A month late, the season wrap-up on the women's team is posted on the blog at
http://wbbflashes.com.
It's posted in the style I've come to use at season's end: The key numbers (plus some analysis) that tell the story of the season.
Highlights:
-- The 20-13 record was KSU's best in eight years.
-- The Flashes made a school-record 241 3-point baskets. That's 95 more than the previous year.
-- Lindsey Thall's 66 3-pointers were the third most in school history and second most by a freshman.
-- Freshmen scored 45 percent of Kent State's points, third most in Division I.
-- Megan Carter scored 320 points more than she did the previous season.
-- Alexa Golden's 91 steals were the fifth most in school history.
-- Merissa Barber-Smith averaged 18 rebounds per minute played, sixth in the country.
-- Kent State's 2-point field-goal percentage (39.5) and assists per game (10.6) were among the bottom 15 percent in the nation.
-- 87 percent of KSU's scoring returns for next season. Three incoming freshman, who between them averages 55 points a game their senior year, will join the team.
Allen Moff of the Record-Courier has a more traditional season wrap-up at
https://www.record-courier.com/sports/20...ent-state. It includes a lot of quotes from Starkey and is worth a read.
--
Some notes on the team and the MAC:
-- Junior guard Jessica Wallis and sophomore center Amanda Sape have left the team. Neither played significant minutes last season. Starkey told the Record-Courier that he was in no huge hurry to fill the spots and might bank them for the 2020 recruiting class. It would be nice if he could add a 6-2 or 6-3 rebounder. Depth at forward isn't much.
-- Miami lost head coach Megan Duffy (44-20 in two seasons) to Marquette. New coach is DeUnna Hendrix of High Point University of the Big South. She had an 89-43 record in seven years there.
-- Buffalo coach Felisha Legette-Jack, one of the best in the MAC, interviewed for head coaching jobs at Penn State and Georgia Tech (she didn't get either). She signed a five-year, $270,000 extension at Buffalo today.
--
A couple of notes on comments people made last month (I've been busy with some teaching and other issues I put off for the last month of basketball season).
On the discussion of why Kent State didn't try to pay $6,500 to host a first-round WNIT game:
-- I've seen no indication the KSU even tried to make a bid.
-- I'm guessing that if more teams wanted home games than were available, a higher bid would win. Other factors. according to the WNIT website, could be fan base, location, seeding and previous games with WNIT opponents. KSU's average attendance this season was about 1,200, more than the crowds at either the Green Bay and Butler games. WNIT seedings are pretty fluid, but I'd guess Kent State was seeded between between 40th and 50th in the 64-team field.
-- Three other MAC teams hosted home games. Toledo hosted two, Ohio three.
-- Neither Green Bay nor Butler had ever hosted a WNIT game before.
-- My impression is that teams pay their own travel expenses, but I think I remember reading that the WNIT picks up the travel above about $9,000.
-- But again, there's no evidence that the powers-that-be at KSU ever thought about hosting a game. I do know Starkey would have liked to.
