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

Dannyb73/anyone else,

Now that the baseball, softball, t & f, & golf teams are all done competing, the attention/interest shifts to KSU mens bball offseason news.

Here are the questions I have and not sure if anyone knows the answers:

*Has Darren Goodson gotten into better shape as Senderoff/staff had hoped he would?
*How did Kellon Thomas surgery go and how is his recovery coming along?
*Are all of KSU's returning players and newcomers on campus taking summer classes/working out right now?
*Has Melvin Tabb gotten into better shape as Senderoff/staff had hoped he would?
*Have Spicer & Ortiz improved?
*Henniger gotten stronger?

From Record Courier today:

Kent State's Rob Senderoff speaks about team's summer plans
By Allen Moff | Staff Writer Published: June 12, 2013 4:00AM

By Allen Moff | Staff Writer

Each week during the off-season Record-Courier staff writer Allen Moff with talk with a Kent State head coach about what's going on with the program during the summer months. This week's guest is men's basketball coach Rob Senderoff.

nnn

According to Senderoff, most of the Golden Flashes' men's basketball players were back on campus last Sunday, preparing for the start of the first summer school session on Monday.

"Not all of our new guys are here. Derek Jackson (6-foot-2 junior guard, transfer from Central Michigan) won't be here until our next summer session, but the other two new guys will be here -- Devin Carter (6-4 sophomore guard/forward, transfer from Lake Land College) and Marquiez Lawrence (6-8 freshman forward, Marion-Franklin H.S.). The rest of our team will be here except for Chris Ortiz. Chris is playing with his national team, Puerto Rico. They're playing in an Olympic qualifier-type of event in China. He leaves at the end of June, then he'll get back around July 11 or 12, so he won't be here (for the Summer I Session), but academically he's in great shape. It's one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to represent your country in international play. Tyler Scott (6-6 guard/forward, sat out last year as a partial academic qualifier) is eligible and will start summer school. The other guy who sat out last year is (6-4 sophomore guard) K.K. Simmons (transfer from North Carolina Wilmington).

Summer Plans

"What the NCAA has allowed us to do for the second year is we get two hours a week of basketball and six hours a week of strength and conditioning for eight weeks. For the first couple of weeks, we'll do three times a week, 40 minutes each of instruction and lift five days a week. Then we're going on a trip to the Bahamas this summer. We'll leave right after summer school ends. So in August, we'll practice for two weeks; we get 10 days of practice leading up to the trip, so starting Aug. 4, we'll start practicing leading up to this trip. Once every four years you're allowed to make a (summer) trip, and all of our incoming guys will be allowed to go. So that's exciting."

Injury update

Starting point guard Kris Brewer is back at full strength after undergoing knee surgery in early April, while backup point guard Kellon Thomas continues to recover from knee surgery. Thomas isn't expected back until early October.

"There's really not a ton Kellon can do right now rehab-wise," said Senderoff.

Dribbles

"We're still out there sniffing around a little bit to see what recruits are available," Senderoff said. "We have camps starting at the end of the month. We have a day camp (June 24-28), a team camp (June 29), and we're doing some individual skill sessions (June 17-20). It's not something we make money off of, we really do it sort of as a service back to the community. All of our players will be working the camps. It's sort of an opportunity for our guys to get on the floor and have fun with some of the kids who have seen them play. A lot of our guys growing up had a chance to go to these types of camps, so it's a good experience for young kids and for our players as well."

2013-14 Season Opener: Nov. 8 vs. Ohio Northern.

•••

Email: amoff@recordpub.com

Facebook: Allen Moff, Record-Courier

Twitter: @AllenMoff_RC

Phone: 330-541-9445

We have a lot of players, now are they any good? IMO, the success of this team will rely on its chemistry.

I'm curious about the scholarship issues. We lost 3 scholarship players (Evans, Holt, and Morris) from last year and brought in 4 new scholarship players (Scott, Lawrence, Carter, and Jackson). I assumed it meant that Scott was likely not going to be eligible but this article specifically mentions Scott, so he's still in the fold...

(06-12-2013 12:18 PM)anti-zip Wrote:  I'm curious about the scholarship issues. We lost 3 scholarship players (Evans, Holt, and Morris) from last year and brought in 4 new scholarship players (Scott, Lawrence, Carter, and Jackson). I assumed it meant that Scott was likely not going to be eligible but this article specifically mentions Scott, so he's still in the fold...

Someone on the team is paying their own way this year. Talk about dedication. That guy will be rewarded with a scholarship next year for sure.

(06-12-2013 12:18 PM)anti-zip Wrote:  I'm curious about the scholarship issues. We lost 3 scholarship players (Evans, Holt, and Morris) from last year and brought in 4 new scholarship players (Scott, Lawrence, Carter, and Jackson). I assumed it meant that Scott was likely not going to be eligible but this article specifically mentions Scott, so he's still in the fold...

Also, I heard Scott did well in school.

(06-12-2013 04:07 PM)dannyb73 Wrote:  

(06-12-2013 12:18 PM)anti-zip Wrote:  I'm curious about the scholarship issues. We lost 3 scholarship players (Evans, Holt, and Morris) from last year and brought in 4 new scholarship players (Scott, Lawrence, Carter, and Jackson). I assumed it meant that Scott was likely not going to be eligible but this article specifically mentions Scott, so he's still in the fold...

Someone on the team is paying their own way this year. Talk about dedication. That guy will be rewarded with a scholarship next year for sure.

Wow, that's rare.

(06-12-2013 10:44 PM)anti-zip Wrote:  

(06-12-2013 04:07 PM)dannyb73 Wrote:  

(06-12-2013 12:18 PM)anti-zip Wrote:  I'm curious about the scholarship issues. We lost 3 scholarship players (Evans, Holt, and Morris) from last year and brought in 4 new scholarship players (Scott, Lawrence, Carter, and Jackson). I assumed it meant that Scott was likely not going to be eligible but this article specifically mentions Scott, so he's still in the fold...

Someone on the team is paying their own way this year. Talk about dedication. That guy will be rewarded with a scholarship next year for sure.

Wow, that's rare.

And someone who is committed and really likes his teammates and coaches! Now, that says alot.....

A little more detail on the info from summer workouts:
June 17, 2013 Men's Basketball Blog: Rob Senderoff talks about the team's summer workouts
MONDAY, JUNE 17
By Rob Senderoff
Head coach
The NCAA allows teams eight weeks to work with their players during the summer, and those eight weeks have started for us.
This is the second summer the NCAA has allowed teams this time with their players. We just completed week one, and in that week we worked our guys out for forty minutes each in small groups.

Director of strength and conditioning coach Bob Lemieux put the guys through some strength and agility testing, including some of the same testing they do at the NBA combine. Khaliq Spicer weighed 192 pounds and could bench press just three reps of 185 pounds when he got here as a freshman last year. On June 10 he weighed in at 216 and bench pressed 185 a total of 15 times, so he has made a tremendous improvement from one year ago to now. And he is just one of the guys who have worked hard and are seeing that pay off.

The players started their strength program last Wednesday, so that means they have lifted four times now. We did a conditioning test on Friday where we ran the mile. Our incoming freshman Marquiez Lawrence won the mile. That was impressive.

We worked out this morning for the first time in the M.A.C. Center because it has been closed for some offseason work. We did a whole team workout this morning with some shooting and some other skill stuff. This is the start of week two and we'll get three workouts this week. They will lift four times this week and ten on Friday we will do some team conditioning again and that will basically be the schedule for the rest of the eight weeks.

In August, we will get another 10 days of practice leading up to our team trip to play in the Bahamas.
Our whole team is not here yet, but most of the guys are on campus. We have 11 guys and are only missing Chris Ortiz, who is playing with the Puerto Rican national team, and Derek Jackson, who is finishing up his junior college classes. They will both be here on July 15.

An injury update, Kellon Thomas is the only guy who is hurt right now. He is still going through rehab and is limited in what he can do. His rehab is about a four-to-six month deal, so he will be pretty limited until early September.

I've been very happy with the new guys who are here. Marquiez has been high energy and vocal. You can see he is raw, but he is trying to learn and trying to lead as a freshman which is very encouraging.

Devin Carter seems to be pretty polished. These workouts have not phased him at all. You would not know that he is new if you saw him on the court. He seems like a guy who has been out there with our guys before.

Tyler Scott is adjusting to not playing all last year. He is seeing some effects from that time away, but he improved throughout the week. He still has to work to keep catching up because we go at a pretty fast pace during these 40 minutes. It's only natural to be a little behind, though, after not playing last year.

Man, I wish I could tag along to the Bahamas!

July 11, 2013 Men's Basketball Blog: Senior Melvin Tabb discusses how he's spent the offseason



THURSDAY, JULY 11

By Melvin Tabb

Senior, Forward


The championship tradition at Kent State is something that I was aware of when I decided to come here. Entering my senior season, I want to be part of a team that continues that tradition and winning culture, and it all starts in the summer.


After the spring semester ended, I was able to go back home for eight days before returning to campus for the beginning of the intersession on May 19th. I got to work right away, working to improve every aspect of my game. There is no perfect player.


Some of the other guys on the team have been here since intersession, but the majority arrived on June 10th for the first session of summer classes. We’ve been doing a little bit of everything—playing in open gyms, hitting the weight room, spending time in the gym getting shots up with one of the coaches, working on of strength and conditioning with Bob Lemieux—to prepare for next season. Coach wants us to get shots up, get in shape, and become better athletes and basketball players, so that’s what we’re trying to do.


I went ahead and took Marquiez Lawrence under my wing. He’s an incoming freshman from Columbus. Marquiez is long and wiry, and we’re trying to put some pounds on him right now. He’s been really active on the floor so far, and I’m trying to help him transition into college life as a student-athlete so that he can help make us a better team.


There are some characters on the team this year and we have a good time with each other. All of the new guys on the team have fit in well. There’s also Devin Carter, who is a lefty from Champaign, Ill. And then there’s Jon Fleming, who is a walk-on from Fishers, Ind. Derek Jackson, who played at Central Michigan a couple of years ago, just got to campus over the weekend


I feel coming into this season that we have a really good chance to win the conference. Everybody has the same mindset. Everybody wants to continue to get better, and that should make us a better team.


The final week of June was camp week for us. I helped with the afternoon session, which had boys entering grades 7-11, and got to show off my coaching skills a little bit. But at the end of the day, the camp was really about the kids and making sure that they were having a good time and learning about the game of basketball. I think it was a fun time for everybody.


It hasn’t been about basketball 24/7 for me though. I have been taking classes to work towards obtaining my degree. During the intersession, I took a course on Will Ferrell. We watched his movies and Saturday Night Live sketches in class and then discussed an analyzed in performance in them. Right now, I’m taking construction tech along with Khaliq Spicer, Marquiez and Devin. We get to build stuff and always nice when you have a chance to take a course with teammates.

I did not know that Tabb was still on the team.

Why wouldn't he be? At times, he showed some promise last year. And he's their biggest body.

I thought that he transferred.

He can't transfer, I don't believe. He has already used up his redshirt/transfer year.
.

(07-13-2013 06:48 AM)axeme Wrote:  He can't transfer, I don't believe. He has already used up his redshirt/transfer year.
.

Sorry, I had him confused with Patrick Jackson. My bad. He transferred to St. Peters.

Just as a side note, we have a 7'3 walk-on. I am told not to expect much/anything out of him but I guess crazier things have happened.

Interesting, are you at liberty to release his name?

(07-20-2013 12:37 AM)anti-zip Wrote:  Interesting, are you at liberty to release his name?

Blake Vedder - started at URI, went to IUP, and now here.

7'3" player has made great strides.--CBS Pittsburgh