are interesting in updating it now that we have more information, this might be a good time with the special section coming out ... limiting to 10 players, and now that people know more about this team, they may want to add Q, Mike or Al to the mix.
And dclear2k, I'd like to use those memories from the Marshall and Akron games. If you don't mind my using your real name, where you live and the year you graduated under the quote in the newspaper, send that info to me at dcarducci@yahoo.com (with special KSU section as the subject)
yeah, that was the game!! I dont think I could ever forget that one. hell, that season was a fun one after the first 8 games ;-)
My top 5 memories during the 10-year run:
1. The 2001-02 team's run to the Elite 8. I never could've imagined a Kent State team going that far in the NCAA Tournament. And despite blowing out my right ankle shortly before the MAC Tournament, I couldn't resist driving to South Carolina to watch Kent's first- and second-round games. I was kicking myself for not being in attendance for the Flashes first-ever win in the Tournament the year before and vowed to not miss their games in the 2002 tourney. After watching the Flashes win in Greenville, I drove to Lexington the following week to watch the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 games at Rupp Arena.
2. Celebrating on the court at Gund Arena with the Kent basketball team and fans after the Flashes won the 2002 MAC Tournament and personally congratulating Demetric Shaw.
3. Kent State hosting Hawaii in its first BracketBuster game in 2003. In all the years I have attended games, I had never felt such a buzz at the MACC. The place was like one big party, complete with students in togas. It was so loud that I couldn't hear my friend next to me talking. It's the only game that ever left me with a post-game headache due to the fan noise.
4. DeAndre Haynes draining a game-tying three-pointer with 6 seconds left in regulation against Butler in the 2006 BracketBuster. It was one of the most exciting finishes to a game I've seen at the MACC.
5. Kent State's win over St. Mary's in this year's BracketBuster. Maybe its the euphoria of recent events, but it was exciting to see this season's team knock off a ranked opponent on its home floor in such an important game. The way in which the Flashes won -- with hustle and gritty determination -- epitomized how all the Kent State teams have played throughout the last 10 years. While this year's squad automatically joined the 20-win fraternity through its number of victories, I think the St. Mary's win showed why this team has earned its place along side the others during this 10-year run.
Edited: Remembered the students in togas from the first BracketBuster.
I almost forgot the pregaming for the Bracketbuster game the one year, I think it was against Creighton I think where the game was at 9:30am. Theres nothing like rolling out of bed walking to the fridge, and cracking open a cold one at 6am!
Great Barndog, THANKS!
If you don't mind my using your real name and any other info, please email me, too!
Same goes for anyone who posts and is willing to be in the special section ... if anyone would prefer, I can use your handle from the message board.
DavidCarducci Wrote:Great Barndog, THANKS!
If you don't mind my using your real name and any other info, please email me, too!
Check your e-mail.
My top 5 memories from the 10 year run:
5- Attending all the games at the 2001 and 2002 MAC Tournament in Clev. Too many stories to get in to. There was fighting with some Toledo fans, sneaking into the loge, storming the court! It was great!!!!!!
4- 1999- Finally getting to fill out a bracket with Kent in it. My senior year, they finally get their first trip to the Dance. (Of course I had them going to the final 4 on all my poll sheets!)
3- 2001- My KSU roommate and I celebrating their 1st ever Tourney win against Indiana!!! We ordered "Blue and Gold" shots all night. Note: "Blue and Golds" were some kind of blue liquor and the gold was a slice of lemon! Aren't we clever?!??!?! LOL!)
2- Watching the 1st round games in 2002. 1st game I watched from an empty classroom in my school. I am a teacher, and Kent had the early tip time for the Ok St game. So, I passed my 5th graders off, found an empty room, and rooted like heck. 2nd game I watched with my fellow KSU alumni. As soon as the game was in hand we were making our plans for Lexington!!!
1- "The run to the Elite 8"...got to watch 2 of the greatest games (any sport) back to back live and in person at Rupp Arena. Duke-Indiana and Kent-Pitt. Amazing weekend.
Great stuff SteelerFlash,
I'll never forget that weekend in Rupp either... My press seats were front row, foul-line extended from the spot where Jason Williams missed the free throw at the end for Duke ... and Boozer missed the put-back...
As an old Tar Heel fan (family and friends went there, so that was my team when I was young), I've never had any love for Duke.... That was a heck of a thing... then to cover that KSU-Pittsburgh game was one of the great moments of my career.
In my job, I've been fortunate to interview and meet three U.S. presidents, Jack Nicklaus (and on my first day as a professional reporter), Arnold Palmer, Larry Bird and Dr. J, all one-on-one, or close. I've covered a British Open at St. Andrews, a Masters, a PGA Championship and a U.S. Open, two World Series, and spent five years covering the Browns both at home and on the road.
Of all of it, that KSU-Pitt game may be the No. 1 moment for me. Had I been with Ben Curtis at Royal St. George's, that may be different.
If you can, send me your real name, where you live now, etc., so I can include it in the special section. Or I can can just use "SteelerFlash" if you like.
Dave, you have that Marshall game in 2002 correct. It was certainly never in doubt, but obviously Heath wanted to send a message to the reserves. I believe that Anthony Wilkins' coming out party. He had five of the 3s for something like 17 points.
As good as the atmosphere was for the Hawaii game, the next year the atmosphere for the Creighton game was something special because of it being a noon start. I believe both end-zone student sections were packed right after 10:30. Getting students up that early is no easy feat. That was a great game for KSU on national TV with an awesome second-half run. Unfortunately, for the second straight year, the Flashes then went into a tailspin.
Note: this is a very VERY dificult task to only find 5 memorable games...
And thanks Dave for the idea of making a trip down memory lane.
5.) 1998; Beating Akron in the First Round of the MAC Tournament. I remember going to the Jar with a few carloads of Flasher Brass members, mostly to mildly support the team because we clearly expected not to beat the Zips. They were tough that year. But the stunned silence of the Akron fans at the end of the game was classic.
4.) 1999; MAC Championship Game. Wally Czerbiak was the talk of the tourneyment. Waters realized that shutting him down would make it easier to beat Miami. It completely worked. The defense frustrated Miami all night. There was a good crowd of KSU fans, chanting "overrated" for the last minute of the game. But the snonwstorm on the buss ridehome sucked!
3.) 2001; We premiered the rhythm secion this year and completely silenced the other school's bands at the MAC Tournament. It was tough watching the women's finals that day, but that night, the men's team lit up Miami.
2.) 2002; Again with the MAC Tournament. The band brough in bags of confetti. Some official from the Gund told us that the only way we can throw confetti is in the championship game. Too bad for him that both of the men and women made it and won the championship. Heck, I can remember some people I knew in UT's band telling us to just let UT's women win, since we already got a done deal NCAA bid with the men that year. I guess the only people that left that building happy that day was the KSU fans.
1.) Ahhh yes. The dream game. Again with the Flasher Brass. After driving a bus for 5 hours to Lexington. Throwing our crap in our hotel, and going to Rupp Arena. We watched the previous game from our seats. As we played Pitt the band (as we did all through the tournament) kept starting the "ole" cheer, for some reason. But it caught on and apparently it worked. Of course we won in 2 ot's. After the game we went running through Lexington chanting Ole and singing the Fight Song.
Dave, this is really difficult but I will start with my number 1 which was just walking in the arena in Greenville in 2002. I have always loved college basketball and felt that the NCAA tournament is the greatest sporting event in the world. To attend my first NCAA tournament game at 42 years old would have been thrilling enough but to be there to see MY school was almost overwhelming.After the blowout of Alabama on Saturday(which was preceeded by a great Notre Dame- Duke game) I really wanted to give up the golf vacation I was on the way to in Augusta GA. to head back north to Lexington but was the leader of the group and just couldnt do it! It is awesome in the tourney when the neutral fans get behind the underdog the way they did that weekend in Greenville. Especially against Alabama where it seemed like a Kent home game when we started pulling away. I had Kent State stuff on all week on the golf trip and the locals all new who Kent State was and congratulated me everyday at every course we played at. That team was not a Cinderella team it was one hell of a college Basketball team and looking back I think the only upset they were involved in was when IU upset us!What a Great time!
dclear2k Wrote:Well Dave, I'm not going to put together a team because quite frankly, I never got a chance to see Whorton play. I started following KSU bbal my freshman year when Massey was a senior. There are far too many good players that have come through the program and I dont want to leave any off. As far as memories go, the one that sticks out most to me is the Marshall game in which we blew the crap outta them and we got to storm the court. I belive it was for conference championship if I'm not mistake, maybe I'm wrong. But that game was hands down my most memorable. I think Pellegrino actually score a few buckets and every time he drained them, we went nuts.
Also another game that sticks out to me was the Akron game at the MACC when haynes was a senior and the AK-Crappies tried to blend in as KSU students. They were chanting all of the "can't" stuff but as the game wound down and the outcome was finally settled, All of the KSU students were chanting "you can't beat us" That was classic and classy in my opinion and another one of my favorite memories of KSU baskteball.
If i can think of anymore, I'll put them back here.
I was at both those games and remember them like they were yesterday. Two great moments in KSU b-ball history. Nothing beats a good PELL-A-GRINO at the end of a game!
I would also add the home bracketbuster game against Butler to this list (2005?). I'm sure everyone on this board remembers Haynes three-pointer to send the game into overtime. I swear that ball hit every part of the rim and backboard before going in. I think that was the closest I will ever come to a volcanic eruption...total silence for a split second before the massive eruption.
back in a flash Wrote:Dave, this is really difficult but I will start with my number 1 which was just walking in the arena in Greenville in 2002. I have always loved college basketball and felt that the NCAA tournament is the greatest sporting event in the world. To attend my first NCAA tournament game at 42 years old would have been thrilling enough but to be there to see MY school was almost overwhelming.After the blowout of Alabama on Saturday(which was preceeded by a great Notre Dame- Duke game) I really wanted to give up the golf vacation I was on the way to in Augusta GA. to head back north to Lexington but was the leader of the group and just couldnt do it! It is awesome in the tourney when the neutral fans get behind the underdog the way they did that weekend in Greenville. Especially against Alabama where it seemed like a Kent home game when we started pulling away. I had Kent State stuff on all week on the golf trip and the locals all new who Kent State was and congratulated me everyday at every course we played at. That team was not a Cinderella team it was one hell of a college Basketball team and looking back I think the only upset they were involved in was when IU upset us!What a Great time!
Oh, Greenville loved us. I remember the street party they had that Saturday in downtown. It was all about Kent State. People mildly applauded Duke's win, but if you were from KSU, you were a celebrity.
Another game comes to mind for me when I went to Anderson Arena with my brother and a few of his friends. I got to witness Jon Edwards battle that anorexic Kevin Netter. Before the game we went to a place called Frickers and we had a few libatations but we forced my brother to drink a pitcher and a half of beer ;-) Well I must say that place is decrepid in its state, but man that place can get loud in an instant. We had seats right behind the KSU bench and we were sitting right next to Eric Thomas and that was an awesome moment in itself just chatting it up with him. Well Netter was fouled and calmly made his first free throw and my brother, in his liquid courage infused state got sick of seeing Netter at the charity stripe stood up in his seat and started creaming at the top of his lungs. Mind you that the arena was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, and there was my brother screaming his butt off much to the chagrin of the BG faithful. I couldnt help but laugh and noticed everyone on the KSU bench was loving it, I even noticed JC crack a smile while Jakeway, Haut, and Gates were just laughing histerically. Even Eric Thomas was enjoying it rolling around on the ground. Man thats got to be my favorite moment after the Akron and Elite 8 run.
dclear2k Wrote:Another game comes to mind for me when I went to Anderson Arena with my brother and a few of his friends. I got to witness Jon Edwards battle that anorexic Kevin Netter. Before the game we went to a place called Frickers and we had a few libatations but we forced my brother to drink a pitcher and a half of beer ;-) Well I must say that place is decrepid in its state, but man that place can get loud in an instant. We had seats right behind the KSU bench and we were sitting right next to Eric Thomas and that was an awesome moment in itself just chatting it up with him. Well Netter was fouled and calmly made his first free throw and my brother, in his liquid courage infused state got sick of seeing Netter at the charity stripe stood up in his seat and started creaming at the top of his lungs. Mind you that the arena was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, and there was my brother screaming his butt off much to the chagrin of the BG faithful. I couldnt help but laugh and noticed everyone on the KSU bench was loving it, I even noticed JC crack a smile while Jakeway, Haut, and Gates were just laughing histerically. Even Eric Thomas was enjoying it rolling around on the ground. Man thats got to be my favorite moment after the Akron and Elite 8 run.
This may not be the same game, but I remember attending the 2002 game at Anderson. A BG player (don't remember who) stole the ball from Kent and was on his way to an easy lay-up when Mitchell ran in and swatted the ball away with authority seemingly out of nowhere. I was going so nuts at the top of the arena that the camera guy told me to calm down because I was shaking the platform!!! I believe the picture ended up on the front page of the Stater. That was one of the most incredible individual plays I have ever seen.
I'll be there saturday and I hope to see a large contingent of KSU fans there!!
5. Watching Ed Norvell cut down the nets in Toledo, giving KSU their first ever MAC Championship.
4. Trevor Huffman and Andrew Mitchell hitting back-to-back shots in the closing minutes to knock off Indiana for Kent's first ever NCAA win.
3. Kevin Warzinski catching fire and winning MAC Tournament MVP as Kent won the 2006 championship.
2. Antonio Gates and Huffman dominating Alabama on their way to the Sweet 16.
1. The Overtime classic against Pittsburgh. Overcoming one of the worst calls in tourney history, and advancing to the Elite Eight.