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

Rocket Mortgage Field House in Cleveland will once again serve as the venue for one of the most exciting mid major conference tournaments in college basketball. The Golden Flashes earned the #2 seed and will play the #7 seed, Northern Illinois, around 5PM on Thursday.

This has always been an enjoyable week for KSU fan's whether the Flashes are the favorite, the underdog or somewhere in between. The world of sports has certainly changed since the early years of the tourney at Gund Arena and this tournament has absorbed some of those changes, but for the most part this is good, old fashioned MAC Basketball. One change that I am a big supporter of is the "30 minutes following" start times. Even the late game, Akron vs. Buffalo, should end before bed time. Anyways, here is a look at the two sets of quarterfinals.

#1 Toledo vs. #8 Miami: Hard to see the streaking Rockets losing to Miami, who is every bit of an eight seed. The Redhawks have only won 3 games away from home this season and Toledo has just been musciling opponents for the last several weeks. I think the Rockets win win streak will reach 16 on Thursday morning.
Toledo 81
Love and Honor 67

#4 Ball State vs. #5 Ohio: If I wasn't the head of analytics around here I would take an early lunch and never come back to see this one. Ball State is significantly better than OU is on the road/on neutral floors. I've got to say that for whatever reason Ball State has intrigued me all year long. But I believe that Ohio U has an X Factor guy in Dwight Wilson. The OU big man torched BSU for 22 and 10 in the Bobcats home win earlier this season.
Ohio 67
Ball State 63

The game between Toledo and Ohio University will tip at 5:00PM on Friday March 10th.

#3 Akron vs. #6 Buffalo: Buffalo has a pair of double digit losses to Akron already this season. This game will be the nightcap which will give the Akron faithful plenty of time to attend the contest. I just don't see Buffalo as anything more than a one and done in this tournament. Zips roll.
Akron 79
Buffalo 69

That leaves the #2 seed Kent State Golden Flashes and the #7 NIU Huskies. Let the vibrant discussion begin!

GO FLASHES!

Fallsdog, I don't see any first round upsets either. After that, though, nothing would surprise me. Correction - I suppose Ball State will be considered the favorite, but I think OU should win that one.

Kent 483
Northern Illinois 7

Noticed that Gino’s cast was off, what is his status for the tournament? Does anyone know?

(03-05-2023 01:40 PM)ksur1 Wrote:  Noticed that Gino’s cast was off, what is his status for the tournament? Does anyone know?

He was shooting left-handed one handed threes during the warmups at the Akron game. That is, he wasn't using his right hand at all. I'd be surprised if he is ready.

Taking a look back at the game in Dekalb. Two things stick out. Turnovers and David Coit. The Huskies had 21 points off KSU turnovers, compared to 3 for Kent State. If that doesn’t tell you that the Flashes forgot their defense that night. How about this. David Coit, a 5’11 sophomore who averages a solid 15 points per game, went off for 31 against Kent State.

The other thing to keep in mind is that NIU isn’t a bad road/neutral team. In fact, 8 of the Huskies 13 wins came away from home.

The Golden Flashes need to be locked and loaded for NIU. I realize that is a captain obvious statement but if there was ever a time to ignore the names of the teams on the other QF line, this is it.

Lock them up!

Go Flashes!

So if you count top 25 points Toledo is 33rd (10 points). Does that mean they have a legit at large opportunity... I ask jokingly knowing the answer is no.

Discount Code!!!
DISCOUNT LINK: https://www.rocketmortgagefieldhouse.com...ket-offer/

· CODE: RizzoMAC23

Supposed to be useable all weekend.

(03-06-2023 02:50 PM)anti-zip Wrote:  So if you count top 25 points Toledo is 33rd (10 points). Does that mean they have a legit at large opportunity... I ask jokingly knowing the answer is no.

If Toledo makes it to the championship and loses, and lots of other things fall their way, I would say that they have about a 1 in 500 chance, at best. I'm not sure what all goes into consideration, but they are ranked only 81st in the NCAA NET rankings, while KSU is 69th. Using that criterion, KSU would have a better chance. But I think it is a virtual certainty the MAC has no at-large bid, as has been the case since the 1999 tournament. No MAC team has a resume that would force the selection committee to select them over a P5 also-ran.

Toledo has had an amazing MAC season, but their non-conference was bad. They have no chance at an at-large bid.

Kent also has no chance. Kent is probably a near Top 50 team, but they don't have a big win and didn't win their conference. I wish it wasn't true, but it is.

Sitting here watching a pretty good Horizon League Championship game between an NKU team we beat handily in their place and a CSU team we beat relatively comfortably in their place.

(03-07-2023 08:53 PM)anti-zip Wrote:  Sitting here watching a pretty good Horizon League Championship game between an NKU team we beat handily in their place and a CSU team we beat relatively comfortably in their place.

Tough loss for CSU. That was a very competitive game but hard to watch at times. Tough sell in Indi for two out of state teams. The atmosphere was lacking.

I kind of like the way the horizon used to handle their tournament and play the semis and final at the highest remaining seeds place.

The men’s All-MAC awards were announced this morning.

Jacobs-DPOY
Sullinger -6th Man
Carry-First Team
Jacobs-Second Team
Carry & Jacobs- All-Defensive Team

Men’s All-MAC Awards

(03-08-2023 12:00 PM)axeme Wrote:  The men’s All-MAC awards were announced this morning.

Jacobs-DPOY
Sullinger -6th Man
Carry-First Team
Jacobs-Second Team
Carry & Jacobs- All-Defensive Team

Men’s All-MAC Awards

Can't complain, but I might have chosen Payton over Sullinger for 6th man (both are worthy) and think Gio should be on the All-D team.

Yeah that's about what I expected. Payton and Sullinger are the MAC 6th and 7th man IMO. The only question was which the voters would see as 6th.

Just a couple stats about the season I wanted to throw out there. Payton is shooting 80.5% during MAC play. That's crazy. Carry got his 3pt% back over 30% for the season. Over the last 5 games he's shooting 50% from three. Since the 2-13 clunker he had at Akron he's shooting 41.5%. Him getting back to being a real threat from deep is huge.

Gameday is here.

To beat Northern Illinois KSU is going to have to take care of the ball and clamp down on Coin. I realize that these guys beat Kent earlier in the season. But come on fellas.....The Lion should not concern himself with the Sheep! How about a KSU KO in the early rounds!

Kent State 73
Northern Illinois 60
Chris Payton Jr. arrives...big time.

GO FLASHES!

One game at a time! The key tonight is to get off to a hot start. You don't want to give these lower seeds any glimmer of hope.

Feels like we should be up by 15 right now. Leaving lots of points on the rim.

(03-09-2023 04:16 PM)anti-zip Wrote:  Feels like we should be up by 15 right now. Leaving lots of points on the rim.

Up 14 is pretty good !

I can't watch the game I refuse to pay for ESPN+

21-7 nice start just win this easy please.