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

The Golden Flashes host the University at Buffalo Bulls on Friday. The game will be televised by CBS Sports Network.

Buffalo is 7-7 and coming off a home loss to Akron. What a difference a year makes when you look at this UB squad. For a moment it appeared that Buffalo Basketball was turning the corner. But most of us here know how Hurley left, took some talent with him and how one of their better players was dismissed from the school.

But there are some familiar names left. Senior Jarryn Skeete can get hot and be a difference maker on any given night. Sophomore Lamonte Bearden is leading the Bulls in scoring with 13 per night. Bearden was named to the All Freshman team last season. The leading rebounder for Buffalo is returning 6'5 wing Rodell Wigginton with 6.7 boards a game.

Two other double digit scorers for Buffalo are freshman guard CJ Massinburg (10.9ppg) and 6'6 JUCO transfer Blake Hamilton (10.6ppg). Buffalo has a couple big front line players but neither jumps off the stat sheet.

I think this is a good matchup for the Flashes. The backcourt seems to match up well with Buffalo and KSU should have an nice advantage under the basket. This may be a nice night to bring out some of that zone that we saw against Cleveland State. If UB can hit shots (31% from deep as a team)....good for them.

Big game. A chance to move to 2-0 and knock an Eastern Division foe to 0-2. I think the Flashes get it done.

Kent State 79
SUNY at Buffalo 71
Jimmy Hall has a house party (he don't need nobody) with 21

I really hope we play well and beat these jokers. There are teams I don't like and then there are teams I just want to see lose, whether to us or someone else. UB is one of those teams.

Walker can play. Cancer.....well...???

When 7-7 Buffalo renders Spicer and KSU's inside game irrelevant....your just okay. Just okay.

*And Ortiz gets a T with 4 seconds left. Nice.

*Friggin Beardon can play. Beat guys off the dribble like it was his job. Connors, or Connor or whatever, is tough. He got into heads tonight...and backed it up with a big game. UB has a nice backcourt. But again, the fact that they took KSU out of their game with the players they have in the frontcourt.....wow.

Tough game to sit through. Hard to see all the missed long-balls come back. Wish we could've got more inside looks.

The whole game was a joke. Hall can't go to the line? Spicer was nonexistent. If he can't generate anything put in Davis. I do like the 1-3-1 to get a team off guard. But it was brutal.

Fell behind by 12 points early in the game and fought back to tie it at the half. Then we come out and immediately fall behind by ten in the second half. Ugh! Also couldn't shoot threes at all. Buffalo was much quicker tonight.

Trying not to overreact after what was clearly our worst performance of the year but there's some very troublesome trends going on with this team. Rebounding and post play was supposed to be our strength and tonight it was nonexistent. You can't be a weak outside shooting team and not control the interior and expect to win games. We're very poor at defending the three. Jimmy Hall needs to pass the ball, period. We know he can dish pretty well he needs to be more willing to do it. Tonight he tried to go through double and triple teams repeatedly and looked terrible doing it.

We need to work at setting up plays to get Walker looks at threes. He might be the only shooter on the team. Need to use him.

I strongly dislike Buffalo, but to their credit they won with class tonight. They did their share of arguing but I thought we were getting the friendly whistle a lot tonight. When it was clear they won and we lost our cool they didn't celebrate or taunt us and it looked like they all kept their mouths shut in the hand shake line then walked off the court without celebrating.

(01-08-2016 10:01 PM)anti-zip Wrote:  Trying not to overreact after what was clearly our worst performance of the year but there's some very troublesome trends going on with this team. Rebounding and post play was supposed to be our strength and tonight it was nonexistent. You can't be a weak outside shooting team and not control the interior and expect to win games. We're very poor at defending the three. Jimmy Hall needs to pass the ball, period. We know he can dish pretty well he needs to be more willing to do it. Tonight he tried to go through double and triple teams repeatedly and looked terrible doing it.

We need to work at setting up plays to get Walker looks at threes. He might be the only shooter on the team. Need to use him.

I strongly dislike Buffalo, but to their credit they won with class tonight. They did their share of arguing but I thought we were getting the friendly whistle a lot tonight. When it was clear they won and we lost our cool they didn't celebrate or taunt us and it looked like they all kept their mouths shut in the hand shake line then walked off the court without celebrating.

I didn't see a second of the game, but that is not what I heard. I heard someone from UB spit on Ortiz which is why he got his first half technical foul. I also heard there was plenty of UB shadiness going on throughout the game.

I had a flashback to the elite eight game with all the made threes and battling back throughout the game. I did like the emotion and play of Pollard as they fought back. Very tough team we have that hasn't given up on a game yet. I was surprised that nothing came from Conners grabbing the ball and tossing it at Hall, they even went to the monitors and still called nothing. It seems the players get into it with Buffalo as much as they do Akron. So because of that over the past few years my dislike for Buffalo is starting to get down there with Akron.

I was there and I could be wrong but it appeared to me that after a game of taunting our bench and fans that Bearden did not partake in the post-game handshake line. I think he sprinted right off to the locker room.

That said, how our team lets a 120 lb twig come in and punk us on the court and off it for a second year in a row is disgusting.

Do not want to panic but I have grave concerns about our team. We are slow, relative to UB, and this may be the worst shooting team for us in recent memory. In today's college BB environment, how do you end up with 13 players without one shooter? I realize that you can win some games, and not be a good shooting team, but every other part of the game had better be strong. Coach really has his work cut out for himself.

(01-08-2016 10:01 PM)anti-zip Wrote:  Trying not to overreact after what was clearly our worst performance of the year but there's some very troublesome trends going on with this team. Rebounding and post play was supposed to be our strength and tonight it was nonexistent. You can't be a weak outside shooting team and not control the interior and expect to win games. We're very poor at defending the three. Jimmy Hall needs to pass the ball, period. We know he can dish pretty well he needs to be more willing to do it. Tonight he tried to go through double and triple teams repeatedly and looked terrible doing it.

We need to work at setting up plays to get Walker looks at threes. He might be the only shooter on the team. Need to use him.

I strongly dislike Buffalo, but to their credit they won with class tonight. They did their share of arguing but I thought we were getting the friendly whistle a lot tonight. When it was clear they won and we lost our cool they didn't celebrate or taunt us and it looked like they all kept their mouths shut in the hand shake line then walked off the court without celebrating.

I must have attended a different game because I thought Buffalo showed absolutely zero class. Everyone of their players appeared to be talking trash, their guards were showboating, and their coach was all over the floor.

Very disappointing game that again highlighted our inability to shoot the ball, but the disappointment comes from more than just our inability to shoot the ball. The entire game day experience is rough, from the forced traditions (running of the K), the fight song constantly played at the absolute wrong times, the cheer and dance teams not nearly as good as they were a decade ago, the lack of fan turnout and interest...the entire game experience is no where close to what it was a decade ago or where it should be.

(01-08-2016 11:35 PM)jbails0881 Wrote:  

(01-08-2016 10:01 PM)anti-zip Wrote:  Trying not to overreact after what was clearly our worst performance of the year but there's some very troublesome trends going on with this team. Rebounding and post play was supposed to be our strength and tonight it was nonexistent. You can't be a weak outside shooting team and not control the interior and expect to win games. We're very poor at defending the three. Jimmy Hall needs to pass the ball, period. We know he can dish pretty well he needs to be more willing to do it. Tonight he tried to go through double and triple teams repeatedly and looked terrible doing it.

We need to work at setting up plays to get Walker looks at threes. He might be the only shooter on the team. Need to use him.

I strongly dislike Buffalo, but to their credit they won with class tonight. They did their share of arguing but I thought we were getting the friendly whistle a lot tonight. When it was clear they won and we lost our cool they didn't celebrate or taunt us and it looked like they all kept their mouths shut in the hand shake line then walked off the court without celebrating.

I must have attended a different game because I thought Buffalo showed absolutely zero class. Everyone of their players appeared to be talking trash, their guards were showboating, and their coach was all over the floor.

Very disappointing game that again highlighted our inability to shoot the ball, but the disappointment comes from more than just our inability to shoot the ball. The entire game day experience is rough, from the forced traditions (running of the K), the fight song constantly played at the absolute wrong times, the cheer and dance teams not nearly as good as they were a decade ago, the lack of fan turnout and interest...the entire game experience is no where close to what it was a decade ago or where it should be.

Keep in mind this is still a Christmas break game. They usually are lackluster and drab. I do agree about the running of the K. And I'm not disagreeing with you. Just consider reassessing your stance in a month.

(01-08-2016 11:25 PM)GFlash68 Wrote:  Do not want to panic but I have grave concerns about our team. We are slow, relative to UB, and this may be the worst shooting team for us in recent memory. In today's college BB environment, how do you end up with 13 players without one shooter? I realize that you can win some games, and not be a good shooting team, but every other part of the game had better be strong. Coach really has his work cut out for himself.

Had to watch on TV and have to agree. We are going to see some teams that will launch way more threes than UB - maybe 30 from a team like Akron. It's just part of the game - Ball State hammered UT with them on Wed. We won't win too many if we end up making 2 or 3 three pointers per game. Lack of outside shooting made it far to easy for UB to trap Hall. Not looking forward to our trip to their place that's been a house of horrors for us. I dislike UB but their coach assembled a very competitive team in a few months. Someone commented on Ortiz - tome he is a bit like Henniger in that he hasn't developed physically beyond the sophomore year.

I could give a hoot in hell about Buffalo's class or lack there of. Its a non issue as far as Kent State Basketball goes.

Getting beat to the basket is of much greater concern.

Glad we got the kinks out during that Oberlin game.......

(01-09-2016 11:08 AM)fallsdog Wrote:  I could give a hoot in hell about Buffalo's class or lack there of. Its a non issue as far as Kent State Basketball goes.

Getting beat to the basket is of much greater concern.

Ordinarily you'd be right.

But when their lack of class get right into our heads and affected our game entirely, you'd better start caring.

(01-09-2016 11:53 AM)JimJoyce Wrote:  

(01-09-2016 11:08 AM)fallsdog Wrote:  I could give a hoot in hell about Buffalo's class or lack there of. Its a non issue as far as Kent State Basketball goes.

Getting beat to the basket is of much greater concern.

Ordinarily you'd be right.

But when their lack of class get right into our heads and affected our game entirely, you'd better start caring.

Excuses excuses

(01-08-2016 11:35 PM)jbails0881 Wrote:  

(01-08-2016 10:01 PM)anti-zip Wrote:  Trying not to overreact after what was clearly our worst performance of the year but there's some very troublesome trends going on with this team. Rebounding and post play was supposed to be our strength and tonight it was nonexistent. You can't be a weak outside shooting team and not control the interior and expect to win games. We're very poor at defending the three. Jimmy Hall needs to pass the ball, period. We know he can dish pretty well he needs to be more willing to do it. Tonight he tried to go through double and triple teams repeatedly and looked terrible doing it.

We need to work at setting up plays to get Walker looks at threes. He might be the only shooter on the team. Need to use him.

I strongly dislike Buffalo, but to their credit they won with class tonight. They did their share of arguing but I thought we were getting the friendly whistle a lot tonight. When it was clear they won and we lost our cool they didn't celebrate or taunt us and it looked like they all kept their mouths shut in the hand shake line then walked off the court without celebrating.

I must have attended a different game because I thought Buffalo showed absolutely zero class. Everyone of their players appeared to be talking trash, their guards were showboating, and their coach was all over the floor.

Very disappointing game that again highlighted our inability to shoot the ball, but the disappointment comes from more than just our inability to shoot the ball. The entire game day experience is rough, from the forced traditions (running of the K), the fight song constantly played at the absolute wrong times, the cheer and dance teams not nearly as good as they were a decade ago, the lack of fan turnout and interest...the entire game experience is no where close to what it was a decade ago or where it should be.

I agree. The running of the K is one of the dumbest things I have ever seen. Really forced. The teen age girls at half time made our dance team look terrible. Their routines were 10 times better than ours.