Women’s college basketball this year will play four 10-minute quarters instead of two halves.

KSU coach Danny O’Banion said at the team’s preseason press conference that she thought it will be good for the women’s games — branding itself somewhat differently than the men’s game.

She said the change will mean some difference in strategy. There will be one media timeout per quarter after five minutes, but a team timeout within 30 seconds of that time will count as the media timeout. That means teams could play in stretches as long as seven minutes, compared with the media timeouts every four minutes in previous years. It means conditioning and depth will be more important. With a 15-person roster for the first time in years, Kent could be helped by that.

Other rule changes:

• After the first four fouls of a quarter, teams will shoot two shots — no more one-and-one. If a team is in the bonus at the end of regulation, it will continue in the bonus in overtime.
• Timeouts in the last minute of a game will work as they do in the NBA and WNBA. Teams can take a timeout and advance the ball to the sideline in front of the bench, 28-feet from the basket, instead of having to go the full length of the court. That goes whether a team takes the ball out of bounds, gets a rebound or steals the ball.
• Coaches’ timeouts have been reduced from five to four, with three carrying over to the second half. (True in men’s games, too.)
• A coach can’t call a timeout while the clock is moving. (Also true in men’s games.)
• When a player fouls out, a coach will have 15 seconds from the time to put in a substitute. Coaches who take longer will be assessed a technical. (Same for men.)
• The 10-second clock to get the ball past half court will not be reset on most balls knocked out of bounds, unless the team on offense takes a time out. (Same for men.)
• The circle under the basket where an offensive player can’t be called for charging is a foot bigger. (Same for men)
• The five-second “closely guarded” turnover won’t be called if a player is dribbling. (Same for men.)
• A post defender can put her forearm or an open hand with a bend in the elbow on an offensive post player with the ball whose back is to the basket. (Only women’s game.)
• Bands can play any time the clock is stopped (not just at timeouts or halftime). (Only women.)

The women’s shot clock remains at 30 seconds. The men’s shot clock is reduced to 30 seconds from 35 this season.

The first thing coach Danny O’Banion wanted to talk about at the women’s basketball team’s press day wasn’t individual players or strategy.

It was chemistry.

She said that this team — which has just four players who have ever played together in a game — has more than any team she’s coached at Kent State.

It started in the spring after last season, she said, with the returning four, plus a player who was injured last year and a walk-on who didn’t play, getting together and trying to prepare for nine new players who joined the team this summer.

And during the eight-week summer practice period, the team came together — not so much in the 10 hours a week they were allowed to practice and work on conditioning — but on their own time.

“It just felt natural,” said junior guard Larissa Lurken, the team’s leading scorer and the veteran on the team as the only upperclassman who’s ever played in a Division I game. “We’d always be together, going here or there, or just hanging out.”

O’Banion said the team talked about chasing championships like the Golden State Warriors and the Kansas City Royals, teams that were “selfless and committed.”

O’Banion had four stars from some of the best KSU teams ever talk to the team this summer. Amy Sherry, Dawn Zerman, Alana Bader and Lindsay Shearer all talked about the chemistry on their teams. “Each of those teams had good chemistry,” Lurken said, “They played for their teammates. We were always comparing our chemistry to theirs.”

O’Banion admitted Kent State would be an “unknown quantity” to the rest of the MAC and that other teams wouldn’t expect much from a team that was next to last in the conference last year. But she said the players and the coaches knew how good they could be. “I don’t think the odds are stacked against us by any means,” she said

The team has a full 15-member roster for the first time in O’Banion’s time here. (It’s the first time since the early 1990s that I can remember.) That depth allows more competitive practices at a higher tempo. As the coach talked about her players, lit was clear that a lot of them would see considerable playing time this season.

The team starts with the three players who were at press day — Lurken, point guard Naddiyah Cross and forward Jordan Korinek.

O’Banion said Korinek, Kent State’s third leading scorer and rebounder as a freshman, improved more over the summer than any player she’s coached in her four years at Kent State. “She got a lot of on-the-job training last year,” the coach said, and knew what she needed to improve.

“I’ve really worked on playing with my back to the basket and being more physical,” Korinek said. (“I think she got tired of getting beaten up out there last season,” O’Banion said.

Fans can also expect Korinek to do more outside shooting this season. In fact, the team finally has more three-point shooters than Lurken, who took a Kent State record 200 distance shots last season. O’Banion said sophomore forward McKenna Stephens, KSU’s fourth returning player, had improved her confidence in shooting; Cross said she had worked on her shot and her confidence. Freshman guards Alexa Golden and Megan Carter also can shoot the three, as well as junior college transfer Keziah Lewis.

Lurken said the other distance shooters — plus more players who could drive to the basket — would make it easier for her to score. O’Banion also said Lurken had worked very hard on her floor game to add another dimension to her play.

Cross started 15 games at point guard last season last a freshman. O’Banion said she is clearly a team leader and that she, too, had worked hard on her offense. (Last year teams barely guarded Kent State’s point guard at all. Cross and senior Mikell Chinn averaged a total of six points a game.)

Running down the roster:

Redshirt freshman Tyra James, who missed all last season with a knee injury, will be the “biggest surprise” to other teams, O’Banion said. She said the coaches asked the team this week to identify the three players who needed to score for the team to do well; they listed James, Lurken and Korinek. James is a 5-11 wing who can drive, shoot jumpers and post up. (“There aren’t a lot of players like her in the conference,” O’Banion said.) James averaged 19 points a game her senior year at Cincinnati Winton Woods High School and scored a school-record 38 against a nationally ranked opponent.

Golden was the first freshman O’Banion mentioned (“starter ability,” she said). The coach said the 5-9 guard was a “savvy defender” who has shown good three-point accuracy, somewhat surprising because she was more of a driver in high school.

Carter, an all state special mention from Michigan, is a “dynamic playmaker who manufactures her own offense.” Point guard Taylor Parker is the fastest player on the team, though she still needs to “figure out the college game more.” 6-4 post player Merissa Barber-Smith has built herself physically into a “monster.” Like graduated senior Cici Shannon, she’s a shot blocker (“she jumps better”) and should be a good contributor once she “catches up to the pace of the college game.” 6-3 post player Savannah Neace is likely to be more of a “developmental player.”  (“She runs the floor like a gazelle.”) Freshman walk-on guard Paige Salisbury will challenge for playing time (“a bonus type of player who could have gotten a scholarship if she had found the right school”). Salisbury joined Kent’s team after it had given out all of its scholarships.

Junior college transfer Chelsi Watson, who’s just 5-10, has the highest vertical jump on the team (“she can dunk a tennis ball”) and is likely to take more charging calls than anyone on the team. Lewis, who scored 771 points in two years in junior college, “can score in a hurry” in a lot of ways, O’Banion said, but can also disappear if she doesn’t bear down.

The Flashes open their season with an exhibition game against Hiram at 2 p.m. Sunday in the MAC Center.

Kent State was picked to tie Buffalo for fifth (last) in the MAC East. No Flash made the preseason all-MAC team.

The rankings in the East were: defending champion Ohio U, Akron, Bowling Green, Miami, Kent State and Buffalo (tie).

In the west: Eastern Michigan, Ball State, Western Michigan, Toledo, Central Michigan, Northern Illinois.

Link to the full release is http://www.mac-sports.com/news/2015/10/27/WBB_1027152144.aspx?path=wbball.

As we’ve said in previous posts, three underclassmen on the roster at the end of last season didn’t return to the team. Only one played significant minutes last year, though the other two played the year before.

The three are:

Leaving over the summer were:

Wing Krista White, who started 15 games last year as a sophomore, mostly in the first half of the season. White averaged 23.5 minutes, 6.9 points and 2.3 rebounds last season and was one of Kent State’s better defenders. She twice scored 20 points in a game. Coach Danny O’Banion told me in August that White wanted to transfer to another school where she had a better chance of winning. I found her on the roster of Johnson C. Smith University, a Division II school in Charlotte, N.C., that was 20-8 last season. Her leaving surprised me. But she was a second-level player on a second-division team. The Flashes have four freshman guards with good high school credentials, along with a junior college transfer guard. I think the only thing they’re losing is the experience, which could be significant on a team with only four returning players.

Guard Rachel Mendelsohn, who blew out her knee before the season started last year. Mendelsohn was an all-state high school point guard from Oregon but never was comfortable at the point in college. She started seven games as a freshman and averaged 5 points a game off the bench as a sophomore. She was KSU’s No. 2 three-point shooter her sophomore year but made just 21 percent of her shots. She sat on the team bench in every home game last year and was at the team’s postseason banquet. It’s sad to see a player’s career end with an injury, but Mendelsohn wasn’t a key player. O’Banion said Mendelsohn left the team on good terms; she still is enrolled at Kent State.

Forward Janae Peterson. who was sick and hurt for most of sophomore year and played only 27 minutes in nine games. She averaged three points and two rebounds a game as a freshman. At Temescal Canyon High School in California, Peterson averaged 20 points and 15 rebounds a game. She’s now at the University of California – San Diego, a Division II school. Her being gone won’t have any impact on the team.

Leaving the team during last season was Madison Ridout, a guard who was Kent’s second-best three-point shooter as a freshman a year ago. Second best meant 15 baskets, which tells you a lot about KSU’s outside game last season. She played in 22 games. She’s now a starter at Shawnee State University, a NAIA school that went 25-10 a year ago and reached the national championships. A teammate at Shawnee State is Lydia Poe, a cousin of Ridout’s who played with her at Jackson High School in Jackson County. Poe was a Kent State recruit but left the team in summer after just a month on campus. Both Ridout and Poe said they were homesick, and Shawnee State is closer to their home in southeast Ohio.

Preseason press day is tomorrow (Thursday). We’ll have a full report.

There are seven freshmen on the Flashes’ 2015-16 roster. That’s the most I can ever remember.

At least two or three of them have to play major roles this season in order for KSU to have any kind of success.

One of the freshmen — wing Tyra James of Cincinnati — is a redshirt who blew out her knee just before last season. We talked about her in the last post; she averaged 19 points at Cincinnati Winton Woods High School and was one of Kent State’s top recruits a year ago,. She’s likely to play a lot of minutes this year.

Here’s a look at the other six:

Guard Megan Carter averaged more than 18 points a game in her senior year at Michigan’s North Farmington High School and twice scored 34 points against ranked opponents. She’s a good shooter off the dribble and can make three-pointers. Carter, who is 5-foot-7, was “special mention” all state in Michigan’s largest high school division — roughly equivalent to third-team all state in Ohio. The Detroit Free Press said she had just 15 turnovers all last season — wonderful news for a Kent State team that has had trouble for years holding on to the basketball. Assistant coach Geoff Lanier last year told me that like former men’s guard Derek Jackson. Carter can switch between point and shooting guard. I suspect we’ll be hearing a lot from her this season. (Here’s a link to a nice feature story on Carter from the Free Press.)

Guard Alexa Golden was second-team all state in Pennsylvania’s second-largest high school division. Kent coach Danny O’Banion called her a “prototypical glue player” when she announced this recruiting class. Golden, who is 5-foot-9, was her high school team’s top scorer (16 points a game) and top defensive player. She sounds like a better version of Krista White, who started 15 games last season. White also was a good defensive player in high school and led KSU in scoring several games last year. But White was no all stater. (White left the team after last season; notes on her and others who left the team will be in a future post.) Here’s a link to a feature on Golden’s high school team and another mini-feature on Golden herself.

Guard Taylor Parker was half of a pair of tiny guards who averaged more than 15 points each for Detroit Cass Tech High School last year. Parker is 5-6; her running mate was 5-4. But in their time at Cass Tech, they were runner-up in the Detroit City Championship three times. Parker had more than 60 steals her junior year. She’ll be in the mix at point guard with Carter and sophomore Naddiyah Cross, who started 15 games as a freshman last year.

Post player Merissa Barber-Smith may remind us of Cici Shannon, the 6-4 third-team all MAC center who graduated last year. Barber-Smith is also 6-4; assistant coach Lanier told me last spring that Barber-Smith was stronger physically than Shannon was at the same age. Barber-Smith averaged a double-double in both her junior and senior year and  was listed as one of the top 50 players in Wisconsin after her junior year. She averaged about 13 points a game her senior year but scored 35 in one game. How she develops will say a lot about Kent’s inside game.

Post player Savannah Neace blocked more than 400 shots in her four years at St. Henry High School in northern Kentucky, across the river from Cincinnati. She’s 6-3 and averaged 11.3 points and 8.2 rebounds her senior year. O’Banion compares her to current sophomores Jordan Korinek and Mckenna Stephens as forwards who can score away from the basket. My guess is she’ll play behind those two and Barber-Smith, at least early in the season.

Guard Paige Salisbury is a 5-9 walk-on who led her Brunswick High School team in almost every statistical category. She played in more games than any player in school history and ranked ninth in points, seventh in rebounds, fourth in assists, seventh in steals and third in blocks in team history. Still, she’s a walk-on and has six scholarship guards ahead of her. I suspect she’ll play some and could surprise us.

Transfers

O’Banion added two junior college transfers and a Division I transfer who won’t be eligible this season. The junior college people, both with two years of eligibility left:

Forward Chelsi Watson has the tallest vertical leap on the team and leads the team in most other weight-room categories. She’s from Tyler Junior College in Tyler, Texas, where her team reached the national junior college finals both her years there. She 5-10 and averaged 8.4 points and 6.2 rebounds a game as a sophomore. I expect she’ll be a role player when Kent needs extra rebounding. She more or less replaces Janae Peterson, a forward from California who played some as a freshman but was sick or hurt almost all of her sophomore year. Peterson left the team after last season.

Guard Keziah Lewis is a New Zealand native who played at Ellsworth Community College in Iowa Falls, Iowa. She’s 5-10 and scored 771 points in two years at Ellsworth. She can score from a lot of places; she made 40 three-point shots in two years (33 percent her freshman year but just 23 percent last season). She averaged more than 100 free throws a year. Statistically she reminds me of Rachel Mendelsohn, who was O’Banion’s first freshman recruit and played two years as a reserve guard. Mendelsohn injured her knee before last season, sat on the bench with the team all year but decided not to come back as a player.

A player we won’t see in a game for a year is forward Zenobia Bess, a transfer from Illinois State. (Six players there  transferred after a 2-28 season.) Bess started 22 games last season but averaged just 3.1 points and 2.9 rebounds. She is 6-foot-1 with a 6-foot-5 wing span and came off a Gahanna Lincoln High School team that sent five players to Division I colleges. NCAA rules say she has to sit out a season after transferring.

Next: Where the transfers went. And later in the week, a report on Thursday’s preseason press day.

The women’s season opens at 2 p.m. Sunday with an exhibition game against Hiram College; the regular season starts a week later at home against Colgate.

The team was 5-25 last year, fifth in the MAC East and 11th overall.

The team’s preseason press day is Thursday, and I plan to have a full report.

But let’s start the season with a look at the roster, which is one of the most interesting stories of the new season.

This time a year ago the Flashes were a team with just three seniors.

Yet they’re starting this season with only four players who have ever worn a Kent State uniform in a game.

How that happened, briefly:

Two players were hurt last year before last season even started, one left the team during the season, one graduated early, and three transferred to smaller schools. We’ll have more on that later in the week.

The good news is that the four players who are returning are the underclassmen we most wanted back. They are:

• Leading scorer Larissa Lurken has essentially been Kent State’s only three-point threat in her two years on the team. A junior guard, Lurken scored 11.1 points a game a year ago and was the first Kent State player to average in double figures in four years. (That’s sort of scary, but it’s been that kind of ride for the Flashes lately.) Lurken has started 46 games in her two years here and has scored 507 points. At that pace, she would be the 20th player in Kent State history to score 1,000.

Lurken was a tri-captain as a sophomore last season. She made 31 percent of her three-pointers but just about the same percentage of her two-pointers. She’ll need to shoot better and score even more for Kent State to have a better record this season. She’ll also need help from other outside shooters.

Lurken is the only junior on the team with experience. (There are three junior transfers and a junior walk-on who didn’t get in a game last season.) The team has no seniors.

• 6-foot-2 sophomore forward Jordan Korinek started 23 games last season as a freshman and was Kent’s third-leading scorer (7.2) and rebounder (4.6). She scored 18 points in Kent’s game at Akron. Korinek was an all stater at Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary’s her senior year in high school, averaging 19 points and 10 rebounds a game.

I had Korinek on my MAC all-freshman team a year ago, though no post player made the official team. O’Banion said Korinek played very well in the team’s scrimmage against Ashland last week. She’ll need to at least double her scoring for Kent to be competitive this season.

• Sophomore point guard Naddiyah Cross started 15 games last season as a freshman, mostly while senior Mikell Chinn was hurt. She averaged 3 points a game and looked like a freshman point guard much of the time — inconsistent with flashes of good play. She had eight assists against Cleveland State and Central Michigan, both close losses. She made 33 percent of her three-point shots but took only 39. In high school, she was a 42 percent three-point shooter but again wasn’t a scorer (5.8 points a game).

The Flashes have to get more scoring out of the point. Chinn averaged just 2.3 points a game, and teams barely guarded her. Kent State’s going to need to get at least 10 points or so a game from the point guard position, and the point is going to have to help keep turnovers down; the Flashes have been among the worst in the MAC in ball handling for three years. Ideally Cross will build on her game experience. If not, two of Kent’s six freshmen had point guard experience in high school.

• Sophomore forward McKenna Stephens became eligible the second semester last season and averaged 15 minutes a game in 22 appearances. She started three games and averaged 5 points and 3 rebounds. At times, Stephens showed a quick 15-foot jump shot that forced opponents to adjust their defenses. Whether she starts depends on the development of two big freshmen and a junior college transfer. But expect her to play a lot in any event.

Let’s add a fifth returnee, though she didn’t play at all last year.

Tyra James is a 5-11 wing who blew out her knee a week before last season’s opener. Before that, O’Banion often mentioned James in the same breath as Korinek when talking about last year’s freshman class. James averaged more than 19 points a game her senior year at Cincinnati’s Winton Woods High School and scored a school-record 38 points against a nationally ranked opponent. Her knee is supposed to be sound, and she could have a big impact.

Also returning is junior Lacy Miller, a 6-2 walk-on last season who never got in a regular season game. Miller earned a scholarship for this season, but I don’t expect her to play a great deal.

Before we end this installment, let’s look at the seniors who graduated.

• 6-foot-4 center Cici Shannon was KSU’s first all-MAC player in four years (third team). Shannon was the dominant rebounder in the MAC during the second half of the season and is fourth in KSU history in shot blocking, even though she played here only two years after transferring from Southern Illinois. Shannon averaged just under 10 points a game. Shannon could dominate a game with her rebounding and shot blocking and developed as a scorer her senior year. She’ll be missed.
• Chinn, the starting point guard, was second in the MAC in assists but essentially didn’t score. She was a steady presence the second half of the conference season, when Kent State played its best basketball of the O’Banion era. But still, opponent teams barely guarded Chinn. Just replacing her won’t be enough.
• Forward Montia Johnson was All-American honorable mention in junior college and led the Kent State in scoring her junior year (9 points a game). Johnson lost her starting job to Korinek last year and was hurt for almost two months. At her best, Johnson could be very good, especially as an offensive rebounder. But she was wildly inconsistent and seemed to disappear in some games.
• Wing Melanie Stubbs started 19 games last year and scored the winning basket in two of Kent State’s five wins. Stubbs, a very good student, was a redshirt junior who decided to graduate and not take her final year of eligibility. She was solid and would have helped the team this year. James could be better. Stubbs was the last Kent State player recruited by former coach Bob Lindsay.

Later in the week: a look at the newcomers and some detail on what happened to those who left the team.