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

(11-10-2016 10:48 AM)ksu315 Wrote:  

(11-09-2016 07:14 PM)dannyb73 Wrote:  

(11-09-2016 07:05 PM)GoFlashes7 Wrote:  From the video on KSU Men's Basketball media day and comments from Allen Moff of the Record Courier.

-At Point Guard, it is a battle between Zabo, Avery, & Hurley
-At Shooting Guard, Walker is coming back from the foot injury and Ridneour might play some @ PG but mostly at the SG spot. Not sure if Peterson will play or redshirt?
-At Small Forward, DeBerry & Edwin will see the most time at this position
-At Power Forward, Jimmy Hall the obvious starter, and Pippen, Edwards, & Walker battling for time
-At Center, Adonis De La Rosa

A few notes:
Taishaun Johnson, #4, is waiting for a ruling on whether he will be eligible to play in the 2nd semester, but he definitely isn't eligible to play for 1st semester of this season.

#25 is Tanner Castora, originally from Strongsville OH and played @ USC Upstate, before transferring to Kent State as a walk-on.

Danny Pippen has put on 20lbs of good weight since he arrived on Kent campus in the summer.

Is everyone excited for men's basketball season? In the pictures/videos, the new chairbacks and video board entrance @ the MACC both look great. So does the new athletic training center expansion.

Hurley isn't going to play much at all.

Its scaring me how much I've been agreeing with Danny lately but IMO Hurley wont ever play a significant role here and one year from now i'd suspect he may be gone

No argument per se ... just giving what others close to Hurley have said that the plan is. ... On the face of it a 6-6 PG is worth trying to develop ... the ??? obviously is can/will it ever come to fruition?

Still have to remember he's only a freshman ... and if the current transfer recruits are decent, don't really need him until he's a junior.

Can Hurley ever be a starter ... perhaps not ... but with the constant search for 'program' players capable of giving productive minutes as upper classmen ... particularly for an area player ... seems like it POTENTIALLY could be worth the time and effort for both him and the program over the long haul ...

Or not.

I was disappointed that Hurley didn't come in last year and look good enough to earn playing time. When you say 'only a freshman', he graduated from high school 2 years ago, with 1 season at IMG Academy and 1 season redshirting here. Practice time is over, it's time for him to perform. I agree that if he doesn't show something promising this year, Senderhoff should suggest to him to find somewhere else.

Especially last year, if he was good enough we needed to burn his redshirt. Pollard and J-Walker were out and Edwin was on a gimpy MCL. Avery was shooting 25%. If he were better than Avery or a gimpy Edwin, he would have played.

I also don't know if there are any options for him - he's already burnt his redshirt, so if he transfers next year, he'll only get 2 seasons. Since he'd already been at Kent State for 2 years, I don't know if he can drop down to JUCO next year.

Any predictions for the season? I'd go out on a limb and say Jimmy Hall will be 1st team MAC.

I'd guess 17 wins. Too many unknowns to guess better.

Anyone else for All-MAC? I'd write down Jerrelle DeBerry as 3rd team MAC. I think Danny Pippen has a long shot for the MAC All-Freshman team

I will be at the game tonight and will make a projection afterwards. There are just too many unknowns.

Is Jaylin Walker supposed to play tonight or will he be held out for a little while longer?

A few more notes from Allen Moff of the RC & Dave Carducci:

Leo Edwards is a traditional PF and Walker is a 4. De La Rosa continues to display his athleticism. Ridenour displays some defensive stopper ability @ the 1 & 2.

Hurley was just sidelined by a groin injury. Taishaun Johnson will have to sit out this entire season. Senderoff isn't going to redshirt any player this season, other Johnson where his hand was forced by NCAA.

Here is the link to Allen Moff's story in the Record Courier with additional details: http://www.recordpub.com/sports/2016/11/...all-season

I got the idea from Senderoff Thursday that Walker would play, but it was unclear how much. Foot is healed and he's looked good in practice. Depends on conditioning.

Kellon Thomas had 14 pts. and 6 assists today as IUPUIUPUIUP or whatever pounded EMU 83-71. They were up 20 with about 7 minutes to go and coasted the rest of the way. They are now 2-2.

Not sure what thread to put this in, so how about here?

Oregon St. just lost their best player (sophomore Tres Tinkle) to a broken wrist. He'll be out 4 months. He scored 31 in their last game.

Saw something pretty discouraging today. The 3 division 1 teams we've beat this year are a combined 3-19. Hopefully we had a productive week of practice.

We've got some individuals with really low FG%'s to this point. J. Walker (38.4%) is second on the team in shots taken, Zabo (28.1%) is 4th on the team in shots taken, Avery (28.6%) is 7th in shots taken, and De La Rosa (32%) is 8th. We're going to need some of these guys to improve their efficiency if we're going to compete this year.

I'd like to see Edwin getting 30+ minutes every game from this point out. From what I've seen, he's our second best player and I'm not sure it's even close. While we're waiting on the new guys to figure it out, let's let Edwin and Hall carry the team. I wouldn't mind seeing a lot more of DeBerry on the court with those two as well. Edwin's 3 hasn't been falling yet this year (he was solid last year though) and Hall does most of his scoring the post. So DeBerry's three point shooting could really help to create room for them.

This team is developing fast. The big question now is, can we extend our good home court play to playing on the road. This holiday trip should show us a lot about this team because our early road games were not encouraging. I will be watching these games very closely.

Jimmy Hall just named MAC PoW. Well-deserved. Put up impressive numbers.

It seems to me like De La Rosa has turned the corner, at least for the last 3 games. Over the first 7 games, he shot 32%, and centers should be taking easy shots, making close to 50%. He has improved to 9 for 14 over the last 3 games. He's got to watch the personal fouls still, if he wants to stay on the court. And I'm glad he's not shooting any 3 pointers. We need him to match up against some of the MAC centers, though he is still a sophomore, and I'd expect him to get educated in a few MAC games this year.

And we need to improve at point guard. I agree, Avery and Zabo need to improve their shooting. It looks like Avery is better at running the team, and Zabo still has lapses.

I think Alonzo Walker has been better than expected; If DeBerry can improve on defense, we need him on the floor more - he's shooting 6ppg in only 10 minutes per game, he needs to be on the floor a lot during MAC play

With Wright State/Oregon State/Texas, 2 wins would be good; none of these teams are unbeatable

(12-12-2016 11:33 AM)GFlash68 Wrote:  This team is developing fast. The big question now is, can we extend our good home court play to playing on the road. This holiday trip should show us a lot about this team because our early road games were not encouraging. I will be watching these games very closely.

still too early to tell. Our schedule has been absolute dogcrap so IMO very hard to tell. I gauge based on florida tourney where south Dakota and George mason were 2 MAC level teams and we lost both. I hope you're right but not ready to say were vastly improved or developing. if we can win 2 of next 3 we're headed in right direction.

I agree with ksu315 regarding the schedule. I have mentioned the lack of quality wins by teams across the MAC and it is only fair to lump Kent State in there somewhere. I think NJIT was probably the marquee win so far and I believe they have a losing record.

But I am excited about the following:
*Jimmy Hall's production has been impressive to say the least. I really like that he is shooting 81% from the line considering he has almost 30 more attempts than the next closest flash.

*Walker and Edwin seem like players who can be the "go to guy" if Hall is off or needs help. It just appears that their is some balance, or that there are some options on the offensive end.

*I like the overall athleticism of the group. Sendy seems to have quite a few players who can move their feet. Haas anyone who has been at the games noticed the 1-3-1 zone? How about full court pressure? It would seem that this group has the pieces to play with both ideas.

I have seen all of the games so far and at the home games we have not needed to resort to a zone. We may have played it a little but it slipped by me if we did. And I have not seen us really work on the trap or full court pressure. I was really disappointed in the Northeastern game as they were a good shooting team in the 2nd half and we were slow to contest from distance. I think I have noticed improvement in that area in this home stand. We obviously are not yet a mature team on defense and transition. Athletic ability will usually allow this to develop. Hoping so.

With us playing Wright State next, Wright State just got their 15 minutes of fame (or 15 minutes on the front page of ESPN.COM) with a 'must-see poster dunk'. I think they were playing Urbana High School or maybe it's a Division II college. 6-8 power forward Steven Davis being defended by a 180-pound guard. They won 85-34.

I think Urbana was their Hiram! I recall several years after I graduated Kent State dropped back-to-back home games to Steubenville and Mount Union! I'm thinking 1974? And neither game was even all that close.

I think Miami lost to Wilmington last year or the year before and another DII/DIII NAIA team before that under their current coach.

I believe Rex Hughes was Kent's coach when they lost to Steubenville and Mount Union. Hughes passed away earlier this year.

(12-15-2016 10:39 AM)Kentville Wrote:  I believe Rex Hughes was Kent's coach when they lost to Steubenville and Mount Union. Hughes passed away earlier this year.

So did Paul Amodio. A month or two ago.