Month: December 2016

Flashes start trip to Big Ten country tonight against 8-4 Iowa

The Kent State women’s basketball team finishes its non-conference schedule this week with games at Iowa and Minnesota of the Big Ten.

Both will be among the toughest tests of the season for the Flashes, who have their best record in six years under new coach Todd Starkey.

The Flashes are 6-4. That’s as many wins as they had all last season.

Both Iowa and Minnesota are 8-4. Iowa is ranked 61st in the latest RPI rankings, Minnesota 13th, both in large part because of difficult non-conference schedules. Iowa has lost to No. 10 UCLA, No. 2 Notre Dame, 6-3 Drake and 8-3 South Dakota State, which was ranked No. 1 among mid-major schools at the time the two teams played. The Hawkeyes have beaten 8-2 Iowa State and 5-3 James Madison.

Minnesota has lost to No. 6 South Carolina, No. 7 Florida State, 7-3 Georgia and 8-2 North Carolina. It has beaten 8-2 Georgetown, 8-1 Harvard and 8-2 Army and 7-2 Seton Hall.

Kent State’s toughest opponent has been No. 3 Baylor, which beat the Flashes 84-42 in the Gulf Coast Showcase. That actually was a fairly close game for Baylor (10-1); it’s beaten three teams by at least 60 and three others by at least 40. Baylor’s RPI is only 31 and heavily influenced by a fairly easy schedule, computed at 133rd in the country by RealTimeRPI.com. That’s easier than the schedule of 8-0 Buffalo of the Mid-American Conference.

Kent State’s RPI rank is 228.

Iowa has two outstanding three-point shooters in leading scorer Ally Disterhoft (17.8 point per game, 51.7 percent distance shooting) and Rania Davis (10.9 ppg and 40.4 percent on three-pointers). Megan Guftason, a 6-3 sophomore forward, averages 16.3 points and 10.5 rebounds a game.

Iowa leads the Big Ten in three-point field goal percentage defense (.265). The Hawkeyes also rank third in field goal percentage defense (.354), field goal percentage (.487), and assists (18.2).

Kent State’s top scorer is senior Larissa Lurken, who’s sixth in the country with a 23-point-per-game average. She’s making 44.9 percent of her three-point shots. The Flashes’ best post player is 6-2 forward Jordan Korinek, who is averaging 12 points and five rebounds, both about three below what she did a year ago.

Kent State and Iowa have one common opponent so far this season. Iowa beat Robert Morris 81-60 in Iowa City; the Flashes lost to the Colonials 68-65 in overtime in Kent. Robert Morris is 5-6 this season.

Preview from the Kent State website, including links to statistics, roster and schedule/results.

Preview from the Iowa website, which is a detailed PDF file.

To follow the game

  • Video starts at 5 p.m. on the BTN2Go network. (To watch, you’ll need to pay $14.95 for a monthly subscription, which also will let you watch Thursday’s Minnesota game and other Big Ten games. If you pay, make sure you cancel this month, or it will automatically renew.)
  • Audio at about 4:45 on Golden Flash iHeart radio.
  • Live statistics are available through the Iowa website.
  • In-game updates on Twitter at @KentStatwbb.

MAC score update

Monday

Central Michigan (8-3) 82, Illinois (5-7) 51 at Central.

Miami (4-6) 69, Fort Wayne (2-9) 47 at Fort Wayne.

South Dakota (10-2) 97, Northern Illinois (6-4) 83 at South Dakota.

Ohio (8-1) 63, Binghamton (4-7) 554 at Ohio.

Sunday

No. 2 Notre Dame (10-1) 85, Toledo (8-2) 68 at Toledo.

Lipscomb (2-10) 78, Ball State (6-4) 74 at Ball State.

Saturday

Western Michigan (8-2) 83, Bradley (2-7) 64 at Western.

Purdue (9-4) 77, Eastern Michigan (4-7) 50 at Purdue.

Duquesne (6-6) 67, Akron (5-3) 57 at Akron.

MAC standings with some team statistics.

 

 

 

 

 

MAC individual statistics: KSU’s Lurken leads the conference in scoring at 23.0

Kent State senior Larissa Lurken leads the Flashes and the Mid-American Conference in scoring at 23.0 points per game. Her average is sixth in the country.

Here’s a look at leaders in individual categories in the MAC, including Kent players among the leaders.

Scoring: After Lurken comes junior guard Sasha Dailey of Eastern Michigan at 20.1 points a game. Third is senior guard Hannah Plyborn of Akron at 19.1. Dailey is averaging 15 points a game more than she did last season, Lurken 9 points more. Five Kent State players have led the MAC in scoring at the end of a season: Mary Bukovac (19.3 in 1989), Ann Forbes (20.2 in 1991), Amy Sherry (21.4 in 1995), Julie Studer (19.0 in 2001) and Lindsay Shearer (20.8 in 2006). Only other Flash in the top 30 this season is junior forward Jordan Korinek, tied for 19th at 12.0 points per game.

Rebounding: Senior guard Ali Lehman of Northern Illinois averages 11.8 per game. She’s had two triple-doubles this season. Sophomore forward Reyna Frost of Central Michigan is second at 10.7. Lurken is 12th with a 6.5 average. KSU senior Chelsi Watson is 13th at 6.4. Frost leads in offense rebounds at 5.0; Lehman leads in defensive rebounds at 7.0. Watson is ninth in offensive rebounds (3.0), Lurken seventh in defensive rebounds (4.9).

Field Goal percentage: Central Michigan senior Jewel Cotton is first at 67.4 percent, with Buffalo freshman Summer Hemphill second at 65.8. Korinek is eighth at 48.

Assists: Sophomore Carmen Grande of Ball State leads with 7.9 per game. Lehman of NIU is second at 6.6. Junior Naddiyah Cross of Kent State is fifth at 5.2.

Free throw percentage: Sophomore Mikayla Voigt of Northern Illinois is a perfect 17 of 17. Sophomore Presley Hudson of Central Michigan, last year’s freshman of the year, is second at 91.7 percent. Lurken is 10th at 80 percent, Cross 12th at 76.7 percent. Lurken has made 84 free throws, which is 40 more than anyone else in the conference. She leads the country in foul shots made and taken.

Steals: Sophomore Deja Wimby of Western Michigan leads the league, averaging 2.8 a game. Junior Taylor Agler of Ohio is second at 2.6. No KSU player is in the top 15.

Three-point baskets: Junior Najee Smith of Western Michigan has made 9 of 17 for 52.9 percent. Freshman Janae Poisson and senior Cassidy Glenn of NIU are tied for second at 46.4. Lurken is sixth at 44.9. Sophomore Courtney Woods of NIU leads the league in three-pointers per game, averaging 3.3 per game, with junior Cassie Green of Central Michigan second at 3.2. Lurken is eighth at 2.2.

Blocked shots: Senior Jasmin Weatherspoon of Ohio averages 2.0 a game. Junior Tina Moore of CMU is second at 1.9. Lurken is tied for seventh at 1.0.

Assist-turnover ratio: Lehmann of NIU leads the lead at 2.9, with junior Stephanie Reid of Buffalo second at 2.7. Kent State’s Cross is eighth at 1.7.

Minutes played: junior Micah Robinson of Eastern Michigan averages 36.8 minutes of a 40-minute game. Lurken is fourth at 35.2, about the same as Hudson of CMU and senior Quiera Lampkins of Ohio.

Full MAC statistics

 

 

 

 

 

Statistically, as well as in wins and losses, Flashes are much improved

Most MAC teams are on a break for exams, so it’s a good time to take a look at how the league looks at this point in the season.

Today we’ll take a look at the current conference team statistics and where Kent State stacks up. Later in the week we’ll look at where KSU individuals rank, and analyze individual teams, their records, their rankings and their strength of schedule.

Best records in the league belong to Buffalo (8-0), Toledo (8-1) and Ohio (7-1). OU lost its first game this week at 9-3 Michigan, 69-46. The Bobcats hung with Michigan defensively for about 25 minutes but struggled to score. Ohio shot 22.4 percent from the floor and 19 percent from the three-point line.

Kent State is 6-4, the eighth-best record in the 12-team MAC. It’s been a good year for the league so far.

The team statistics:

Scoring: Northern Illinois leads the league — and is second in the nation — at 92.6 points a game. It was just two years ago the Huskies averaged in the 50s. They have a new coach and, obviously, a new style of play. Second is Toledo at 78.9, then come a bunch of teams between 67 and 70, including Kent State, which is averaging 68.6. A year ago the Flashes averaged 61.4

Scoring defense: Northern Illinois is at the bottom here, allowing 72.8. Obviously not much defense in its games. Best defense is Buffalo at 55.0, Ohio second at 55.8. Kent State is 1oth at 67.1, which is four points better than last season’s 71.0  The Flashes’ worst game came against Baylor in an 84-42 defeat. That 84 looks quite g0od in comparison. Baylor is averaging 95 points a game and beat Winthrop 140-32 this week. 140 is the second highest total in NCAA history and the 108-point margin is the biggest in the history. (Story on that game is here; the statistics are crazy.) Only two teams have scored fewer points against Baylor than Kent State. One is No. 1 Connecticut, the only team to beat the Bears (72-61.

Scoring margin: Toledo is fist at plus-22.8 points a game. KSU is ninth at plus-1.5. Last year the Flashes were worst in the MAC at minus-9.6. Worst so far this season is Miami at minus-5.0.

Free throw percentage: Northern Illinois leads at 81.0 percent. Kent State is third at 72.1. The Flashes have made 52 more foul shots than any team in the league; they lead the nation in number made and taken. Two years ago the Flashes averaged 61.5 percent in foul shooting — a distant last in the league.

Field goal percentage: Ball Sate leads at 45.3 percent. Northern Illinois and Toledo are virtually tied at 44 percent. Kent State is sixth at 41 percent, Miami last at 34.3 percent. Last year Kent State was eight at 39.6.

Field goal defense: Ohio is first at 33.9, Toledo second at 34.1. KSU is 11th at 40.3, which is still better than the 43.4 percent (last in the MAC) last season.

Three-point percentage: Northern Illinois leads at 39.4 percent, with Toledo second at 38.9. Kent State is third at at 36.4, an astounding increase over last year’s 26.9. Remember the Flashes have essentially the same roster as last season. Worst in the MAC so far is Ohio at 26.5. The Bobcats had led the league in three-point shooting for two straight years. I can’t imagine they’ll be that low all season.

Three-point baskets per game: NIU is first at 8.9, Toledo second at 7.8, Ohio third at 7.6. Kent State is 10th at 5.2, which is one per game higher than a year ago.

Three-point defenseNorthern Illinois leads at 26.3 percent with Akron at 27.2. Kent State is seventh at 30 percent. Last year the Flashes were second to last at 34.3 percent.

Rebounding margin: Buffalo is first at plus-13.4, with Bowling Green a distant second at plus-6.6. Kent State is fifth at plus-4.3. Ohio is last at minus-7.1. Last season KSU was 11th at mins-2.9.

Blocked shots: Ohio ranks first at 4.6 per game, Akron and Buffalo second at 4.1. KSU is 10th at 2.7. Last year KSU was last at 1.2.

Assists: Ball State is first at 16.0, with NIU, Akron and Western Michigan all at about 14.6. Kent State is 10th at 11.9. Last year the Flashes were ninth at 11.4.

Steals: Toledo is first at 11.8, Ohio second at 10.9. Kent State is ninth at 7.6. This is one the few statistical categories KSU is worse than a year ago, when they were fourth in the conference at 8.5.

Turnover margin: Toledo leads at plus-9.1 a game, with Ohio second at plus-8.6. Kent State is 11th at minus-2.1, the other category where the Flashes are underperforming last season, when their margin was minus-1.2. They’re actually committing about 1.2 turnovers per game fewer than a year ago; they just are forcing about two fewer.

Assist-turnover ratio: Toleod leads at 1.3, with NIU at 1.2. Kent State is 11th at 0.7, the same as last season.

Attendance: As usual, Toledo leads the league at 3,513 per game. Second is Ohio at 2,328. Despite its undefeated record, Buffalo is ninth at 1,008. Kent State is last at 431. The KSU number is about 60 below last season, though attendance tends to pick up when conference season starts.

We’ll look at individual stats in another post. Larissa Lurken leads the conference in scoring at 23.0 points per game.

Full MAC team statistics for this season and for last year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The RPI story: Of 349 teams, Flashes are 234; their schedule is 306

As we and a lot of other people have been saying for weeks, this is clearly the best Kent State women’s basketball team in six years.

The Flashes are two games above .500 at 6-4. The last time they were in that range was 2010-11, when they won their first six games and went on to a 20-10 record, 11-5 and second in the MAC East. The next year they were 6-21 in Bob Lindsay’s last season, then 21-98 over four years under Danny O’Banion. Best year in her time was 7-23 in 2013-14.

How do we evaluate the Flashes?

Both Kent State’s RPI and strength of schedule right now are below average, I’d argue that schedule strength is somewhat misleading.

KSU’s RPI is 234 of 349 Division I teams. Its strength of schedule is 308. (For comparison, The Flashes’ RPI at the end of last season was 318. Its strength of schedule was 192.)

RPI is Rating Percentage Index, which is a way of ranking teams based on their record and strength of schedule.

Here’s how it’s figured: 25 percent of the score comes from a team’s won-loss percentage. 50 percent comes from its opponents’ won-loss record, and the last 25 from opponents’ opponents’ record. Road wins are weighted 1.4, home wins. 0.6, road losses .6 and home losses 1.4. Neutral site games (of which KSU had three this season) are weighted 1.0.

The RPI is used to some extent in seeding in the NCAA tournament, though people who watch such things say that’s not as true as it once was.

Best way to boost your RPI is to beat a good team on the road, and that’s what happened when KSU won at Wright State last week. Its RPI jumped 60 spots.

So why is KSU’s schedule strength so low so far, especially since coach Todd Starkey has talked a number of times about how much tougher this year’s non-conference schedule is?

First answer is early season RPIs can be misleading. For example, the No. 3 RPI team in the country right now is the Horizon League’s Green Bay. As the season goes on, mid-majors like Green Bay almost always fall. Major conference schools move up because they play each other.

Second answer is that the non-conference schedule isn’t over. Next week the Flashes travel to Iowa on Tuesday and Minnesota on Thursday. Iowa’s current RPI is 44; Minnesota’s is 19. So Kent State’s strength of schedule rating will jump significantly before Christmas. (Of course, the Flashes will have a hard time winning those games, too.)

Third answer is that the records of the mid-major teams Kent State has played haven’t been as good as they teams were predicted to be.

Eastern Kentucky, for example, was picked third in the Ohio Valley Conference. So far its record is 2-6 against Division I teams (RPI uses only Division I opponents) and its RPI is 311.

Similarly Youngstown State, the team KSU beat Saturday, was picked fourth in the Horizon League. The Penguins are 2-6 and have an RPI of 310. Part of their record is due to injuries to three players expected to be starters this season. Youngstown’s RPI last season was 130.

Here’s a rundown of KSU’s 10 opponents, their records against Division I teams, strength of schedule and preseason prospectus:

Bradley (1-6). RPI 263, schedule strength 95. Bradley was picked seven of 10 teams in the Missouri Valley Conference. KSU won at home, 77-52.

Eastern Kentucky (2-6). RPI 311, schedule 269. Eastern was picked third in the 12-team Ohio Valley. KSU beat Eastern in Kent, 80-67.

Robert Morris (3-6). RPI 198, schedule 186. Picked second in the 10-team Northeastern Conference. KSU lost at home, 68-65 in overtime.

Detroit (4-6). RPI 176, schedule 168. Picked second in the nine-team Horizon League. KSU lost in Detroit, 73-52.

Baylor (10-1). RPI 21, schedule 70. Picked first in the 10-team Big 12. KSU lost 84-42 in Gulf Coast Showcase tournament.

Western Kentucky (5-4). RPI 119, schedule 113. Picked first in 14-team Conference USA. KSU lost 79-73 in overtime at Gulf Coast tournament.

Florida Gulf Coast (4-5). RPI 145, schedule 91. Picks first in nine-team Atlantic Sun Conference. KSU won 77-64 at the tournament.

Fort Wayne (1-7). RPI 335, schedule 329. Picked ninth (last) in Summit League. KSU won at home, 66-55.

Wright State (3-4). RPI 225, schedule 272. Picked fifth in nine-team Horizon League. KSU won on road, 79-69.

Youngstown State (2-6) (RPI 310), schedule 278. Picked fourth in nine-team Horizon League. KSU won at home, 75-60.

What do we conclude from all that?

Pretty much what KSU’s record says: KSU is a slightly above average mid-major team.

The Power Conferences — Pac 12, SEC, ACC, Big 12, American Athletic, Big East, Big Ten in that order so far this season — dominate the RPIs. Eleven of the 12 Pac 12 schools, for example, have RPIs below 75.

So KSU’s 234 overall isn’t too bad. KSU’s schedule isn’t good, but that will change in the next 10 days.

In the MAC, KSU is decidedly below average. Its RPI is eighth of 12 teams; its schedule is 10th.

We’ll take a detailed look at the MAC later this week. Right now, best in the MAC are Buffalo (18 RPI at 8-0), Ohio (74 at 7-1) and Toledo (109 at 7-1).

 

Toughest schedule belongs to Buffalo at 102. Second is Miami (2-6) at 184.

(There are various places online you can find RPI Ratings. I use a service call RealTimeRPI. The NCAA’s own list is here. They use basically the same formula. I like RealTimeRPI because it includes schedule strength and breaks it down by conference, among other things. Outside of the main list, though, it costs $27 a year.)

Strong defensive second half pushes Flashes past Youngstown State, 75-60, for 4th win in a row

It wasn’t the way Kent State has been winning games, and that’s a good thing, said coach Todd Starkey.

Instead of running off to a first half lead and hanging on, the Flashes came from behind late in the first half and dominated the fourth quarter.

Instead of Larissa Lurken doing much of the scoring, Kent State had four players in double figures for the first time this season.

It added up to a 75-60 victory over Youngstown State and the fourth consecutive win for the Flashes, who are now 6-4. The sixth win equals Kent State’s total for last season and is one behind the most victories in the last six years.

“A sign of a team that’s maturing and understanding who they are is a team that’s able to make adjustments as a game goes on,” Starkey said. “I think this is a perfect example of that. We adjusted to some things they were doing and were able to make some things happen.”

Lurken still led the Flashes with 18 points, five below her fifth-in-the nation average. But junior forward McKenna Stephens had 17 in her best offensive game of the season. Alexa Golden, coming back after missing a game with a concussion, had a career-high 14 and Jordan Korinek 10. Korinek also equaled her season high with 9 rebounds.

YSU led through most of what Starkey said was a “kind of ugly” first half, in large part because of six three-point baskets. But Kent State scored nine points in the last 1:30 to tie the game at 38 at halftime.

The Flashes took the lead with two minutes to go in the third quarter, then scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter and were never threatened after that. KSU outscored the Penguins 22-10 in the last quarter.

Starkey said the team adjusted its defense in the second half.

“We were a little bit predictable in the first half,” he said. In the second, “we switched from zone to man and back to zone a good bit to keep them guessing.”

He said the team even switched from man-to-man to zone within the same possession several times.

Lurken, who has led KSU in scoring every game this season, didn’t score her first basket Saturday until four minutes into the second quarter. Meanwhile the Flashes were able to go inside to Korinek for eight points in the first quarter.

Then YSU made an effort to keep the ball away from the KSU post player, and that opened up the game for Stephens.

Stephens hadn’t scored more than five points since KSU’s opener. She made 7 of 12 shots, including a three-pointer, for the second-best scoring game of her career. (She had 19 against Eastern Michigan in the last game of last season.)

“They were giving me a lot of space,” she said.

“They were trying to to help on Jordan inside and crowd Larissa on catches,” Starkey said. “That’s a really good sign for a team when they start recognizing how they’re being played and taking advantage of it.

“Larissa came into the game fourth in the country in scoring, and people are going to game plan for her.  They’re going to try to take her away. They’re gong to try to limit Jordan’s touches in the post. We’ve talked a lot about other players being able to step up.”

Besides Stephens, Golden’s 14 was her second straight game in double figures. She had 13 against Fort Wayne before missing Wednesday’s game. She made 4 of 6 shots, including 2 of 3 three-pointers, and had five rebounds and two steals.

On Wednesday, freshman Ali Poole had 19 points in starting in Golden’s place. She started again Saturday and had five points and four rebounds, though she played fewer minutes than Golden.

As happens any time a player is interviewed this season, Stephens and Cross were asked, ‘What’s changed? What’s so different that a team with essentially the same players can play so much better that teams in recent years?'”

“The mindset is different,” Stephens said. “We’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing. We shouldn’t worry about what people say — just do what we believe in.”

Belief is a powerful thing,” Starkey said. “When I was interviewed for this job, they talked about having a coach who would give them confidence. I said, ‘I can’t give you confidence. That has to come from within. But I can believe in you.’

“And I can also set an expectation that we expect to win. And I think they’re starting to buy in on the defensive end, and that’s probably where the biggest turnaround has happened. Being able to defend has given them confidence on the offensive end as well.”

Notes

  • YSU beat Kent State 91-61 in Youngstown last season. That scored has been on Kent State’s bulletin board. Saturday’s game “helped right that wrong,” Starkey said.
  • Flashiest play of the game was Cross’s behind-the-back pass to Golden under the basket for a layup on a fast break in the fourth quarter. “That was actually the right play there,” Starkey said. “The defender was closing her off on her strong side.”
  • Biggest play of the game might have been the three-pointer by Stephens that tied the score at 46 with 3:38 to go in the third quarter. Kent never trailed after that.
  • Kent State made 17 of 18 free throws. The miss came by Lurken with a minute and a half to go. Lurken leads the nation in made foul shots. (She did make 4 of 5 for the night.)
  • The Flashes made 46 percent of their field goals (26 of 56) and 50 percent of their three-pointers (6 of 12). Wright State was 23 of 58 (40 percent) and 11 of 27 (41 percent). The Penguins’ three-point percentage was 13 percentage points above their season average, and a number of those baskets were closely guarded. YSU’s shooting percentage in the second half was 27.5.
  • Kent State outrebounded YSU 38-27 and 25-15 in the second half. The Flashes have outrebounded opponents in 7 of 10 games. After Korinek’s 9 rebounds, Lurken had 6 and Golden and Merissa Barber-Smith 5. Barber-Smith’s came in seven minutes of action. She has 27 rebounds in the 56 minutes she’s played this season.
  • The Flashes had nine steals, with two each by Stephens, Lurken and Golden, and five blocked shots.
  • They outscored YSU 17-0 on fast break points, 12-6 on second-chance points and 17-10 off turnovers.
  • Cross had six assists to two turnovers. She had nine assists and two turnovers at  Wright State Wednesday.

The team is off this week for final exams. The next week is a two-game trip to the Big Ten country for games at Iowa (8-3) and Minnesota (7-3).

Box score

Game story from KSU website, including video highlights and interviews with coach and players.

The Lurken watch

Lurken’s 18 points give her 1,141 for her career, which is 18th best in school history. She’s 33 points behind Amy Slowikowski (1987-90) and 35 behind Carrie Nance (1998-2001). for 17th and 16th place.

The 5-9 guard blocked three shots Saturday for the second time this season. She has 10 in 10 games. She had five all last season and 21 in her career before this year.

Other MAC scores

Miami (3-6) 64, Division II Northwood (4-3) 49 at Miami.

Western Michigan (7-2) 75, Detroit Mercy (4-6) 65 at Detroit.

Akron (5-2) 63, Eastern Kentucky (2-6) 57 at Eastern Kentucky.

Ohio (7-0) 71, Indiana-Purdue at Indianapolis (7-2) 65 at Indianapolis. Going into that game, Ohio was fourth in the Mid-Major Top 25. IUPUI was 24th.

Nine of the 12 MAC teams have winning records. Ohio and Buffalo are undefeated, Toledo has lost once, Akron, Western Michigan and Northern Illinois twice.

Saturday game stories from MAC website.

MAC standings, including some team statistics.

 

Flashes host Youngstown State Saturday as part of double header with men

More than the 500 die-hard women’s basketball fans can see the new-look team Saturday.

The Flashes play Youngstown State at 5 p.m. in the Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center in the first game of a double header with the men’s team, who play NJIT about a half hour after women finish.

A ticket to the women’s game gets you general assignment admission to the men’s game. Tickets to the men’s game get also get you into the women’s game. Based on previous double headers, as many as 1,500 fans will see at least the last quarter of the women’s game Saturday.

Fans will see a women’s team that is 5-4, above .500 at midseason for the first time since 2010-11. The five wins are just one fewer than the team had all last year and two short of the most wins for any KSU team since 2011, which was the last time the Flashes had a winning season (20-10).

Kent State has won three straight games, including a 79-69 win at Wright State Wednesday that broke an 18-game road losing streak.

Coach Todd Starkey likes the idea of double headers.

“Hopefully it gets a nice crowd for both of us,” he said on the weekly Flash Talk radio show Thursday. “It creates energy around both programs and develops great comraderie within your school.”

(Here’s link to Facebook Live archive of show. Starkey interview starts about 28 minutes after an interview with men’s coach Rob Senderoff.)

This year’s women’s team is ahead of last year’s team in almost every statistical category. The Flashes are:

  • Averaging 67.9 points a game (last year was 61.4).
  • Allowing the same number — 67.9 (71.0 last season).
  • Making 40.4 percent of their shots (39.6).
  • Allowing 40.4 percent shooting from opponents (43.4).
  • Shooting 35.1 percent from three-point distance and averaging 5.1 three-point baskets per game (26.9 and 4.2).
  • Making 18.6 free throws a game, a figure that’s third highest in the NCAA Division I (last year was 12.3).
  • Outrebounding opponents by 3.3 a game (they were outrebounded by 2.9 last season).

The only numbers that are worse are turnover margin (-2.5 compared with -1.2) and steals (8.5 per game last season compared with 7.4 this year).

Last year’s team was Kent’s best statistically in five seasons.

After nine games last season, the team was 3-6. This year’s competition has been at least as good, with seven of KSU’s opponents so far being picked in the first division of their leagues. (Strength of schedule numbers are more ambiguous, but those numbers aren’t particularly  reliable this early in the season. We’ll have a full post on that next week.)

Senior guard Larissa Lurken is averaging 23.6 points per game. If she kept that up for the season, it would be the highest average in school history. The record is 21.5 points a game, set by all-time leading scorer Bonnie Beachy in 1980-81. Amy Sherry averaged 21.4 in 1994-95. Only two other KSU players — Lindsay Shearer (20.8 in 2005-06) and Ann Forbes (20.2 in 1990-91) — have averaged more than 20 points a game in a season. Beach also averaged 20.2 in 1981-82.

The women’s team has averaged 436 fans per game through its first four home games. That’s about 50 lower than last season but comparable to 2015’s non-conference games. Best attendance in my era was about 1,100 per game in the early 2000s, when Kent State was the premiere program in the Mid-American Conference. I have the idea that they had some good crowds in the Beachy era, too. (There are no attendance records in the KSU record book.)

Youngstown State is a team that beat the Flashes badly in the last two seasons but has been hit by injuries this year. Two women projected as starters before the season are out for the year with injuries. A third, leading scorer Sarah Cash, has been limited by knee problems and didn’t play at all in the Penguins’ 76-74 overtime loss to Akron (4-2) on Tuesday at Youngstown.

YSU is 3-5, with one of its wins being over St. Francis, a team that beat Wisconsin 103-100. Gauging the quality of that team is convoluted because St. Francis is just 2-4. But obviously both St. Francis and Youngstown State have some talent.

Coach John Barnes is 57-40 in three seasons in Youngstown. He turned down the head coaching job at Kent State after Danny O’Banion’s contract wasn’t renewed last season.

Three weeks later, the Flashes hired Indiana assistant Starkey, who has the team playing a more uptempo offense and more aggressive defense — and winning.

Preview from Kent State website, including links to statistics, roster and schedule.

Preview from YSU website, including links

If you can’t go to the Youngstown State game

Friday MAC scores

Eastern Michigan (4-5) 75, St. Bonaventure (4-5) 56 at Eastern.

Toledo (7-1) 76, Dayton (3-5) 72 at Dayton.

Central Michigan (7-3) 73, Saint Joseph’s (2-6) 71 in overtime at Central.

Thursday

Buffalo (8-0) 65, Canisius (2-6) 52 at Canisius.

Purdue (7-4) 58, Ball State (5-3) 41 at Ball State.

MAC standings with some team statistics.

Ohio (6-0) is fourth in this week’s Mid-Major top 25. Buffalo is 13th and Toledo 25th, with Ball State also receiving some votes. Florida Gulf Coast, a team Kent State beat in the Gulf Coast Showcase, is ranked 23rd.

Lurken’s 1,000 on video

lurken-1000-video

Here’s a link to a nice video from kentstatesports.com on Lurken reaching 1,000 points for her career.

 

 

 

Flashes play 3 good quarters and hold on to break 18-game road losing streak

Kent State was trying to get its first road victory in more than 17 months.

Ali Poole was trying to do well in her first college start.

Larissa Lurken was trying to keep her early-season scoring going.

And in the end, the Flashes were trying to hold on in the fourth quarter.

Mission accomplished, on all fronts.

Kent State ran to a 25-point lead against Wright State and beat the Raiders 79-69 in a victory that did a lot of things.

It broke an 18-game losing streak on the road that went back to February 2015. For the first time since 2010-11, it gave Flashes three victories in a row and took them over .500 in midseason.

Kent State is now 5-4. The Flashes won only six games all last season.

Wright State, which has won 20 games in four of the last five seasons, is now 4-3. It was only the third time in six seasons KSU has beaten a team with a winning record.

The Flashes led 66-41 going into the fourth quarter. Over the first 30 minutes, they had shot 61 percent from the field and 80 percent from three-point distance. They had held Wright State to 31 percent shooting and 2 of 15 three-pointers.

Wright State charged back with five steals and 18 points off of Kent State turnovers in the fourth quarter. The Raiders made 10 of 19 field goals and 3 of 5 three-pointers. Kent State went without scoring for more than five minutes at one point as it saw its lead shrink to five points with 40 seconds to play.

But three foul shots from Naddiyah Cross, an offensive rebound by Jordan Korinek on a missed free throw, and two foul shots by Lurken gave Kent State control of the end of the game.

“That’s a good Wright State team,” Kent State coach Todd Starkey said in his postgame interview on Golden Flash iHeart Radio. “They’re used to winning. They’re used to winning on this court.

“We knew coming down the stretch that they were going to come at us guns blazing. We got away from a couple of things we were doing well early and got a little bit tired.

“But I was really proud of the way we finished and that we made enough good plays. I’m happy to come away with a win.”

Poole started in place of Alexa Golden, who was out with a concussion. Poole, a 5-11 freshman from Carrollton, made all five of her three-point shots and scored 19 points while grabbing five rebounds in 37 minutes. That’s more points than either Lurken or Korinek scored in a game their freshman years.

In practice, Poole had been one of the best shooters on the team. This was clearly her best offensivegame. She had been making a third of her shots; Wednesday she made two-thirds. Her 5-for-5 from three-point distance took her percentage there from .192 to .322. “Proud of the way she shot with confidence,” Starkey said.

Poole had been playing starters’ minutes as one of the first players off of the best. Her first time in the lineup, she said, “the nerves were there, (but they were) more excited nerves than nervous nerves.

Lurken came into the game averaging 23.6 points a game — fourth best in the country. She scored 23 and had six rebounds and a steal. Her three-point play with two minutes to go was critical in slowing down Wright State’s fourth-quarter rally.

Korinek had her best offensive game of the season, scoring 21 points on 9 of 12 shooting and 3 of 3 foul shots. She did that in just 25 minutes. She picked up her second foul toward the end of the first quarter and sat out the rest of the half.

She and Starkey both said after the game how glad they were to get the road losing streak behind the team.

“They’re learning,” Starkey said. “They’re learning how to play on the road. They’re learning how to play in tight games. We didn’t handle all the pressure the way we should have, so we still have some room to grow.

“We have to be patient as coaches. I’m happy that we’re learning but also that we’re able to get some wins on the way.”

Notes:

  • Kent State’s final shooting percentage of 52.9 was its best of the season, as was its 66.7 percent from three-point distance (8 of 12). Wright State made 37 percent of its 64 shots and 5 of 20 three-pointers.
  • KSU outrebounded the Raiders 37-31, with Chelsi Watson leading the Flashes for the third straight game with seven. Merissa Barber-Smith had four rebounds off the bench in five minutes.
  • Cross had nine assists to two turnovers in 36 minutes to go with six points and a steal. Kent State had 15 assists on 27 baskets — 11 on 16 baskets in the first half.

The Flashes are home at 5 p.m. Saturday against Youngstown State in the first game of a doubleheader with the men’s team, which plays the New Jersey Institute of Technology. YSU is 3-5 on the year and lost to Akron at home in overtime 76-74 on Tuesday.

Wright State Box score

Game story from kentstatesports.com website.

Other MAC scores

Indiana-Purdue at Indianapolis (7-1) 65, Miami (2-6) 53 at Miami.

Bowling Green (4-5) 82, Division II Ohio Valley (3-4) 46

Game stories from MAC website

Tuesday

Western Michigan (6-2) 61, Fort Wayne (1-8) 35 at Western.

Purdue (6-4) 62, Central Michigan (6-3) 51 at Purdue.

Detroit Mercy (4-5) 77, Eastern Michigan (3-5) 64 at Eastern.

Akron (4-2) 76, Youngstown State (3-5) 74 in overtime at YSU.

Sunday

Buffalo (7-0) 74, Hofstra (4-3) 50 at Buffalo.

Ball State (5-2) 74, Butler (2-6) 50 at Butler.

Virginia (6-2) 67, Bowling Green (3-5) 47 at Bowling Green.

Toledo (6-1) 99, NAIA team Madonna (6-4) 47 at Toledo.

Saturday

Akron (3-2) 80, Winthrop (1-8) 59 at Winthrop.

Ohio (6-0) 64, Duquesne (4-5) 46 at Ohio.

Indiana State (4-4) 62, Miami (2-5) 54 at Miami.

Western Michigan (5-2) 65, Loyola of Chicago (0-7) 53 at Western.

Records are as of the game played.

MAC standings and some team statistics

Full MAC statistics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flashes look for first true road victory since 2015 at Wright State Wednesday

Kent State coach Todd Starkey says the next step for the program is to win on the road.

They’ll get a good test on that Wednesday.

The Flashes play at Wright State, which is 4-2 on the season and has won more than 20 games four of the last five seasons.

The Raiders lost their head coach for those years — Mike Bradley — to New Mexico in the off-season. They also lost third-team all-American Kim Demmings, who holds about every scoring record in the history of the school, and two other starters from last year’s 24-11 team.

Still Wright State won its first four games of the season — though against below-avenge teams — before losing to two very above average teams in the San Juan Shootout. The Raiders fell to 6-2 Auburn 75-51 and to 6-2 Georgetown 67-60.

Wright State has no starter above 5-11 but has outrebounded opponents 42-40. 5-foot-10  sophomore Symone Simmons averages 9.2 rebounds a game. Leading scorer is 5-9 junior Chelsea Welch at 17.8 points a game with 5-11 junior Lexi Smith averaging 14.3 and 5-8 sophomore Emily Vogelpohl 11.7. The Raiders have only one senior on their roster, and she’s yet to play in a game.

The Raiders beat Kent State 73-68 in Kent last season in one of the Flashes’ best games of the preseason.

The Flashes are 4-4 and will be looking for their first true road victory since February 2015. They were 0-13 away from home last season and lost at Detroit Mercy earlier this season. They were 1-2 on a neutral court in the Gulf Coast Classic over Thanksgiving, and the team they beat — Florida Gulf Coast — was based in Fort Myers, just five miles away from the tournament.

Kent State is led by senior Larissa Lurken, who is averaging 23.6 points and 6.6 rebounds a game. As a team, the Flashes are outrebounding their opponents 38-35. Their tallest starters are 6-2 junior Jordan Korinek, who led the team in rebounding last season, and 6-0 junior McKenna Stephens. 5-11 senior Chelsi Watson, one of the first players off the bench, is second in rebounding for KSU at 6.4 a game. Korinek is second in scoring at 11.1 points a game.

Preview from KSU website, including links to statistics, roster, schedule, etc.

Preview from Wright State website.

To follow the game

  • Video starts at 7 p.m. on ESPN3. (You need to subscribe to ESPN to watch online.)
  • Audio at about 6:45 on Golden Flash iHeart radio.
  • Live statistics are available through the Wright State website.
  • In-game updates on Twitter at @KentStatwbb.

Flashes’ Larissa Lurken (23.6 ppg): ‘I’ve kind of tried to change my identity’

lurken-1000

Starkey presented Lurken with a special basketball before Wednesday’s Fort Wayne game, honoring her for becoming the 20th player in KSU history to score 1,000 points in her career. (Photo from the KSU women’s Twitter feed.)

 

“If you had told me Larissa was going to average 23 and a half points a game at this point in the season,” coach Todd Starkey said about Larissa Lurken, his senior guard.”I’d have said you were absolutely nuts. She would have said the same thing.”

So, since she was sitting across the table in the coach’s office, I asked Lurken if she could have imagined having two 30-point games, three double-doubles and the one of the  highest scoring averages in the country after eight games.

Absolutely not,” she said with a smile.

Yet here Lurken is — someone Starkey says could even be a Player of the Year candidate in the MAC, depending on how much she continues to improve and on how well Kent State does this season.

After eight games, here are the key numbers:

Points per game: 23.6fourth in the country in the new NCAA statistics out Monday. It’s also best in the Mid-American Conference. That’s 10 points per game higher than Lurken averaged last year.

Free throws made: 74, first in the country.

Free throws attempted: 93, first in the country.

Three-point field goals percentage: 42.5, ninth in the MAC and a full 10 percentage points above her average for her first three seasons at Kent State.

Rebounds per game: 6.6, 11th in the MAC.

Blocked shots per game, for goodness’ sakes: 0.9 per game, 10th in the MAC.

Lurken is 5-foot-9. She blocked five shots all last season. She had more than six rebounds four times.

So it’s been quite a season so far for young woman from Cottage Grove, Minnesota.

She had been the most consistent of former coach Danny O’Banion’s recruits — fourth on the team in scoring her freshman year, first her sophomore year, second last season.

But she’s thrived under Starkey, who became coach in April after O’Banion’s contract wasn’t renewed. Her teams went 21-98 over four years, 18-81 in Lurken’s three seasons.

So far this season the Flashes are 4-4. They’ve won more non-league games than in any of Lurken’s seasons. They won only six games all last season and seven in her best previous year.

“We were ready of a change,” Lurken said. “We were ready for something else to believe in. Because obviously what we were doing wasn’t working.”

Starkey has the team playing faster and defending harder.

“I’m being a lot more aggressive this year,” Lurken said. “I’ve always been kind of just a shooter on the team. So I’ve kind of tried to change my identity. I’m drawing more contact on my drives — whether it’s getting to the free throw line or not, I’m getting the other team in foul trouble by being aggressive, which really helps everyone out because we get in bonus earlier.”

Lurken set scoring records in high school, but that was her identity.

Rebounding is a new thing for me,” she said.

What’s been her strategy?

The will to do it,” she said. “Knowing that in order to win, we have to get rebounds. So it’s not just about scoring. It’s not just on the offensive end. It’s crucial to get those defensive rebounds. If we don’t get those, we know we’re going to have a harder time.”

And defense.

“I asked Larissa one day in practice, ‘People have pretty much told you your whole life that you’re not a good defender, right?'” Starkey said. “And she was like, ‘Yeah, no one has really expected me to be.

“I just told her, ‘You have really good defensive instincts.’ She understands the game really well. If you’re a good  offensive player, you have the ability to be a good defender. It’s a matter of where to be and when to be there.

“I wasn’t just saying that to get it out of her, I was saying it because I thought it was true. And I think from that point, she’s kind of changed her mentality toward defense and said, ‘Hey, I am pretty good at this.'”

And her scoring?

“From the start, she’s been great to coach,” Starkey said. “I told her, ‘Good scorers have to get to the free throw line.’ And, well, she’s leading the nation in that.”

Part of it — for both Lurken and the team — is confidence.

“You have a player who starts growing in confidence,” Starkey said, and you can get the kind of leap in production as Kent State has seen from Lurken.

The same for the team.

In his first months, Starkey said, the team was trying to figure him out as much as he was trying to learn them.

“What’s this guy all about?” he said players were asking themselves. “What are we doing? Can we really play defense? is this system going to work? They just needed to experience some success to give us some belief.”

The next step for Lurken, the coach said, is to play well when she’s not scoring 23 points.

“As teams prepare for us now, their game plan will be how to take her away,” Starkey said.” She’s gong to have to continue to adjust to that, and she’s going to have to make sure she doesn’t get frustrated when she has an eight-point game. She’s going to have to make sure she have seven assists that game — and still has rebound totals.”

Lurken came to Kent State in pre-medicine but switched to nursing, where she has a 3.7 GPA. (She’s a two-time MAC all-academic selection.)

“I realized that I actually wanted to work with the people,” Lurken said. “I want interact with the patients. I want to actually influence them in more ways than doctors would when they come in for two seconds and leave.”

Eventually, she said, she’d like to be a nurse practitioner, which does some of the traditional duties of both a nurse and a doctor.

Lurken is in her third semester of what the school calls “clinicals,” in which she works in a hospital or medical setting for 12 hours one day a week. In preseason, Starkey often gave the team Thursdays off so they wouldn’t have to practice without her.

This semester Lurken is working in psychiatry and community medicine. Next semester — during conference season — she’ll be working in the emergency department and intensive care.

She did it last year, too, and a day after she worked a 12-hour shift, she scored 35 points against Northern Illinois. (Here is a nice profile from last spring’s Kent Stater, the university’s student newspaper, about Lurken the nursing student.)

“When you talk about the kind of players you want to coach, Larissa is exactly what we want to continue to recruit,” Starkey said. “(That is) talented players who want to get better, and players that are serious about their future outside of basketball.”

Lurken by the numbers

Games           Min.          FG               FG%        3pt          3pt%          FT          FT%       Ave.

2016-17           8/8             34.9       49-126       .389       17-40         .425         74-93      .798       23.6

2015-16           29/29          32.8      126-347      .347       54-171        .316         98-126    .778       13.9

2014-15           29/26          32.6      108-332      .325       62-200       .310         43-70     .614        11.1

2013-14           24/20          27.3        54-172      .314       32-96          .333         46-59     .780         7.8

 

Rebounds    Reb ave.      Assists      Turnovers     Blocks     Steals   

2016-17               14-39             6.6                10                 31                  7               13

2015-16               40-87             4.4                45                70                  5              47

2014-15               30-56             3.0                27                 53                  7              25

2013-14                29-35             2.7               21                 37                   9             24

Rebound totals are offensive-defensive.

Lurken’s profile page from team website.

NCAA statistics

MAC statistics

A trip to Wright State

Lurken and her teammates head to Wright State Wednesday to take on the 4-2 Raiders. Wright State was 24-11 a year ago, though the team graduated its superstar guard and lost its coach to New Mexico. (His top assistant took over the team.) It will be Wright State’s first home game; the Raiders opened with four wins on the road against below-average teams, then lost to Georgetown and Clemson in the San Juan Shootout. We’ll post a full preview tomorrow.