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

(12-23-2011 11:17 AM)Kent 76 Wrote:  Flashfan, good point about Gaines. I debated whether to mention him. I probably shouldn't have. I suppose I am still not over the Tyree Evans situation. He was a nice, decent addition, but if one read all the hype, one would have thought he would be an NBA draft pick when he was finished!

Agree with you on Tyree. He got over his personal baggage while at KSU, but never lived up to the hype on his game.

Thinking outside of the box, which happens on an overnight train to Orlando, I thought that this team might have it all together too much. Think about it, this team has really not gone under much off-season adversity. Think about how really each team has gone under adversity in the off-season. The worse thing that happened was Geno leaving. Which was bad, but Sendy was right there to make the transition smooth. These kids have been told how "great" they will be, with no real need to prove it. No adversity, no trials. We have told them "you will be the MAC Champs," or "you will be the next 2002 team." Then they beat WV, so why step up your game? Just try to be the hero of the self proclaimed championship team. I could be using too much psychology, but I really can't see any other reason why this team is downplaying so much.

I tend to agree with your reason Alpha Flash but the longer this goes on the more I worry. Our past teams have always had a non -conference game like last night so that by itself means little. It's the fact they have underperformed in almost every game that is worrisome. While most of our players are back as starters we are breaking in a new bench with Evans, Jackson, etc. so that takes some time. We also have a new coach that I know all the players wanted (sometimes thats the worst coach to pick). But the key word in that sentence is new so I am sure he is doing some learning on the fly. The Manns situation has not helped and losing Sherman is not insignificant. It will be an interesting 2 or 3 weeks. Along with all this the MAC is much better so it wouldn't take much of a drop off to cause a significantly worse record.

By the way I saw Bradley give Michigan a good game at Michigan so I went over to the Bradley board to see what they are saying. Since 2008 they have said exactly zero. They must talk elsewhere. If anybody knows let me know. I would like to see what they are saying about Geno.

Well said fallsdog. I'm very interested in how these next two games play out. There are still a lot of questions left to be answered this far into the OoC schedule. I agree that we have the right coaches in place to get this figured out quick though.

(12-23-2011 05:59 PM)burden Wrote:  I tend to agree with your reason Alpha Flash but the longer this goes on the more I worry. Our past teams have always had a non -conference game like last night so that by itself means little. It's the fact they have underperformed in almost every game that is worrisome. While most of our players are back as starters we are breaking in a new bench with Evans, Jackson, etc. so that takes some time. We also have a new coach that I know all the players wanted (sometimes thats the worst coach to pick). But the key word in that sentence is new so I am sure he is doing some learning on the fly. The Manns situation has not helped and losing Sherman is not insignificant. It will be an interesting 2 or 3 weeks. Along with all this the MAC is much better so it wouldn't take much of a drop off to cause a significantly worse record.

By the way I saw Bradley give Michigan a good game at Michigan so I went over to the Bradley board to see what they are saying. Since 2008 they have said exactly zero. They must talk elsewhere. If anybody knows let me know. I would like to see what they are saying about Geno.

Bradleyfans.com

Sendy should call a meeting, somewhere neutral, off campus. And show the last few minutes of the MAC Final from last year. That might bring them back to earth.

There are too many cry babies on this team. When we are winning and guys are still bitching something is wrong. Some guys I'm afraid may think they are better than they really are. We need to find eight or nine guys who really buy in and move on. Too many chiefs and not enough indians. Coach sendy is dealing with a lot of emotionally fragile ball players. In other words some guys can't take hard coaching without pouting. They don't realize how good they have it here. If you are touted as a star and don't perform why blame the coaches. They need to check themselves. This is d1 basketball. What you did in high or juco can't compare to this level. We must get rid of the cancers on this team on move on. Coach has to tell them what's what. You are playing for one of the best mids in the country. Keeping pouting and crying. These kids don't realize their attitudes will tranfer with them. Another school is not put up with their crap either. My message to coach sendy: stop coddling these babies and find the guys who want togo to war with this team. I promise you guys its all about egos and attitudes. Clear that mess and get back to kent st basketball.

j williams,

What players are you talking about in particular? I mean, not to stir you up but if you are well aware of these incidents don't you feel like a scoundrel coming on here and calling out guys as cancers and such? I don't know, its hard for me to worry too much about what your writing because:

a) I believe 90 some percent of the teams in the country have to deal with the stuff you are referring to at some point AND

b) Its hard for me to believe that someone in the know would stone the players on this board.

(12-24-2011 11:02 AM)fallsdog Wrote:  j williams,

What players are you talking about in particular? I mean, not to stir you up but if you are well aware of these incidents don't you feel like a scoundrel coming on here and calling out guys as cancers and such? I don't know, its hard for me to worry too much about what your writing because:

a) I believe 90 some percent of the teams in the country have to deal with the stuff you are referring to at some point AND

b) Its hard for me to believe that someone in the know would stone the players on this board.

He didn't stone them individually and I won't either, but he is right. There are some players who have said point blank that they aren't getting enough touches. Or blaming performances on being played out of position. And sometimes coming on here and not saying what you know (exactly) and/or what your source is, is the way to ensure that you continue to get the info that we all like to have and know.

Just know, that I too believe, (based on what I have been told) jwilliams statements that their are some individual agendas blocking the team agenda, are true. It is nothing that's not correctable with small attitude adjustments, but to achieve greatness and the team goals, they will have to make some changes. Quickly.

That's what made the elite 8 team so special, they had guys that could check their egos for the good of the team. Demetric Shaw was a much more prolific scorer than we saw while he was here. He holds a Mexican League single game scoring record with something like 75 points and I remember seeing him score over 30 in a D-League game. Yet he accepted his role as the 4th scoring option (7.3 ppg) and the defensive stopper. Another example is Anthony Wilkins, he's a guy that's played on NBA summer league teams and pre season rosters yet as a Jr. he was willing to accept that he was a role player.

I know he's not viewed in a great light these days but even Eric Thomas was a great example. As a Sr. he accepted that he was a role player and played that role very well.

I could tell you who the players are. As I said before if you are winning and still complaining then somethings wrong. Guys are on the bench crying yes really crying tears and throwing tantrums. Coach is gonna learn how to deal with this with time.

Let us not forget there were some major ego problems in Dec. '01, and a team meeting and come to Jesus moment had to occur before that team was able to reach its potential. Some players had to subjugate their individual agendas for the sake of the team and had to buy into Heath's game plan to become a team whose only goal was winning.

Is this team capable of that kind of selflessness? I'm not sure they are, but have great hope they cure what is ailing them.

jwilliams, I'm glad you didn't call the players out by name. I think you stated your point without publicly embarrasing an individual which is good.

axeme, that's a very good point. I was thinking more about the end result but you are absolutly correct that it didn't start out that way.

I always go back to the fact that we lost to YSU in the 01/02 season. I even remember the CSU game (against a bad CSU team) was an ugly win. That was a week before MAC play.

Yep our first good game was against St. Bonaventure on New Years Eve. I think the next game was a Conference game.

(12-25-2011 07:49 AM)AlphaFlash Wrote:  I always go back to the fact that we lost to YSU in the 01/02 season. I even remember the CSU game (against a bad CSU team) was an ugly win. That was a week before MAC play.

Should've seen them play at the start of that season in the Robert Morris tournament. It was horrific. Loss to Hofstra, first-half struggle to a crappy RM team before Huffman got hot, and a better, but still ugly, game against UC-Irvine. Couldn't believe this was the same team -- with Huffman, Mitchell, Shaw, et al -- that had advanced to the second round of the NCAA tourney the prior season.

I recall well the early struggles of the 2001/02 team, but I don't think comparisons between that team and this team are valid. The 2001/02 team had a new coach come from the outside who made major changes. This team has a coach that was the top assistant last year and who has been quoted as saying he was only going to "tweak" a couple of things. That team had two new starters in Gerwig and Gates, both new to the school, and lost three players from the prior year's rotation in Mike Perry, Kyrem Massey and Rashaun Warren. This team returned four starters and the sixth man, and only lost one player that mattered in Rod Sherman. This team has no excuse to struggle, unlike the 2001/02 team.

Man!!! if we only had rod Stewart this year

Thanks, flashgrad03. I edited my post to read "Sherman". I would call it a Freudian slip, except I never cared all that much for Rod Stewart. Strange.

I understand your perspective jwilliams. As for the discussion on past teams and this team using whatever is ailing them as a stepping a stone it seems that the Flashes will have their work cut out for them at Arkansas State later this week. Although the Red Wolves are far from a juggernaut, they do have played a decent schedule that includes a win over St. Bonaventure.