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

Some of you have been Browns fans for too long. Did some of you in the" J.C. can't coach" camp also wanted Belichick to go because he had one winning season in five years? Did things work out as well for you as they did for hm? Of all the places I've lived, have never seen the leap to "the coach stinks and the players don''t care" after a loss more than in NE Ohio.

"Why didn't Gates show up? Haynes is mediocre! J.C. was asleep the last ten minutes". Boy, could I follow some of you around every day in your jobs? It would be spectalular to watch perfection in action...never a mistake, never a let down, never get out gunned by business competition. No doubt when a new co worker or workers join your work team, no one misses a beat. Your group or your company makes plan every quarter. Maybe you could show these 18-22 year olds the secret to never having a bad day. Maybe you can share your secret with J.C.

This is not to suggest everything has to be rosy. Analysis is useful, hand wringing is not. Reality is grounded, all glory or all doom is not.
We lost . It stinks. Execution broke down. Frankly, stronger words than that come to mind. But we lost a game. If you're that weak of a fan that a loss is going to send you over the edge, don't watch. Tune in only after they win and talk about how much you support them. If the thought of NOT winning the MAC East or the tourney one year makes you sick, do as axeme suggests and wait for the winner every year and pull for them. But I root for the Flashes. They will be great, they will disappoint. They will have memorable days, they will have forgettable days. They will over achieve, they will choke. But in the end, I want them to believe in themselves, so I believe in them.

Does anyone see the irony of fans sitting on their hands complaining about lack of enthusiasm on the team? Jeez, that's your ONLY "job" at the game. Admittedly, I only watched on T.V. But I saw more encouragement and confidence among the players ( when they came back in the second half) than I heard from the stands. I'm glad the MAC doesn't rank fans like it does teams.

My sense of things? J.C. and his staff are coaching.The players are playing thier hearts out. In fact, it appears "trying too hard" is more of a problem than "letting the game come to you" most of the time. It doesn't matter how much individual experience players have, it's the length of time they've played together that counts. With six new players in the program and one senior, this is a young team by any coaches' standards.

Being a fan is like investing. If you bail on a good investment because of one bad year or bad quarter you never get the ultimate pay off. This may not be our year. But next year may very well be. And working through this will make it all the sweeter.

Go Flashes.

FlashFan Wrote:Some of you have been Browns fans for too long. Did some of you in the" J.C. can't coach" camp also wanted Belichick to go because he had one winning season in five years?

Belichick was an awful coach for the Browns, though. There was a great article in the Sun-Times this week talking about how much he stunk as the Browns coach. Who can forget Touchdown Tommy Vardell, Todd Philcox, the last 5% of Pepper Johnson, etc.

And the Browns since B.B.? What great success have I missed?

The idea of a savior coach is way over rated. Just ask a Domer.

Flashfan - Good well thought analysis. To set the record straight i am not bailing on the team and i have and will continue to go to all home games for a long time. But i don't know how you can watch these guys and not be a little concerned? This team is much closer to those gut wrenching Jim Grube teams in the mid -90's than it is our teams in any of the last 6 years and the ONLY reason i'm complaining is that i don't ever want that long period of mediocrity again. Their inconsistency is my main issue with this team and if you can say this teams effort is consistent than we're not watching the same game.

The Flashes are inconsistent. No disagreement here. We differ because I am not overly surprised or alarmed at the ups and downs of this team. Most teams with one starter ( Haynes) returning from the previous year are inconsistent. ( Edwin only started part of the year.) And I look at this program as more than a one year wonder.

I'd be far, far more concerned if I didn't see (1) improvement experience can bring and (2) a plan to fill the holes. Regarding the first point, we have four starters returning next year: Haynes, Warz, Cutley and Youngblood. Warz and Youngblood will have a year in the MAC under their belts and a year playing with this team. We have some back up depth, your concern, in Gates, Crenshaw and Scott. Crenshaw already shoots with ice water in his blood (most times, I wish this kid had a little fear)...another year should help him understand our game. Gates may turn into a stronger E. Haut. Scott will get stronger which will help him give us more minutes. Also regarding experience, we have what I think is a very good coaching staff that has a year understanding this talent a little better. Do you really think J.C. is taking a team without promise to Duke next year? On the second point, hopefully we'll have a healthy Gerwig, a healthy Knight who is as good as advertised, Warz and the big kid from Indy in the paint.

We are inconsistent this year. We may not win the MAC East or the tourney. But it's one year. And one year without a banner does not make this program "mediocre" in my book.

Glad you're with them KSU315. They need you.

I have said it before this season, and I will say it again. I am not going to debate effort. It is immeasurable and in the eye of the beholder. I was disappointed in the game. I have a brother who is a BG alum and regularly attend sporting events with he and his fellow alums. I don't like seeing KSU lose to BG.

But this team is coming. They had just won six of seven, and people were talking about March on here again. BG had a great offensive game with the exception of that 3 or 4 minute stretch. There is a reason Almondson and Reimold are among the leaders in scoring.

But I look at the comeback win against Buffalo, and I look at today and see no comparison. Buffalo gave KSU a lot. BG did not give an inch. I was ready to send Warzynski packing at halftime. I am glad I look stupid to the people I told. I am not alarmed by anything the coaches did because they did not do anything differently than usual. Christian rarely calls timeouts before the final two minutes. He also rides the hot players in the second half and who can blame. Where would you have played Gerwig? Cutley also had a great second half. FlashFan sums Crenshaw up perfectly, but I think he will score a lot of points before he is done at KSU.

My negatives: Haynes has not put back-to-back games together. I never expected him to score a lot. He will never be a great shooter. But he is not finishing at the basket, and he is turning the ball over in the halfcourt. I will allow a transition turnover. The defense did break down again at the end of the shot clock. As well as they rebounded offensively, they did not rebound well defensively. Our players rebound like maulers. Defensive rebounding requires more technique. The crowd was as Funkmaster explained. It's really embarassing for this community to only support this team a few times a year. The place will be packed for Bracket Buster, but unfortunately, it will ESPN2 to do it.

KSU should spend all practices working on the final 5 minutes of game. I have a feeling like the last two, seven or eight more games will be decided at the end depending on how long this team plays in the postseason.

FlashFan Wrote:And the Browns since B.B.? What great success have I missed?

The idea of a savior coach is way over rated. Just ask a Domer.

I'd have to follow the Browns to know. I pretend to around my uncle that has season tickets, but I really couldn't care less about the NFL (though Green Bay is occasionally fun). I doubt I could name 5 players on the club (ummm, Green, Suggs, Northcutt, ummm, who's the quarterback? Oh, Garcia, ummm, ummm, stuck).

BTW, my parents are in town next week, so I don't know that I'll be coming to the Cubby Bear.

bopol- Enjoy the visit. If you can't make it, we'll miss your hoops expertise, but will certainly understand.

At the risk of boring some, the article from today's Chicago Tribune makes my point about the time and patience needed to get a talented, but young, team prepared to reach their peak. It highlights the fact that the players are often impatient (which is not all bad) and overlook the necessary gelling time. This is often demonstrated by playing outside themselves and rushing the system. ( Sound familiar?) IMO, most fans are 2X the players' impatience level.

Quote:CHAMPAIGN -- In his second meeting with the players he inherited from Bill Self, Bruce Weber set a goal for the Illinois basketball team.

He indicated that the group was fully capable of reaching the Final Four, a feat last accomplished by the Illini in 1989. 

Some in the audience were offended.

The problem was that the city Weber targeted was St. Louis, site of the 2005 NCAA Final Four. But in the spring of 2003, that struck the players as an unnecessary delay in their development and gratification.

"We were taken aback by that," said Deron Williams, who had just led the Big Ten in assists as a freshman. "We felt we had a good enough team to win the championship last year."

Said Weber: "They were mad at me. One raised his hand and said, `Why not San Antonio? You skipped a year."'

It was just one of several misunderstandings that had to be overcome before Weber and his team achieved a common purpose. As they came to understand, he was being candid rather than telling them what they wanted to hear.

"He didn't think we were ready," senior guard Luther Head said last week. "Everything had happened so suddenly. He didn't know us, and we didn't know him. We didn't know his offense, and he didn't think we had enough chemistry."

What they did have was talent, and it was sufficient to carry the Illini to victories in their final 10 regular-season games, to the school's first outright Big Ten title in 52 years and to the round of 16 in the NCAA tournament.

But Weber was right. They didn't have the complete package or the maturity to qualify for San Antonio.

The Illini have the same guys this year, and it's turning out to be a different story
(although they are not very deep and their bench could be the downfall).

I won't argue that we could go undeafeted next year, or even match the 2002 30 win record. But I see in the Flashes what Weber saw in the Illini last year...enough talent but not enough team. This is a year where seven guys who will return next year are learning new roles in a very tough conference ( Warz, Youngblood, Gates, Cutley, Crenshaw and Scott. I even through in Haynes because it's the first year he's had to be THE leader...no cadre of seniors to help him out.) Three of those seven weren't even in the program last year and Warz could only practice- games are a whole different story. The thing that keeps me patient is that I really think two intangibles you can't coach... talent and heart...are there. A third, chemistry, will come with time.

At this point, I'm just looking for steady progess, and yes, some consistency would be nice. Next year at this time, I may be as frustrated as some of you. For now, it's time to suffer through the growing pains.

I am not a Kent grad or BG grad, but I watched the game yesterday and I thought BG had a peak game and Kent had a terrible shooting game.
BG played about as well as they can and Kent had a sub-par day. Even so, BG just barely won. I think KSU is one of about 4-5 teams teams who seriously have a shot at the MAC title this year. I know the standings say otherwise, but I think OU and Akron are too young and will choke a tourney game early. UB has never won a big game ever, let alone three. Miami, WMU, Ball St., and Kent have the coaching and talent to put together the 3 game run. Toledo has self-destructed every other important game or so. They could win one. Miami's seniors may be too much to overcome, though, and I'd make them the favorite.
I also think KSU will beat SIU solidly next week.
Good luck!

I guess the win unexpected win at Akron kind of negates this lose, but this team is goning to have to at least pull one out at UB or Miami now just to get a decent seed.

I'm not calling for JC's head, but it looked like KSU had never run their offense before shot around yesterday. I'm worried he had been coasting of off Waters' and Heath's recuirts. I'll reserve judgment on his overall ability for a couple of years. I don't like how he's publically blaming the loss on Haynes and Crenshaw, and not being at all critical of himself. His frustrations are fair, but I'd respect him a lot more if he took care of this in practice, not the BJ.

I'm still pissed about the student section this year. About half the pepole who do stand only do so b/c the ppl in front of them are so they have to stand to see. Numbers are down too, a couple years ago thier wouldn't be anywhere to sit a half hour before a game as big as yesterdays. I wish the ushers would start checking pepole behind the baskets to ensure they got a student ticket like they did last year. I don't know why they stoped this. I wish their was some way to get all the ppl who want to be rowdy organized and more effective by sitting togeather. I wish their where more ppl they cared about creating a more hostile enviroment instead of waiting for ESPN to come in so they can pose for the cameras and get 5 seconds of glory. OU, BSU, UB, and BG have much, much better student sections and we've had much better succes than any of them this decade.

For the one who thinks that Haynes has carried this team on his back, he missed 3 layups yesterday, yes layups missed by a point guard. He has missed 6 foul shots at the end of 2 other games that we probably would have won had he made them, and for his leading in assist, he is a point guard and he handles the ball more that anyone else. If you subtract his turnovers from his assist, he might have negative assists. How is that for carrying a team as captain.
I too, do not appreciate the coach criticizing his players (even Haynes) in the newspapers. If he can not get the point guard to run his plays, maybe he should get smarter point guards.

I've been an Illinois BB fan for 35 years, Flashfan, so that information doesn't bore me! I have drawn the same parallels. The Illini are loaded with talent, no doubt. But to me what overshadows the talent is their excellent team chemistry and execution. As you have made known, it takes time for a team to develop.

I think there is great reason for optimism for next year. Despite not having much experience playing together and often playing poorly this season, KSU is still 16-8. Even in most of the losses, the Flashes were right there with a chance to win. With the added experience and the 6'10 kid from Indiana coming in next year, we should be strong next year.

You must be having from following the Illini this year, delflash. Enjoy every minute.

I'm not giving up on this year by any means, but doubt this team will get by the first round of the NCAA or NIT anyway. My optimism comes from anticipating what this talent can do if it gells into a team. K Flashes has it right; just think of the combination of a bombing Warz on the perimeter and Gerwig in the paint next year. Add four others with starter experience ( Haynes, Cutley, Youngblood, Gates) and things don't look too bad.