Why is Kent State so much better than a year ago?

The Flashes are 11-10, 5-4 in the MAC. Last year, with essentially the same players, they were 6-23 and 3-15.

Let me offer three reasons:

• KSU’s players have improved with an extra year’s experience. I always thought last year’s team was somewhat better than its record, anyway.
• New coach Todd Starkey has installed better offensive and defensive schemes, and his game plans and in-game adjustments and coaching have been very good.
• But I’d argue the biggest reason is the emergence of Larissa Lurken as Kent State’s first real star in many years. Reasons one and two affect this: Lurken has had a year to improve, and Starkey has given her a system she can thrive in and brought out the best in her.

A year ago, Lurken was a pretty good player on a pretty weak team. She was KSU’s second-leading scorer and didn’t even get an honorable mention on the all-league team.

This year she’s a candidate for player of the year in the Mid-American Conference. She leads the conference in scoring at 23.1 points per game and ranks first in the country in free throws attempted and made. By the end of the season, she’ll easily have taken and made more free throws this year than in her three previous ones combined.

She’s seventh in the MAC in free throw percentage, seventh in blocked shots, 10th in three-point baskets per game, 14th in three-point percentage and 15th in rebounding (seventh in defensive rebounds).

Lurken is averaging 9 points a game more than she did last year and, both she and Starkey agree, playing better defense. Her ability to draw fouls has kept some of KSU’s best opponents’ off the court for extended periods with foul trouble.

Add that together, and I’d argue she’s worth at least 12 points a game more than she was a year ago.

Add 12 to each of the Flashes’ games last season and their record would have been 16-13. Three other games were decided by 12 points.

We could argue that’s sort of a nonsense “what-if” exercise. But I think it means something.

The big change for Lurken has been her ability to drive, draw fouls and score at the free throw line.

“She’s got to be the best in the country at this point,” Starkey said after she scored 31 points — 19 at the foul line — against Bowling Green Saturday. “You have to play up on her, or she’ll knock down shots. She’s really developed a great shot fake and drive. You have to stay up on her because her pull-up jumper is so nice. And they can’t stay in in front of her when she drives without fouling.”

Lurken and the Flashes host Miami at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the M.A.C. Center.

Miami is 7-14, 1-7 in the MAC. The Redhawks’ only conference win has come against 1-7 Eastern Michigan.

Kent State is 11-10 and 5-4 at the halfway point of the MAC season. They’re tied with Buffalo for second place in the MAC East, two games behind Ohio, and tie with Buffalo and Western Michigan for the fifth best record in the league. The first four teams in the league get first-round byes at the MAC Tournament. Ahead of KSU is 6-2 Central Michigan, 7-2 Ball State and and Ohio, and 8-1 Northern Illinois.

Miami, like Kent, had a very tough first-half conference schedule. Its opponents, including Eastern, have a combined record of 91-47. KSU’s opponents are 69-54. But the Redhawks haven’t beat any team — conference or non — with a winning record. They’re RPI is 209 of 349 teams, which is 10th in the MAC. Kent State has beaten five teams with winning records and has an RPI of 113, fifth in the league.

Miami is led by one of the better freshmen in the MAC. Lauren Dickerson, a 5-3 guard from Indianapolis, is the only Miami player to start all of its 21 games. She’s averaging 14.9 points a game (highest for a freshman in the conference) and has made 33 of 98 three-point shots (33.7 percent). She’s also averages almost four assists, two steals and four rebounds a game.

No other Miami player averages more than 8 points. Sophomore guard Leah Purvis scored 23 against Ohio Saturday and has average 11.2 since joining the starting lineup Jan. 11.

Starkey said Tuesday that it was possible that guard Alexa Golden, who missed Saturday’s game with an injury, would play Wednesday. In answer to an email questions, he said she had gone through non-contact drills in Monday’s practice.

The Flashes missed Golden, who is KSU’s best defender, Saturday when Bowling Green’s top two guards combined for 48 points. Carly Santoro had 32.

Starkey said KSU might have won by double digits with Golden in the lineup.

Santoro scored 20 points of Bowling Green’s 30 points in the third quarter .

It was, Starkey said, “a situation when we would put Lex on her and told her, ‘Don’t let her drive right. Just stay there and guard her.'”

If you can’t go to the game

• Video starts at 7 p.m. on the Kent State website.
• Audio starts at 6:45 on Golden Flash iHeart radio and 640 AM WHLO.
• Live statistics can be followed though the KSU website.
• In-game updates on Twitter are at @KentStatwbb.

\MAC statistics and standings.

Preview from KSU website, including links to statistics, roster and schedule/results.

Preview from Miami website, including lengths to statistics, roster and schedule/results.

 

 

Redshirt freshman Megan Carter played the best game of her career and hit the winning jumper with 2 seconds to go.

Senior Larissa Lurken played her usual game of drawing fouls and scoring lots of points.

Defensive specialist Alexa Golden didn’t play at all because of an injury, and KSU gave up a lot of points, especially in the second half.

But in the end, Kent State pulled out an 80-78 victory over last-place Bowling Green.

The win leaves Kent State at 5-4 and tied with Buffalo for second in the MAC East at the halfway point of the conference season. The Flashes are 11-10 overall. Bowling Green is 1-8 in the league and 5-16 for the season.

“I’m pleased at our gutting out a win,” coach Todd Starkey said after the game. “We got the job done in what was kind of an ugly game for us. But we didn’t defend the way we’re capable of, especially in the second half.”

Carter, usually KSU’s back-up point guard, played extended minutes at both guard positions because of Golden’s injury. She equaled her career high with 13 points and made 6 of 7 free throws in the 26 minutes, the most she’s ever played.

Lurken made 19 of 20 free throws and scored 31 points. That’s the second highest number of free throws made and taken in the MAC this season. She already had the most — 22 of 25 — against Western Kentucky and what is now the third most — 14 of 20 — against Robert Morris. Lurken also had six rebounds, five assists, and three steals.

Golden was hurt in practice on Friday. (“Dinged up,” Starkey said. “She’ll be OK.”) She ordinarily would have done much of the guarding of Carly Santoro, BG’s leading scorer.

Santoro scored a career-high 32 points, 22 in the second half. She and Lurken dueled through the  fourth quarter, often guarding each other. Lurken had four fouls and had to play carefully late, and Santoro took advantage of that, repeatedly driving to the basket. But Lurken drew a charge from her with 27 seconds to go and the score tied 78-78.

That set up Carter’s winning basket.

KSU advanced the ball to the front court with a timeout, then looked for Lurken, who was smothered by BG’s defense.

Carter drove off of a screen at the foul line, came wide open and hit a 17-foot jumper with 2.2 seconds to go.

“It’s what you dream about when you’re playing in the backyard,” she said after the game.

“If they denied Larissa, we wanted Megan make a play there,” Starkey said. “Megan’s very capable player with the ball in her hands. The biggest thing we’ve had trouble doing is to get her to be more aggressive and look for her shot. We see her make shots like that in practice all the time. She’s got a great pull-up shot.”

Bowling Green made 67 percent of its second-half shots and took a one-basket lead four times in the fourth quarter. The Falcons trailed 36-24 at halftime.

“This game really worried me because of the way they shoot the three ball,” Starkey. “They’ve lost some close games. They’re going to fight.”

Bowling Green made 9 of 18 three-point shots and shot 48.2 percent overall, its season high. BG had shot above 37 percent only once previously.

Kent State stays at home to play Miami (7-14, 1-7) Wednesday. It’s the first time since November that the Flashes have had back-to-back home games.

“We’re getting worn down a little bit,” Starkey said. “We’ve been home one game, then on the road. Tomorrow (a day off from practice) will be welcome. And then we get to stay at home for a few days and sleep in our own beds.”

Notes

• Jordan Korinek had 18 points and 7 rebounds and McKenna Stephens 14 points and 8 rebounds for the Flashes.
• Kent State had a season-low eight turnovers. I couldn’t find the last time the Flashes had fewer. It’s been at least four years. Only two MAC teams this year have had fewer in a game. Bowling Green had 14. KSU outscored the Falcons off turnovers 21-14.
• The Flashes were 23 of 58 shooting (3 of 11 on three-pointers) for 39.7 percent, slightly above their season average. KSU made 31 of 36 fouls shots. The 31 tied for second highest in the conference this season. Kent State ranks first in the nation in free throws for the year and third in free-throw attempts.
• Lurken’s 31 was the fourth time this season she’s scored more than 30. She’s averaging 23.1, first in the MAC and fifth in the country. She also leads the nation in free throws made and taken.
• Naddiyah Cross had seven assists against one turnover, along with two steals.
• Zenobia Bess had five rebounds, her highest in a Kent State uniform, and two blocked shots in 10 minutes. Korinek also had two blocks.
• Freshman Ali Poole started in place of Golden but didn’t score in 19 minutes. She did have four rebounds.
• Starkey had four recruits at the game, including Brelynn Hampton-Bey, who has been called the best uncommitted senior point guard in the Midwest. Hampton-Bey, who is averaging 14.1 points a game for 14-3 Toledo Notre Dame, decommitted from Michigan in late summer. On Twitter post Saturday, she stood with Starkey wearing a Kent State uniform. She wrote, “Visit went great.” She has offers from nine Division I schools.

The view from Bowling Green

From coach Jennifer Roos in an audio interview on the BG website:

“I’m proud of this effort. We had the ball on the last possession. We had the lead in the last minute after being down double digits and clawing back in it after being in all sorts of foul trouble. 

“At the end of the day, the foul line was the big difference. (Kent State) is doing what they do. They were getting fouls every which way, mostly with kids just putting their head down and driving in the open court. Larissa Lurken put up some numbers for Kent that will put her in the running for player of the year, for sure.

“It was a tremendous effort for Carly Santoro. We were drawing up some new things just to get her driving to the hoop and getting her to the line.

“When you have a lead and lose in overtime (as BG did against Eastern Michigan Wednesday) and have a lead late in the game today and aren’t able to finish, it’s going to sting. But as I told the team, would you rather take your chances and have the leads in both games, or would you rather not be in it?”

Box score

Game story from KSU website, including link to video highlights and interviews with Carter and Starkey. It starts with Carter’s winning shot.

Game story from Bowling Green website, including link to audio interview with coach Jennifer Roos.

Other MAC scores

Northern Illinois, a team picked to finish fifth in the MAC West, now leads the league with an 8-1 record at the halfway point in the conference season. The Huskies, 15-5 overall, beat Ball State 101-96 at Ball State. The Cardinals are now second in the West at 7-2, 14-7 overall.

Central Michigan (14-6, 6-2) lost its second league game of the year, falling at Toledo, 74-72. The win breaks a three-game losing streak for Toledo, which is 13-6 and 4-4.

Ohio (16-4, 7-2), which leads the MAC East, beat Miami (7-14, 1-7) 79-62 at Miami.

Buffalo (15-5, 5-4) beat Western Michigan (14-6, 5-4), 62-47, at Western.

Akron (9-10, 2-6) beat Eastern Michigan (6-15, 1-8) 80-62 at Akron.

MAC standings

Games stories from MAC website. 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s been a long time since Kent State had a game like its Saturday match-up with Bowling Green — a home conference game in which the Flashes are clearly favored.

The game is at 3 p.m. in the M.A.C. Center and is the second in a double header with the men’s team, which plays Central Michigan at noon. A ticket to the men’s game gets you into the women’s; if you have a women’s ticket, it’s good for a general admissions seat at the men’s game.

Kent State goes into the game 10-10, 4-4 in the MAC. The Flashes are tied for second in the MAC East with Buffalo, two games behind Ohio. They’re two and a half games ahead of Miami and Akron, which are tied for fourth at 1-6. Bowling Green is 1-7.

Second place is the highest KSU has been in the league since the early 2000s. The Flashes’ highest finish since 2011 has been fifth in the six-team division.

BG dominated the MAC from 2004 to 2014, winning nine East, four overall MAC and five MAC tournament titles. Most of those years were under Curt Miller, now head coach of the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun. Current coach Jennifer Roos was Miller’s top assistant. Her teams finished second in the East her first year and 30-5 her second. But the last two years the Falcons have been 9-21 and 10-18.

Their current overall record is 5-15, worst in the MAC.

BG’s only conference win was a 62-58 over Akron in Bowling Green. The Falcons did take 14-5 Central Michigan to overtime before losing at home, 76-65. They played another overtime game Wednesday, losing at Eastern Michigan, 81-74.

Bowling Green is led by 5-10 sophomore guard Carly Santoro, who is averaging 12.2 points and 7.4 rebounds a game. The Falcons are last or next to last in the MAC in  scoring, field goal percentage, three-point percentage and assists. They average about eighth in defensive categories. BG is second in the conference in offensive rebounding and fourth in rebounding margin (+3.6).

“Bowling Green is a dangerous team,” coach Todd Starkey said on the Thursday Flash Talk radio show on Golden Flash iHeart Radio and Facebook Live. “We’ll have to prepared for them as we’d prepare for anyone else.”

Kent State is +2.1 in rebounding margin, sixth in the league. The Flashes are led on the boards by Larissa Lurken (6.6 per game) and Jordan Korinek (6.0). McKenna Stephens averages 5.1 and 6.9 in KSU’s eight conference games.

In conference play, Stephens also averages 10.3 points a game and is fourth in the league in shooting percentage at 55.7. She equaled a career high with 19 points on Wednesday.

“What she does is that she stretches the floor, so Jordan (forward Jordan Korinek) has space to operate,” Starkey said. “Teams really can’t double (on Korinek) off of McKenna because she can shoot the ball well.

“When we have those three pieces (Lurken, Korinek and Stephens) working together, we can be a tough team to beat.”

Korinek averages 18.4 points per MAC game but got in foul trouble and scored only 8 in Kent State’s 93-72 loss at Northern Illinois Saturday.

“Any game where that’s been the case, we haven’t handled it the best,” Starkey said “So we need to figure out what our flow seems to look like if she does get into foul trouble.”

Despite Lurken’s 22.8 point per game average, Kent State’s offense runs best when the ball is consistently getting to Korinek in the post, where she can move on the basket or send the ball back to the perimeter.

The Bowling Green game starts a string of MAC East play for Kent State, which has only a home game against 1-7 Eastern Michigan left against Western Division teams. Three of the East games are against BG, Miami and Akron, which have won a total of three league games among them.

If you can’t go to the game

• Video starts at 3 p.m. on the Kent State website.
• Audio starts at 2:45 on Golden Flash iHeart radio and 640 AM WHLO.
• Live statistics can be followed though the KSU website.
• In-game updates on Twitter are at @KentStatwbb.

Game preview on the KSU website.

Flash Talk interview with Starkey. It starts about 34 minutes in. Earlier is an interview with Athletic Director Joel Nielsen. After Starkey’s interview is one with men’s coach Rob Senderoff.

Game preview from the Bowling Green website.

Kent State statistics, with links to roster and schedule/results.

MAC statistics and standings.

 

 

 

 

Not much went well for the Kent State women’s basketball team at Northern Illinois Wednesday.

The Flashes missed 58 of 83 shots. They missed 18 of 20 three-pointers.

Forward Jordan Korinek picked up her second foul after four minutes, which pretty much destroyed KSU’s game plan.

And in the third quarter, Northern showed how it has become the third highest scoring team in the nation, pounding Kent State on good shooting, fast breaks, and quick moves to the basket. The Huskies outscored KSU 37-21 in the quarter to break open a game that was fairly close at halftime.

Final score was 93-72.

The loss broke the Flashes’ three-game winning streak and brought their record to 10-10, 4-4 in the MAC. They remain tied with Buffalo for second place in the MAC Eastern Division. The Bulls lost to Ball State at Buffalo Wednesday, 89-75. Ohio leads the East with 6-2 league record.

Northern Illinois is 14-5 and 7-1 in the MAC. The Huskies are tied for first place in the MAC West with Ball State. Central Michigan, which was idle Wednesday, is a half game behind.

“It’s probably our worst performance of the year from start to finish,” coach Todd Starkey said in his postgame interview on Golden Flash iHeart Radio. “I don’t know how many layups we missed — uncontested layups. We missed open shots.

“We just got our butts kicked. They beat us at every phase of the game.”

Larissa Lurken had 24 points, two above her conference-leading average. But she was guarded closely and physically and made only 6 of 25 shots. She did make 10 of 11 free throws, had six rebounds, three blocked shots and two steals.

McKenna Stephens equaled a career high with 19 points on 9 of 13 shooting and, with Chelsi Watson, led KSU with seven rebounds.

Korinek, who had averaged 20 points a game through Kent’s first seven MAC games, had only 8 and played just 15 minutes. At its best, KSU’s offense runs through her in the post, and that never had a chance to happen Wednesday.

No other KSU player scored more than 5.

The Flashes trailed 20-19 after the first quarter and 36-30 at halftime. It was the pace KSU wanted to play; few teams can outscore Northern Illinois, which averages 88.6 points a game.

But the Huskies scored the first seven points of the second half. They were 3 of 6 shooting, scored off two offensive rebounds and just plain beat Kent State down the court on two fast-break baskets. Meanwhile, Kent State missed its first four shots, all layups.

Northern went on to outscore Kent 25-10 in the first six and a half minutes of the quarter. KSU outscored the Huskies 22-21 in the fourth quarter, but it was irrelevant by then. Both teams played reserves for the last five or six minutes.

“Northern Illinois is a team that if you don’t do a few things well, they’ll make you pay in a hurry,” Starkey said. “Especially in the third quarter, they just did it.

“Our players got demoralized and got down on themselves. They haven’t been that way in a while. We just kind of gave into it and didn’t fight back the way we had been.

“Things like this happen in the course of a long season. We’ve had a really rigorous road schedule in conference play, and maybe they’re a little bit tired.”

The Flashes’ last five games have been against teams with a combined record of 55-20. Three of the games were on the road, two of which were won by KSU.

Kent State now returns home for two games against two of the weakest teams in the conference. The Flashes host Bowling Green (5-15, 1-7 in the MAC) at 3 p.m. Saturday in the second game of a double header with the men’s team. Wednesday they play Miami (1-6, 7-13 in the MAC). BG lost in overtime at Eastern Michigan Wednesday, 81-74. It was the first conference win of the year for Eastern.

“The thing to remember is that this is one game,” Starkey said. “It’s what I’ve been saying when we’ve been winning — can’t get too high or too low. We can’t let one bad game turn into more than that.”

Notes

• The game was a long set of trips to the foul line. There were 27 fouls called on Kent State, 29 on Northern Illinois. In a bit of a rarity, the Flashes were outscored on foul shots. NIU was 27 of 37. KSU was 20 of 31.
• All of the fouls, plus the fact that both coaches played reserves at the end, meant more KSU reserves played than at any time in the conference season. Every player on the roster got in, and 10 KSU players were on the court more than 10 minutes. In the Flashes’ 70-60 win over Toledo on Sunday, only six players were over 10.
• Merissa Barber-Smith played just five minutes but had five rebounds (four offensive) and two blocked shots.
• Kent State had seven steals and forced 18 NIU turnovers. The Flashes equaled their season low with 13 turnovers. They outscored Northern 20-14 off turnovers.
• Northern Illinois outrebounded Kent State 57-51. The Flashes had a season-high 24 offensive rebounds. They had 19 second-chance points.
• Northern’s 37 points in the third quarter were a school record.
• Six Northern players scored in double figures, led by Mikayla Voight with 18. Cassidy Glenn, NIU’s leading scorer and the current MAC West player of the week, had only four. But she had 14 rebounds and did much of the defense on Lurken. Northern made 30 of 68 shots for 44 percent.
• Kent State had 15 more shots from the field than the Huskies but made five fewer.

The view from Northern

Coach Lisa Carlsen, from video on the Northern Illinois website:

“A little bit of an ugly first half – a lot of whistles, a lot of key kids in foul trouble. But we weathered the storm.

“We got back to pushing the pace in the third quarter and getting opportunities in transition and that’s when we’re at our best and when we’re going to make our push and our run.”

“Anytime you have an offensive-minded team and you get a couple of easy layups, you’re enjoying the pace and enjoying what we do.

“Any time we get like that, we’re a lot of handle.”

On Kent State’s Larissa Lurken

“She’s a great player. She had 24 points, and we feel that we did a really good job on her.

“Those were a tough 24 points – not many were wide open. We did a great job of not just keeping the ball out of her hands, but when she did have the ball of trying not to allow the driving lanes.”

Box score

Game story from the Kent State website.

Game story from the NIU website, including video highlights and full interview with coach.

Other MAC scores

Ball State (14-6, 7-1) 89, Buffalo (14-5, 4-4) 75 at Buffalo.

Ohio (15-4, 6-2) 80, Western Michigan (14-5, 5-3) 67 at Ohio.

Eastern Michigan (6-14, 1-7) 81, Bowling Green (5-15, 1-7) 74 in overtime at Eastern.

Only games scheduled.

MAC standings.

Game stories from MAC website.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kent State’s 98-97 game against Northern Illinois two weeks ago may have been a loss, but it started KSU’s string of good games against good MAC teams.

Since then, the Flashes have won three games against teams with a combined 40-14 record.

Now they get another try at Northern, a team with a better conference record than Ohio, Western Michigan or Toledo — the three teams KSU beat in its three-game winning streak.

NIU is 6-1 on the conference (12-5 overall) and tied for first place in the MAC West. Kent State is 4-3 and 10-9 overall and tied for second in the East.

The Flashes may have played Northern almost even in that game in Kent, but coach Todd Starkey and and team were not happy.

“This hurt about as much as any loss I’ve been involved in,” said senior guard Larissa Lurken, who scored 31 points, after the game. “We didn’t follow the game plan.”

“We told them the if Northern scored in the 80s or 90s, it would be very hard to beat them,” Starkey said. “They just try to outscore people.”

NIU leads the MAC and is third in the nation in scoring at 88.2 points a game.The Huskies also give up 81.4 points a game, the most in the conference.

Kent State scores 69.5, fifth in the league, and gives up 72.5, with is 11th.

But in the last three games, the Flashes have played some of their best defense of the season, allowing 65, 67 and 60 against teams that averaged 70.1 points a game.

NIU’s offense came back to earth a little after the Kent State game. The Huskies beat Toledo at Toledo but scored 77 points, at that point their lowest of the season. Then they managed just 55 points — 35 below their average — in losing to previous winless Akron at home. NIU shot just 33 percent from the field and 24 percent (8 for 33) on three-point shots in that defeat.

After that game, NIU coach Lisa Carlsen said the team needed to just “get over it and move on, to get back to who we are.”

On Saturday, the Huskies did, beating Miami at home, 89-76, behind 32 points and 13 rebounds from Cassidy Glenn, their 5-11 redshirt senior forward. Glenn, who had 17 points against Kent State, was named MAC West player of the week.

Kent State’s offensive statistics have changed little in the last three games. Larissa Lurken still leads the MAC in scoring at 22.2 points per game. 149 of Lurken’s 409 points this season have come from foul shots. That’s more than twice as many free throws as anyone else in the conference. Ohio’ Quiera Lampkins has 73.

Jordan Korinek has averaged almost exactly 20 points a game in the Kent’s seven conference games. Junior forward McKenna Stephens has become a third scoring threat at 9 points a game in conference play, and the Flashes have gotten some scoring out of Alexa Golden, Ali Poole, Megan Carter and Naddiyah Cross at different times. “When we get balanced scoring, we can be tough to beat,” Starkey said after the Toledo game.”

Kent State returns home to play Bowling Green at 3 p.m Saturday. It’s the second game of a double headers with the men’s team, who will play Central Michigan at noon. I can’t remember a double header when the women played second. It’s in order for allow the men’s game to be televised on CBS.

To follow the game

Online video starts at 8 p.m. (7 p.m. Illinois time) on ESPN3.  (To watch, you’ll need to have a subscription to ESPN through cable or satellite TV.)
Audio starts at 7:45 on Golden Flash iHeart radio and WHLO 640.
Live statistics are available through the Northern Illinois website.
In-game updates on Twitter at @KentStatwbb.

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

Preview from Northern Illinois website, including links to statistics, roster and schedule/results.

MAC statistics, including standings.

NCAA statistics.

The RPI story

Kent State now has the fourth highest RPI in the MAC, thanks in large part to its wins over Ohio and Western Michigan on the road. RPI rankings are based on a team’s record, its opponents record and opponents’ opponents’ record. Road wins are weighted more than twice as much as home victories. To some extent, RPI is used in seedings for the NCAA tournament.

Buffalo (14-4, 4-3) has the highest rank in the MAC at 59. Ohio (14-4, 5-2) is 71st and Central Michigan (14-5, 6-1) 93rd.

Then comes Kent State at 108 and Northern Illinois at 113. Toledo (12-6, 3-4) is 120, Ball State (12-6, 6-1) 145 and Western Michigan (14-4, 5-2) 163.

Akron (8-10, 1-6) is 167, Miami (7-13, 1-6) 210, Bowling Green (5-14, 1-6) 228 and Eastern Michigan (5-14, 0-7) 258.

RPI ranks 349 Division I teams.

Overall the MAC has the ninth highest RPI among 32 conferences, ahead of the (inn order) Ivy League, Summit League, Atlantic 10, Mountain West, West Coast, Conference USA and Missouri Valley. The only non-power conference ahead of it is the Colonial League.

Ratings are from WarrenNolan.com.

 

 

 

 

This story starts with a basketball player, but it’s far more important than any game.

Jordan Hankins, a sophomore on Northwestern’s women’s team, killed herself in her dorm room Jan. 9.

By all accounts, her family, friends, teammates and coaches had no idea what she was going through.

I’ve followed the story at about four levels. I obviously am a big women’s basketball and sports fan. I’m a Northwestern alum — I covered men’s basketball as a student in 1970 (before the school had any women’s teams).

But more, I’m a person who has fought depression on and off for 30 years. I’ve worked with students struggling with the disease, including several who were suicidal. (Thankfully we didn’t lose any of them.)

Depression is a black hole. No matter what your life was like before, you see darkness you think will never end.

Part of it is caused by a chemical imbalance in your brain. It’s like diabetes and a million other physical illnesses, though some people still see it as somehow a weakness of character.

I also think it comes from an unrealistic gap in expectations — that people get fixated on an ideal that they don’t give themselves a break they don’t reach it. I’ve observed that some of my highest achieving students are ones who struggle emotionally. Hankins was a premed major at one of the best private universities in the country.

Athletes have huge expectations of themselves and, often, the ability to achieve great things. Striving to reach those expectations is one of the things that make them good. But it can also make a person neurotic. Perfection is impossible, not matter how much we demand it of ourselves, and beating up on yourself for not being perfect can drive you toward that black hole.

Richie Mulhall, a student sportswriter I taught last semester, did a package on athletes and mental health in May for the Kent Stater, the campus newspaper. He quoted a study that said 25 percent of athletes will have symptoms of depression sometime while they’re in college.

“People who aren’t student-athletes think we have the perfect life,” one athlete told him. “It’s like you get school paid for, you get all your clothes, you get travel and meals, but they don’t realize how it is and how it actually takes a toll on you.”

“Being an athlete, you’re not really allowed to show your emotions, so you have to learn to keep all your problems inside.”

That woman got help through a fairly new initiative by the Kent State Athletic Department and the Mid-American Conference. She insisted on anonymity for the article, which isn’t surprising. Student journalists here have done a couple of dozen stories related to mental illness in my 30 years of teaching, and not more than three or four students have been willing to be quoted by name. Yet we’ve had athletes miss extended time with mononucleosis who haven’t had any problem with talking about it.

I worked hard to hide my own depression when I was a newspaper editor. But early in my teaching career, an Honors student elsewhere in the university killed himself. I had a counselor talk to an Honors class I taught at the time, and I worked up courage to tell the class I had struggled, too, and gotten help for it.

Since then, I’ve been open about it. I figure that if one student looked at me and said, ‘He doesn’t seem too crazy. If he could get help, maybe I can, too,’ it would be worth more than any paper I ever graded.

So my message from this post is three-fold:

1. Any of us — athletes and non-athletes of any age — may be struggling. It’s not a personal failure. It’s a disease.
2. Help is available, and there’s nothing wrong with seeking it.
3. You never know what other people are going through. Listen if they want to talk. Know the danger signs. If something seems wrong, ask. Urge them to get help.

This from from a speech Friday by England’s Princess Kate, who I never dreamed I would quote on a sports blog: “The challenge so many people have is not knowing how to take that first step of reaching out to another person for help. Admitting that they are not coping. Fear, or reticence, or a sense of not wanting to burden another, means that people suffer in silence – allowing the problem to grow larger and larger unchecked.”

Some resources:

The National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 800-273-8255. There are a ton of resources on its website. It’s also good for people who aren’t suicidal but still struggling.

Signs and symptoms of depression from the National Institute of Mental Health.

Almost all colleges offer confidential psychological counseling. At Kent State, it’s University Psychological Services. Most communities have mental health hotlines and mental health services, and many agencies charge on an ability-to-pay basis. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America has a national referral service.

Here’s an ESPN story about Jordan Hankins and Northwestern.

The Kent Stater articles on student-athlete mental health mentioned are:

‘Stop the Stigma,’ athletes learn, told

KSU student-athlete fights depression

 

 

 

Jordan Korinek in action vs. Toledo Saturday. Photo from kentstatesports.com.

First it was beating Ohio and Western Michigan, both 13-3 at the time, on the road.

Saturday it was beating 12-5 Toledo at home, 70-60.

The Kent State women’s basketball team is very much for real.

The Flashes are 4-3 in the Mid-American Conference and in second place in the East Division. It’s the first time they’ve been above .500 in MAC play in six years. KSU is 10-9 overall.

Last year’s team — with essentially the same players — was 6-23 and had the worst record in the conference. No Kent team had won more than seven games since 2010-11.

New coach Todd Starkey and a group of re-inspired players have changed that.

“Our goal at the beginning of the year was that we didn’t want to be the conference doormat anymore,” Starkey said in the team’s postgame press conference. “We wanted to be a team people had to prepare for.

“That’s where we’ve evolved to. What we do from here … The last 11 games aren’t going to win themselves just because we won the last three.  Today we were far from error free. The good thing is that this team has definitely not peaked yet. Our best basketball is still ahead of us if we stay focused.”

Jordan Korinek, who has averaged more than 20 points a game in the conference season, had one of her best games of the year. She had 23 points on 7 of 14 shooting, made 9 of 10 foul shots, had 10 rebounds and two blocked shots. Larissa Lurken had 22, almost exactly her MAC-leading average. She also made 7 of 14 field goal attempts (2 of 5 three-pointers), had six rebounds and two blocks.

Kent State led Toledo from the first basket and built an 18-point lead early in the fourth quarter. The Rockers pulled within seven twice in the last two minutes, but KSU got key rebounds and hit foul shots to win the game.

“At the end of the day, you know Toledo is not going away,” Starkey said. “We knew they were going to come at us. I thought we lost our minds a little bit but there for about five or six minutes, and consequently I lost my mind for five minutes, trying to get them to keep Toledo off the offensive glass and do what we needed to do.”

Starkey was as animated as he’s been on the sideline all season, imploring his team to box out on rebounding. And the Flashes got five defensive and two offensive rebounds in the last two minutes.

As the coach has preached since he arrived on campus, the Flashes won the game with defense. Toledo made only 33 percent of its 75 shots (actually 30 more than KSU had) and made just 3 of 21 three-point attempts.

The Rockets had struggled with shooting in their two previous games, losses last week at home to Ohio and Northern Illinois. But for most of the game, Kent State’s defense — mostly a 2-3 zone — was as good as it’s been all season. The 60 points was the third fewest Kent State has allowed all season (the others were non-MAC teams with a combined 6-28 record). Toledo’s 60 points were its third lowest total of the season and 12 points below its average.

“It’s a misnomer that if you play zone, you’re going to get beat from the outside with the three,” Starkey said. “What we’ve done is really tried to put man principles into our zone. We’re pressing up on the basketball, we’re guarding shots, we’re matching up with people. We’re not playing a stagnant 2-3. It’s more of a matchup zone or a hybrid zone.”

Starkey had strong praise for Lurken and Korinek, Kent’s two leading scorers on the season.

“These two are playing great basketball,” he said, gesturing to them at the press conference. “It’s really been fun to see them continuing to get better, to understand how to use each other, to see how their teammates work. They’re continuing to become better leaders.”

Korinek credited Lurken’s offense with her own improved scoring.

“People are keying on Larissa, and it’s opening me up,” she said. “I’m getting more easy shots as it’s working out in conference play.”

“We’re knowing who to get the ball to in certain situations,” Lurken said. “We’re not perfect, but we understand that a lot more.”

Lurken said the team’s 98-97 loss to Northern Illinois two weeks ago has sparked the team.

“I think it fueled us,” she said. “We came out in these last three games and really worked out tail off to win and not just come back from being down but rather holding a lead.”

The Flashes get another crack at Northern Wednesday, this time in Dekalb. NIU is 6-1 (13-5 overall) in the MAC and tied for first place in the West Division. The Huskies beat Miami (7-13, 1-6 in the MAC) 89-76 at home Saturday.

Notes

• Starkey had worried about Kent State being hurt by Toledo’s pressure defense, which leads the MAC in turnover margin. But Saturday’s game was almost the opposite. Kent outscored scored the Rockers 16-7 off turnovers; at one point in the game, it was 16-2. The Flashes did have more turnovers (18-15).
• As it’s done through most of the season, Kent State badly outscored its opponent at the foul line. The Flashes, who are third in the nation free throws made and fifth in free throw attempts, were 25 of 34. Toledo was 7 of 13. Two Rockets fouled out. Janice Monakana, a preseason all-MAC West selection, played only 19 minutes because of foul trouble, though she did score 19 points and have 7 rebounds.
• Toledo’s leading scorer, Jay-Ann Bravo-Harriott, missed the game with a concussion. She also was a preseason all-MAC West player and was league freshman of the year two seasons ago.
• It was Toledo’s first road loss of the season. All of its other defeats came at home or at neutral sites. Kent State is now 5-3 at home, 1-3 in the MAC.
• Point guard Naddiyah Cross made 5 free throws in the fourth quarter and 7 of 10 overall. Her backup, Megan Carter, was the only Kent State reserve to play more than 10 minutes. Carter went down hard when was was fouled on a layup in the first half and lay on the floor for a few minutes. “She was a little scared,” Starkey said. Carter has had surgery on her shoulder and both knees and missed all but three games last season.
• Guard Alexa Golden had four points, six rebounds, four assists, two steals, a block and zero turnovers.
• Lurken, who is third in the conference in minutes played, was in the game all but a few seconds of the second quarter. She, Korinek, Golden and McKenna Stephens all played at least 36 minutes.
• For the game, Kent State made 21 of 45 field goals for 46.7 percent. That’s its third highest percentage of the season.
• Toledo outrebounded Kent State 44-35 and had 21 offensive rebounds. But the Rockets managed only 10 second-chance points.
• The Rockets had beaten Kent State eight straight times, going back to February 2010.

The view from Toledo

(From video on the Toledo website)

Coach Tricia Cullop: “We came into the game really banged up. The day after the Ohio game, I had three kids out of practice.

“The thing that hurt was having Jay-Ann out and having Janice in foul trouble and having Kaayla have a poor night. That was really, really hard on us. (That’s 6-2 center Kaayla McIntyre, who went 1 for 6 and had 4 rebounds.)

“We have got to hit shots. I think it comes down to that. The first half, I don’t think we could have got better looks than we got.

“Where we can get better is just making some shots and stop fouling because we’re fouling people out we need in there.”

(On an upcoming bye week)

“We need this week to get healthy again and to remind ourselves what we’re good at. When you’ve had some losses, you start doubting yourself a little bit, and I don’t want that. I think we have so many things we can do well. We need to get back to what our identity is.”

Senior forward Janice Monakana: “We came out kind of slow but toward the end of the game got our heart back. Going into our next games, we need to start how we finished.

“We struggled to make some easy shots that I know we can make and will make in the games coming up. It’s just focusing so the lead doesn’t get too big.”

Box score

Game story from Kent State website, including video highlights and interview with Starkey.

Game story from Toledo website, includes links to interviews with Cullop and Monakana.

Other MAC scores

Central Michigan (14-5, 6-1) lost its first league game of the season at Buffalo (14-4, 4-3), 67-56. That makes for a three-way tie for first place in the MAC West with Ball State and Northern Illinois, also 6-1. (Those teams are the three to beat Kent State.) Earlier this season, Central had beaten Buffalo at home 88-71.

Ohio (14-4, 5-2) beat Eastern Michigan (5-14, 0-7) at home, 68-51. The Bobcats are a game ahead of Kent State and Buffalo in the MAC East.

Western Michigan (14-4, 5-2) beat Akron (8-10, 1-6), 73-57 at Akron.

Ball State (13-6, 5-1) beat Bowling Green (5-14, 1-6) at BG, 75-53.

MAC standings

Game stories from MAC website. 

Fans who followed the Kent State women’s spectacular road trip get a chance to see the team at home Saturday.

Winners of upsets over two of the best teams in the conference, the Flashes host Toledo at 4 p.m. in the M.A.C. Center.

The game is the first of a double header with the men’s team, who also play Toledo at 7 p.m. The games are part “A Brand New Gameday” promotion, who includes a t-shirt giveaway to all fans.

A ticket to the women’s game give fans free general admission to the men’s. Anyone with a men’s ticket gets in the women’s game.

Kent State is coming off victories on the road against defending MAC champion Ohio and 13-3 Western Michigan. The wins have taken Kent State into a tie for second in the MAC East Division and moved the team up 65 positions in RPI rankings.

The Flashes 9-9 record (3-3 in the conference) is the first time they have been at .500 at midseason in six years. They’ve already won two more games than they have in any of the last five seasons.

Asked on Facebook Live Thursday what fans could expect to see from the team, first-year coach Todd Starkey said this:

“The team has started to consistently play with a lot of heart and energy. And they have a never-give-up attitude.

“In the current world of college sports, you can see a lot of sense of entitlement and players who don’t go hard on every play.

“That’s certainly not what you’re gong to see in this group. They’ve really have thrown all of themselves in what we’re trying to do.”

Toledo may well be every bit as good as the two teams Kent State just beat on the road. The Rockets are 12-5, 3-3 in the conference. They came within two points of beating No. 13 UCLA during the preseason.

Strangely, Toledo has a much better road record than it does at home. The Rockets are 5-0 away from Toledo, including a win at Buffalo, one of the MAC’s upper-rung teams.

But they just have lost two games in a row at home — 77-73 to Northern Illinois and 64-55 to Ohio. Kent State lost to NIU at home 98-97 10 days ago and beat Ohio 68-65 last Saturday. In both games, Toledo shot below 35 percent from the field.

“They’ll be coming in here really hungry,” Starkey said. “They’re a very good team and a very good program.

“If we don’t play a certainly way and we let them turn us over, they could blow us out. If  we play consistently the way have have been starting to over the last three or four games, I think it could be a really interesting game.”

Toledo leads the conference in turnover margin (+6.35 a game) and is second in scoring defense, allowing 59.5 points a game. Ohio had similar statistics in both categories and Western allowed almost exactly the same number of points.

Kent State has struggled with turnovers  at times this season, but had a season-low 13 against both Ohio and WMU.

“They really pressure you on defense,” Starkey said. “We’ve been trying it simulate that in practice, and we faced teams that did that in the non-conference.

“But just because you’ve played against it doesn’t mean you handle it well. We’ve seen it before, so it doesn’t surprise us, but we have to be more effective against it.”

Toledo has two preseason all-MAC West players in guards Jay-Ann Bravo-Harriott and Janice Monakana. Bravo-Harriott leads the Rockets in scoring at 11.8 points a game and makes 42.5 of her three-point shots.

Ten different players average more than 10 minutes a game for Toledo.

“This isn’t a team that we can say, ‘Attack, and get their starting line-up into foul trouble,'” Starkey said. “Toledo as deep a team as there is in the conference. They’ll bring players off the bench, and there’s not much of a dropoff.”

Starkey said the two road wins have made his team act differently.

“The look in their eyes is a little bit different, that ‘Hey, we really can do this.’ You’re starting to see that confidence come out.”

Part of that, the coach said, is understanding the new coaching staff’s  systems.

“The more our team has used our offense and defensive philosophy, the better their understanding. Their confidence builds, and it’s paying off on the court.”

Senior Larissa Lurken continues to lead the Flashes and the MAC in scoring with 22.7 points a game. That’s seventh in the nation.

In six league games, junior forward Jordan Korinek is averaging  19.3 points, fourth best in the conference. She’s sixth in MAC games in field goal percentage (52.4) , 19th in rebounding (5.9) and and 15th in free-throw percentage (79.4). McKenna Stephens has given the Flashes a consistent third scoring threat and is ninth in the conference games in field goal percentage (51.1).

Kent State also has gotten help from other players, like 6-4 sophomore Merissa Barber-Smith, who had 11 rebounds in 15 minutes against Western Michigan, and Alexa Golden, who had two key three-point baskets and six steals against Ohio.

Kent’s RPI, a rating system based on a team’s record, its opponents’ record and opponents’ opponents’ record, is 121 of 349 teams, up more than 60 positions since the Ohio and WMU games. Toledo’s RPI is 115.

If you can’t go to the game

• Video starts at 4 p.m.
• Audio starts at 3:45 on Golden Flash iHeart radio and 640 AM WHLO.
• Live statistics can be followed though the KSU website.
• In-game updates on Twitter are at @KentStatwbb.

Kent State statistics, with links to roster and schedule/results.

MAC statistics and standings.

 

File photo by Nate Manley, KentWired (Photo gallery)

Kent State got its usual strong scoring from Larissa Lurken, but great second-half play by its other players helped it to a 71-67 victory over Western Michigan.

It was KSU’s second straight victory over a top-rung MAC team on the road. Western was 13-3 and 4-1 in the league. On Saturday, the Flashes beat 12-3 Ohio in Athens.

Western, like Ohio, had been undefeated in the conference at home before the loss to the Flashes. This season the Broncos had lost at home only to 13-6 Michigan State, and that was in overtime.

Kent State is now 3-3 and tied for second place in the MAC East. The Flashes are 9-9 overall.

Lurken had 26 points, but she and Jordan Korinek were the only offense the Flashes had in the first half. The rest of the team had just two points as KSU trailed 35-24 at halftime.

But in the second half, sophomore post player Merissa Barber-Smith had 10 rebounds (she had a career-best 11 for the game). McKenna Stephens had three three-point baskets. Backup point guard Megan Carter had 7 points, including key foul shots in the closing minutes, and Ali Poole had five points on 2-of-3 shooting.

“We were fortunate to go into halftime down 11 — fortunate,” coach Todd Starkey said in his postgame radio interview on WHLO. In the second half, “It happened at the defensive end. We got stop-stop-stop.

“It was a phenomenal defensive effort from midway in the third quarter all the way down the stretch.”

Kent State trailed 45-31 with five minutes to go in the third quarter. Then Barber-Smith faked, scored and drew a foul against Hill, the conference’s third-leading shot blocker.

The Flashes outscored Western 15-7 for the rest of the quarter, then took the lead on a three-pointer by Stephens with seven minutes to go in the game. That basket came after an offensive rebound by Barber-Smith, Kent State’s tallest player at 6-4.

Kent State was ahead by seven before Western’s Meredith Shipman hit two 25-foot three-pointers in the last minute. Foul shots by Carter, Korinek and Naddiyah Cross clinched the game.

Barber-Smith got into the game because Korinek picked up her second foul early in the second quarter and her third early in the third quarter. She ended up playing a career-high 16 minutes because Starkey couldn’t afford to take her out.

“Merissa was really big, not just getting rebounds but contesting shots,” Starkey said. “She held Marley Hill to 6 for 20 from the floor — just affecting shots and not giving them second-chance looks.”

Hill was the eighth-leading scorer in the MAC and making 45 percent of her field goals.

The Broncos’ other forward, Breanna Mobley, was averaging six offensive rebounds a game (11 total). She had just four total Wednesday.

“McKenna did a good job of boxing her out,” Starkey said. “I said, ‘I don’t care if you get the rebound, I just don’t want her to get it.'”

Kent State outrebounded Western — which had the fourth-best rebounding margin in the MAC — 41-28 with 12 offensive rebounds. After Barber-Smith’s 11, Korinek and Stephens had five and Lurken four.

“We got contributions from a lot of people,” Starkey said. “Megan Carter came off the bench and did some nice things for us. Ali Poole made some nice plays when they were overplaying Larissa.”

Starkey said offensive changes Kent State made to counter Western’s defense on Lurken were a key to the game.

“This team is doing a really good job of making the right adjustments at halftime,” he said. “We were really struggling.

“They were overplaying Larissa, so we decided to put in an offensive package that we knew we could get some shots out of. We kept running the same plays, but we took different options off of it.

“We used her as a decoy a little bit. When teams are overplaying Larissa, it’s good for us to put Ali and Megan on the court because both of them have the ability to shoot the ball and score it.”

Lurken’s 26 points were four above her MAC-leading average. She made 7 of 14 field goals (2 of 4 three-pointers) and 12 of 14 foul shots. She also had three assists and a steal.

“We had a really rough first half, probably one of our worst so far this year,” Lurken said on WHLO. “Second half was basically the will to win, and ultimately we wanted to win, and we got it done.”

Korinek had 15 points on 6 of 9 shooting but played only 20 minutes because of foul trouble, and because Barber-Smith was playing so well.

“Coming in here and getting a win is huge for us, and we’re really excited about the progress we’re continuing to make,” Starkey said. “We’ll just keep taking it one game at a time and see what we come up with.”

Notes

• One reason Kent State fell behind was 11 turnovers in the first half, seven in the first quarter. But the Flashes made just six in the second half. Western had only 11 for the game and outscored KSU off turnovers, 17-13.
• Kent State’s 11 offensive rebounding led to 15 second-chance points. Western had only 5. The Broncos has been averaging 13 offensive rebounds a game. They had eight Wednesday.
• As they’ve done all season, the Flashes dominated the game at the foul line. KSU was 23 of 31 free throws. Western had only 11 foul shots and made 8. Two WMU players fouled out late in the game.
• Kent State shot 42 percent from the field, 48 percent in the second half. They were 6 of 15 on three-pointers, 5 of 7 in the second half. Western had 41 percent, 34 percent in the second half. The Broncos were 7 of 20 on three-point shots. Shipman was 6 of 14.
• The last time Kent State won two straight games on the road was 2011. The last time it beat MAC teams with a combined record of 26-6 on the road in one week? Maybe never, even in their best years.

The Flashes play another of the MAC’s better teams on Saturday when they host Toledo. The game, the first of a double header with the men’s team, starts at 4 p.m. in the M.A.C. Center. The Rockets (12-5, 3-3) lost at home to Ohio (13-4, 4-2) Wednesday, 64-55.

Box score

Other MAC scores

Akron (8-9, 1-5) won its first league game by giving Northern Illinois (12-5, 5-1) its first conference loss. The Zips did it by 29 points (84-55) at Northern Illinois. It was the lowest point total of the season for Northern by 22 points.

Central Michigan is now the only undefeated team in the league. The Chippewas (14-4, 6-0) beat Miami (7-12, 1-5) at home.

Buffalo (13-4, 3-3) 61, Bowling Green (5-13, 1-5) 50 at Bowling Green.

Ball State (12-6, 5-1) 78, Eastern Michigan (5-13, 0-6) 49 at Ball State.

MAC standings

Game stories from MAC and team websites.

Photo from kentstatesports.com

Jordan Korinek is the second Kent State player since 2011 to be named MAC East player of the week.

Korinek’s honor was announced Tuesday by the league. The 6-2 junior forward scored 26 points in KSU’s 98-97 loss to Northern Illinois Wednesday and 24 points in the Flashes’ 68-65 victory at Ohio Saturday.

The only other Kent State player to earn the award in the last six years is senior Larissa Lurken, who received it twice this season and once last year.

Korinek, a preseason all-MAC East selection and last year’s leading scorer for the Flashes, got off to a slow start this season as she adapted to new coach Todd Starkey’s offense. But she’s averaged 20 points a game in KSU’s five conference games, third best in the MAC.

Korinek is critical to Kent’s offense. Starkey has said that KSU’s best games have been when the offense can go to Korinek in the post, then back out to the perimeter.

Foul trouble has hurt her and the Flashes this season and last. She has fouled out of two of Kent State’s 17 games this season and had four fouls in three more. Last season she had five fouls in five games and four in 13 of KSU’ s 29 games.

When she’s played less than 25 minutes this season, Kent State is 0-4. When she’s played more than 30, the Flashes are 5-3. Overall Kent is 8-9 so far this season.

Korinek is almost certain to become Kent State’s 21st 1,000-point scorer this season. She has 903 with 14 games to go.

Korinek also has won the MAC’s Student Athlete of the Week two weeks in a row, something I never remember happening before for any player in the conference. The award goes to student-athletes who have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better and perform well during a week’s competition. Korinek has a 4.0 average in special education.

She was an all-Ohio Division II player at Akron’s St. Vincent St. Mary High School and is from Cuyahoga Falls. Her older sister, Morgan, is an assistant coach at Kenyon College.

Key Korinek statistics:

• Points per game: 14.2, 15th in the MAC (20.2 and third in conference games only).
• Rebounds: 6.0, 19th (7.0 and 14th in the MAC).
• Offensive rebounds: 2.8, eighth (3.2, tied for fourth).
• Field goal percentage: 47.0, 12th (50.7 and ninth).
• Free throw percentage: 77.4, 11th (82.8 and 11th).

From last season:

• Points per game: 15.6, seventh in the MAC.
• Rebounds: 6.8, 11th.
• Offensive rebounds: 2.3, 11th.
• Defensive rebounds: 4.4, 11th.
• Field goal percentage: 54.3, fourth.
• Free throw percentage: 821, sixth.

Korinek’s biography from the Kent State website.

MAC release on players of the week and nominations.