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Basketball recruiting question - anti-zip - 11-23-2009 07:14 PM
If you guys havn't seen yet DC's blog on the RC site says that Kent got another commitment from a 6-3 wing who sounds like hes pretty good. Also I just saw that scout.com says a kid named Micheal Green from Dublin commited also. I havn't read anything about Green so maybe that was a mistake. Either way I wonder where these scholarships are coming from. I thought Nealy was the suposed to be the final memeber of next year's class?
RE: Basketball recruiting question - anti-zip - 11-23-2009 07:31 PM
Nevermind on Green ESPN says he is commited to Akron so I'm guessing that is just a mistake.
RE: Basketball recruiting question - AlphaFlash - 11-23-2009 08:56 PM
(11-23-2009 07:31 PM)anti-zip Wrote: Nevermind on Green ESPN says he is commited to Akron so I'm guessing that is just a mistake.
I'm not liking where our program is going...
RE: Basketball recruiting question - GFlash68 - 11-23-2009 09:04 PM
Why not like it? This may be the best recruiting class in the program's history. I love it.
RE: Basketball recruiting question - AlphaFlash - 11-23-2009 09:27 PM
Not the b-ball program, but our overall athletic dept. We are seriously getting passed up by Akron in many ways. They are simply marketing our guns off. Is our president so blind to not see this happening? The Zips are the big thing in town right now. And not just because they have the new stadium, but because they actually market their athletic program. This will surely translate to their admissions office this year.
RE: Basketball recruiting question - KentKrazy - 11-23-2009 09:48 PM
How are a few football/basketball billboards around Akron going to help their admissions? Their one NCAA berth and 2 football wins are NOT overshadowing anything Kent teams are doing.
RE: Basketball recruiting question - AlphaFlash - 11-23-2009 10:08 PM
Kentville, maybe I'm not seeing the whole picture living in Raleigh. However, what was once a few billboards, as opposed to Kent's 1 billboard on SR 43, in Streetsboro, has gotten a bit of noteriety. 2 weeks ago I was home visiting and Akron had an ESPN game and several radio spots. Maybe it was just a weekend thing. Maybe its because I'm just visiting NE Ohio on bad weekends. Maybe its just the novelty of the new stadium. But it will translate to bigger things in high school guidace offices.
RE: Basketball recruiting question - anti-zip - 11-23-2009 10:21 PM
AlphaFlash, I didn't meant to imply I felt Akron beat us for Green. I was just suprised when I looked on Scout.com and saw he was listed as commited to Kent since I havn't heard about him. Not that the rankings mean anything but most sites have just about all of our recruits ranked above him so I'm perfectly content with our guys. I do understand what you mean about their marketing and I hope LK's replacement will start turning this around. Remember Akron has someone in their corner that Kent can't compete with. I'm still waiting for them to rename the James A. Rhoades arena to the Lebron James A. Rhoades arena.
RE: Basketball recruiting question - rockets24 - 11-23-2009 10:25 PM
This may help answer some questions in regards to recent changes in our listed recruits vs actual commits.
http://www.blogs.dixcdn.com/kentstatesports/?p=539#comments
Been a while since i've posted...but still here.
RE: Basketball recruiting question - anti-zip - 11-23-2009 10:28 PM
Thanks Rocket24, I read that earlier. I started this topic when I saw this guy Green listed as commited to us too. So I thought there was more going on. Looks like it was just a mistake on scout.com though.
RE: Basketball recruiting question - naeskent77 - 11-23-2009 10:35 PM
Deshawn clay is the new guy for kent. Just watched a YouTube highlight video of him he looks like a beasttttttt. Guess he was originally supposed to go to Baylor but it fell through?
RE: Basketball recruiting question - FlashFan - 11-24-2009 11:58 AM
(11-23-2009 09:27 PM)AlphaFlash Wrote: Not the b-ball program, but our overall athletic dept. We are seriously getting passed up by Akron in many ways. They are simply marketing our guns off. Is our president so blind to not see this happening? The Zips are the big thing in town right now. And not just because they have the new stadium, but because they actually market their athletic program. This will surely translate to their admissions office this year.
Really? How do you explain the record enrollment at KSU- up 12%? Or, how have we been identified as the 4th most desired state university
(measured as where students want their SAT scores sent) while Akron is 12th?
There are many things I'd do differently if I were Lestor Lefton. However, I think his investment in the campus, the quality of education and finally building a downtown in Kent is going to lap any bill boards Akron puts up. As much as some of us would like it to be otherwise , qualified students who have a primary interest in big time sports as part of their college decision are not looking at MAC schools. Those programs don't worry about counting "billboards." How many " Come See Duke Basketball ads" do you see in North Carolina?
RE: Basketball recruiting question - Kballard122 - 11-24-2009 12:24 PM
I agree FlashFan. I'm not really worried about Akron. The schools are very dissimilar in a lot of ways including athletics and I think our basketball team has done a lot of speaking for itself in the past few years. The $200m in renovations they are doing to the campus in the next 3-5 years will help boost the already record enrollment. Plus we are a larger school than they are in terms of student population and growth as it is. We murder Akron in research money and research production and I have an inside perspective on that one. Akron is much better than Kent when it comes to polymer science and inorganic science but if their business school could hold a candle to ours companies from Akron such as Goodyear wouldn't be pumping millions of dollars into Kent's business school instead of their hometown one. Not to mention our school isn't really going into debt for any of that.
We're getting a new Art School, New Technology Building, better science facilities than we already have (they are already quite nice,) renovations to all of our major programs, and extending the esplanade all the way to the downtown that is already SOOO much better than it was 2-3 years ago. Akron doesn't worry me in recruiting and it's hard to argue with the direction of the athletic department especially when we won so many MAC titles last year including best overall MAC program and we repeat that pretty regularly.
It would be nice if ESPN would pay better attention and we won't get that without the "hey look at me" approach. But they do start to pay attention on a national level when we start drawing attention to ourselves. When we were standing firmly in the bubble 2 seasons ago in basketball (according to most "experts") they were certainly talking a lot about us.
RE: Basketball recruiting question - thanksjim - 11-24-2009 12:47 PM
I had lunch with President Lefton a few weeks ago and I am very encouraged in the direction he is taking Kent State. He talked about wanting to make Kent State where people wanted to go. He wanted people to recognize that there is a difference between going to KSU, Akron, CSU, YSU. In essence, he sees KSU becoming the Miami of Northeast Ohio. He compared Akron to Walmart (bottom) and compared KSU to a Dillards (middle of the road). I thought that was a great analogy.
The best part that President Lefton said is KSU is at the point where they can begin to weed out the lower students. This was such a encouraging thing to hear. While we have admissions standards, unlike a school down the road, they really are nothing special.
If anyone would like me to elaborate on anything else, let me know. I have some things I need to get done now, but would be happy to answer anything the next time I'm on.
RE: Basketball recruiting question - BrashFlash - 11-24-2009 01:09 PM
CrAkron Blue and Beige... The official uniform of WalMart employees. I have said it before.
RE: Basketball recruiting question - anti-zip - 11-24-2009 02:05 PM
(11-23-2009 10:35 PM)naeskent77 Wrote: Deshawn clay is the new guy for kent. Just watched a YouTube highlight video of him he looks like a beasttttttt. Guess he was originally supposed to go to Baylor but it fell through?
naeskent77, I agree with you. I think this is a great addition. The one concern I had with the current class we had coming in was 3 point shooting. Mckee and Evans are by far our best 3 point shooters. The guards who figure to take over minutes vacated by Evans Mckee and Singltary where Pickney, Guyton, and Gaines. Based on everything I've read about Guyton and Gaines and what I've seen from Pickney they are not great three point shooters. Guyton only his 8 all last year however, he has 4 already this year so maybe he's improved. Anyways, I think Clay will really help ease the loss of Mckee and Evans.
RE: Basketball recruiting question - naeskent77 - 11-24-2009 02:20 PM
clays shot just looks so smooth from deep and yes I agree we probably wont be as strong of a 3 pt shooting team next year, but he will certainly help
RE: Basketball recruiting question - AlphaFlash - 11-25-2009 01:42 PM
(11-24-2009 11:58 AM)FlashFan Wrote:(11-23-2009 09:27 PM)AlphaFlash Wrote: Not the b-ball program, but our overall athletic dept. We are seriously getting passed up by Akron in many ways. They are simply marketing our guns off. Is our president so blind to not see this happening? The Zips are the big thing in town right now. And not just because they have the new stadium, but because they actually market their athletic program. This will surely translate to their admissions office this year.
Really? How do you explain the record enrollment at KSU- up 12%? Or, how have we been identified as the 4th most desired state university
(measured as where students want their SAT scores sent) while Akron is 12th?
There are many things I'd do differently if I were Lestor Lefton. However, I think his investment in the campus, the quality of education and finally building a downtown in Kent is going to lap any bill boards Akron puts up. As much as some of us would like it to be otherwise , qualified students who have a primary interest in big time sports as part of their college decision are not looking at MAC schools. Those programs don't worry about counting "billboards." How many " Come See Duke Basketball ads" do you see in North Carolina?
Bro, you asked a question, I'll answer. We don't see any Duke advertising. There is a lot of NC State competing with UNC. UNC doesn't have many citywide advertising because Chapel Hill is a place people simply go. So, they have locals always going in and out of campus. The community/school relationship is a model of what I can guess Kent is trying to achieve. For obvious reasons, the community loves it when 75,000 people go to the community to see the teams. NC State blends in to the city of Raleigh well. Almost too well. Duke is a private school, so they are very selective.
The asset to Chapel Hill is UNC Athletics. I believe this is where Kent has dropped the ball over the years. People come to see a game, they walk around campus, and they eat at restaurants. Its quality entertainment for a whole family. not just troublemakers, but families. It gets people interested in the school.
The people in the city barely tolerate when the students return for classes. Athletics has the ability to make the town love the school. That is what I mean about dropping the ball in marketing. That is what I mean about being concerned for our (athletic) program.
As far as enrollment, its up everywhere. People are just going back to school. It was even a bear for me to enroll in 1 class at Carolina this year.
I will say that I am encouraged for what some of you replied. It was just nauseating when I came home and all I heard about was Akron's so-called big game.
RE: Basketball recruiting question - burden - 11-28-2009 10:17 AM
With Laing leaving there has to be some concern. When you have a transition like that there is always a chance things will really get messed up as the new guy puts his stamp on the program. Fans are fickle and the general public only cares about football and mens basketball. If Akron does well there and throws in their soccer (you can't ignore that they might win the NCAA championship) team for good measure they can quickly become the hot topic. The Cleveland media won't ignore them like they did Kent from 1999-2002 because of LeBron. Of course if LeBron leaves after this season people at the PD might never say the word Akron again. The way Shaq is appearing to make them look worse LeBron just might conclude there will be no championship in Cleveland and try somewhere else. A lot could happen in the next 9 or 10 months.
RE: Basketball recruiting question - KStud - 11-30-2009 12:05 AM
It looks like the scholarships are used, but it would not have hurt to kick the tires on Walter Offutt, a guard who left Ohio State last week.