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

With an extra day away from the office I figured I would start a thread on Saturday's game against the College olde and grande! But first, a look around the Mid American Conference.

As it stands there seems to be three tiers of teams as conference play gets underway. I'll get a little crazy here and call them group 1, group 2 and group 3.

Group One
Kent State Golden Flashes:
This early assessment is, for the most part, based on record only. That said, we know all about KSU's "good losses", high NET Ranking (currently 40), and returning talent. While the Golden Flash fan in me wants to believe this is Kent's conference to lose, the analytic side of me knows to throw out the numbers above, wait and see all while enjoying the ride. I'd rather break down teams I know virtually nothing about anyway.

Ball State Cardinals:
BSU is 10-4, boasts a NET ranking of 102 and is coming off a nice road win at Savage Hall. Although none of their wins jump off the page as overly impressive, that's tough to find in the MAC this year anyway. The Cardinals are unbeaten at home and started conference play with a big road win. Not that it always works like this, but a road win in January can help offset the inevitable home clunker that all MAC teams face. One thing that does stick out to me about BSU is how balanced their attack seems with four players averaging 13 or more points AND 4 or more rebounds per game. The Flashes will see Ball State at the MAC Center in late January and return the trip about a month later.

Toledo Rockets:
The Rockets are 9-5 with a NET of 117. Their schedule is actually quite appealing to a mid major junkie like myself as they have played and defeated Vermont, Northern Iowa, Richmond and UAB while losing at George Mason and Marshall in reasonably close games. The thing about Toledo is that this seems like a repeat of a long-standing tradition; high expectations, decent record but nothing much comes of it. But what you can't ignore about UT is the three headed monster of RayJ Dennis, JT Shumate and Setric Millner. Dennis is averaging just under 20 per game, Shumate is right behind him and Millner scores 14 per night to go along with nearly 7 rebounds. For now, UT stays in Group One. Time will tell for how long.

Akron Zips:
I know, I know screw z roo and write haiku. But this is a John Groce coached team that went to the Cayman Islands and held their own against some pretty stiff competition. With a 9-5 record, including an opening night home win over NIU and an 8-0 home, non-conference slate...The Zips can have a seat at my table for now. Don't be surprised if Akron enters the February 4th game vs. Kent with a 6-2 conference record.

Group Two
Ohio Bobcats
Ohio University, or Ohio U. as they prefer to be called is 8-6 with NET ranking of 130. They lost at Buffalo to open conference play and the only thing about their schedule and results that is impressive is a 4 point loss to the Victors Valliant in Ann Arbor. We will get an up close and personal look at Ohio next Friday when they visit the Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center. For more info on the Cats please reach out J.S. Fitzgerald or whatever that guys name is/was that used to drop in here to lament his favorite teams shortcomings.

Bowling Green Falcons
BG is 7-7. On a sad note, former BG head coach Louis Orr passed away in December. Coach Orr always came across as a classy individual and a great representative of BG and the MAC. I was sad to hear of his passing and I hope that he and Coach Coles are talking zone defense somewhere better than here.


Buffalo Bulls
The University at Buffalo is 7-7 and nowhere to be found in the NET rankings. Oh...hold on...they are at 190. But they are coming off a nice win over Ohio U. and boast wins over George Mason and Saint Bonaventure. Like Ball State they have a balanced offensive attack. Real or imagined, they also have a nice homecourt advantage and have for years. I always got a kick out of Ty Linder's calls from Alumni Arena. He and Dave Carducci did a great job of making the listener feel the atmosphere inside that place. The Bulls and Flashes will meet at the MAC Center for a 9:00PM affair to be televised on ESPNU on January 27th.

Group Three
I can't. And don't get me wrong, one of these five is probably "better" than someone I listed above. But I am trying to be nice here. So I will reserve comment on any of these squads until we've seen some more con-fer-ence action.
Miami Redhawks

Northern Illinois

The Michigans

Oh, sorry burden, I almost forgot. As for the game Saturday...

Take Miami against the spread.

Kent 69
The Harvard of Ohio 65.5

Thanks for the analysis.

My take is the key is to not take bad losses this year. The MAC is really not that strong (18th in conference rankings I've seen), but nothing is easy in the MAC on the road, so not taking L's in Mount Pleasant or DeKalb will probably be the difference between 1st and 4th.

GFlash68:

I appreciate you calling it that! And you are welcome. I love “talking” MAC Hoops.

bopol:
I think that you are spot on. Will KSU fall to BSU, or Toledo or maybe Akron….sure. But beat the (snot out of) of the little sisters and you will be right there!

(01-04-2023 04:59 PM)bopol Wrote:  My take is the key is to not take bad losses this year. The MAC is really not that strong (18th in conference rankings I've seen), but nothing is easy in the MAC on the road, so not taking L's in Mount Pleasant or DeKalb will probably be the difference between 1st and 4th.

The MAC bottom feeders are going to pull us down win or lose. We dropped 11 spots in the RPI rankings after BEATING Western. Like a handful of conference teams, their RPI is around 300 which is just a killer for a team sniffing an at-large bid.

(01-04-2023 05:21 PM)goldenflash99 Wrote:  

(01-04-2023 04:59 PM)bopol Wrote:  My take is the key is to not take bad losses this year. The MAC is really not that strong (18th in conference rankings I've seen), but nothing is easy in the MAC on the road, so not taking L's in Mount Pleasant or DeKalb will probably be the difference between 1st and 4th.

The MAC bottom feeders are going to pull us down win or lose. We dropped 11 spots in the RPI rankings after BEATING Western. Like a handful of conference teams, their RPI is around 300 which is just a killer for a team sniffing an at-large bid.

I'm not really worried about an 'at-large' bid. I just want to enjoy a good club that has a very good chance of winning the MAC. That would make a nice year.

Agree 100

(01-04-2023 02:40 PM)fallsdog Wrote:  With an extra day away from the office I figured I would start a thread on Saturday's game against the College olde and grande! But first, a look around the Mid American Conference.

As it stands there seems to be three tiers of teams as conference play gets underway. I'll get a little crazy here and call them group 1, group 2 and group 3.

Group One
Kent State Golden Flashes:
This early assessment is, for the most part, based on record only. That said, we know all about KSU's "good losses", high NET Ranking (currently 40), and returning talent. While the Golden Flash fan in me wants to believe this is Kent's conference to lose, the analytic side of me knows to throw out the numbers above, wait and see all while enjoying the ride. I'd rather break down teams I know virtually nothing about anyway.

Ball State Cardinals:
BSU is 10-4, boasts a NET ranking of 102 and is coming off a nice road win at Savage Hall. Although none of their wins jump off the page as overly impressive, that's tough to find in the MAC this year anyway. The Cardinals are unbeaten at home and started conference play with a big road win. Not that it always works like this, but a road win in January can help offset the inevitable home clunker that all MAC teams face. One thing that does stick out to me about BSU is how balanced their attack seems with four players averaging 13 or more points AND 4 or more rebounds per game. The Flashes will see Ball State at the MAC Center in late January and return the trip about a month later.

Toledo Rockets:
The Rockets are 9-5 with a NET of 117. Their schedule is actually quite appealing to a mid major junkie like myself as they have played and defeated Vermont, Northern Iowa, Richmond and UAB while losing at George Mason and Marshall in reasonably close games. The thing about Toledo is that this seems like a repeat of a long-standing tradition; high expectations, decent record but nothing much comes of it. But what you can't ignore about UT is the three headed monster of RayJ Dennis, JT Shumate and Setric Millner. Dennis is averaging just under 20 per game, Shumate is right behind him and Millner scores 14 per night to go along with nearly 7 rebounds. For now, UT stays in Group One. Time will tell for how long.

Akron Zips:
I know, I know screw z roo and write haiku. But this is a John Groce coached team that went to the Cayman Islands and held their own against some pretty stiff competition. With a 9-5 record, including an opening night home win over NIU and an 8-0 home, non-conference slate...The Zips can have a seat at my table for now. Don't be surprised if Akron enters the February 4th game vs. Kent with a 6-2 conference record.

Group Two
Ohio Bobcats
Ohio University, or Ohio U. as they prefer to be called is 8-6 with NET ranking of 130. They lost at Buffalo to open conference play and the only thing about their schedule and results that is impressive is a 4 point loss to the Victors Valliant in Ann Arbor. We will get an up close and personal look at Ohio next Friday when they visit the Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center. For more info on the Cats please reach out J.S. Fitzgerald or whatever that guys name is/was that used to drop in here to lament his favorite teams shortcomings.

Bowling Green Falcons
BG is 7-7. On a sad note, former BG head coach Louis Orr passed away in December. Coach Orr always came across as a classy individual and a great representative of BG and the MAC. I was sad to hear of his passing and I hope that he and Coach Coles are talking zone defense somewhere better than here.


Buffalo Bulls
The University at Buffalo is 7-7 and nowhere to be found in the NET rankings. Oh...hold on...they are at 190. But they are coming off a nice win over Ohio U. and boast wins over George Mason and Saint Bonaventure. Like Ball State they have a balanced offensive attack. Real or imagined, they also have a nice homecourt advantage and have for years. I always got a kick out of Ty Linder's calls from Alumni Arena. He and Dave Carducci did a great job of making the listener feel the atmosphere inside that place. The Bulls and Flashes will meet at the MAC Center for a 9:00PM affair to be televised on ESPNU on January 27th.

Group Three
I can't. And don't get me wrong, one of these five is probably "better" than someone I listed above. But I am trying to be nice here. So I will reserve comment on any of these squads until we've seen some more con-fer-ence action.
Miami Redhawks

Northern Illinois

The Michigans

Oh, sorry burden, I almost forgot. As for the game Saturday...

Take Miami against the spread.

Kent 69
The Harvard of Ohio 65.5

Two things...one, we actually prefer Ohio versus Ohio U. And, two, you're coming to our place next Friday.

(01-04-2023 05:21 PM)goldenflash99 Wrote:  

(01-04-2023 04:59 PM)bopol Wrote:  My take is the key is to not take bad losses this year. The MAC is really not that strong (18th in conference rankings I've seen), but nothing is easy in the MAC on the road, so not taking L's in Mount Pleasant or DeKalb will probably be the difference between 1st and 4th.

The MAC bottom feeders are going to pull us down win or lose. We dropped 11 spots in the RPI rankings after BEATING Western. Like a handful of conference teams, their RPI is around 300 which is just a killer for a team sniffing an at-large bid.

Wait, RPI is still tracked somewhere? I thought it was widely accepted that RPI was too simple to have value.

(01-04-2023 02:40 PM)fallsdog Wrote:  With an extra day away from the office I figured I would start a thread on Saturday's game against the College olde and grande! But first, a look around the Mid American Conference.

As it stands there seems to be three tiers of teams as conference play gets underway. I'll get a little crazy here and call them group 1, group 2 and group 3.

Group One
Kent State Golden Flashes:
This early assessment is, for the most part, based on record only. That said, we know all about KSU's "good losses", high NET Ranking (currently 40), and returning talent. While the Golden Flash fan in me wants to believe this is Kent's conference to lose, the analytic side of me knows to throw out the numbers above, wait and see all while enjoying the ride. I'd rather break down teams I know virtually nothing about anyway.

Ball State Cardinals:
BSU is 10-4, boasts a NET ranking of 102 and is coming off a nice road win at Savage Hall. Although none of their wins jump off the page as overly impressive, that's tough to find in the MAC this year anyway. The Cardinals are unbeaten at home and started conference play with a big road win. Not that it always works like this, but a road win in January can help offset the inevitable home clunker that all MAC teams face. One thing that does stick out to me about BSU is how balanced their attack seems with four players averaging 13 or more points AND 4 or more rebounds per game. The Flashes will see Ball State at the MAC Center in late January and return the trip about a month later.

Toledo Rockets:
The Rockets are 9-5 with a NET of 117. Their schedule is actually quite appealing to a mid major junkie like myself as they have played and defeated Vermont, Northern Iowa, Richmond and UAB while losing at George Mason and Marshall in reasonably close games. The thing about Toledo is that this seems like a repeat of a long-standing tradition; high expectations, decent record but nothing much comes of it. But what you can't ignore about UT is the three headed monster of RayJ Dennis, JT Shumate and Setric Millner. Dennis is averaging just under 20 per game, Shumate is right behind him and Millner scores 14 per night to go along with nearly 7 rebounds. For now, UT stays in Group One. Time will tell for how long.

Akron Zips:
I know, I know screw z roo and write haiku. But this is a John Groce coached team that went to the Cayman Islands and held their own against some pretty stiff competition. With a 9-5 record, including an opening night home win over NIU and an 8-0 home, non-conference slate...The Zips can have a seat at my table for now. Don't be surprised if Akron enters the February 4th game vs. Kent with a 6-2 conference record.

Group Two
Ohio Bobcats
Ohio University, or Ohio U. as they prefer to be called is 8-6 with NET ranking of 130. They lost at Buffalo to open conference play and the only thing about their schedule and results that is impressive is a 4 point loss to the Victors Valliant in Ann Arbor. We will get an up close and personal look at Ohio next Friday when they visit the Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center. For more info on the Cats please reach out J.S. Fitzgerald or whatever that guys name is/was that used to drop in here to lament his favorite teams shortcomings.

Bowling Green Falcons
BG is 7-7. On a sad note, former BG head coach Louis Orr passed away in December. Coach Orr always came across as a classy individual and a great representative of BG and the MAC. I was sad to hear of his passing and I hope that he and Coach Coles are talking zone defense somewhere better than here.


Buffalo Bulls
The University at Buffalo is 7-7 and nowhere to be found in the NET rankings. Oh...hold on...they are at 190. But they are coming off a nice win over Ohio U. and boast wins over George Mason and Saint Bonaventure. Like Ball State they have a balanced offensive attack. Real or imagined, they also have a nice homecourt advantage and have for years. I always got a kick out of Ty Linder's calls from Alumni Arena. He and Dave Carducci did a great job of making the listener feel the atmosphere inside that place. The Bulls and Flashes will meet at the MAC Center for a 9:00PM affair to be televised on ESPNU on January 27th.

Group Three
I can't. And don't get me wrong, one of these five is probably "better" than someone I listed above. But I am trying to be nice here. So I will reserve comment on any of these squads until we've seen some more con-fer-ence action.
Miami Redhawks

Northern Illinois

The Michigans

Oh, sorry burden, I almost forgot. As for the game Saturday...

Take Miami against the spread.

Kent 69
The Harvard of Ohio 65.5

Sorry. I have so many experts on radio now I’m totally confused. Did you know American has beat the spread 11 out of 12 times. I think it’s Toledo that has beaten the over all but once!! I’ve decided to start betting
on the ponies. I’m less confused.

I am blown away by the advertising and hype. I half joke about wagers. This could get out of control if it addicts young people.

(01-05-2023 06:07 PM)fallsdog Wrote:  I am blown away by the advertising and hype. I half joke about wagers. This could get out of control if it addicts young people.

Sure. I told a friend that now would be a good time to invest in gambling addiction rehab facilities. I've known too many people who succumbed to gambling addiction. The Art Schlichter story is an especially sad one. I'm glad I never had any interest in gambling. Coincidentally, the other day I saw "The Fever" episode of the original "Twilight Zone".

(01-05-2023 06:07 PM)fallsdog Wrote:  I am blown away by the advertising and hype. I half joke about wagers. This could get out of control if it addicts young people.

Arizona allowed gambling a few years ago and the sport talk shows are totally different. No one talks about who’s going to win. It’s all about the spread and how it’s moving because of so and so’s injury blah blah blah. Talk about over/under and prop bets. No talk about how the Cardinals, Diamondbacks, etc. are going to improve in the off season. The best is that on Sunday they talk about in-game betting. It’s crazy and to me somewhat boring. It’s like listening to Cramer on CNBC all day. I wouldn’t worry about just young people.

(01-05-2023 07:09 PM)burden Wrote:  

(01-05-2023 06:07 PM)fallsdog Wrote:  I am blown away by the advertising and hype. I half joke about wagers. This could get out of control if it addicts young people.

Arizona allowed gambling a few years ago and the sport talk shows are totally different. No one talks about who’s going to win. It’s all about the spread and how it’s moving because of so and so’s injury blah blah blah. Talk about over/under and prop bets. No talk about how the Cardinals, Diamondbacks, etc. are going to improve in the off season. The best is that on Sunday they talk about in-game betting. It’s crazy and to me somewhat boring. It’s like listening to Cramer on CNBC all day. I wouldn’t worry about just young people.

Burden, I've always found gambling and talk about point spreads and the like incredibly boring. Nobody can say definitively who first came up with the idea of the point spread, and when. It was in the 1930s or, at the latest, the early 1940s but its contribution to the vastly increased popularity of football, particularly professional football, and basketball cannot be refuted. But it never had any effect on me.

Man. The times they are a changing.

“I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just”

For reasons I don't remember (maybe I was in North Carolina), I heard a Coach K show and he was asked why he pulls the starters when Duke is about to cover the spread. He said he didn't know the spread and thought anyone that bet on college basketball is a moron.

I don't find gambling on sports very interesting and don't enjoy fantasy sports either. The sad thing is, with the modern internet, we have access to so much more cool sports from around the world but instead of seeking out new stuff, so many sports fans just obsess over the same stuff.

(01-05-2023 09:48 PM)bopol Wrote:  For reasons I don't remember (maybe I was in North Carolina), I heard a Coach K show and he was asked why he pulls the starters when Duke is about to cover the spread. He said he didn't know the spread and thought anyone that bet on college basketball is a moron.

I don't find gambling on sports very interesting and don't enjoy fantasy sports either. The sad thing is, with the modern internet, we have access to so much more cool sports from around the world but instead of seeking out new stuff, so many sports fans just obsess over the same stuff.

Agree.

(01-05-2023 06:07 PM)fallsdog Wrote:  I am blown away by the advertising and hype. I half joke about wagers. This could get out of control if it addicts young people.

I signed up for one just to collect the free crap and sure thing bets they're giving away while it's new. I can say it is absolutely terrifying. They are closely following the mobile game model to get people addicted. Offer small free daily incentives to ensure that people are getting into the habit it checking it every day before games start. Give you credits when you sign up to get you active and having fun basically for free. Then eventually you start liking it and thinking you're good at it so you start making micro purchases because you want to do more. Next some people will get addicted and want to do more than you can get without pumping money into it. It's taking the dangerous concept of sports gambling that's caused addiction issues and lives to be ruined, and pairing it with a finely tuned model for getting people with addictive personalities addicted to your product. It's honestly quite scary.

I really feel for anyone who is a former gambling addict. Imagine if you were a recovered drug addict then all of a sudden every commerical, every radio station, every add on every web page starts saying "come buy $5 worth of some of our crack and well give you $200 of more crack! It's legal now, you know you want it!"

Thank God they decided to put nets around baseball fields because we're quickly spiralling towards a society where everyone at a sporting event has their head in their phone betting on the next thing that's going to happen. Fully equipped with weird crowd reactions because people are reacting to if their bet won not if their team did something good.

(01-05-2023 10:34 PM)anti-zip Wrote:  

(01-05-2023 06:07 PM)fallsdog Wrote:  I am blown away by the advertising and hype. I half joke about wagers. This could get out of control if it addicts young people.

I signed up for one just to collect the free crap and sure thing bets they're giving away while it's new. I can say it is absolutely terrifying. They are closely following the mobile game model to get people addicted. Offer small free daily incentives to ensure that people are getting into the habit it checking it every day before games start. Give you credits when you sign up to get you active and having fun basically for free. Then eventually you start liking it and thinking you're good at it so you start making micro purchases because you want to do more. Next some people will get addicted and want to do more than you can get without pumping money into it. It's taking the dangerous concept of sports gambling that's caused addiction issues and lives to be ruined, and pairing it with a finely tuned model for getting people with addictive personalities addicted to your product. It's honestly quite scary.

I really feel for anyone who is a former gambling addict. Imagine if you were a recovered drug addict then all of a sudden every commerical, every radio station, every add on every web page starts saying "come buy $5 worth of some of our crack and well give you $200 of more crack! It's legal now, you know you want it!"

Thank God they decided to put nets around baseball fields because we're quickly spiralling towards a society where everyone at a sporting event has their head in their phone betting on the next thing that's going to happen. Fully equipped with weird crowd reactions because people are reacting to if their bet won not if their team did something good.

Scary.

(01-04-2023 08:49 PM)bobcat_backer Wrote:  

(01-04-2023 02:40 PM)fallsdog Wrote:  With an extra day away from the office I figured I would start a thread on Saturday's game against the College olde and grande! But first, a look around the Mid American Conference.

As it stands there seems to be three tiers of teams as conference play gets underway. I'll get a little crazy here and call them group 1, group 2 and group 3.

Group One
Kent State Golden Flashes:
This early assessment is, for the most part, based on record only. That said, we know all about KSU's "good losses", high NET Ranking (currently 40), and returning talent. While the Golden Flash fan in me wants to believe this is Kent's conference to lose, the analytic side of me knows to throw out the numbers above, wait and see all while enjoying the ride. I'd rather break down teams I know virtually nothing about anyway.

Ball State Cardinals:
BSU is 10-4, boasts a NET ranking of 102 and is coming off a nice road win at Savage Hall. Although none of their wins jump off the page as overly impressive, that's tough to find in the MAC this year anyway. The Cardinals are unbeaten at home and started conference play with a big road win. Not that it always works like this, but a road win in January can help offset the inevitable home clunker that all MAC teams face. One thing that does stick out to me about BSU is how balanced their attack seems with four players averaging 13 or more points AND 4 or more rebounds per game. The Flashes will see Ball State at the MAC Center in late January and return the trip about a month later.

Toledo Rockets:
The Rockets are 9-5 with a NET of 117. Their schedule is actually quite appealing to a mid major junkie like myself as they have played and defeated Vermont, Northern Iowa, Richmond and UAB while losing at George Mason and Marshall in reasonably close games. The thing about Toledo is that this seems like a repeat of a long-standing tradition; high expectations, decent record but nothing much comes of it. But what you can't ignore about UT is the three headed monster of RayJ Dennis, JT Shumate and Setric Millner. Dennis is averaging just under 20 per game, Shumate is right behind him and Millner scores 14 per night to go along with nearly 7 rebounds. For now, UT stays in Group One. Time will tell for how long.

Akron Zips:
I know, I know screw z roo and write haiku. But this is a John Groce coached team that went to the Cayman Islands and held their own against some pretty stiff competition. With a 9-5 record, including an opening night home win over NIU and an 8-0 home, non-conference slate...The Zips can have a seat at my table for now. Don't be surprised if Akron enters the February 4th game vs. Kent with a 6-2 conference record.

Group Two
Ohio Bobcats
Ohio University, or Ohio U. as they prefer to be called is 8-6 with NET ranking of 130. They lost at Buffalo to open conference play and the only thing about their schedule and results that is impressive is a 4 point loss to the Victors Valliant in Ann Arbor. We will get an up close and personal look at Ohio next Friday when they visit the Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center. For more info on the Cats please reach out J.S. Fitzgerald or whatever that guys name is/was that used to drop in here to lament his favorite teams shortcomings.

Bowling Green Falcons
BG is 7-7. On a sad note, former BG head coach Louis Orr passed away in December. Coach Orr always came across as a classy individual and a great representative of BG and the MAC. I was sad to hear of his passing and I hope that he and Coach Coles are talking zone defense somewhere better than here.


Buffalo Bulls
The University at Buffalo is 7-7 and nowhere to be found in the NET rankings. Oh...hold on...they are at 190. But they are coming off a nice win over Ohio U. and boast wins over George Mason and Saint Bonaventure. Like Ball State they have a balanced offensive attack. Real or imagined, they also have a nice homecourt advantage and have for years. I always got a kick out of Ty Linder's calls from Alumni Arena. He and Dave Carducci did a great job of making the listener feel the atmosphere inside that place. The Bulls and Flashes will meet at the MAC Center for a 9:00PM affair to be televised on ESPNU on January 27th.

Group Three
I can't. And don't get me wrong, one of these five is probably "better" than someone I listed above. But I am trying to be nice here. So I will reserve comment on any of these squads until we've seen some more con-fer-ence action.
Miami Redhawks

Northern Illinois

The Michigans

Oh, sorry burden, I almost forgot. As for the game Saturday...

Take Miami against the spread.

Kent 69
The Harvard of Ohio 65.5

Two things...one, we actually prefer Ohio versus Ohio U. And, two, you're coming to our place next Friday.

Yeah yeah. There was a time when we preferred Kent over Kent State too.