The unofficial online home for fans of the Kent State University Golden Flashes. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

(04-08-2020 09:23 AM)FlashPan Wrote:  

(04-08-2020 07:14 AM)dannyb73 Wrote:  

(04-07-2020 02:11 PM)FlashPan Wrote:  Hurley at Arizona State is interested in Roberts. Utomi Transfered from Akron to Arizona State. There simply is no comparison of Roberts to Utomi. Utomi made the right decision. I don't see that happening with Roberts.....maybe a bench warmer at the most.

Anthony Roberts is going to play almost wherever he goes. He is really good. Obviously, how much he plays depends on where he goes and how deep a team is. That is where picking the right situation is important. At ASU, I would expect he would play a lot. Again, he is a really good player.

We will see!

YES ... He is a really good player. But is he a difference-maker or a place-holder. At Kent State it was likely a 70-30 chance he would be a difference-maker as a Jr/Sr. At a P5 it's more likely 70-30 he's a place-holder for an unproven/equally or more talented recruit.

P5s are recruiting his experience and his physical maturity as much or more than his ppg average.

Now, that's not terrible on a quality team that's 75% sure of NCAA Tournament play. But remember, after 32 NCAA automatics, there aren't than many slots left. So while teams like Oregon State, Colorado, Kansas State, Iowa State, Penn State, Rutgers and the like sound good, there are no guarantees year-to-year.

Rather have him than not ... but KSU/Senderoff has shown it can win with a prolific ball-dominant scorer (JWalker) and with a collection of 10-15-point scorers.

Remember ... there were a lot of ??? about the collective roster/talent going into last year.

(04-07-2020 02:49 PM)cleveland Wrote:  

(04-07-2020 02:11 PM)FlashPan Wrote:  Hurley at Arizona State is interested in Roberts. Utomi Transfered from Akron to Arizona State. There simply is no comparison of Roberts to Utomi. Utomi made the right decision. I don't see that happening with Roberts.....maybe a bench warmer at the most.

So was Utomi ... less than 10 ppg.

Utomi went to USC. he averaged 25 minutes a game on what would have been an ncaa team. he was a grad school athlete at USC. do you know how much attention he got. he was on the court for wins over TCU, LSU, UCLA twice, Arizona and Arizona St... he would have scored more and possibly gone to tourney with this yr's Akron, but that Akron team had better chemistry without him.

Roberts looks the part. he will have options. he has some game. i don't see a great player in him, but he's got size and handles. he's experienced. he doesn't really fit a position but could be a nice piece for a good team if that can fit his game into their offense.

(04-09-2020 03:03 AM)pono Wrote:  

(04-07-2020 02:49 PM)cleveland Wrote:  

(04-07-2020 02:11 PM)FlashPan Wrote:  Hurley at Arizona State is interested in Roberts. Utomi Transfered from Akron to Arizona State. There simply is no comparison of Roberts to Utomi. Utomi made the right decision. I don't see that happening with Roberts.....maybe a bench warmer at the most.

So was Utomi ... less than 10 ppg.

Utomi went to USC. he averaged 25 minutes a game on what would have been an ncaa team. he was a grad school athlete at USC. do you know how much attention he got. he was on the court for wins over TCU, LSU, UCLA twice, Arizona and Arizona St... he would have scored more and possibly gone to tourney with this yr's Akron, but that Akron team had better chemistry without him.

Roberts looks the part. he will have options. he has some game. i don't see a great player in him, but he's got size and handles. he's experienced. he doesn't really fit a position but could be a nice piece for a good team if that can fit his game into their offense.

That's exactly my point ... Utomi was a 'placeholder' a mature and experienced college player getting solid minutes on a P5 team but certainly not the headliner he would have been at Akron ... with both teams projected for the NCAA.

Put another way, at Akron he was being asked to 'win' games ... at USC he was basically being asked not to 'lose' games ... or be the reason (weak link) for losing games.

(04-09-2020 07:13 AM)cleveland Wrote:  

(04-09-2020 03:03 AM)pono Wrote:  

(04-07-2020 02:49 PM)cleveland Wrote:  

(04-07-2020 02:11 PM)FlashPan Wrote:  Hurley at Arizona State is interested in Roberts. Utomi Transfered from Akron to Arizona State. There simply is no comparison of Roberts to Utomi. Utomi made the right decision. I don't see that happening with Roberts.....maybe a bench warmer at the most.

So was Utomi ... less than 10 ppg.

Utomi went to USC. he averaged 25 minutes a game on what would have been an ncaa team. he was a grad school athlete at USC. do you know how much attention he got. he was on the court for wins over TCU, LSU, UCLA twice, Arizona and Arizona St... he would have scored more and possibly gone to tourney with this yr's Akron, but that Akron team had better chemistry without him.

Roberts looks the part. he will have options. he has some game. i don't see a great player in him, but he's got size and handles. he's experienced. he doesn't really fit a position but could be a nice piece for a good team if that can fit his game into their offense.

That's exactly my point ... Utomi was a 'placeholder' a mature and experienced college player getting solid minutes on a P5 team but certainly not the headliner he would have been at Akron ... with both teams projected for the NCAA.

Put another way, at Akron he was being asked to 'win' games ... at USC he was basically being asked not to 'lose' games ... or be the reason (weak link) for losing games.

I agree with you but I think Utomi would say he made a good decision. Playing one year for a Power5 team and being able to contribute to them winning was a better experience than leading an Akron team for an additional year (a been there done that kind of experience).

(04-09-2020 08:43 AM)burden Wrote:  

(04-09-2020 07:13 AM)cleveland Wrote:  

(04-09-2020 03:03 AM)pono Wrote:  

(04-07-2020 02:49 PM)cleveland Wrote:  

(04-07-2020 02:11 PM)FlashPan Wrote:  Hurley at Arizona State is interested in Roberts. Utomi Transfered from Akron to Arizona State. There simply is no comparison of Roberts to Utomi. Utomi made the right decision. I don't see that happening with Roberts.....maybe a bench warmer at the most.

So was Utomi ... less than 10 ppg.

Utomi went to USC. he averaged 25 minutes a game on what would have been an ncaa team. he was a grad school athlete at USC. do you know how much attention he got. he was on the court for wins over TCU, LSU, UCLA twice, Arizona and Arizona St... he would have scored more and possibly gone to tourney with this yr's Akron, but that Akron team had better chemistry without him.

Roberts looks the part. he will have options. he has some game. i don't see a great player in him, but he's got size and handles. he's experienced. he doesn't really fit a position but could be a nice piece for a good team if that can fit his game into their offense.

That's exactly my point ... Utomi was a 'placeholder' a mature and experienced college player getting solid minutes on a P5 team but certainly not the headliner he would have been at Akron ... with both teams projected for the NCAA.

Put another way, at Akron he was being asked to 'win' games ... at USC he was basically being asked not to 'lose' games ... or be the reason (weak link) for losing games.

I agree with you but I think Utomi would say he made a good decision. Playing one year for a Power5 team and being able to contribute to them winning was a better experience than leading an Akron team for an additional year (a been there done that kind of experience).

And I agree with you ... but there is one more step to this that I don't think these kids even give a care about, unfortunately. Five years from now, at Akron, he would have been viewed as a key component to a turnaround and possibly a key link to a NCAA Tournament team and an icon for years to come, possibly even a Zips HOF.

At USC, five years from now, it's doubtful he would be remembered for much of anything ... and at Akron he's remembered as the guy who left.

I just don't understand why these kids want to give up so much of their history at one school for a blip at another.

(04-09-2020 08:54 AM)cleveland Wrote:  

(04-09-2020 08:43 AM)burden Wrote:  

(04-09-2020 07:13 AM)cleveland Wrote:  

(04-09-2020 03:03 AM)pono Wrote:  [quote='cleveland' pid='16768833' dateline='1586288994']

So was Utomi ... less than 10 ppg.

Utomi went to USC. he averaged 25 minutes a game on what would have been an ncaa team. he was a grad school athlete at USC. do you know how much attention he got. he was on the court for wins over TCU, LSU, UCLA twice, Arizona and Arizona St... he would have scored more and possibly gone to tourney with this yr's Akron, but that Akron team had better chemistry without him.

Roberts looks the part. he will have options. he has some game. i don't see a great player in him, but he's got size and handles. he's experienced. he doesn't really fit a position but could be a nice piece for a good team if that can fit his game into their offense.

That's exactly my point ... Utomi was a 'placeholder' a mature and experienced college player getting solid minutes on a P5 team but certainly not the headliner he would have been at Akron ... with both teams projected for the NCAA.

Put another way, at Akron he was being asked to 'win' games ... at USC he was basically being asked not to 'lose' games ... or be the reason (weak link) for losing games.

I agree with you but I think Utomi would say he made a good decision. Playing one year for a Power5 team and being able to contribute to them winning was a better experience than leading an Akron team for an additional year (a been there done that kind of experience).

And I agree with you ... but there is one more step to this that I don't think these kids even give a care about, unfortunately. Five years from now, at Akron, he would have been viewed as a key component to a turnaround and possibly a key link to a NCAA Tournament team and an icon for years to come, possibly even a Zips HOF.

At USC, five years from now, it's doubtful he would be remembered for much of anything ... and at Akron he's remembered as the guy who left.

I just don't understand why these kids want to give up so much of their history at one school for a blip at another.
[/quote

Some people don’t care to be big fish in little ponds. People in business make similar decisions. Depends on your personality I guess.

According to verbal commits we got another JUCO commitment today. Tekorian "TK" Smith a 6'4" SG from Polk State. Polk was 21-10 last year so seems like he comes from a solid team. Looks to be a good scorer. Over 19ppg his freshman year, over 18 ppg last year. He's originally from Memphis so I'm hoping to hear some Danny insight on him. Looks like he started his career at Lincoln memorial in 17/18 but didn't play then spent the last two years at Polk.

Here's his stats from last year. Percentages look good across the board. High volume of three point attempts and a solid percentage.

https://polkeagles.com/sports/mbkb/2019-..._-tk-_u2p2

I think we got someone from Polk before. Goodson is who comes to mind but that might be wrong.

I would say this likely puts to rest a Roberts return possibility. We now have 3 JUCO 2-year JUCO guards coming in, a redshirt freshman guards, a sophomore pg, and a 4th year transfer with D1 experience, and a exciting HS wing. So the backcourt seems pretty full.

Here's his highlights from last year.

https://youtu.be/mX8anNJo3fw

And his freshman year.

https://youtu.be/04ZXoS06fS8

Looks like a very long athletic guard with a pretty flashy game. I find it interesting that he wore #11 last year because my first thought watching him was that he kind of reminds me of a former #11 flash Carlton Guyton.

So with this addition we've got one scholarship left. The breakdown looks like this.

Srs: G Nuga, PF Pippen, SF/PF Beck

Jrs: G Jacobs, G Jordan, G Smith, PF O'Neal

SO: G Santiago, PF Bainbridge, C Bennett, SF King (walk on)

Fr: SF/PF Davis, G Hernandez

If I had to guess I'd say the final scholarship goes to someone with redshirt potential. Either a transfer for another freshman. The only way I see this not being the case is if the coaches are concerned with our post group and they think they need another option there. I feel like we're close to being pretty solid there though. Beck and Pippen are proven and should be high minute guys. If you can't get solid contributions out of a couple of the other guys then we're probably missing on a lot of recruits and not developing players very well.

(04-15-2020 06:08 PM)anti-zip Wrote:  So with this addition we've got one scholarship left. The breakdown looks like this.

Srs: G Nuga, PF Pippen, SF/PF Beck

Jrs: G Jacobs, G Jordan, G Smith, PF O'Neal

SO: G Santiago, PF Bainbridge, C Bennett, SF King (walk on)

Fr: SF/PF Davis, G Hernandez

If I had to guess I'd say the final scholarship goes to someone with redshirt potential. Either a transfer for another freshman. The only way I see this not being the case is if the coaches are concerned with our post group and they think they need another option there. I feel like we're close to being pretty solid there though. Beck and Pippen are proven and should be high minute guys. If you can't get solid contributions out of a couple of the other guys then we're probably missing on a lot of recruits and not developing players very well.

Hate that Kent missed on Amadi (James Madison) as he looked to be a 'different' kind of guy. Not necessarily better, just different athletically and above the rim.

Much like Booman was 'different.'

Agree the key will be getting something substantive and consistent out of Bennett/O'Neal/Bainbridge. Don't expect much more out of Beck, beyond consistency. And also agree a redshirt candidate either as a freshman or transfer would round out the roster.

Also, might be worthwhile to hold it for a mid-year transfer unless there is somebody special, now.

Finally ... wouldn't be surprised if one of those guards became a redshirt. Hernandez was a prized recruit and should be in line for his share of minutes after a redshirt either at PG or the wing, which means either somebody will be on a 10-minute or less leash, or a redshirt, or Senderoff will be running a relay off the bench in the backcourt.

At the end of the season, I was not looking forward to this-next year and when we lost Roberts, I really became pessimistic. Right now, I am feeling pretty good. Rob has a way of scrambling and building a team. The film looks good and looks every bit as good as Roberts.

(04-15-2020 05:30 PM)anti-zip Wrote:  According to verbal commits we got another JUCO commitment today. Tekorian "TK" Smith a 6'4" SG from Polk State. Polk was 21-10 last year so seems like he comes from a solid team. Looks to be a good scorer. Over 19ppg his freshman year, over 18 ppg last year. He's originally from Memphis so I'm hoping to hear some Danny insight on him. Looks like he started his career at Lincoln memorial in 17/18 but didn't play then spent the last two years at Polk.

Here's his stats from last year. Percentages look good across the board. High volume of three point attempts and a solid percentage.

https://polkeagles.com/sports/mbkb/2019-..._-tk-_u2p2

I think we got someone from Polk before. Goodson is who comes to mind but that might be wrong.

I would say this likely puts to rest a Roberts return possibility. We now have 3 JUCO 2-year JUCO guards coming in, a redshirt freshman guards, a sophomore pg, and a 4th year transfer with D1 experience, and a exciting HS wing. So the backcourt seems pretty full.

I actually don't know about Smith, but I will reach out to some of my HS and AAU connections here and inquire.

(04-15-2020 09:20 PM)dannyb73 Wrote:  

(04-15-2020 05:30 PM)anti-zip Wrote:  According to verbal commits we got another JUCO commitment today. Tekorian "TK" Smith a 6'4" SG from Polk State. Polk was 21-10 last year so seems like he comes from a solid team. Looks to be a good scorer. Over 19ppg his freshman year, over 18 ppg last year. He's originally from Memphis so I'm hoping to hear some Danny insight on him. Looks like he started his career at Lincoln memorial in 17/18 but didn't play then spent the last two years at Polk.

Here's his stats from last year. Percentages look good across the board. High volume of three point attempts and a solid percentage.

https://polkeagles.com/sports/mbkb/2019-..._-tk-_u2p2

I think we got someone from Polk before. Goodson is who comes to mind but that might be wrong.

I would say this likely puts to rest a Roberts return possibility. We now have 3 JUCO 2-year JUCO guards coming in, a redshirt freshman guards, a sophomore pg, and a 4th year transfer with D1 experience, and a exciting HS wing. So the backcourt seems pretty full.

I actually don't know about Smith, but I will reach out to some of my HS and AAU connections here and inquire.

Early scuttlebutt is that he actually finished his HS career in Dallas because he didn't want to play behind Penny Hardaway's son Jayden. And who can blame him for that. Jayden plays for Memphis now and gets token run from his dad when he shouldn't even be on the roster.

that kid is dynamite. his second highlight, the one where he dribbles through his defender's legs on the wing spins past a dude into a 360 reverse layup with english off the glass, was a top 5 highlight of the year in college basketball.

now, his efficiency is mediocre (42% fg, 35% on 3s) and that's vs juco defense. but he does have a nice stroke and makes free throws. most highlight reels tell you nothing about a player's defense.

i'd say with nuga also coming in and some decent depth kent will be good at the guard position. pippin is great, as a mac fan it was good to see him fairly healthy. my question is if any other big can be a playmaker?

(04-16-2020 03:09 AM)pono Wrote:  that kid is dynamite. his second highlight, the one where he dribbles through his defender's legs on the wing spins past a dude into a 360 reverse layup with english off the glass, was a top 5 highlight of the year in college basketball.

now, his efficiency is mediocre (42% fg, 35% on 3s) and that's vs juco defense. but he does have a nice stroke and makes free throws. most highlight reels tell you nothing about a player's defense.

i'd say with nuga also coming in and some decent depth kent will be good at the guard position. pippin is great, as a mac fan it was good to see him fairly healthy. my question is if any other big can be a playmaker?

This team is going to need a lot of film study and repetition on-court to get in sync, but there 'looks' to be a lot of talent here. I say 'looks' because I was never more convinced by highlights that Castillio was going to be a great addition and never more disappointed that he wasn't.

That said, I think the key guy is Jacobs as he looks to be the most pure PG in the JC bunch, although all of them seem to have PG skills and stats to back that up. But Jacobs played on a high-end juco that actually ran a lot of stuff with several post guys as well.

If he's the real deal - offensively and defensively - then everything else should fall into place hopefully by the end of January. Should stress, this team should really have some good perimeter defense if everybody takes to that end of the court.

Don't think Kent has had this many big guards in several years, certainly not at the PG position.

His efficiency isn't as mediocre as it looks at first glance. The 35% is pretty good considering the volume of attempts. He attempted 177 threes in 28 games. To put that in perspective Kent's highest volume three point shooters last year were Simons (239 attempts in 32 games) and Pippen (178 attempts in 31 games). So he took a lot of threes. 35.6% from three would've been good for 4th on Kent last year behind Simons, Santiago, and Roberts. His Freshman year was even better. He took 205 threes in 30 games and hit a 38.5% which is really really good. That would've been second only to Simons at 38.9% last year and Simons is probably one of the best three point shooters to ever play at Kent. I know it's against JUCO defenses, but my point is he seems like an above average three point shooter.

As for his overall FG% that's misleadingly low because of how many threes he takes. 45.9% of his shot attempts were threes. So an overall FG% of 42.5% isn't that bad when nearly half the shots are threes. That was also better his freshman year. His freshman year his split was actually identical 45.9% of his attempts were threes and his overall FG% was 43.6.

Looking at "True Shooting Percent", last year he was at 55.3% and his freshman year he was at 58.1%. Kent's top 10 in TS% last year were Beck (67.2), Santiago (61.8), Simmons (58.3), Castillo (56.8), Whittington (56.6), Williams (55.1), Roberts (54.4), Pippen (54.1), Williamson (50.9), and Peterson (46.5).

Again, obviously not a 1 to 1 translation from JUCO to D1 but being a high volume player and taking so many threes I'd say his efficiency is above average and he seems like he's got the potential to be a big time three point shooter. It's a little troubling that his percentages dipped last year a bit, but it was a fairly small amount and his team got significantly better his second year (14-17 his freshman year vs 21-10 last year). So I think bottom line, I think he's going to be a big time scorer.

Here's the link to his freshman stats for reference. https://www.njcaa.org/sports/mbkb/2018-1...ksmithyni9

I can not believe how fast I have gone from pessimist to optimist. Must be cabin fever. But, I have always been a Sendy fan and I should have known not to doubt his eye for talent. Can we start next week before I go crazy.

(04-16-2020 09:38 AM)GFlash68 Wrote:  I can not believe how fast I have gone from pessimist to optimist. Must be cabin fever. But, I have always been a Sendy fan and I should have known not to doubt his eye for talent. Can we start next week before I go crazy.

Can't get that excited yet ... don't recall the specific year, but remember an OU team absolutely stacked with talent that included a pair of future NBA players (Jamerson/Graham) an elite veteran PG and a big 6-10-ish 250-pound post man from Cleveland (can't remember his name) ....

And don't believe they won more than 12 games all year.

Got to see it on the court, first.

Cleveland, I believe you are referring to 1988/89. OU was picked to finish first but finished last. They had Snoopy Graham, Reggie Rankin and John Beauford ( the big man from Cleveland St. Joe). They had all the raw talent needed to dominate the MAC but were completely unable or unwilling to play as a team.

(04-16-2020 10:54 AM)Muskrat Wrote:  Cleveland, I believe you are referring to 1988/89. OU was picked to finish first but finished last. They had Snoopy Graham, Reggie Rankin and John Beauford ( the big man from Cleveland St. Joe). They had all the raw talent needed to dominate the MAC but were completely unable or unwilling to play as a team.

That's the one ... can't remember the PGs name, but he was really good too. Top tier for the MAC. Can't remember the coach, either? Was that one of Hunter's first teams?

On talent, probably had a Top 3 MAC player at every position for that year.

Anyway ... solid example of talent but no team. Gotta put it all together.