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Do IT this week: Layering
By Patrick McManamon
Beacon Journal sports columnist
POSTED: 10:56 p.m. EDT, Mar 12, 2009
CLEVELAND: The game was like their season, which by Kent State standards was not good enough.
Good, mind you. Just not good enough.
Cut through all the strategy and why-this and why-that and KSU's problem in losing to Buffalo in the MAC Tournament was simple: They missed shots, many of them easy.
The Golden Flashes had many chances but fell short.
Just like they fell short of 20 wins (for now) for the first time in 10 years.
Just like they fell short of defending their MAC title.
And fell short of making the NCAA Tournament, a realistic goal in the MAC when Kent State brought back three seniors.
They now are left waiting for two more tournaments that each feature 16 teams that did not make the NCAA or National Invitation Tournament. Something called the CBI and the CollegeInsider.com postseason tournament.
No confirmation yet that the selection shows will be held on Nickelodeon for Adults.
In the end, Kent State's seniors simply picked the wrong day to have a bad day.
And the senior KSU needed most could not get going. Guard Al Fisher shot 2-for-14 — missing several layups.
Fisher was going to take Kent State as far as it could go, but a 2-for-14 shooting day pretty much did in the Flashes. Especially when some of the misses were gimme layups.
And when KSU had one last chance to tie, behind by three with 7.5 seconds left, Jordan Mincy and Fisher could not complete an inbounds pass.
Mincy, who had kept the Flashes in the game late with his drives to the basket, inbounded toward Fisher. But Andy Robinson stole the pass, jumped and threw the ball off Fisher and out of bounds.
Nice play by Robinson.
Poor play by Kent State.
''I think it was a lazy pass,'' Buffalo's Rodney Pierce said.
Call it sloppy, because Kent State was not lazy. The Flashes tried, they had chances, they just did not get it done.
KSU might have been a victim of its regular season, when it could not win enough to earn a first-round bye. The Flashes played a hard-fought game Tuesday night against Northern Illinois, two days after playing a hard-fought game on Sunday against Akron. And Buffalo knew it.
The Bulls picked up Fisher fullcourt, forcing him to — as coach Reggie Witherspoon said — ''make him use as many dribbles as possible before he got to half court.''
Maybe it worked.
Or maybe Fisher just had an off day — because had he made half his missed layups, Kent State wins.
''He's the best finisher that has probably ever played in the conference around the rim,'' Kent State coach Geno Ford said. ''He's got an unbelievable touch. And he couldn't buy one.''
Good defense?
Only because the ball did not go in.
The combined 6-for-23 shooting by seniors Mincy, Fisher and Julian Sullinger could be attributed to several factors.
Perhaps it was because Kent State was fatigued.
Or that Kent State had to rely almost exclusively on Fisher to win the previous two games. As Ford said, the offense against Akron down the stretch was to give the ball to Fisher and get out of the way, and the offense the entire game against Northern Illinois was to give the ball to Fisher and get out of the way.
In this game, Kent State tried the same approach.
But the ball did not go in.
Too, foul trouble plagued Kent State. Chris Singletary played a good game, but he and Sullinger fouled out after playing only 14 minutes each.
Their time sitting down meant Kent State had no inside game.
Which meant it had to depend on Fisher creating a shot, and when he did, it didn't work.
The MAC crew working the game called it close for both teams, but the MAC might want to look at how its games are officiated.
The phrase ''let them play'' was not applied. There were 45 fouls called, more than one per minute.
That kept both teams from getting any kind of offensive flow going.
The loss leaves the Flashes one win shy of the magic 20, though Ford correctly pointed out he scheduled to gain an at-large bid in the NCAAs and had he wanted to win 20 he'd have scheduled easier teams than Kansas, Texas A&M, Illinois and St. Mary's.
Fisher walked off the court with his jersey over his head, but Ford believes that with these two other postseason tournaments — yes, just what the world needs — his team might just have a chance to win that 20th game.
And if they don't, the feelings of Witherspoon seem appropriate.
''They didn't win 20,'' Witherspoon said. ''But they won 19, so I don't think we need to talk about their demise right now.''
Missed layups, after all, do not equate to a team missing its direction.
Patrick McManamon can be reached at pmcmanamon@thebeaconjournal.com. Read his blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/mcmanamon/
CLEVELAND: The game was like their season, which by Kent State standards was not good enough.
Good, mind you. Just not good enough.
Cut through all the strategy and why-this and why-that and KSU's problem in losing to Buffalo in the MAC Tournament was simple: They missed shots, many of them easy.
The Golden Flashes had many chances but fell short.
Just like they fell short of 20 wins (for now) for the first time in 10 years.
Just like they fell short of defending their MAC title.
And fell short of making the NCAA Tournament, a realistic goal in the MAC when Kent State brought back three seniors.
They now are left waiting for two more tournaments that each feature 16 teams that did not make the NCAA or National Invitation Tournament. Something called the CBI and the CollegeInsider.com postseason tournament.
No confirmation yet that the selection shows will be held on Nickelodeon for Adults.
In the end, Kent State's seniors simply picked the wrong day to have a bad day.
And the senior KSU needed most could not get going. Guard Al Fisher shot 2-for-14 — missing several layups.
Fisher was going to take Kent State as far as it could go, but a 2-for-14 shooting day pretty much did in the Flashes. Especially when some of the misses were gimme layups.
And when KSU had one last chance to tie, behind by three with 7.5 seconds left, Jordan Mincy and Fisher could not complete an inbounds pass.
Mincy, who had kept the Flashes in the game late with his drives to the basket, inbounded toward Fisher. But Andy Robinson stole the pass, jumped and threw the ball off Fisher and out of bounds.
Nice play by Robinson.
Poor play by Kent State.
''I think it was a lazy pass,'' Buffalo's Rodney Pierce said.
Call it sloppy, because Kent State was not lazy. The Flashes tried, they had chances, they just did not get it done.
KSU might have been a victim of its regular season, when it could not win enough to earn a first-round bye. The Flashes played a hard-fought game Tuesday night against Northern Illinois, two days after playing a hard-fought game on Sunday against Akron. And Buffalo knew it.
The Bulls picked up Fisher fullcourt, forcing him to — as coach Reggie Witherspoon said — ''make him use as many dribbles as possible before he got to half court.''
Maybe it worked.
Or maybe Fisher just had an off day — because had he made half his missed layups, Kent State wins.
''He's the best finisher that has probably ever played in the conference around the rim,'' Kent State coach Geno Ford said. ''He's got an unbelievable touch. And he couldn't buy one.''
Good defense?
Only because the ball did not go in.
The combined 6-for-23 shooting by seniors Mincy, Fisher and Julian Sullinger could be attributed to several factors.
Perhaps it was because Kent State was fatigued.
Or that Kent State had to rely almost exclusively on Fisher to win the previous two games. As Ford said, the offense against Akron down the stretch was to give the ball to Fisher and get out of the way, and the offense the entire game against Northern Illinois was to give the ball to Fisher and get out of the way.
In this game, Kent State tried the same approach.
But the ball did not go in.
Too, foul trouble plagued Kent State. Chris Singletary played a good game, but he and Sullinger fouled out after playing only 14 minutes each.
Their time sitting down meant Kent State had no inside game.
Which meant it had to depend on Fisher creating a shot, and when he did, it didn't work.
The MAC crew working the game called it close for both teams, but the MAC might want to look at how its games are officiated.
The phrase ''let them play'' was not applied. There were 45 fouls called, more than one per minute.
That kept both teams from getting any kind of offensive flow going.
The loss leaves the Flashes one win shy of the magic 20, though Ford correctly pointed out he scheduled to gain an at-large bid in the NCAAs and had he wanted to win 20 he'd have scheduled easier teams than Kansas, Texas A&M, Illinois and St. Mary's.
Fisher walked off the court with his jersey over his head, but Ford believes that with these two other postseason tournaments — yes, just what the world needs — his team might just have a chance to win that 20th game.
And if they don't, the feelings of Witherspoon seem appropriate.
''They didn't win 20,'' Witherspoon said. ''But they won 19, so I don't think we need to talk about their demise right now.''
Missed layups, after all, do not equate to a team missing its direction.
Patrick McManamon can be reached at pmcmanamon@thebeaconjournal.com. Read his blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/mcmanamon/
Comments
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Posted 09:19 AM, 03/13/2009
I'm not complaining. I mean, the chips fall this way and every year a team or two gets a tougher path to the tournament than others.
However, if the MAC West cannot improve, we should no longer give league champions the automatic 1/2 seed. There's no excuse for Ball State having the #2 seed at 14-16 (7-9). Ohio is the worst MAC East team and they have a better overall record, and just as good of a conference record. Akron and Kent both got screwed as result of this. Seeds should be determined by: 1/ conference record, and 2/ overall record. If they seed the top two teams by league, then why even split the leagues up for the tournament? Why not have the East play in one bracket and the West in another?
Richfield, OH
Posted 09:20 AM, 03/13/2009
That's why they are Kent State - they always fall short.
Posted 09:22 AM, 03/13/2009
Adding to my comment, the MAC just gave an underachieving, terrible West team a cake-walk to the semifinals, while ending the most epic run of any MAC team in any sport in history. They also cost themselves over 10,000 ticket sales each of the next two days, as Kent State's fans will not be attending any evening MAC Tourney games this year. At $18-$27 average per ticket, they're losing anywhere from $360,000-$540,000 in sales had Kent made the championship game.
_________, OH
Posted 09:38 AM, 03/13/2009
If the shoe was on the other foot..... would you feel the same?? and its not always about the money ( thank god!). Kent didn't bring their A game, we've all been there bud, we feel your pain. But maybe this is a start of a new era. Nothing lasts forever.
akron, oh
Posted 11:33 AM, 03/13/2009
clo and blank: i'm a huge kent fan. i've been to almost every MAC tournament since they brought it to cleveland in 2000. i've been lucky to watch some great kent teams hoist the trophy and cut the nets. that being said, i'll be there for all the games rooting for a good team to get into the NCAAs and show that the MAC is a good conference, one deserving of more than one invite some years. this year? nope. no one is good enough. BG is a good team, UA is a talented team but young and they rely on luck a little too much, Ball State sucks, and Buffalo, while talented, they're not a great team either...in other years (akrons 26 win season) the MAC should have gotten 2 picks.
my biggest complaint with the mac tourney is that they moved the first rounders to cleveland. that loses money for the campuses. are wmu fans going to come to cleveland to watch their team lose to ou? no. would ou fans travel to cleveland to see ou win? no. if you held the game at ou, at least their stadium would be full. as it was, the Q was empty. same for the central/eastern game. they'd have had a houseful...tuesday was a ghost town in cleveland. dumb move by the MAC.
Kent, OH
Posted 01:58 PM, 03/13/2009
There's talk of maybe moving the Women's tourney to Toledo into the new Lucas County Arena (I hope they come up with a better name than that): http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090311/COLUMNIST08/903110342
Posted 02:44 PM, 03/13/2009
As I clearly noted, this has nothing to do with Kent, per se. It has happened to other teams a lot more often than it has Kent. The bottom line is, not one single MAC West team did anything deserving of earning even a top 6 seed this season. There's no excuse for a 13-win program having the #2 overall.
Akron felt it last year when Kent was the top seed and Akron was #4, despite having several more wins last season than the best team in the West.
Posted 02:46 PM, 03/13/2009
And yes, ZipsBBFan, I would feel the same. Because if Kent only had 13 wins I would admit they were not deserving of a #2 seed. In fact, with 19 wins I admit they're not deserving of even an NIT bid.
I'm not mentioning this for Kent's sake. But for the sake of good basketball in the MAC. The conference this year is an embarrassment, thanks to the MAC West.
Posted 02:48 PM, 03/13/2009
sam, I completely agree. No MAC team is good enough to play in the NCAA Tournament this year. The top 1-2 may be good enough for the NIT, but no matter who the MAC team going to the NCAA Tourney is, and no matter who they play, I'm picking them to lose first round.
