Kent State responded to a challenge last week by answering an embarrassing home loss to Bowling Green with runaway men’s basketball wins over Buffalo and Akron and pulling into a four-way tie for first place in the Mid-American Conference East Division.
Now it’s time for the Golden Flashes to move on to the next challenge: Avoiding a letdown.
“We’ve handled adversity better than we’ve handled success,” KSU head coach Geno Ford said Saturday after the Flashes pounded arch-rival Akron in the second half on their way to an 87-70 win. “So here we go. We had a great week. Congratulations. (Players) can walk around campus, walk around town and get all giddy. In reality, we played a really good team at home. Had to win. Won. Great job, proud of you, but what’s next?”
What’s next is tonight’s road trip to Toledo, and at 0-5 in the league and just 3-16 overall, the Rockets are easily the MAC’s worst team.
This is the perfect time for a team like Kent State to miss an opportunity to keep rolling by overlooking a lesser opponent.
Past KSU teams have fallen into that trap on this very trip.
In 2008, The Flashes rolled into Toledo with an impressive 17-4 overall record and a 6-1 start to conference play. They ended up losing to a 6-13 Rockets team that had only seven available players.
“It’s easier when things aren’t going well to get guys focused than it is when things are going well,” said Ford. “Up to this point, we’ve gotten leads and squandered them. We’ve won two or three in a row and then stubbed our toe in a game we had no business losing.
“Hopefully we are ready at this point in the year to take that last step forward as a team, and that being we hold each other accountable every day of the year as opposed to some nights yes, some nights no.”
KSU needs to stay on a roll tonight with a convincing win over Toledo to tipoff its six-game swing against the MAC West. Last year, the Flashes ran the table in cross-division games to move back into contention in the east after a slow start.
Going 6-0 won’t be as easy this year against a mostly improved West Division, so following through in games when they are an overwhelming favorite — like tonight in Toledo — is a must for the Flashes to make another move in the standings during the next three weeks.
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ROD’S RENAISSANCE — Improved play at the point-guard position by Rodriquez Sherman was a big key to KSU’s wins over Buffalo and Akron.
After going a combined 2-for-18 from the field in back-to-back losses to Miami and Bowling Green, Sherman responded by going a combined 10-for-15 while scoring 13 points in both wins last week.
The improved play on offense could be the result of a renewed dedication on the defensive end of the floor.
“The biggest thing Rod did this week was he came to both games trying to get his game started with defense,” said Ford. “I’ll give him a lot of credit, because when you are trying to become a point guard, you have a lot to think about.”
Sherman played mostly on the wing in his first two seasons in Kent. After missing all of last season to injury, he is trying to make the transition to the point this season. While Sherman had been worrying about getting his team into the right play, getting his teammates the touches they need and also generating his own shots, his defense had lapsed.
“The thing he has hung his hat on for his whole career here has been defense,” said Ford. “That’s been his thing. He has been a great defender.
“But he had probably five straight games where his defense had been nowhere near what it used to be.”
In response, Ford asked Sherman to turn his focus back to simply playing his old lock-down brand of defense.
“To be fair, maybe we over-coached him for a while,” said Ford. “It’s hard not to do. We have a guy who is learning the position and a guy who is a first-year freshman point guard (Randal Holt). They probably get too much information.
“We’ve been trying to make it simple lately where all I care about is him defending and not turning it over. Whatever else happens, we are just going to take on the fly and go with it.”
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PLAYER OF THE WEEK — Justin Greene was named the MAC East Player of the Week, his second of the year, on Monday in large part because of his 23-point and career-high 13-rebound performance against Akron.
The sky appears to be the limit for Greene, who has an unusual confidence for a sophomore in his first season with any real playing time.
How confident is the center from Brooklyn, N.Y.?
After the starters were announced on Saturday and he was walking onto the floor for the nationally-televised game with the arch-rival Zips, Greene walked past his head coach, tapped Ford on the backside and said, “Don’t worry coach. I got this one.”
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PRATT TO HILLTOPPERS — Kent State offensive coordinator A.J. Pratt accepted an offer to become the tackles and tight ends coach at Western Kentucky University last week, ending a decade as an assistant under Dean Pees and Doug Martin on the Flashes’ football staff.
Pratt will be missed as both an on-the-field coach and one of the best recruiters at the mid-major level. In his time as recruiting coordinator, he played a major role in building the pipeline between Hargrave Academy in Virginia and KSU.
Martin said he will return to the dual role of offensive coordinator and head coach, which he held prior to promoting Pratt two years ago.
“We are going to get back the things we did back when Josh Cribbs was here,” said Martin.
That means the Flashes can expect to put the ball in the air more in 2010. Fans who remember Cribbs for his spectacular runs often forget some of the big passing numbers he put up in his senior season — his second year in Martin’s offense.
According to Martin, sophomore-to-be Spencer Keith “can make an even more significant jump as a passer in his second year than Josh did,” said Martin. “I think Spencer can really become a dominant player in this league.”
Martin is hoping Keith can return from a late-season shoulder separation in time to participate in spring practice.
“Even if he can’t, he will be ready by the fall,” said Martin.
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Contact David Carducci at dcarducci@recordpub.com