By David Carducci
Record-Courier staff writer
Finding a way to replace Mike Scott and Haminn Quaintance was never going to be easy for Kent State.
In Scott, the Golden Flashes had an on- and off-court leader with pogo sticks for legs playing the power-forward spot.
In Quaintance, the Mid-American Conference's Defensive Player of the Year, they had a freak-of-nature center with the kind of athleticism a program is lucky to find once every 30 or 40 years.
At 6-foot-7 and 6-8, they were also the two tallest players in the Flashes' regular rotation.
"Those two left tremendous holes," first-year head coach Geno Ford admitted.
Instead of trying to fill those gaping holes by gambling and trying to find two similar players, Ford used all four scholarships in his first recruiting class to add four newcomers all standing between 6-foot-6 and 6-foot-8.
"At least in our assessment, all four can come in and contribute right away, and hopefully together they will be able to make up for the losses of Mike and 'Q'," said Ford. "They also may not feel as much pressure individually trying to fill those holes because hopefully they can do it as a group."
Justin Greene became the final member of KSU's foursome of new post players Wednesday when his national letter of intent arrived at the M.A.C. Center offices. The 6-foot-7 starting center from New York's city and state champion, Lincoln High School, signed to fulfill his commitment to play for the Flashes on Tuesday.
In Greene, Alex Grimsley, Frank Henry-Ala and Justin Simpson, the Flashes add four players with similar size and credentials to go with a nice mix of experience.
Greene and Grimsley are high-school stars. Both are 6-7. One played for a team that has won three straight New York City titles and two straight state champions, the other played for an Indiana team that was 24-3 last season.
The 6-6 Henry-Ala and the 6-8 Simpson are junior-college transfers with the potential to start at power forward and center, respectively, in the coming season. Both are athletic inside players with the skill and versatility to be effective on the perimeter.
And both played for teams that were ranked in the top 15 in the nation last year.
"I feel really good about the depth and the quality in this class," said Ford. "Obviously, there is going to be a learning curve for all three, but they all come from really successful high school and junior college programs. ... The bottom line is these guys won, they know what it takes to win, and we wanted to add guys from winning programs who understand the kind of expectations we have and have the same expectations of themselves."
Every member of Ford's first KSU coaching stamp put its stamp on the class.
Top assistant Rob Senderoff first saw Grimsley while on the recruiting trail in his former job at the University of Indiana. Senderoff's ties to New York city were also responsible for landing Greene.
In his first job as a full-time assistant coach, former KSU guard Armon Gates tapped Simpson from his hometown in Chicago.
"When you look at our coaching staff, Rob is a guy who is a proven recruiter, and his ability to go into Brooklyn and get the starting center off the state championship team is pretty impressive, especially in this late stage of recruiting," said Ford. "Rob also got Grimsley, who is a guy that was sought after and is definitely an impact player at a position of need.
"And in his first year, Armon was able to go into Illinois and get a player from an area we really hoped to get back into. With Chris Singletary already here and an all-conference player from Chicago, we want to continue to tap that area, and Armon being able to go in do that right away is really encouraging. I think the guys we will have on this staff are probably as good as any staff we've ever had in terms of experience, contacts, work ethic and relationships with players."
The third member of Kent State's staff has not yet been hired, but Motlow State Community College head coach Bobby Steinburg appears to be the leading candidate. Steinburg was Henry-Ala's junior-college coach. Four other members of Steinburg's Motlow team signed with Division I schools -- Tyree Evans at Marland, Anthony Sally at Western Kentucky and Bjon Jones and Israel Kirk at Southeast Missouri State.