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

Kent State plays one of three remaining MAC road games tomorrow at Alumni Arena in Buffalo. This is a very winnable contest for the Flashes against an up and down Buffalo squad. I see the keys breaking down this way:

1) Defend the perimeter: Going into the season I looked at Buffalo as a team that was going to get the bulk of their scoring from inside. I left the "Q" last season impressed with their young big men. After watching Buffalo play at the MAC Center and keeping an eye on their stats this season, that opinion has changed.
Pierce and Betts are the two you have to slow. The third leading scorer is Smiley, also a guard. Boudreau, Robinson and Watt come in averaging about 19 points per between them. That said, Kent's perimiter defenders need to step up and slow down the Bull's backcourt. I imagine Singletary will go to work on one of these guards at some point in the game.

2) Get Greene going early and often: NIU's coach Patton made it clear that he was impressed with Greene's (and others for KSU) physical strength. Buffalo's guys leave plenty to be desired as far as muscle in the paint goes. I would like to see Greene eat them for lunch thus allowing the Flashes to get some easy buckets and plenty of time at the line.

3) Hot Streaks: Buffalo has given up 101, 80, 89, 99, 83 and 88 points at various times this season. The only "big time" opponent to nail them was Purdue who put up the 101. Otherwise it has been the likes of Niagra, Jacksonville, Ohio U, Western and Central. Oh yeah, and KENT!
Anyway, point is that UB doesn't seem interested in playing stellar defense. If the Flashes can string together a few nice runs, the score could get up there really quick. The way KSU has been defending lately, I think 70 should be enough to get the job done.

ESPNU @ 12:00

fallsdog...love the pregame analysis we get for each game they are great points...i got nothing to add except that buffalo is typically a difficult road game, but nothing kent can't handle..go flashes!

sleepy noon start in freezing cold UB, a place where we have struggled mightily over the the years. long winning streak on line. UB wants revenge and isnt bad at home. someone please tell me i'm wrong but i sense a clunker coming.

ksu315,

I know what you mean. All week long it seems like Geno and company have been talking about "not talking about the streak." Hopefully that is more than lip service. I think a clunker is inevitable at some point during this final stretch. With 3 road games compared to 2 home (plus bracketbuster) I am thinking best case is win 2 of 3 on road and defend home court. This may be the toughest road challenge of the three. I say that because Kent/Akron is a toss up no matter where it is played IMO. That said, I would love for Kent to get this one and save the "clunker" that you speak of for Bowling Green...a team that really doesn't look like they can catch the top teams in the standings.

Since they rebound, especially offensively, play D, and shoot FTs, they may drop a game or even 2 down the stretch but I don't see any real clunkers coming out of this team.

Yeah I hope that we wake up and don't have any "clunkers" at all. But I agree, if they're going to get it out of their system, it should be against BG although 2 losses to BG is really gonna be sad.

Hmmm...The stats tell the story...

8-25 From the field
3-9 From the line
13 TO's

On a positive note...

We're up 23-16 on the boards.

Better pick it up in the 2nd Half...Let's Go Flashes!!!

We are smelly today. And the officials are terrible. That isn't a good combination for us. How many times in his life do you think Mike McKee has hit the side of the backboard shooting a 3 pointer? The answer is Zero unless he got fouled.

Unfortunately, I don't get ESPNU here in Columbus, so I can't comment on the refs. I have to rely on Linder's call.

Buffalo played well. We had a lot of atypical physical errors which led to unforced turnovers and couldn't make a shot. Move on to the next game.

man what a frustrating game...now the heat is on to be perfect down the stretch or we won't be hanging a banner next season

Hopefully this is the type of loss we kinda of "needed" for the team to realize they need to play top notch every game. The last two games against Miami and Akron are going to be tough.

ouch

Wow, I'm not sure we've seen them play like that all year. 5 assists?!?! That's not a good number for a half let alone a game. It seemed that Buffalo made every hustle play and we did not. They beat us to every 50-50 ball. Really bad 3 point shooting tonight. Danyb73, I agree the refs were not good but that didn't affect the outcome. I thought that phantom 4th foul on Singltary destroyed any chance of a come back. However, even without that call there wasn't much of a chance. Very disappointing but hopefully it serves as a wake up call.

(02-13-2010 07:08 PM)anti-zip Wrote:  Wow, I'm not sure we've seen them play like that all year. 5 assists?!?! That's not a good number for a half let alone a game. It seemed that Buffalo made every hustle play and we did not. They beat us to every 50-50 ball. Really bad 3 point shooting tonight. Danyb73, I agree the refs were not good but that didn't affect the outcome. I thought that phantom 4th foul on Singltary destroyed any chance of a come back. However, even without that call there wasn't much of a chance. Very disappointing but hopefully it serves as a wake up call.

Debacles like this happen at least one time a year to most teams. Now KSU just has to stay focussed as they have all season and come out Wed night with an "A game" effort.

The 1st half turnovers were freakish and I doubt you'll see that again (6 travels). What's more concerning to me is that Evans and McKee just can't get that 3 pt shot to fall. Both are shooting just 33% for the season. After both struggled last year, I really thought they'd come out this year and prove that they are really solid shooters. To date, they haven't. I'm probably more disappointed with Tyree because of all of the hype about his game. One of them has to step up for these last 4 MAC games.

Now go pound OU!

The "turnovers' on the travels and palming calls were questionable in my mind. It was 3 or 4 trips down the floor in a row where they were hit with these calls. These guys didn't just start making these kinds of moves. The refs impeded the flow of the game. The calls took them out of the their offensive rhythm and they never seemed to recover.

That said Buffalo clearly had something to prove and took advantage where the Flashes were flat. Frankly, it all comes down to March. An East or overall regular season championship is nice, but the tourney bid comes in Cleveland. I like their chances with the senior leadership and experience. Recognition for a MAC school comes with the tourney bid and that's what I would like to see.