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Shining because they are very talented. A mess because he also inherited a lot of unexpected attitude.

I'm not thinking this is the end of the road for our program. I see Senderhoff setting up his program. It might take a couple years, seeing as how we have some good competition, but I think he can get there. Hopefully when we are back on top, we can get some more money into our program and the coach stays.

(03-03-2012 12:27 PM)ilovegymnast Wrote:  I agree that Greene's number should be retired. At the game they announced he was top ten all time in 8 or 9 different categorizes. We also see how the team plays when he is injured or fouls out. Throw in that every year he has been up for the MVP award. Anyone know how many times he won player of the week as well?

The one big thing missing on Justin's resume is an NCAA tournament appearance. Hopefully he will be able to add that with 3 wins next week. It is amazing how spoiled we have all gotten. 20 wins and a four seed in the MAC is pretty good for a first year coach. I believe STO had a graphic during the OU game that showed Sendy with the 2nd most wins of any new coach in the NCAA.

(03-03-2012 08:37 AM)axeme Wrote:  The biggest problem most first year coaches face is dealing with the seniors they inherit.

I have confidence in the coaching staff that they will put in the serious thought and study it will require to retool and revamp for next season. I think we will see a very different version of KSU basketball.

Still work to be done this season, now that we have successfully lulled Akron into a false sense of confidence. The plan is working!

I hope we install a motion offense where players who do not have the ball are moving and screening. I am so tired of a system of spreading the floor and overload a side and one player with the ball dribbling to draw the double team. That is ugly basketball unless you have Michael Jordan. Hope we learn to pass without sending a telegraph first.

(03-03-2012 09:21 AM)burden Wrote:  Good point axeme. Stan Heath did not exactly have a picnic with Huffman, Mitchell, Shaw and Thomas. The difference was he addressed it relatively early(10 games) and successfully. One can argue he might be the most successful of our ex-coaches once he got to the Big East and South Florida. He certainly did better than Ford and Christian and Waters had to drop back a level to become successful again.

Any way most of the problems will be gone soon and Sendy will have his own team next year. We will see if he can do a little better next year although I am afraid he will have less talent than any Kent coach in a long time.

I have heard it said that Sendy sold his soul to the seniors. They stood up for him loudly when he was hired as coach. One opinion was that Sendy was very soft on the seniors and allow them too much latitude in because he felt indebted to them. This makes a lot of sense to me.

(03-03-2012 09:26 AM)burden Wrote:  I don't believe anybody has said this yet but I will. This year Akron is the better team. Marshall negates Greene, injury or no injury, and our offense just isn't that good unless it runs through Greene. Also Akron's defense if good. Better than ours this year. We match them with steals and spectacular blocks but our basic defense is not as good.

They suffer from some of the same things we do as far playing for 40 minutes but at least they can blame it on youth. We have our work cut out for us the next couple of years.

This is a great post and I could not agree more.

For those who want to retire a number, Sorry to disagree. As much as I like J Greene, if we lift his number, we will run out of numbers very soon. We would certainly have to retire John Worton’s number as he could score in the low post better than any player we have had. BTW, he made a living in pro ball. Going back, Trent Grooms was a much better rebounder and he played tenacious defense. Then we would have to raise the number of Nate Gerwig, who for four years occupied more under basket real estate than most thought possible. No one drove the lane without risking bodily harm. Also, when he got his paws on the ball, no one took it away from him. BTW, he is making a living playing pro ball and played on our Elite Eight team. Same could be said of John Edwards, our 7 footer on the Elite Eight team. Retiring jerseys should happen only seldom if at all. To retire Greene's jersey, we would have to raise five at one time.

I'm dicusseted. i told my brother to go to q withut me this year for first time. tHis tem is bunch of lossers mayve not Green but lots of those

I wouldn't cancel any plans my friend. Should Buffalo win tonight against Bowling Green, our Flashes would play one of the following teams....

EMU, Ball State, Western Michigan or Northern.

The one that scares me the most there is Western. But keep in my they will have played Monday and Wednesday before playing Kent State University. If BG wins, then replace EMU with BG. That is a bit more worrisome but still....

Flannery's before the game, Mid American Conference Hoops, Michael Reghi in the house. Its gonna be MACnificent on Thursday. Don't jump ship!

(03-03-2012 06:31 PM)fallsdog Wrote:  I wouldn't cancel any plans my friend. Should Buffalo win tonight against Bowling Green, our Flashes would play one of the following teams....

EMU, Ball State, Western Michigan or Northern.

The one that scares me the most there is Western. But keep in my they will have played Monday and Wednesday before playing Kent State University. If BG wins, then replace EMU with BG. That is a bit more worrisome but still....

Flannery's before the game, Mid American Conference Hoops, Michael Reghi in the house. Its gonna be MACnificent on Thursday. Don't jump ship!

And spent Tuesday traveling to Cleveland.

hell yes danny! That is another positive. At this point, positive is all we can be!

Anti zip you sound like me talking about the womens team. I have seen little from Henniger and Jackson. If they get better we might have a 10 minute per game back-up. I don't even think that is likely.

Gaines when healthy plays some good defense but has no offense. Yes he might improve over the summer but he is running out of time.

Counting on two bigs we haven't seen play is scary. Finally the young point guard will have to take over but I saw nothing that excites me. We have all been suprised before but I am not holding my breath. Its for that reason I am hoping this years team can over achieve next week and give us some excitement.

Fallsdog are you married? If not, neither is Reghi you should make a move this week! =)

(03-03-2012 08:06 PM)JimJoyce Wrote:  Fallsdog are you married? If not, neither is Reghi you should make a move this week! =)

I can picture it now....

"falls dog is gonna SWEET STROKE that triple once again. Oh my Steve Mix, he shot that one from near-bye Aurora Ohio."

Wait a minute, this may be better....

"falls dog to raise....COUNT IT and he drew contact on his way up. We are witnessing one of those Virtue-o-so performances tonight. "

(03-03-2012 05:54 PM)GFlash68 Wrote:  

(03-03-2012 09:21 AM)burden Wrote:  Good point axeme. Stan Heath did not exactly have a picnic with Huffman, Mitchell, Shaw and Thomas. The difference was he addressed it relatively early(10 games) and successfully. One can argue he might be the most successful of our ex-coaches once he got to the Big East and South Florida. He certainly did better than Ford and Christian and Waters had to drop back a level to become successful again.

Any way most of the problems will be gone soon and Sendy will have his own team next year. We will see if he can do a little better next year although I am afraid he will have less talent than any Kent coach in a long time.

I have heard it said that Sendy sold his soul to the seniors. They stood up for him loudly when he was hired as coach. One opinion was that Sendy was very soft on the seniors and allow them too much latitude in because he felt indebted to them. This makes a lot of sense to me.

I wondered the same thing. Look, I am glad Sendy is our coach, and it would be insane to insist on a change now. I like him and he’ll do better.

But, I remember being criticized last spring when I questioned whether or not JN should be pressured into selecting Sendy because of the “we’re gonna leave” threats. This is exactly what I worried about. In the confused mind of a 21 year old, he might think Coach owes him one. When the balance of authority gets screwed up because players think the coach and AD will give into their demands, bad things happen.

A few thoughts about next year....

1. If anything, our pre season predictions about this year should discourage prognostication.

2. The MAC does not drop basketball after next season. Akron and OU both have significant talent returning and leaving after next year. The Zips have one more year of Marshall, but I don’t see any 7” coming after him. The Bobcats have Cooper, but don’t see any cold blooded shooters coming after him. That’s the great thing about college hoops. The time clock ticks for everyone. Sure, we’ll be young. But after next year, Akron and OU else will be rebuilding as we return experience.

3. Ask any other MAC coach if he’d take Eric Gaines. The statement about him “running out of time” as a role player sophomore is absurd. And, we like the little we’ve seen out of Brewer and Manley. Will we win the MAC next year? Not unless a miracle happens. But, could we see a young and exciting team that plays without a target on its back? you bet.

FlashFan... as always you make some outstanding, reasonable and effective points. In reference to the whole Senderoff/Nielsen/players triangle, I think that is secondary fodder for the most part. I think a case could certainly be made that at times Coach Ford allowed the inmates to run the asylum - both on the court and perhaps off it. So maybe Coach Senderoff came into this season trying to avoid the quick transition from assistant to head coach - which, anyone will tell you is a significant difference in terms of relationships with players.

But consider this for a moment in with respect to simplification... aren't we basically the same team in 2011-2012 that we were in 2010-2011? I certainly see a lot of the same elements. Last year we lost a tight game to an average Cleveland State team despite leading. We needed OT to beat Furman at the MAC Center. We rarely blew inferior opponents out. We dropped a head-scratcher at home to James Madison. We allowed a career game to McCullough and needed a bailout offensive foul at the end to survive at home against an inferior Lehigh team. We lost at Miami late. We needed an unbelievable rally in the final minute on the road to beat Western Michigan and we laid an egg in the Bracket Buster. We missed free throws that cost us a championship. We beat St. Mary's when they turned it over curiously in front of our bench and the WCC MVP missed an inexplicable layup as time expired. We then beat a high school team in Connecticut no one ever heard of and finally ran out of gas in the altitude of Colorado.

This year we beat WVU at 10 o'clock in the morning with the Coliseum at 1/3 of its normal capacity with a major roster turnover. We again lost to an average Cleveland State team. We absolutely stole one on the road against Western Carolina in a game that should have been over at halftime. We were about to lost to JMU again before the switch went off and played in my opinion the best 16-minute stretch of basketball we have all season on the road. Much like the rally at WMU a year before, three clutch plays saved our West streak at Eastern Michigan. We laid an egg in the Bracket Buster and again kept Buffalo winless at the MAC Center by coming from behind. We lost again at Miami late. We finished two games behind the pace of last year's team and I can't but wonder if maybe that's right where we should be.

Don't misunderstand me, please. I don't mean to take away from the close wins of last year or the nice NIT run. The point I'm trying to make is, maybe, just maybe this team isn't quite as good as the results might indicate. Maybe last year's team got a few more bounces? Everyone suspected the 2011-2012 Flashes were going to take a HUGE step from the kind of team they were the year before. But what no one remembered was how very fortunate last year's team was in many, many instances.

I don't know, just interesting food for thought. I do believe KSU will play well Thursday and likely win against a West team and give itself an opportunity to dispatch Akron to the NIT. But then again I'd also say the conditions are certainly right for that West streak to end and leave the good guys hoping for a CBI call.

For if there's one thing we know, these Flashes have left us expecting the unexpected for two years. They must be an extremely difficult team to scout, that's for damn sure.

(03-03-2012 09:32 PM)FlashFan Wrote:  A few thoughts about next year....

1. If anything, our pre season predictions about this year should discourage prognostication.

2. The MAC does not drop basketball after next season. Akron and OU both have significant talent returning and leaving after next year. The Zips have one more year of Marshall, but I don’t see any 7” coming after him. The Bobcats have Cooper, but don’t see any cold blooded shooters coming after him. That’s the great thing about college hoops. The time clock ticks for everyone. Sure, we’ll be young. But after next year, Akron and OU else will be rebuilding as we return experience.

3. Ask any other MAC coach if he’d take Eric Gaines. The statement about him “running out of time” as a role player sophomore is absurd. And, we like the little we’ve seen out of Brewer and Manley. Will we win the MAC next year? Not unless a miracle happens. But, could we see a young and exciting team that plays without a target on its back? you bet.

Good friend of mine said that he believes we will be a better team next year. I tried to imagine how that could be possible. He is onto to something in that it could happen. Chances are we will at least play under more control and that is good.

(03-03-2012 08:15 PM)fallsdog Wrote:  

(03-03-2012 08:06 PM)JimJoyce Wrote:  Fallsdog are you married? If not, neither is Reghi you should make a move this week! =)

I can picture it now....

"falls dog is gonna SWEET STROKE that triple once again. Oh my Steve Mix, he shot that one from near-bye Aurora Ohio."

Wait a minute, this may be better....

"falls dog to raise....COUNT IT and he drew contact on his way up. We are witnessing one of those Virtue-o-so performances tonight. "

This is some funny stuff. :ncaabbs:

My 2 cents:

Brewer and Manley will be good 4 year players. Will either be studs next year? Who knows how quickly they will develop. Gaines is a solid player. He can't shoot a lick, but he plays great defense and can get to the hole pretty well. Evans could be an all-MAC player next year. I said at the beginning of the year Henny wasn't going to play much and while I was surprised early, it shook out exactly like I thought as he proved he just isn't going to be able to contribute much at this level. I am personally disappointed in Pat Jackson and his game. Seems like a nice kid, just doesn't do much for me. I know they love his defense (personally, I am not sure he even does that well because he fouls ALL THE TIME), but other than that, he doesn't score or rebound very much. I think Pope will be a great addition next year, and expect him to be a big contribution.

(03-03-2012 07:33 PM)burden Wrote:  Anti zip you sound like me talking about the womens team. I have seen little from Henniger and Jackson. If they get better we might have a 10 minute per game back-up. I don't even think that is likely.

Gaines when healthy plays some good defense but has no offense. Yes he might improve over the summer but he is running out of time.

Counting on two bigs we haven't seen play is scary. Finally the young point guard will have to take over but I saw nothing that excites me. We have all been suprised before but I am not holding my breath. Its for that reason I am hoping this years team can over achieve next week and give us some excitement.

I'm not saying Henny and Jackson will be stars for us or anything. I'm just saying I figure they have to get a little better at least. Since there will be alot of post minutes freed up them being 10 minute back ups could be a big deal.

I couldn't disagree more about Gaines. Offensivly he's a slasher and has a pretty nice floater. He's just not counted on for any offense right now but I wouldn't be shocked to see him be effective with an expanded role next year. I doubt any of our coaches feel he's "running out of time".

I get what you're saying about counting on two bigs we've never seen being scary. I'm betting we'll see a lot of Goodson at the 4 so it's actually at least 3 big men we've never seen but you're point is still valid. Keep in mind the elite 8 team had to count on a freshman C and a JC PF so it can be done.