Recordpub.com - Inspired Flashes ready for Bulls

By David Carducci
Record-Courier staff writer
If Kent State was hoping to find some motivation to turn around its floundering men's basketball season, the Golden Flashes may have found it in a little sensory overload on Tuesday during its travel day to the University at Buffalo.
They had an opportunity to appropriate a message of hope while watching the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States.
For an inspiration to fight, the Flashes spent the long bus ride to Buffalo watching a small band of Spartans hold off a million Persians during epic battle of Thermopylae in the movie "300" " a film "every basketball team in the country should have to watch," KSU guard Tyree Evans insisted.
How, and even if, the Flashes translate those ideas of hope and courage to the basketball court tonight is anyone's guess.
"We need something right now," said KSU head coach Geno Ford. "These guys have to find a way to give a consistent effort game in and game out, because so far they aren't doing it. One night we look great. The next, we completely lose our minds."
The Flashes demonstrated those Jekyll-and-Hyde characteristics last week when they authored their best game of the season in a 72-48 destruction of Bowling Green on Wednesday, then self-destructed on Saturday in a 66-55 home loss to Miami University.
The implosion against the RedHawks demonstrated some key issues that are keeping the Flashes (8-9, 1-2) from living up to their preseason pick as the favorite to defend both the Mid-American Conference regular-season and tournament titles.
A comparison of the two game films shows just how inconsistent an effort Ford is getting from his players from game to game.
Against Bowling Green, junior Chris Singletary played as if he was ready to take over as the team's leader. When he wasn't giving his all on the court, he was barking out instructions to his teammates while inspiring a brilliant defensive effort.
Against Miami, Singletary looked like his heart wasn't into it. The game film shows him walking back on defense, consistently finding himself out of position, and guarding his man by swatting with his hands instead of moving his feet.
In Singletary's defense, he has been playing through a painful shoulder injury that has kept him from practicing for more than a week. In fact, his status for tonight's game at Buffalo was still up in the air as of late Tuesday night.
Singletary and fellow starting guards Al Fisher and Tyree Evans are all coming off a poor performance against Miami. Despite scoring 14 points, Fisher continued to struggle when he was forced to play point guard. Evans, meanwhile, was held scoreless for the first time in his career, going 0-for-8 from the field.
"We are a perimeter team," said Ford, who had a long pre-practice, sit-down in his office with Singletary, Fisher and Evans on Monday afternoon. "Those guys have to be better than that for us to win. They need to understand that.
"At the same time, we also have to get better inside, especially rebounding the ball on defense. I was looking at the numbers, and Pittsburgh is the best offensive rebounding team in the nation. They go and get back 41 percent of the shots they put up. So far (in three conference games), we are letting teams get back 44 percent of the shots they put up. That's a problem."
Some of those problems are issues with talent and athleticism, but according to Ford, "most of it is just wanting to go get the ball. It's about desire."
Buffalo isn't having any of those problems. The Bulls (10-5, 2-1) probably don't have as many "premier" players as Kent State has with Singletary, Fisher and Evans, but they play hard for head coach Reggie Witherspoon.
"They are also a very veteran team," said Ford. "They out-work you. We are going to have to adopt some of that attitude, or we'll be in trouble."
There is plenty of reason for the Flashes to keep up the hope, though. At 1-2, they left for Buffalo trailing by only one game in the East Division to a group of teams that include the Bulls. And even with 17 games in the books, there is still plenty of season left.
"I'm a little surprised its taken so long," said KSU guard Mike McKee. "I thought for sure, 17 or 18 games into the year now, we'd be coming together. And really, we have. We've made strides forward since (losing to) Western Carolina (Dec. 4). We just have to keep going with it.
"We show sparks where we can play with anybody, and then there are times when we don't click. If we can get everyone on the same page and be positive, learn from each other and take criticism, we've shown we can be great. We just have to get to be that way all of the time, not just some of the time."

David Carducci can be reached at dcarducci@recordpub.com