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Kent State must snap five-game losing streak before season gets away
By Stephanie Storm
Beacon Journal sports writer
Published on Wednesday, Dec 10, 2008
KENT: The phrases ''five-game losing streak'' and ''Kent State men's basketball'' haven't been uttered in the same sentence in a long time.
Not since the 1997-98 season, when the Golden Flashes went 13-17, 9-9 in the Mid-American Conference.
Yet, that's the reality with this season's struggling team, which is off to a surprising 3-5 record after starting the season 3-0.
After victories over relative lightweights North Carolina Central, Saint Louis and the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, the Flashes have hit a rough patch that continues to affect their confidence.
In facing Illinois and Texas A&M as part of the South Padre Island Invitational, the Flashes dropped a pair of close games, including a 69-63 overtime defeat to Illinois.
Next was an 87-60 loss to defending national champion Kansas — a somewhat expected lopsided game, especially considering it was played in Lawrence, Kan.
But after a 75-69 loss to visiting Saint Mary's (Calif.) snapped the Flashes' 18-game home winning streak Dec. 4, followed by an embarrassing 89-84 overtime loss to visiting Western Carolina University two nights later, first-year coach Geno Ford had it with his underachieving team.
In an effort to light a fire, particularly under his seniors, Ford benched three starters in guards Al Fisher and Jordan Mincy and forward Julian Sullinger for the start of last Saturday's game.
''The tradition here has been with our seniors,'' said Ford, referring to Fisher, Mincy, Sullinger and forward Rashad Woods. ''We've had good seniors every year, and we've had All-Conference seniors every season. The thought was to really try to get these guys' attention, to try to wake them up and get them playing with some
fire and passion.''
It was a motivational ploy that former coach Jim Christian used as recently as the 2006-07 season when senior guards Armon Gates and Omni Smith came off the bench for a portion of the season. But Ford didn't get the results Christian achieved.
So Ford might have to delve back into his bag of tricks if things don't drastically change when play resumes Monday. The Flashes had off this week for final exams.
The four players did little to spark the offense, combining to go 7-for-27 from the field and 8-of-15 from the free-throw line in the overtime loss, a game the Flashes were really never in.
''That's not the response you need to get from guys,'' a frustrated but calm Ford said. ''[I guess] we're not doing a good enough job coaching them. And they're not doing a good enough job buying into what's required to be a good basketball team.''
Ford went as far as to say that if the trademarks of the winning KSU teams of the past don't return soon, the team's hallmark — its 10 consecutive seasons of 20 wins — is not the only thing in jeopardy.
Saturday's postgame meeting was rather lengthy, Ford said ''and we told the guys to go home and do some soul searching.''
''If they're not committed to playing, by all means let us know, because we can move forward at this point without anyone. There's nobody we absolutely have to have. You can lose with five guys from the rec center.''
Currently, the only players living up to Ford's standards are junior center Brandon Parks and junior guard Chris Singletary.
''We're not getting great productivity from the younger guys,'' Ford said of the handful of newcomers to the team this season. ''When they're getting a shot to come in [in place of the seniors], they're not wowing anybody, either.''
Parks leads the team with 6.8 rebounds per game and is third in scoring at 9.6 points Singletary is second on the team in points (16.8) and assists (25), is tied for second in steals (nine) and 3-pointers (10) and ranks third in rebounds (4.3).
''[Parks] has been playing well all season,'' Ford said. ''He's played within himself and he's worked really hard on everything we've tried to do with him in terms of footwork and with the way he posts. He's like a sponge. You bring him in, you work with him and it happens on the court. Chris Singletary also took a major step forward [Saturday] in defending better than he ever has in his career here. Chris played a very complete game — offense and defense.''
In addition to missed rotations on offense and forgetting the importance that defense has played in the past in winning at KSU, the Flashes are struggling at the free-throw line, where they are 102-of-166 (61.4 percent).
''We have spent countless hours in practice shooting free throws,'' Ford said. ''The problem has been that guys who are struggling haven't really done a great job of coming in and being motivated to shoot on their own. In years past, you could have come into this building any time of day and you would have seen guys on the team shooting. [Now], we just have some guys just not committed enough to doing that.''
In preparation for Saturday's game, the Flashes had a 90-minute, players-only meeting Friday before afternoon practice. But it didn't accomplish much. One of the team's surprising problems the past three games has been the sudden disappearance of Fisher, the reigning Mid-American Conference Most Valuable Player. Although he's averaging a team-high 17.5 points, he has 27 turnovers to 30 assists.
''Al's in a funk, there's no question about it,'' Ford said.
Fisher said a part of his problem has been that he's gotten away from his usual preparation for games with the recent stretch of five games in a nine-day stretch.
''I just need to buckle down and not be lackadaisical,'' Fisher said. ''I need to get in the gym more and work like I was at the beginning [of the season].''
The laid-back Fisher also admitted that some of the things Ford and his staff are asking of him are a little uncomfortable.
''I like to lead more by example, it's just my personality,'' Fisher said. ''But I realize now that I need to be more of a vocal leader. I need to step outside of myself, my comfort zone, to do everything I can to help us get back to playing the way we should.''
The season is eight games old, but it's not too late for the Flashes to right the ship.
Several other KSU teams have stumbled out of the gate in the past decade and still managed to finish strong in order to continue the program's string of 20-win seasons.
Of course, those teams were always led by a senior class determined not to let that impressive string end on their watch.
''If you guard a screening action incorrect in Game 8, you haven't bought in or you don't care enough,'' Ford said. ''We need to clean so many things up, we need some serious practice time and we need some serious toughening up. It's like we've forgotten how to win.''
Stephanie Storm can be reached at sstorm@thebeaconjournal.com.
KENT: The phrases ''five-game losing streak'' and ''Kent State men's basketball'' haven't been uttered in the same sentence in a long time.
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