Recordpub.com - Mental preparation will be key for Golden Flashes

By David Carducci

Record-Courier staff writer

So you think playing in the NIT is a small consolation prize for winning a conference championship?

Don’t tell that to former Kent State head coach Jim Christian.

“To be honest, the games we lost in the NIT are the ones that eat at me more than the NCAA losses we had during my time at Kent State,” said Christian, who was the winningest coach in Mid-American Conference history in 2008 when he left KSU to become head coach at Texas Christian University. “Even with as poorly as we played against UNLV in the first half (of a 2008 NCAA Tournament game), I’m still more eaten up by the way we played at home against College of Charleston and West Virginia in the NIT.

“It eats at me more because those were about preparation,” Christian said. “Not basketball preparation, but mental preparation. And I just couldn’t come up with the right answers to get our players ready.”

The mental preparation to play in an NIT game is all about convincing players to readjust their goals after chasing a year-long dream to play in the NCAA Tournament. When that dream disappears, some players choose to pack it in for the year.

Kent State head coach Geno Ford has been faced with getting his Golden Flashes mentally ready for a first-round NIT battle with Tulsa tonight at the M.A.C. Center ever since their NCAA dreams were dashed in a MAC Tournament quarterfinal loss last week.

“Our first practice Sunday was a mess, but I think our guys now understand how much we need to play well and how badly we need a win,” said Ford. “Tulsa is a really good team, so we are going to have to play well if we are going to have a chance to win.

“And it has been a long time since Kent State has won a game in a postseason tournament. It’s time for that to change,” Ford said.

With all of the 20-win seasons and the regular-season and tournament championships of the last decade, its difficult to believe Kent State has been unable to celebrate a postseason tournament win since the Flashes beat Pittsburgh in the Sweet 16 of the 2002 NCAA Tournament.

In the eight years since, KSU has suffered college basketball’s version of “senioritis” in disappointing losses to the College of Charleston in the 2003 NIT, West Virginia in the 2004 NIT, Western Kentucky in the 2005 NIT and Oakland in last year’s inaugural ColegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament.

Teams all over the country fight the same battle every year. At the end of a long season, practices can feel like drudgery as players realize spring break is just around the corner. Chasing an NIT title just doesn’t provide the same shot of adrenalin that comes with preparing for the big dance of the NCAA Tournament.

“I remember when I was a player at Ohio University ... guys from George Washington showed up for their NIT game against us carrying duffel bags over one shoulders and a rolling their luggage behind them so they could go right from the game to their spring break if they lost,” said Ford.

As you might expect, George Washington went on to lose that game 83-71 in Athens.

At Kent State, NIT letdowns are more likely to be the result of a perceived failure to meet high expectations than thoughts of sitting on a beach in Cancun.

“I think one of the problems for Kent State has been the fact that you are always fighting the ghosts of past NCAA Tournament teams, and that creates the perception that being in the the NIT means you didn’t have a successful season,” said Christian. “That couldn’t be further from the truth. At the mid-major level, being in the NIT means you had a very successful year. You had to do some fantastic things during the season to get there, like winning the MAC regular-season title this season. That’s not easy.

“Kent State isn’t Syracuse, North Carolina or Duke, where you are judged by national titles,” Christian said. “Getting to the NIT means you are one of the top 100 teams in the country, and that’s a pretty big accomplishment.”

But as a coach, how do you get players, fans and even the media to understand the value of an NIT appearance?

Tulsa head coach Doug Wojcik has taken some hits in the local media for calling his team’s NIT bid “an unbelievable accomplishment.” The jibes are somewhat understandable considering the Golden Hurricanes were the overwhelming favorite to win the Conference-USA title at the start of the year, receiving 18-of-21 first-place votes in the preseason poll. Tulsa finished a more-than-respectable 23-11 overall, but a fifth-place 10-6 conference record and a semifinal loss to UTEP in the C-USA Tournament can be considered a letdown after all of the early hype.

“Being in the NIT means you are one of the top 100 teams in the country,” Christian said. “What you have to do is find a way to get that across to the kids. They need to know they are playing to represent their school and the Mid-American Conference. They are also playing to show that the game they lost in the MAC Tournament is not indicative of the team they have. If you are a senior, that shouldn’t be the way you want to be remembered.”

For younger players on the KSU roster, extending the season into the NIT also brings the opportunity to grow as college players by learning how to win in the postseason. The 2002 Flashes always pointed to the experience of a three-game run in the 2000 NIT as a precursor to their march to the Elite Eight two years later.