Coach Todd Starkey and assistant Morgan Toles were on Facebook Live today with some discussion of the team after its first six practices.

Toles, who led the ACC in assist-to-turnover ratio as a senior at Florida State, is working with the KSU point guards. She called the group “truly hard workers” and “eager to learn, which is all you can ask at this point.”

Individually, she mentioned:

Junior Naddiyah Cross, who started 15 games as a freshman and 17 as a sophomore: “An extremely hard worker, playmaking guard, quick off the bounce, likes to look for her teammates first.”

Redshirt freshman Megan Carter, who played only three games last season before suffering a knee injury: More of a “scoring point guard who’s extremely skilled. Extremely fun to watch.”

Sophomore walk-on Paige Salisbury, who started 12 games in the second half of last season: “A spot-up shooter and a distributor.”

Sophomore Taylor Parker, who played just 70 minutes last season: “Extremely quick, probably the best athlete on the team, can be a good defender for us.”

Starkey said the coaches are learning what the playes are capable of in individual skills and beyond.

“How do they blend with players around them?” he asked. “Can they think the game? What’s the situation and what’s needed? Who needs to get the touch? When do I need to try to create something for myself?

“In practice and in film sessions with coach Toles, we’re starting to see some light bulbs go off in certain areas of the game that might be new for them.”

Here’s the link to the full interview by the athletic department’s Dave Carducci, the former Record-Courier reporter on the Kent State beat:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10154187515793922&id=18168618921

The rest of the Toles family

Morgan Toles was excited about another sport — baseball, where her brother is the rookie starting left fielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He scored the tying run in last night’s win over the Washington Nationals. Morgan said her mother “went crazy” and called everyone in the family.

Totes sister, Kasey, has said on Twitter that she’s verbally committed to play for Kent State when she graduates from high school in 2017. She’s more of a shooting guard who averaged 14 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists and and 2 steals as a junior at Georgia’s Sandy Creek High School.

But NCAA rules don’t allow either KSU coach to talk about that until signing day in November.

 

 

 

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