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

(12-21-2010 08:21 PM)theoldflash Wrote:  Why is Justin Mann out? Let's also hope JN will upgrade the broadcast network and play-by-play, that guy is BAD, I had to go to 570 AM WKBN to follow the game properly

Wow Bill, bitter much?

(12-21-2010 11:07 PM)fallsdog Wrote:  Here's what has me so miffed....

As if no Guyton isn't bad enough. Justin Manns get himself into trouble and is benched for the game (this game only???????) and Johnson is given, what, 7 minutes on the floor? That tells me that either:
a) Johnson just ain't good enough to play at this point in the season or b) Coach was trying to send a BIG TIME message to his post players. Because it ain't like Leonard or Henninger got many minutes either.

I think a big part of why the bigs lost minutes tonight was because for most of the game Y-town's second biggest guy on the court was Sulskis. This meant who ever was playing next to Greene in the post had to try to cover him. That was a big reason why he had such a huge first half, because our post players weren't quick enough to close out on him. He moves without the ball very well and that got him all the space he needed to get his shot off. Then Geno switched to a 4 guard line up with Gaines on him and they shut him down. Gaines played absolutely phenomenal tonight! He made just about every hustle play there was to make.

Also, after tonight, I wouldn't be surprised to see Leonard move ahead of Johnson in the rotation. I thought this was most active I've seen him. He was particularly active on the glass, I was shocked to see he was only credited with 5 rebounds it felt like more.

Anyways, it might not have been pretty, but we were without arguably the 2 guys that pose the biggest match up issues for Y-town, other than Greene. All in all, it was a gritty win.

(12-22-2010 12:54 AM)anti-zip Wrote:  [quote='fallsdog' pid='6046933' dateline='1292990876']
Here's what has me so miffed....

Also, after tonight, I wouldn't be surprised to see Leonard move ahead of Johnson in the rotation. I thought this was most active I've seen him. He was particularly active on the glass, I was shocked to see he was only credited with 5 rebounds it felt like more.

Leonard played with much more intensity than I've seen to date & at least tried to play D. He seems to be gaining confidence shooting the ball (we've heard he is a good shooter).

Fallsdog...So far, Johnson has Sstunk and until last night, so had Leonard. The thing I like about Leonard is that he is more athletic than Johnson. Leonard is raw but looks to have more upside to me.

Congrats and thanks to the "Rock" for putting the team on his back and leading the way. Second half, Rod just willed the team to that win. Porrini was really tough on both ends last night as well and seems to be finding himself.

Get Guyton back and get some consistent production from the 4 (Nealy/Leoanrd) and I think this team will be very good!

(12-21-2010 09:49 PM)luckyflash Wrote:  Manns is getting an attitude adjustment courtesy of Geno.

In addition to what Geno said in the Record Courier this morning, I'm pretty sure I saw Manns show up very late to a practice or informal workout at the rec center (because graduation was at the MAC) on Saturday. I could be wrong about this, so don't take it as gospel.

Fun game last night. I thought it was going to be one of those lackluster post-semester games, but the game was pretty entertaining and the crowd was decent.

I really like Gaines. He brings Mincy-like intensity on the defensive end and does a lot of the little things right.

(12-21-2010 11:08 PM)thanksjim Wrote:  What's this? Is this an article in the Canton Rep about the game? I'm shocked!


http://www.cantonrep.com/newsnow/x180877...town-State

I am thinking with Porrini (Massillon) and Henninger (Jackson), they might actually be interested in covering the team .

(12-22-2010 08:43 AM)Flash FreaK 81 Wrote:  

(12-22-2010 12:54 AM)anti-zip Wrote:  [quote='fallsdog' pid='6046933' dateline='1292990876']
Here's what has me so miffed....

Also, after tonight, I wouldn't be surprised to see Leonard move ahead of Johnson in the rotation. I thought this was most active I've seen him. He was particularly active on the glass, I was shocked to see he was only credited with 5 rebounds it felt like more.

Leonard played with much more intensity than I've seen to date & at least tried to play D. He seems to be gaining confidence shooting the ball (we've heard he is a good shooter).

Fallsdog...So far, Johnson has Sstunk and until last night, so had Leonard. The thing I like about Leonard is that he is more athletic than Johnson. Leonard is raw but looks to have more upside to me.

Congrats and thanks to the "Rock" for putting the team on his back and leading the way. Second half, Rod just willed the team to that win. Porrini was really tough on both ends last night as well and seems to be finding himself.

Get Guyton back and get some consistent production from the 4 (Nealy/Leoanrd) and I think this team will be very good!

Freak,

Good Points. We'll see about johnson, He has four years to play so he could be a solid all around player, but he has shown nothing to be excited about yet.
Leonard open my eyes a little bit last night. The one thing that stuck out to me was his size in traffic. He's really big, when he adds to his frame he will be very tough to move around. He still looks to be playing in slow motion, but i think thats because he is still figuring things out. perhaps once everything makes sense he wont have to think as much and he can just go out and make plays.

gaines, WOW. This kid is so athletic. He has long arms and can jump out of the gym. Its going to be exciting watching him as he adds stuff to his game over the years.

Rod, Greene and Porrini were tough down the stretch. Its good we started hitting some perimeter shots because that opened everything up.
That, however, is still a major concern. In league play teams are going to be"having a convention in the lane"(coach said) and dare us to beat them from 3. The smart teams will do this the whole game, even if we start to hit some. Its going to make it very tough on Greene and our guards that like to take it to the rack.

Anti-Zip,

I think you are right on. Thanks.

Maybe what last night's game tells me more than anything is that if Coach Ford can get these guys believing and playing together, you have many different ways to win.

Couldn't agree more on Gaines. For the most part, he does all that hustling and hard work while staying within himself. In a perfect world, he is first guard off the bench and a key cog to the team's success. Especially when a guy like Sulskis, (or Roberts or Cooper) are beating Kent up a bit.
As for Porrini, what a tough kid. Not afraid to take big shots, can score near the hoop and just goes 100% all the time. I think when he and Rod are clicking together, you are not going to see a more "gritty" pair of guards in the conference.

So overall, yeah, there was plenty to be excited about last night's win. Now I figure just sit back and throw our faith in Geno Ford...not a bad fate.

I see Porrini making more and more of his mark on this team. He is the toughest player we have and he is showing by voice and example how to play hard. I am now beginning to wish that we had him for 3-4 years in our system. I think that he is very comfortable in that role. At times, we are very good. The problem with this team is that they like to coast half the game. Geno is trying his best to get effort ALL minutes. Greene is so good. It is just that he could be so much better. BTW, I was impressed with the YSU team and the way they are coached. They will win games. Also, it is interesting that the last Vegas line that I saw was KSU -13. And the final score....... ?

According to Dave, Manns benched for pouting. Probably a one game attitude adjustment.

(12-22-2010 09:52 AM)FlashFan Wrote:  According to Dave, Manns benched for pouting. Probably a one game attitude adjustment.

I had heard from a close source that he may have been connected to the alleged incident with Guyton. Anyone else hear this?

(12-22-2010 10:05 AM)goldenflash99 Wrote:  

(12-22-2010 09:52 AM)FlashFan Wrote:  According to Dave, Manns benched for pouting. Probably a one game attitude adjustment.

I had heard from a close source that he may have been connected to the alleged incident with Guyton. Anyone else hear this?

No.

I don't think you can judge the bigs very well from last night's game. Boris (or whatever his name was) was like a 4th guard and had something like 14 points in the first 7 minutes. We had to go with 4 guards. Gaines was on him most of the time after that and he only scored 8 the rest of the way. Since we only had four guards it was a good thing we did not get into any foul trouble.

I'll give the bigs a pass based on this but I still am a bit worried.

(12-22-2010 09:40 AM)GFlash68 Wrote:  I see Porrini making more and more of his mark on this team. He is the toughest player we have and he is showing by voice and example how to play hard. I am now beginning to wish that we had him for 3-4 years in our system. I think that he is very comfortable in that role. At times, we are very good. The problem with this team is that they like to coast half the game. Geno is trying his best to get effort ALL minutes. Greene is so good. It is just that he could be so much better. BTW, I was impressed with the YSU team and the way they are coached. They will win games. Also, it is interesting that the last Vegas line that I saw was KSU -13. And the final score....... ?

Vegas knows everything. It is uncanny, but they are so good at setting numbers.

(12-22-2010 09:37 AM)fallsdog Wrote:  Couldn't agree more on Gaines. For the most part, he does all that hustling and hard work while staying within himself. In a perfect world, he is first guard off the bench and a key cog to the team's success. Especially when a guy like Sulskis, (or Roberts or Cooper) are beating Kent up a bit.

Over the next 4 years I think we will see some very entertaining duels between Gaines and Ziegler from CMU.

(12-21-2010 08:38 AM)LetsGoGuins Wrote:  Unfortunately we blew 2nd half leads in 4 of those 5 road losses. As a matter of fact, we had leads with 10:00 left to play in those 4 losses.

That is freaky... Kent took the lead with exactly 10 mins left in the game.

Winning programs consistently own the last 10 min. of games, and losing programs consistently fall apart then regardless of what has happened earlier. That's not as obvious as it sounds, either.

Knowing how to finish games is fundamental and overrides talent most of the time. The game changes dramatically as it gets closer to the end. It's nothing at all like the first half and requires a different mindset and focus. It's no coincidence that the same players take over games in the last 6-7 minutes.

I agree axeme. Point guards double or triple in value. That's one big difference.

Maybe he was the friend that told Guyton to take the girl's car back to Applebee's and hope she wakes up with a hangover and forgets she drove home.

I did not see the game, but I like this win. They were down 17-5 early, then outscored them by 25 points the rest of the way. YSU is a team that based on their scores would probably finish top half in the MAC.

(12-22-2010 10:49 PM)KStud Wrote:  Maybe he was the friend that told Guyton to take the girl's car back to Applebee's and hope she wakes up with a hangover and forgets she drove home.

I did not see the game, but I like this win. They were down 17-5 early, then outscored them by 25 points the rest of the way. YSU is a team that based on their scores would probably finish top half in the MAC.

...and the bottom half of the Horizon.

(12-22-2010 10:58 PM)axeme Wrote:  

(12-22-2010 10:49 PM)KStud Wrote:  Maybe he was the friend that told Guyton to take the girl's car back to Applebee's and hope she wakes up with a hangover and forgets she drove home.

I did not see the game, but I like this win. They were down 17-5 early, then outscored them by 25 points the rest of the way. YSU is a team that based on their scores would probably finish top half in the MAC.

...and the bottom half of the Horizon.

And, our team would be third at best in the Horizon. What's your point?